Yet another bumper edition of praises and appreciations from our Y11 awesomeness meeting on Wednesday morning. As you can see from the postcards below, staff are super impressed with Y11’s work, effort and focus (especially Miss O’Grady!)
They really are a joy to read and share 🙂
Mrs Parker & Miss Cocliff
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
This week, Crew Ali shared breakfast together whilst chatting away to Michael Price, a local chef and governor at XP. Michael told us all about his passion for food, the countries he had visited and why he went into a career in the food industry.
He told us some fascinating stories and information about different foods. Who would have known that there are more than 400 types of pasta in Italy?
A big appreciation to Tom who manned the toaster and to happy birthday to Charlie, who turned 16 this week!
I love leading such a wonderful bunch of young people!
Mrs Elliott
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
I am absolutely thrilled with the attitude that Crew have got now they’re in year 11 – everyone is 100% focused on the end goal and working really hard in sessions to achieve the best they can! It’s been great to know that many of crew are attending after school revision sessions and I’m hearing really positive things about their conduct from teachers. Keep this momentum going – I’m so pleased with you all and you deserve to do well after all the effort you’re putting in to your education. Everyone has already got at least one praise point so far and here’s just some of the praises for Dylan, Lacey, Bob, Callum and Toby have got since the start of term:
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
We wanted to update you about Crew Turing’s first week back at school! Along with welcoming a wonderful new crew member, Tyler – who has started to settle beautifully – crew have been up to loads of activities this week to reestablish their bonds as crew, ready for their final year at XP East!
Crew Turing joined the rest of Y11 in walking around Flamborough Head. They were absolutely fantastic! Ralph & Lewis led the way beautifully, Crew showed compassion by checking in on each other, and it was lovely to be out and about getting to know Turing more.. (and have a sneaky ice cream at the Lighthouse!)
We had a gorgeous day for walking, and took in some stunning scenery. Behaviour was impeccable, and the day was a beautiful start to Y11!
On Wednesday, we had a crew activities day – again, this was a lovely opportunity to get to know students in crew more, to start to build solid relationships, and to just have a laugh! We started to think about our journey through Y11 and the challenges we may face. We spoke at length about how crew Turing can support each other throughout the upcoming year – Crew has some beautiful ideas about how they can do this, and began to create some amazing ‘road maps to success’!
We started and ended the day with some card games – UNO seems to be a favourite! (Sami doesn’t like Liar, though – he ended up with half the deck!!) During the day we also took part in Mrs Elliott’s version of ‘the Cube’ – I’m very proud to say that Crew Turing’s sterling efforts, Sami, Lexi & Dylan’s FABULOUS point scores, and Mollie’s photographic memory meant that Crew Turing came out as the champions with 6,500 points!
On Thursday, Crew took part in more crew team building activities with an external company called Wise Up. We couldn’t even pick out a superstar from Wednesday – all students in Crew were AWESOME! They worked together really well, built each other up when they needed it, and offered loads of support! It was fantastic to see them come together as a crew to work out brain teasing conundrums and physical challenges throughout the day.
We ended our first week back with more crew activities and a presentation of learning. We’ve reflected on our time as crew from year 7 to now – identified our favourite moments (LOTS of them with Miss Haughey – gone but NEVER forgotten!) – and got some photos together from Y7 to now (and Lewis hasn’t changed a bit, but Lexi is unrecognisable!) Crew presented their slides to the rest of Y11 and did a great job!
A fanstastic start to what will hopefully be a fantastic final year.
Miss Cocliff & Mrs Parker
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
As ever, we will be kicking off our first week back at school by regrouping and rebooting Crew.
On the very first day back – Tuesday 30th August – our C25 (new Y11) students will be going on a coastal walk to Flamborough.
Students should arrive at school between 8am-8.15am so that we can leave at 8.30am. We are aiming to be back at school by 3.30pm, but will keep you updated on the day.
All students will be expected to bring the Outdoor Kit listed below:
For further information or questions please email your child’s crew leader.
Thanks!
