Today saw the day that we’ve all been looking forward to for so long – the full return to school of all our students. Like their peers, Crew Young were promptly tested and then they were able to join other E24 students in a Community Meeting and normal afternoon sessions. WELCOME BACK, YOUNGSTERS!
When we return to school on Monday 22nd March, students in Year 9 will start working on the final product for their learning expedition ‘You give me fever‘, which has the guiding question:
“Why should we care about health inequality?”
The final product will celebrate and honour the work of NHS staff across the whole organisation during this most difficult of years.
We would like for small groups of students to speak with NHS workers to find out about their role, and how it has been impacted over this last year.
If you or anyone in your family is an NHS worker, we would really appreciate it if our students could speak to you about your important work.
Ideally we would like for workers to meet with small groups of our students online during Monday 29th – Wednesday 31st March.
We are looking for workers from across all of the NHS, and are especially in need of some of the typically unsung heroines and heros such as cleaners, porters or community ambulance drivers for example, although our students would learn a lot from speaking to anyone with a role in the organisation. We have many experts already lined up, but it would be great to get even more from our families at XP.
If you or someone you know can help our students to learn more about the herculean efforts of this past year, please contact Mr Said.
We can’t wait to welcome all of our students back very soon!
I would like to send a huge appreciation to all the parents and pupils who have helped this term to go as smoothly as possible. XP determination and compassion have served us well!
It has been an absolute pleasure to see Crew Obama get behind the ‘Screens Off and Recharge’ initiative during the final two weeks of term. Pupils have reported reconnecting with their families and forgotten interests in a variety of ways. Siblings have called truces and gone out for bike rides together. Savvy parents have encouraged make-over challenges resulting in gleaming bedrooms, kitchens, dogs and scooters. Art and reading books have been opened and enjoyed. Pupils have tried new crafts or skills such as photography and origami. Crew Obama really are a talented bunch!
I will leave you with a few of the many images pupils have shared in Crew, and to wish you all a restful two weeks.
Miss Cross
As we reach the end of a very long and challenging term, we are increasingly seeking to beat “screen fatigue” in readiness for a full digital detox over the two week holiday. I’ve recently asked our Youngsters to share their photos as to how they spend the last 45 minutes of each day, away from the screen, being mindful of their wellbeing.
Yesterday, some students in Crew Young played extreme scrabble in pairs, against others and I’d like to appreciate Adam M and Amber from X24 for their winning partnership!
Louie decided to cook some brownies!
George took 2 hours to build a card tower FOUR STOREYS HIGH! Neat artwork too, George!
Keisha prefers to hone her sketching skills…..
……whilst Maclaren works on his common mission subject (computer coding)
Lewis continues to work on HIIT (High Impact Interval Training) on his indoors Peloton bike set-up…..
……whilst his Crew Leader (a bit of a has-bean!) trains for the next Gira Mondial. Wheelie hard to get a sponsorship deal with Heinz………..
Another great week for Crew Rowling this week, they continue to blow me away with their hard work, positivity and creativity.
Crew Highlights (from Crew members):
-Harvey always has an answer ready and is always listening.
-Thomas works really hard to make his work the best that he can do and always has a good detailed answer.
-Layton is always prepared to give critique to others in his class and is always there when you need help or struggling with any work at all.
-Cerrina gives a lot of helpful feedback and she is an amazing friend. She is very helpful and kind, thank you! Cerrina is also always asking for critique to make her work better which shows how much she cares about her lessons and how responsible she is for her learning.
Other news this week:
-Faith’s quiz was slightly kinder than previous weeks and no one is looking forward to Layton’s turn more than him so he can reduce everyone else’s brain cells! These quizzes really have become something we all look forward to!
– Shawn’s recreation for the ‘Off screen’ task on Wednesday made headlines in our community meeting and made everyone laugh, it was brilliant!
Star Student Nominations for last week:
There were some great nominations within Crew for our star student. I wanted to share these with you all as it is always lovely to hear the Crews thoughts on the efforts put in by their peers.
Shawn was nominated as he always works hard in sessions and in science he helped a group of people who didn’t understand the task.
Harvey is always on task every week so he was nominated for his consistency and dedication.
Layton was nominated as he always works hard and on Thursday in science he was doing very well grappling with his work.
Charlotte, for always joining the call on time and working harder in lessons.
Tom because even though he had trouble logging into his school account he still tried to take part in the lessons as much as he could.
The winner over all this week with a majority of votes was Tom!
As a Crew we saw how hard you tried to participate in lessons and the work set when you were having trouble with your account, Well done!
‘Off Screen’ Time
This week we began our off screen time as we acknowledged how much time we are all spending on our screens, we therefore have come up with tasks to get us off the screens, recharging and reconnecting with things we enjoy and our family.
Tuesday was launch day so we decided to get out and photograph nature, the majority got involved and we had some beautiful photos uploaded to our Crew slides.
Wednesday we were tasked with recreating something in our house. Some decided to draw items, build items and Shawn made himself into a burger!
Thursday it was time to do something with our families. Activities varied and it was great to see how much everyone enjoyed this. There were bike rides, walks, board games, reading, baking, trips to the park, exercising and relaxing with pets.
Friday we got competitive with a scavenger hunt!
For those who have attended the in-school provision, they also completed activities within school, including board games, dancing and outdoor photography.
We have all enjoyed these activities so far and it has given a boost within Crew. It’s been good to check in each morning with what we have all been up to by looking through photos of everyone’s activities.
Keep up the good work everyone and keep the amazing photos coming in!
Mrs Barnes
Crew Finch are embarking on an epic virtual journey to raise funds for our Crew Charity, Firefly Cancer Awareness and Support. This physical activity will also go towards the DofE Silver Award.
We are aiming to walk, run or cycle a collective total of 500 miles over the next 3 months (1st March – 30th June.)
Firefly provide free community transport for Cancer patients in our area to and from hospital for treatment and appointments. It is a vital service for these patients.
Firefly are currently operating 10 vehicles. I have spoken to Ian (Chewie) from the charity who tells me that they will use the money raised to put towards the cost of keeping these vehicles on the road. It currently costs the charity approx £1100 a week in fuel costs alone! They will also use the money to buy essential PPE for the volunteer drivers.
All charities have been hit really hard during the pandemic as they can’t rely on their usual fundraising activities so we would really, really appreciate it if you would contribute what you can to this wonderful cause.
Every little helps and it will motivate us all to go that extra mile (or 500!)
Here’s our fundraising link (donations go direct to Firefly):
Crew Finch’s Virgin Money Giving Page
You can read more about Firefly Cancer Awareness and Support here:
Firefly Cancer Awareness and Support
Big Thanks from Crew Finch x
#aboveallcompassion
We are all feeling the pressure at the minute but we are so close to half term I can almost taste it!
On Friday I asked our crew to think about what they are enjoying and what they are struggling with at the minute, it is easy for us to forget how hard it can be for them so this opened up a forum of discussion for us to help each other out and appreciate people for their support!
Lots of people are struggling with tech issues, and the distractions round us at home in general and lots of us opened up about the subjects we are struggling with include Maths, Hums and Science. We discussed as a crew ways around this and how we can help each other out!
On a more positive note we shared the things we are really enjoying some of them being Maths, Science and HUMS. In particular they are enjoying Geography and learning about migration in India. However, it would seem the common enjoyment is coming from Art, Cameron stating “Andy Warhol is an absolute genius”.
We also shared a few appreciations and they are so heartfelt I thought I would share them with you!
Tammy “I appreciate my crew, especially Brooke and Alysia for always helping me out”
Riley “I appreciate Tammy for always sending me invites when I can’t get in to calls”
Alex, Charlotte and Brodie “I appreciate all the teachers and learning coaches for planning lessons and giving us an online education”
Alfie “I appreciate everyone for powering through this tough time”
Kiahna “I appreciate Brooke for helping me out in school”
Arina “I appreciate everyone who made a stand about online learning distortions in chat, it has really helped minimise distractions”
Brooke “I appreciate Max, Cam, Ben, Catherine and Jayden for always helping me in school”
Cam “I appreciate Brooke for helping me out with maths when I struggle”
What a way for us all to stop and think about the things you are grateful for! How amazing are our kids to be able to show such maturity at 11/12 years old and be able to appreciate kindness in others!
Keep up the good work guys #wegotthis #wearecrew
Every Friday afternoon all of E26 get together via hangout for a community meeting. In these meetings, we share important messages for the students, apologies, appreciations & stands as well as any praises/start students of the week.
Star Student of the week:
Jacob Dawson, member of crew Frank was nominated by different crews of E26 as the star student of the week.
This was down to him working hard in all of his sessions and trying his best all the time. Jacob had been contributing loads during a maths hangout and was praised by the teacher a number of times. Jacob was flying through tough algebra work and really getting stuck in. He not only showed good traits of ”Working Hard” & ”Getting Smart” but helping others out when stuck. Jacobs ”Be Kind” HOWL has really improved over the past couple of weeks, and no wonder he has been recognised by his peers as a Star Student of the week.
Jacob was over the moon that he had been nominated and he said ” well, I wasn’t expecting that” with a sigh of relief from all the hard work he had been putting in.
Well done Jacob – what a lad! keep up the good work.
Crew Frank
This week saw Crew Rowling complete their Student Led Conference’s online and both Mrs Barnes and I were blown away by the effort students had put in and the level of confidence and commitment to their studies students shown.
It was a very proud moment for me personally seeing how far each individual had come since the first round of SLC’s we completed in Year 7, it also made me eager to return to school and unite as a Crew to follow up on some of the pledges and actions which were discussed.
Though all of the students did a superb job adapting to online SLCs, presenting their screen and sharing their work virtually, there were some who had gone the extra mile to also include a presentation! Great work by Harvey, Cerrina, and Tom, who had done this off their own back following a suggestion by another Crew member.
It was also nice to be able to see Logan! His camera hasn’t worked all lock down, but for the SLC he was able to use another device- Mrs Barnes and I couldn’t believe how much more grown up he looked!
It made us wonder if we would recognise our Crew when they returned!
This week, as always, we nominated a ‘Star of the Week’ for Crew and within the Y8 phase, and the winner was…
Cerrina!
Both Crew and the year group recognised that Cerrina has been trying really hard in all of her sessions, and supporting others where possible. She has been actively engaged asking questions and also creating separate hangouts to support students in the longer lunch breaks.
Other Crew Highlights for this week:
We thought about some reflections in Crew this week and I wanted to share this comment that stood out to me:
“I feel the whole crew has really benefited from lockdown as we’re helping each other and pushing each other to achieve higher.”
This made us think of what we can do to have a positive impact, not only in Crew but in our school community and at home with our parents. Off the back of this we all agreed to complete an act of kindness this week, and it was great to check in and see the impact some of the appreciation emails and support we had given had had on others. After all, we all need to help each other up the mountain!
We ended last week on a very professional quiz from Shawn who had captured it on slides!
This Friday we look forward to Faith’s Quiz, who has already tested out her Quiz on her parents! Hopefully it isn’t too tough, i’m growing concerned at the amount of braincells Layton feels he is losing!
Stay safe and look after each other,
Miss Johnson
It has been an absolute pleasure to be part of crew Mercurys’s student led conferences. It was fantastic for the students to reflect on their learning and HOWLs. The students shared pieces of beautiful work and answered the guiding question ‘Where does real power exist, the heart, the body or the mind?’ Although challenging to complete a student led conference online, crew Mercury smashed it, well done everyone!
Here are some of the words that students and parents used to describe the SLCs…
