Dear Families of students in Year 11,
Further to the Spring Newsletter which you will have received earlier in the year, please find the attached letter which details some additions to our current offer of Extended Study and study support. This will come into effect fully after next weeks mock exams and leading up to the start of the summer GCSE examinations which begin during the next half term.
Best wishes,
Mr Voltaire
We would like to appreciate everyone who came to our GCSE Support evening. We hope you found the information useful and that you and your son/daughter feel more confident about where and how to access revision support for each subject.
We know there was a lot of information to take in on the night so we have attached the presentation for you to go through again in your own time.
As mentioned at the evening, the GCSE Revision Support website is now live with subject specific resources, links to Y11’s 2023 calendar, our current revision timetable and lots more information for students and parents. Please bear in mind that this is a work in progress with new links and information being added as we speak!
If you do have any more questions, here’s a reminder of who to contact (please include your child’s Crew Leader in any emails you send.)
| Citizenship | [email protected] |
| Spanish | [email protected] |
| English | [email protected] |
| Maths | [email protected] |
| Science | [email protected] |
| History | [email protected] |
| BTEC Sport | [email protected] |
| Art, Craft and Design | [email protected] |
If you have any other questions your feel weren’t covered in the presentation, please contact your child’s Crew Leader or Phase Lead: Angella Parker for XP East ([email protected]) and Mel Cocliff for XP ([email protected])
We’d also like to take this opportunity to say a massive ‘well done’ to all the Y11’s who have completed their Student Led Conferences over the past few weeks. This was their opportunity to reflect on their mock exam grades (which most did with honesty and integrity!) and discuss how they are going to keep focussed and motivated during the next few weeks leading up to exams.
Thank you all for your support.
Angella and Mel.
As part of Y11’s History course, we have a wonderful opportunity to visit the site of Wabtec in Doncaster – which was formerly Doncaster Plant Works – a massive part of our heritage! One of the history GCSE papers Y11 will sit is based around this local site and we’re really privileged to be able to visit the birth place of both The Mallard and the record breaking Flying Scotsman – where students will gain a real insight into the site’s significance, both locally and nationally.
ALL of E25 will be attending on Tuesday 24th January 2023. Explorer’s fieldwork will take place in the morning, leaving XP at 9:15am and returning at 11:30am. Explorer will be in sessions as normal in the afternoon.
Pioneer’s fieldwork will take place in the afternoon – leaving XP at 1:15pm and returning back to XPE for around 3:00pm. Pioneer will be in sessions as normal in the morning.
Lunches should not be affected, but students may wish to bring a packed lunch. We have now secured a coach to transport us from XPE to Wabtec Rail.
If you have any questions/queries, please contact crew leaders, or the following:
Mrs Hannam – History Lead – at [email protected], or Miss Cocliff – X25 Phase Lead – at [email protected]
We only have one week left and that’s the first half term done! Again, Crew Anoa’i have had another good week in crew, creating a great atmosphere to be in.
To start the week, Crew Anoa’i began colouring their own Mandalas. A geometric configuration of symbols that are commonly used by tantric Buddhists as an aid for meditation. There were some beautiful designs and choices of colour used. Once finished, our goal is to place them on our crew wall to add a pop of colour to the room.
On Tuesday, some of us went over to XP to discuss Work Experience and our list of ‘to do’s to ensure we are all ready before next Monday. The rest of us completed our forms for Work Experience and then started to create some flash cards for a subject of our choice.
Wednesday, our team building activity day! This week we were joined by Crew Ali and some of Crew Parkinson. We went outside to complete a variety of activities, some required teamwork and some required early morning brain power. This was my highlight of the week, seeing other crews join us and having some fun. What a great morning!
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i composed our weekly appreciations, reflecting on the week we’ve had. We then moved on to some self study, allowing us all to focus on our own topics.
On Friday, we cleaned our crew room, ensuring it was spotless before we left for session. Everyone counted their class pack item and added any missing equipment to the list, as we like to keep our crew room neat and tidy every day for others to use. Crew Anoa’i take pride in being great stewards of our school.
One week to go. Let’s keep going!
– Miss Mitchell
#7DaysLeft
I can’t believe September has come to an end already, this year is flying by so quickly! All the more reason to cherish the moments we have left as a crew. And that’s exactly what we did.
Due to the staff days, Year 11 lost some crucial session time this week. However on Tuesday, Crew Anoa’i, along with the other Year 11 crews of XP East, took part in a History catchup session. They continued their work on the Black Death and made up for lost time. Great job everyone!
On Wednesday, C25 gathered on the stairs of XP and shared our appreciations, apologies and stands with one another. This was also a chance for staff to share their appreciations with students in the form of a slideshow. Special shout out to Jacob, James, Denim and Zach for receiving some great appreciations. Well done, keep up the good work!
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i completed our weekly ‘to do’ list. We started off with attendance. As a crew, we discussed the overall average of our crew and who we need to hold accountable. We then moved onto the praise log, looking at each crew member’s achievements from the previous week. We finished our crew session by playing The Frog Game, a game that gets the brain working by counting the eyes, legs and total number of frogs entering a pond. This was definitely one of my highlights of the week. It was lovely to see everyone smiling and laughing!
To finish the week on a high, the students of XP East all gathered on the stairs for our whole school community meeting. We celebrated the success of our students from Year 7 all the way up to Year 11. We also revisited the Attendance League – Crew Anoa’i were 15th place with 12 points. Yes, we haven’t gained any points (Very disappointing!). However, Crew Anoa’i are still in the top 15 crews of XP East. I have made a pledge to help my crew improve this, as it is key for the students of Year 11 to be in school as much as possible leading up to their exams.
Bring on next week!
– Miss Mitchell
#HelloOctober
Although it was a short week, with only three days for us to continue improving our awesomeness, Crew Anoa’i have managed to bag another great week.
On Tuesday, Crew Anoa’i completed some Maths revision, where we looked at a previous Foundation paper. This made us think about all the work we have done in the past few years at XP East. We then marked our work and set personal targets to work towards.
On Wednesday, instead of going outside to take part in our weekly team building activities, we stayed inside and continued our seasonal colouring whilst having a lovely crew discussion. It was great to spend time with everyone in a calm environment, it was definitely needed.
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i looked at their student pledges once again but in more detail. We then helped one another to improve them further, ensuring everyone had two detailed pledges. We also wrote our appreciations for the week.
I’m loving crew at the moment. We seem to have settled this year, allowing me to deliver a wide variety of activities each morning. Enjoy your long weekend Crew Anoa’i, see you on Tuesday!
– Miss Mitchell
#ShortButSweet
Another fantastic week for Crew Anoa’i! I’m seeing such a difference in our crew at the moment. Everyone is attempting tasks in crew time with no hesitation or reluctance. I’m so pleased to see this big change.
On Monday we celebrated Miss Mitchell’s birthday and took on the challenge of learning ‘Origami’, the art of folding paper, often associated with Japanese culture. This activity definitely divided the crew; some struggled to follow the complicated instructions, whilst others were paper-folding magicians! Despite the clear divide, we helped each other follow the instructions, step-by-step, and we all managed to create some origami animals and boats.
On Tuesday we took some time to revise, looking back at the work we completed last year regarding the Nazis and Hitler’s rise to power. As you can see, everyone got stuck in, sparking some great discussions around the contrasting nature of Nazi Rule in Eastern and Western Europe.
Wednesday was great fun! We went outside again to take part in some team building activities, including: Silent Line Up, Jump In Jump Out and River Crossing. These activities got our brains working, in particular Jump In Jump Out. We had a good laugh with this one, as this activity tested everyone’s coordination. What a great way to start a day!
On Thursday, we looked at the praise log whilst composing our weekly appreciations. We then completed our student pledges, thinking about what we need to work on this term.
And on Friday, we had our whole school community meeting, where the Attendance League was reintroduced. After one week, Crew Anoa’i are joint 15th with 12 points. I’m not going to lie, it’s not an amazing start, but we can improve on this and we will. This is something we will be working on this term, as the winning crew receives £50 as their prize!
We’ve got this Crew Anoa’i, let’s win that money!
– Miss Mitchell
#GotThis
After a great start last week, Crew Anoa’i have continued to amaze me this week. I’ve heard nothing but praise for our Year 11s. Crew Anoa’i have had another fantastic week!
On Monday we took some time to relax and enjoy some seasonal colouring. On Tuesday we completed our ‘to do’ list full of little jobs, ensuring we were ready for the week ahead.
Wednesday was a great morning! Despite some grey clouds hanging over our heads, we went outside to take part in some team building activities, including: The Human Knot, Crossing The Line and Buzz Off. We even had a few members of Crew Turing join us. It was amazing to see everyone getting involved and having a good laugh with each other. Thank you for joining us Callum, Ralph, Lewis and Tyler!
On Thursday, we had our first Year 11 community meeting where we shared our appreciations with each other. And on Friday, we had our first whole school community meeting, the perfect opportunity to share more appreciations.
A special shout out to Jacob Sutton for his hard work this week. He has started Year 11 with such determination and a fire to succeed. I’m so pleased to hear so many positive comments around his work ethic and contributions in sessions. Keep up the good work, Jacob!
Crew Anoa’i are smashing it so far, let’s keep going. Here’s to next week!
– Miss Mitchell
#SmashingIt
How time has flown for Crew Anoa’i and E25. It feels like it was only yesterday I met the crazy bunch of kids who would change my life forever. We’ve had many ups and downs along the way but we’ve made it! I can’t believe that in only a few months time Crew Anoa’i will be fledging the nest and venturing into the big wide world.
For the first few days of Year 11, we spent time refocusing and coming together as a crew once again. We reflected on our time here at XP East, looking back through photos and reminiscing the journey we’ve had so far.
On Tuesday, we travelled to Flamborough Head, where we walked from North landing to South Landing. Whilst faced with a beautiful landscape, we were given the opportunity to catch up with one another after a long 5 weeks off. It was a great way to start the week, tiring but great.
On Wednesday, we spent the day in crews. We started with a check in regarding the summer holidays then completed several tasks as individuals: tasks such as ‘We Can Be Heroes’, an activity that involves each student designing a fancy dress costume. The designs are then swapped over and a background is created to set the scene of someone’s car breaking down whilst dressed in the costume. This naturally is the worst place imaginable. Then the designs are swapped over again and students have to design a superhero, the saviour of the person stranded in their party outfit. A superhero name is given and powers are selected wisely, all relating back to our XP character traits. All designs are then revealed to each other, here are some examples.
Crew Anoa’i then focused on completing their letters to their year 7 self. Everyone took their time and thought very carefully about their individual journeys at XP East and composed some great letters offering guidance to their younger selves.
We then moved onto our last task of the day, our GCSE Roadmap. We were given instructions to create a journey that resembled our last year at XP East, including Mock Exams and revision techniques. Our aim was to create a roadmap but in a theme of our choice. All designs are then judged and the winning design would secure the prize cake for their crew to share. (We will update you on this next week, fingers crossed we win!)
On Thursday, Crew Anoa’i and the rest of C25 took part in countless activities organised by Wise Up. We worked together to complete a number of team building tasks, including ‘Flip It’, ‘Giant Nails’, ‘Crazy Maze’ and ‘Say What You See’. We were given the job of scoring ourselves in the following categories – Planning, Communication, Motivation, Teamwork and Completing The Task. During this process we showed integrity with our marking. After we completed as many tasks as we could in the time given, we calculated the average of our scores. We came SECOND out of 8 crews, with an average of 21.8! This was a huge achievement for us and we are very proud of ourselves for doing so well with the team activities, something we have previously struggled with.
On Friday, we celebrated our success with some sweet treats and then focused our attention on answering the guiding question:
“How can we get everyone to the top of their mountain?”
We created a short video showing our journey from year 7 to present day and how we have come together, as a crew, in this past week. We presented this video to the other crews in E25 and shared our answers to the guiding question.
What a start to the year we’ve had. I can’t wait to see what Crew Anoa’i do in their final year at XP East. I’m looking forward to spending these last few months together, creating memories that will last a lifetime!
– Miss Mitchell
As Y7 and Y8 go off on their Outward Bound adventure, Y9, Y10 and Y11 will also spend the first week back with their crews undertaking various activities because, if we get Crew right, we get everything right 🙂
The plan for the week is above, and you will notice that it includes a coastal walk to Flamborough. Details of the coastal walk for each year group have been posted on separate blog posts:
Crew Leaders will go through the kit list with crews before we break up.
If you have any questions, please contact your child’s Crew Leader.
#wearecrew
