It’s been all systems go in Crew Parkinson in preparation for their SLCs over the last 2 weeks. 9 members of Crew have had their SLCs now and I am impressed with the quality of them. It showed the students have been getting smart as overall the standard has improved since their first SLCs in November due to the work they have put in. It was great to hear the students reflect on their academic grades, their HOWLs and the work they found challenging, would like to improve and are proud of, as well as setting targets for themselves to take forward.

As a bit of relief from the SLC preparation, we played a game of Crew hockey, organised by Bob. After a great game, we circled up and reflected on where we had seen the character traits during the game. The crew identified members who had shown either respect, compassion, integrity, craftsmanship and quality or courage during the game. For example:

Ava was identified as showing courage because Bob nominated her as team captain and although she wouldn’t have chosen to lead her team she certainly stepped up to the mark!

Marcus and Kris were appreciated by Crew for overcoming a small disagreement and showing compassion and respect to each other and Crew so that the game could continue.

Callum was appreciated for his craftsmanship when scoring 2 goals – well done!

This discussion led to a wider conversation reflecting on the year. We talked about how although our Crew is made up of people with very different personalities, beliefs and interests but we have all grown together as Crew. I’m so thrilled to be their Crew leader and build even stronger bonds over the next academic year! 

Last week we started with a bang! We’ve been thrown straight into our expeditions after the holiday and Crew have certainly stepped up.

We began the week with check-ins from the 2 week holiday – it was lovely hearing the great activities, social events and relaxation that crew members took part in during their time off.

On Tuesday we didn’t have a crew session – but don’t despair we spent the day at Jodrell Bank! This fieldwork was part of the ‘Escape Earth’ expedition and was a brilliant way to spend time with crew in a different setting. I loved hearing how enthusiastic and curious crew members were when discussing physics and asking questions about space. We took part in a number of workshops which revolved around Newton’s laws of motion and gravity, an inflatable planetarium and the constellations.

What a wonderful day!

(All video credits to Miss Haughey – definitely not my area of expertise!)

When we returned to school our crew sessions were then directed around the upcoming Student Led Conferences – students began to choose the pieces of work they are most proud of, found challenging and would like to improve to showcase during their SLCs. This is a great way for crew to reflect on their learning and understand their academic strengths and areas to improve on as well as their HOWLs.

More information will be released about SLCs shortly, so watch this space!

Congratulations to everyone in Crew Parkinson who gave absolutely brilliant performances of their speeches during the Stand Up expedition’s Presentation of Learning. I’m so proud of Crew for showing courage, maturity, compassion and hard work when writing, rehearsing and presenting their speeches.

As we have our final term fast approaching, we finished our pledge butterflies ready for when we begin back at school. Each member of crew has made a pledge which they have based on their most recent data drop record. The pledges are focused around a subject, a specific HOWL or an academic grade/MEG. I know they will work hard to complete these and we will be checking in on the progress of these as the weeks progress.

Below are a selection of the Crew’s pledges:

Aaron: I pledge to achieve above my MEG in science, I will do this by asking for help from the teacher when I need it

Callum: I pledge to stop making silly comments in crew so that I can increase my Be Kind HOWL. My howl used to be a 3.5 and is now a 3 – I want to get it back to a 3.5

Harvey: I pledge to improve my Work Hard HOWL fro maths because I need to improve it since it is a 2.9 and the rest of my HOWLs are 3 and above.

On Thursday, Ava led her first crew session. The activities she prepared were games which revolved around practising drama techniques. Every member of crew really threw themselves into this session and it was enjoyed by all – it provided us all with lots of laughter, a lovely way to end the term. Thank you Ava for organising a wonderful crew session.

Finally – I hope Crew has a wonderful holiday, see you all next term!

What a week we’ve had! After our check in on Monday, I set crew a challenge: to get more than half of Crew on the praise sheet this week. They certainly stepped up to the challenge and succeeded with 8 people getting put on the praise sheet this week – with some people such as Florence,  Dylan, Callum and Shanna getting 3 and 2 mentions respectively!

I brought in sweets as a reward and we spoke about instant gratification – that immediate reward for completing a goal and delayed gratification, for example,  hard work paying off over time and reflected in HOWLs and academic data drops and which is more important.

A highlight for me was seeing Harvey genuinely thrilled that he had been entered onto the praise sheet for maths – which is an area he sometimes finds difficult. We discussed how this feeling of being proud and impressed with yourself is what should help to drive academic conduct in school.

A massive congratulations to Florence, Kristian, Ava, Callum, Shanna, Dylan, Bob and Harvey for being entered onto the praise sheet this week. Here are some of the entries:

Harvey: ‘Worked really well this afternoon on his metrics activity, thinking very logically on the task and asking great questions to help him get unstuck’ – maths 

Ava: ‘In Crew activity Ava absolutely gave it her all. Although she acknowledged football wasn’t something she found easy she put loads of effort and determination in and even managed to score a goal – a great attitude!’ – crew.

Shanna: ‘Requested and attempted much more complex grapple task after completing easier version of same activity – showing she is willing to push herself harder in Spanish. High levels of productivity over time’ – spanish 

Kristian: ‘ Smashing your MEG when writing your historical source analysis!’ – Hums

I’d also like to appreciate Callum for his crew activity – football. He incorporated skills practice such as dribbling and a series of games which led to a session enjoyed by all. He gave good explanations and demonstrations to help crew improve – well done!

Last week, Crew Parkinson received their second data drop since beginning XP East. The students were graded on their academic achievement for each subject and their Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs), which are: work hard, get smart and be kind.

The students compared this to their MEG (minimum expected grade) and have each created a spreadsheet to record their data. We looked back at their data from November and compared it to March’s data to look for the progress they have made. I am pleased with how many students in Crew are on, above or well above their MEG across their subjects – this just shows how their hard work pays off. See for yourself below! 

We will spend the coming Crew sessions continuing to analyse and reflect on our grades and HOWLs. Overall, I am super impressed with the HOWL grades, however, we have identified that some students have slipped a little in their HOWLs. Therefore, we will spend time to unpick the reasons for this and how we can make a step in the right direction to improve. We also acknowledged that a lot of students in Crew have also improved their HOWLs from the last data – this is fantastic and it certainly shows when looking at students academic grades.

So, how does this compare to the other Crews? We’re definitely doing well, although there is still room for improvement. We’re currently 3rd for Work Hard, 1st for Get Smart and 2nd for Be Kind. Congratulations Crew! 

Although this post may have been an overload of numbers, they are vitally important for students to understand their learning and take responsibility for it due to the conversations and reflections that these numbers allow. Over the next week, for example,  Crew will ask themselves:

• which part of my conduct in lessons has made my HOWLs increase/decrease/stay the same?
• why has my academic grade increased/decreased/not changed?
• what do I need to do to increase my HOWLs/academic grade?

I’d like to reiterate how proud I am of Crew and the work that they produce. However, most importantly, it’s the support and friendships that have been made within Crew which have made us such a powerful team.

Harvey inadvertently created a Crew catchphrase which fits this moment perfectly: huzzah and hurrah!

This week we had an academic check in during Crew. The focus was to self reflect on the Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs) which are Work Hard, Get Smart and Be Kind.

We discussed the behaviour and conduct that needs to be shown in order to meet the HOWLs to a high level. Each student graded themselves on how well they think they meet the HOWLs using a rubric. We discussed the importance of being able to self evaluate and reflect on your own conduct in order to identify strengths and areas to improve on. Each crew member then shared with crew what their reflections were and identified the HOWL that they most need to work on and set themselves a target for this – we’ll check in on this next week!

This week, Dylan ran a crew session on the Greek Gods, he wanted to share his passion with the rest of the Crew and I love hearing about crew’s interests! He explained to Crew about the Greek Gods and Mount Olympus, giving each crew member a God/Goddess to be. Once Crew had understood their character there was an activity where each Crew member had to design a palace for their god/goddess based on the qualities of the character. A game of pictionary was then played, where crew had to guess which god/goddess the palace belonged to based on the features of the drawing.

Dylan articulated his information about the Greek gods very well and he clearly put in a huge amount of effort in preparing for this session. He built upon his already existing communication, organisation and leadership skills to create a fantastic crew session enjoyed by all – a massive appreciation to Dylan!

Crew Parkinson had a yoga activity crew session this week. We discussed how it is important to create time for yourself which is not just sat in front of a device screen! We followed a yoga sequence, piecing together positions which focus on balance and strength.

Some members of the crew found certain positions challenging and at first the session was met with apprehension by some – however it is brilliant that all crew members got stuck in and had a go.

We completed a whiparound after, where each student said how they felt – there were lots of comments about legs feeling tired, feeling well stretched and feeling like their bodies have been woken up! A great way of getting your muscles ready and awake to start the day.

Well Done Crew!

In Crew on Wednesday 23rd of January students were asked to go across to Mrs Parker’s crew room and take part in a Digi Crew. In the Digi Crew a handful of students were taught how to post blogs on the XP East website. At the end of the Digi Crew we were all asked to work in pairs or threes and post a blog about what crew means to us from our point of view, instead of the teachers. In Crew Parkinson, 3 students joined the Digi Crew ( Florence, Rosie and Dylan), we have worked together to create a blog post on what crew means to our whole crew.

We had our Friday afternoon Crew session dedicated to ‘ what crew means to you’ . This meant that we shared our favourite moments and what crew means to us, here are some quotes that Crew Parkinson shared:

Crew boosts my confidence and inspires me to do what I  can.  – Ava

 

I love crew because I trust people and talk to them about any problems I have   – Marcus

 

Crew brings a smile to my face every morning’ – Lacey 

 

‘I’d be lost without crew because they help keep me on the right path in both my academic studies and my social life and behaviour.’  – Shanna

 

‘Crew is my second family.’ – Kristian

 

These are all quotes made by members of Crew Parkinson. What crew means to you is different for every person in each different crew because we are all unique. All of these quotes maybe different but in a way it all means the same thing.

And finally here are some pictures of our amazing experiences :

I was approached by some members of the Crew at the beginning of the week asking if they could run a Crew session. Of course, I said yes – what a great way to take on responsibility improve organisation and leadership skills. Kristian and Aaron led a well planned crew session on Wednesday. They thought about everything they needed to run their activity, such as booking the sports hall, and gave clear instructions to the Crew which was aided by visual slides. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Well done! 

Rosie, Florence and Dylan also attended a Digi-Crew session this week, led by Mrs Parker. As part of this, they were taught how to write a blog post. Rosie, Florence and Dylan have started to prepare their first blog post for Crew – so watch this space! I am really excited to see what they write, I’m sure it will be a credit to themselves and Crew.