This week, Crew Parkinson had our clean up crew session. We went out litter picking on the school grounds and braved the weather to do our bit. We discussed stewardship and why it’s important to clean up litter for environmental reasons and to make our area look better so it’s more enjoyable to be in. Here we are in action:

Crew Parkinson’s week looked like this:

Monday – weekend check-ins, I love hearing what Crew gets up to during their weekends and they always have plenty of questions to ask each other about their activities

Tuesday – we did our Star reader test. Reading is so important for increasing vocabulary and academic progress, so as part of the accelerated reader programme, students complete a Star reader test multiple times a year to measure their reading age and progress. The next time we have an accelerated reader crew session we agreed we will begin a book recommendation chart to share great books and help crew find others which may be of interest.

Wednesday – students who were helping out at the open evening had a chance to speak to the member of staff they were helping out to organise what they would be doing that night – I’d like to appreciate all members of Crew Parkinson who helped out on either or both of the evenings, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Thursday – this was our activity day so we had a session on team building, students were in groups of 4 and had to build the tallest free-standing tower made of balloons and sellotape. The winning team was Shanna, Dylan, Rosie and Kris thanks to their speedy balloon blowing up skills and great design. Here’s how they did:

Friday – We looked at the praise sheet and poor conduct sheet this session. I’m thrilled to have 10 out of the 12 crew members on the praise sheet, many multiple times and across a variety of sessions. However, we also discussed the entries on the poor conduct form where 6 members of crew unfortunately appeared. We discussed how this made us feel and shared our thoughts on the reasons that these members were on – when we look next week we hope there will be no members of Crew Parkinson added to the poor conduct sheet!

But to end on a positive, here are some of the praise sheet entries for Crew Parkinson:

Callum : “Made a comment in Hums today about the work being hard, but was trying all throughout and made some great contributions! Keep up the hard work!”

Aaron : “Increased contribution in Hums – great to see Aaron putting his hand up more and offering answers, keep it up!”

Kristian : “A series of excellent maths lessons, mega impressed with Kristian’s focus and how he works with those around him – keep it up!”

Ava : “Consistently working hard in class [science], quick to start tasks and giving detailed answers.”

Bob : “Bob showed great resilience when learning an 8 Beat on the drums during Music.”

Lacey : “Lacey has been concentrating really well and working hard in her art lessons.”

Each member of crew brought either a photo or an item in which either makes, or represents, something that makes them happy.

It was lovely hearing about the hobbies that Crew does. For example, Callum and his fishing to Marcus and Fortnite to Florence, Rosie and Dylan and their various types of dancing. There were also lots of lovely photos of crew member’s dogs – I always love a cute dog photo!

It was great for crew to share their interests and hobbies with the everyone, why they enjoy them and how it makes them feel. It acted as a great starting point which sparked some very interesting conversations!

Last week we had a baking crew session, making chocolate muffins. Crew worked really well as a team, dividing out the different roles of mixing, measuring and washing up to name a few. They helped each other throughout with everyone getting stuck in and having no passengers. Eating muffins was a lovely addition to our weekly Monday check-in  – shame we can’t do it every week!

Wow! What a week. It was absolutely brilliant to be reunited with Crew after the Summer holidays. The guiding question for this week was ‘how crew are you?’

Here’s a summary of our wonderful week:

Tuesday: we had a check in where we shared the highlights of our summer holidays. It was wonderful to hear about the holidays, days out and family visits the crew had over the summer. We then discussed what we want from crew in year 8 and agreed to keep building crew over this new academic year, working on specific areas that need improving. Next, came the team building games – they ranged from activities revolving around construction to races to problem solving, it’s safe to say there was lots of laughter involved and communication skills being put into use.

Wednesday: we went on our Hike in the Yorkshire Wolds. Again, it was great to see crew chatting together and enjoying themselves in the beautiful surroundings. It was also tough at times with a few hills and a fair distance to walk – not to mention the rain (thanks to the Great British Summer). However, crew’s spirits were not dampened and there was a lively atmosphere amongst us as they were supporting each other, sharing food and checking in to see if they were all alright or if they needed a rest – that’s crew!

Thursday: this was by far the most challenging day for a lot of crew (me included!). We spent the day in Derbyshire completing outdoor activities such as orienteering and abseiling. It was great to see Crew working together to find the answers to the questions along the Monsal Trail – offering to go ahead to scout out different paths and helping Ava with the navigation, as well as double checking each others answers to make sure we got the right one. Needless to say this hard work paid off, we came first out of the Year 8 crews in orienteering, getting full marks! Next came the abseiling – get ready for nerves, tears and smiles. This was a real challenge for some members of Crew but it was lovely to see everyone supporting and encouraging each other. They truly showed courage and compassion when completing this activity. Dylan was a stand out student for me – he really faced a massive fear and with the help of Crew (particularly Rosie) he overcame that fear. What a massive achievement and we are all so proud. Feel the fear and do it anyway! 

Friday: Back to school! We reflected on the question ‘how crew are you?’. The students completed a solo where they reflected on and answered the questions:

• what are your strengths as a crew?
• what are your challenges as a crew?
• how are you going to overcome those challenges in year 8, as a crew?

Once crew members returned from their solo, we discussed their answers and completed a silent conversation protocol to feedback ideas. Next, we had the remainder of the day to prepare and practice our Crew’s presentation of learning to answer the guiding question and share with the rest of the year and parents our strengths and areas to work on as a crew. This was a wonderful way to see how united we are as a crew and we had some fantastic discussions. We explored the idea that in our crew we have very different personalities but that brings different strengths. Shanna and Dylan thought of a lovely idea that crew is like a jigsaw puzzle – every puzzle piece brings something different but the image is only complete with all the pieces, just like crew.

So, after kicking year 8 off with a wonderful week, I am absolutely bursting with excitement for this new academic year with crew. We have identified our strengths and challenges as a crew and agreed that together we will work on these to make crew even stronger. I really do believe that this week we have become closer and made our relationships stronger and I am so proud of and thrilled to have Harvey, Aaron, Ava, Shanna, Dylan, Rosie, Florence, Kristian, Lacey, Marcus, Bob and Callum in my Crew.

It seems appropriate to end with some words from Harvey, which overtime has become our accidental crew catchphrase: huzzah and hurrah!