Crew Frank become analysts!

By Brandon Burke24th November 2020

Students across the school were given their HOWLs grades for all subjects and Crew. For Crew Frank this was an exciting time, not only to see what HOWL grades they received but how well overall has the crew done. Analysts Crew Frank started off by noticing and wondering about their own grades as they filtered their scores into their very own spreadsheet. The spreadsheet allows them to access their HOWLs when and where ever they’d like whilst also giving the opportunity to look at other Crew member’s grades.

 

The time is given to filter the data into the spreadsheets allowed each student in Crew Frank to notice, wonder, and question their own data. Some of the Crew were really pleased, but some slightly disappointed. However, this showed real care upon their learning and character development. The level of focus was unbelievable and the depth of discussion after analysing their own HOWLs was pleasing to hear.

 

Following from this, Crew Frank will be looking at what questions and wonders they have and turning this into a pledge. Finding a solution to help improve their HOWLs. How will this look, sound, and feel like…

A great return for crew Mercury!

By Rachael Rothwell13th November 2020

The first two weeks back after the October break have been great for crew Mercury!

We have had plenty of praises logged for all members of crew.

Well done to Daniel for achieving 11 praises since we returned, what a fantastic achievement! He was closely followed by Lynden and Kaylen who have both achieved 7 praises!

This week our first set of HOWLs data was released and as a crew we will be analysing the data during Thoughtful Thursday next week….keep your eyes peeled for our next blog!

A special mention goes out to Poppy who on the last day of term brought in individually hand packed Halloween sweets for crew. What a lovely way to end the term! Crew thoroughly enjoyed the special treat!

 

 

Mr Portman’s Lunchtime Football Academy

By Web Blogger11th November 2020

Year Eight were honoured at lunchtime today to receive some top flight tuition in the beautiful game from Mr Portman. Despite one spectator’s concerns for Mr Portman’s shoes, he proceeded to give a dazzling display.  

The pitch was filled with gasps of amazement from the other players as he tore up the tarmac and made several shots on goal. Luckily, Year Eight had a competent keeper who was able to thwart most attempts. The match was hotly contested with great tackles, clearances and headers from pupils from all Crews. Mr Portman was ably assisted at one point by Mr Kellet and Miss Ridoult, but alas, their efforts were in vain and Year Eight were triumphant.

Well done everyone for great sportsmanship and determination. What a lovely way to spend a lunch break!

 

Helping the RSPCA

By Web Blogger9th November 2020

 

Crew Obama has decided to support the Doncaster branch of the RSPCA this term. The pupils would like to make a food bank style collection to help keep the animals comfortable over Christmas. In preparation for this, we needed to think about the kind of products which would be most useful. In addition to food and treats, pupils made suggestions such as grooming products, medication, bedding and toys. 

Ms Pulham arranged for an expert from the RSCPA to join us via Google Hangout on Friday afternoon. This is greatly appreciated, so that you so much! Crew Obama prepared several questions for the expert with the aim of finding out more about the centre’s work, and how best to support them. It was great to see the children ask their questions confidently, and that a crew member was able to join in the discussion from home thanks to the wonders of modern technology!

Thank you to Josh for taking a retro Polaroid picture of Crew Obama. It looks like we have time travelled back to the 80s!

 

Amazing oil pastel artwork from E26 Explorer

By Emily Jones2nd October 2020

I wanted to share the beautiful work that E26 Explorer have been creating in their art sessions.

I have been really impressed with this group and they should be really proud of their work.

The examples below have been created by Rihanna Bunting, Layton Allen and Jacob Dawson.

Well done Explorer! Working hard and getting smart!

 

Mindful Mondays

By Web Blogger30th September 2020

As part of our Mindful Monday activities, members of the group have been nominating charities they would like Crew Obama to support this year. This was quite a challenging task to set for a year eight group, requiring independent thought, compassion and decision making. I have been very impressed by the pupils’ work!

 

I would like to appreciate all the children for taking time to prepare for sharing their choice in Crew. Some children have nominated charities which have touched their lives in a personal way, perhaps by supporting a family member through illness. Others have shown compassion to strangers by selecting charities such as those which support the homeless. Pupils have considered how they could support their nominated charity, with ideas including bake sales, clothing collections, pet food banks and knitting hats for premature babies. 

 

Crew Obama will now need to make decisions about where and how to lend their support. This will be no easy task as I am sure that all the nominated causes will be more than worthy.

Imogen using her ipad to present her nominated charity (SARI: Stand Against Racism and Inequality) to the group. An excellent proposal to support this charity by promoting its values around school. Well done, Imogen!

 

Crew Mercury’s first teenager!

By Rachael Rothwell25th September 2020

 

So this week we celebrated Ella becoming the first teenager in Crew Mercury!

Happy Birthday Ella!

We celebrated during Friday crew treating ourselves to some Angel Slices, Mini Battenburgs and Fondant Fancies while sharing our apologies, appreciations and stands for the week.

It looks like Kaylee and Jayden are enjoying their treat!

Crew ”Mindful” Frank

By Brandon Burke24th September 2020

Over the past couple of Monday’s Crew Frank has been looking at ways to be ”Mindful”. We started this by exploring what mindful means to us and together as a crew, we defined our meaning of this as…

”a conscious or aware of something you’re sensing or feeling in moments of life. It opens up our thoughts to what extent something is cared for in ongoing surroundings” 

As a crew, we spent time thinking of being mindful and looking at where we fit this into life. It was really clear that when we think of being mindful, its an act of stepping back and thinking of others when we act, think, or say things to each other. With prompt to think about how we are mindful, charities became a topic of discussion, and it was clear when we think of donating and raising money for a charity, we are being mindful of others who may need our help.

As a crew task for the ongoing year, we will be working towards supporting local charities in our community. As an activity, the crew spent some time looking at ways of fundraising and different charities that are close to us personally and locally to Doncaster.

Brilliant focus and hard work on the research task from Crew Frank, some unique ways of fundraising for possible local charities we can support.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader!

By Natalie Johnson22nd September 2020

After a long weekend break, it was nice to get back into Crew and get down to business this morning.

Today we started by reflecting upon our Accelerated Reader results from the test we completed in last weeks Tranquil Tuesday. We were all pleased to see that we had all made progress from last year and we were keen to take this to the next level.

We spent some time thinking about a previous session, ‘Why is reading important?’ and reminded ourselves that GCSE papers are set using the reading age 15 years 7 months. We discussed how much more difficult we would make it for ourselves if we didn’t reach this goal… and although GCSE’s are a long way off, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day!’

During Crew this morning we started by looking at just how much we had improved, but also how far off we were from the target of 15 years 7 months. We discovered that many of us still had work to do, but some of us were ready:

Harvey                                                                                        Shawn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d like to personally appreciate both boys who showed compassion towards their peers in Crew today by not bragging about how much they had exceeded the target reading age, but offering support and advise to their peers about how they too can reach the same goal and exceed it.

We decided that you don’t stick to anything unless you pledge it. So in true XP style we cut out pictures of a reading book and wrote a pledge which we thought would support us in improving our reading ages. We then agreed to include a note of just how many years and months worth of improvement we wanted, so when it lives on the wall it will be a daily reminder of our goals.

I was proud of how Crew maturely dealt with their results and supported one another to make achievable pledges. I will be even prouder to see the result when we come to the next testing period!

It would be brilliant if Crew parents could discuss the pledge your son/ daughter has made with them, and ask about their reading age and what goals they have. In school we offer reading time for 15 minutes at the start of Sessions 1 and 4 in order to reach the advised 30 minutes a day but I know some pledges included home reading too!

Dashboard update: 

I have spoken to a number of Crew parents and agreed that the blog posts will also feature an update on the praise and conduct log. Students are aware that this will happen too so the stakes are high! This weeks praise log looks like this:

We remain on the highest average praises this week too! Great effort Crew Rowling- keep it up!

Stay safe, look after yourselves. 

Welcome back Crew Mercury!

By Rachael Rothwell11th September 2020

What a great start to the new year Crew Mercury have had!

I was so pleased to see everybody and to see the crew members in person.

This year we have started Crew Curriculum, and crew have really embraced Thoughtful Thursday. As a crew we looked at out most recent data for HOWLs and grades, then each member made an academic pledge.

Check out some of Crew Mercury’s pledges…

 

 

Josh – ‘I pledge to achieve a 3.0 or higher in HUMS by asking more questions’

 

 

Jayden – ‘I pledge to improve my be kind HOWLs to at least a 3.0’

 

Ella – ‘I pledge to improve my HOWLs in PE and crew are going to support me by giving me lots of encouragement’

 

Even with COVID-19 nothing has stopped us having our weekly whole school community meeting. Every Friday we have had the community meeting via Hangout and lots of appreciations, apologies and stands have been made.

Would just like to give a big shout out to Lynden for making his first stand during the community meeting. Well done Lynden! Lots of courage shown!