We’ve been enjoying our reunion form lockdown 3.0 since coming back in March and we’re glad to be back together after months of isolation. We spent the first day back in crew, with an extended check in on how we’d found 9 weeks online.

The guiding question for the upcoming weeks as a crew was:

We reminded ourselves about the protocols, timings of the day and the importance of wearing masks and washing hands regularly. We then spent the afternoon discussing how lockdown had impacted our lives and wellbeing. Some members of crew had really enjoyed learning online and spending time at home, but many were like me, and much preferred being back at school.

We then adjusted to the regular testing that we’ll be doing in the coming weeks, we all had a bit of a laugh watching each other swabbing noses and throats! Luckily, we’ve not had any issues with having to self-isolate so far, we hope to keep it that way!

Last term we started working towards our Duke of Edinburgh award, we completed the First Aid element of the award. For the second segment, we are working on fitness. Students were able to select from either 5 mile walk, ultimate frisbee or football. We then spent the Friday afternoon in groups, playing best to 5.

Another important feature of crew over the past few weeks has been the work that my crew have done self-assessing their HoWLs (habits of work and learning), namely, work hard, get smart and be kind. Coming back to school has been a big shock to the system for many of us, leaving us exhausted after the first few weeks, but we’re getting there.

In order for us to get a handle on our learning, we have been grading the HoWLs across each subject to look at areas for development and improvement, as well as celebrating where we’ve been doing really well and applying those principles to other classes.

Here’s a summary of week 1, PE and art have been a highlight for my crew. Being a stickler on students giving themselves 3.0 (secure) for HoWLs that aren’t always so secure, I decided to reboot what we mean when we talk about ‘beginning’ or ‘excellence’, so the self-assessments made can be accurate. I felt that some members of my crew are working more on a 2.8-9 across the lessons I’ve been visiting, and I felt that this also reflected my experiences in the maths lessons I teach.

My crew got into groups and worked on creating their own rubric for the HoWLs, and we spoke of times where students in E25 had fallen into the beginning, developing, secure and excellence categories. We uncovered that from those conversations, we were going to work on avoiding passenger behaviour in sessions moving forward into next week. I am wanting each student to be in at least secure across the board in the upcoming weeks, and we’ll be setting crew challenges and working on encouraging others to achieve in their HoWLs.