Towards the end of last term, Crew Finch undertook what has now become the annual task of setting their Pledges for the academic year.

Before doing so, we spent some time reflecting on the pledges from the previous year and, even though the last school year was interrupted, many of those pledges were fulfilled!  For example, quite a few Crew members wanted to improve their reading and comprehension skills – Big Tick to several of those who pledged to do so, as shown with our recent AR Star Reader test results (as mentioned in this previous blog.)

I wasn’t surprised to see that many of this year’s Crew Pledges were focussed around their Choice GCSE/BTEC subjects.  Although Choice is supported by a teacher or a mentor, there is a strong expectation that students become leaders of their own learning and commit to studying in their own time.  Quite a few of these pledges recognise this and acknowledge that it’s going to be hard work.

Crew have not only pledged to work hard in their Choice subjects, they have also asked Crew to support them by holding them accountable and challenging them if they’re not working as hard as they should be (just a little ‘nudge’ now and then!)

This just goes to show how much Crew support is valued and needed, probably now more than ever.

We will have regular pledge check-ins throughout the year.

 

We’ve spent the past few Wise Wednesday Crew sessions looking at how sleep (or lack of!) affects our concentration and productivity at school. A lot of the discussions have been around what we can change to ensure we are getting a good night’s sleep, like making sure we go to bed at a decent time every night and making sure we start winding down as we prepare for bed for example, by switching off devices!  Over the past week, we’ve done a daily sleep check-in and I’m pleased to say that most Crew members, including myself, have noticed an improvement in the quality of our sleep just by making small changes.

This week, we started to explore what other lifestyle factors impact upon our health and wellbeing by reflecting on some of the ‘bad’ habits we may’ve gotten into.  We used the following video as a discussion point – a tongue-in-cheek instruction guide on how to be miserable.  I think at some point most – if not all –  of us recognised ourselves in this!  It’s definitely worth sharing here for you to watch, too:

Watching the video and having our discussions made us realise that:

It is only by understanding bad habits that we can carve out good ones.

Mr Wilmot revisited this message during Friday’s Crew session, leading a session around being aware of what we do that we know is bad for our mental and physical health – and what we can do to start making positive changes.

Crew showed courage by sharing some of the bad habits they’re aware of, mostly around comparing themselves to who they see online, over-thinking, self-sabotage and imposter syndrome.

We looked at what we do when we do feel in a low mood: stay in our rooms, withdraw from those around us, no physical activity, we might eat too much junk food – all with the aim of making us feel better – which it may do for a little while –  but these behaviours actually make us feel worse in the long run!

With that in mind, Mr Wilmot encouraged us all to take some time out this weekend and do something solely for ourselves, ideally away from the online world… something we know we will enjoy, to help us to reset our minds and make us feel better about ourselves. Hopefully, by developing the good habit of checking in with ourselves and doing more of what makes us happy, we’ll be able to cope better with the daily stresses around us. In a world that glorifies ‘busy’, this has never been as important.  It’s also a very timely challenge with Saturday being World Mental Health Day.

I pledged to go out for a run and be really mindful of my surroundings rather than keeping my head down and focussing on the ground (pleased to say that I achieved that this morning – noticing the gorgeous autumnal changes on my regular route has definitely made me feel happier!)  I’ll be checking in with Mr Wilmot next week to see if he’s read the last 100 pages of that book he hasn’t got round to finishing and also see if Crew have stuck to their own pledges to spend some time checking in with themselves over the weekend.

 

Friday is definitely my favourite Crew Day.

Firstly, it’s Quiz Friday so we start the day with a bit of healthy (but not always friendly!) competition by splitting into teams and seeing who can score the most points for the whole-school Crew Quiz League.  Congratulations this week to Team Wilmot who beat Team Parker by just 1 point.

Secondly, I love Friday’s because we have an extra Crew session in the afternoon.  We use this as an opportunity to reflect on the past week.  This week, I asked Crew for the highlights and lowlights of the week.

The Highs…

As Crew Leader, there have been so many highlights:

One of my highlights is welcoming Mr Wilmot to Crew Finch.  He is currently volunteering at the school and will be joining us in Crew three days a week.  He’s already contributed so much to our sessions and we’re looking forward to spending more time with him.

Another highlight for me was seeing how well Crew have done on their recent Star Reader test, an assessment of students’ reading and comprehension skills.

Miss Johnson recently shared a presentation with us on why reading is so important. During the presentation we learnt that:

• The current GCSE exams (including subjects such as Maths and Science) require students to have a reading age of at least 15 years 7 months.
• Recently studies have found that for the latest exams the average reading age was just 10 years 7 months, indicating a 5 year disparity between where they are at and where they need to be, to be able to access a question.

I’m delighted that three of our Crew members are already above this reading age – Noah, Brendan and Tom – and their love of reading is definitely evident in their academic work and attainment.

Being told by two members of staff how well Libby is doing in sessions was a major highlight of the week for me!  It’s no secret that she struggled to keep up with her learning during lockdown but since coming back she has really taken charge of her own learning and has started to create her own revision aids during lessons. Great work, Libby!

Meanwhile, Mackenzie’s lowlight actually ended up being his highlight!

Mackenzie was struggling to manage his behaviour is lessons (low level stuff bit enough to disrupt his own and others learning) so was placed on a behaviour tracker at the start of the week.  He told us that being on a tracker has actually helped him focus more in class and he is enjoys having set targets to work towards in class. He was given the target to achieve a 3 across Work Hard, Get Smart and Be Kind in all sessions, but he has absolutely smashed this target by consistently  working to a level of 4 and 4.5!  I’m so proud of your attitude and work ethic, Mackenzie and this just goes to show that you CAN do it!

Other Crew highlights included enjoying the challenge of Further Maths (Tom), sorting out some friendship issues (Dakota) and Bryn’s highlight was just being back and settled in school!

…and the Lows

As we worked round the circle, one crew member had the courage to share with us that he didn’t have any highlights to share and  that he actually felt a little ‘lost’ since returning to school.  Crew allowed him to explore why he felt like this, offering guidance and support in a compassionate and respectful manner. As he spoke, others had the courage to share their own thoughts and worries.

What came out of this is an acknowledgment that, even though we’re back in school, the new normal is anything but normal!

Some of us are obviously still struggling to cope with the previous lockdown, current restrictions, and uncertainty about he future.

It’s something we’ve all agreed to explore in more detail during Monday’s Crew session.

The highlight for me from this is that Crew instantly recognised that a fellow crew member needed their support.  Their problem has become “our” problem because… #wearecrew

Crew have been well and truly on it this week, no more so than on what we now call Wise Wednesday, where we’ve started to look at revision techniques to help prepare for GCSEs (it’s never too early!)

This week, we looked at memory recall – in particular, cognitive load theory and the forgetting curve (thanks to a master class from Mr Portman!) which illustrated why it’s so important to keep on going over new information until it is stored in our long term memory.

So, Crew have started to create flash cards to help them remember key points from their GCSE text ‘A Christmas Carol’ which they can keep on revisiting over then next 18 months or so, and I’ll be encouraging them to do the same for other subjects, too.  Hopefully this will make the last few weeks before exams a little bit less stressful as they will have had a head start on retaining key information.

It’s really great to see how Crew are becoming leaders of their own learning since returning to school and already planning how they can do their absolute best in their exams.

We’ve had lots of discussions around our HOWLs and getting back on it over the last couple of weeks, and I’d like to give a special mention to Thomas H who has been working exceptionally hard and contributing in all lessons.  He is setting a fine example to the rest of Crew.