Passage presentations are in full swing!

By H Hickson18th February 2021

Week One of Passage presentations is over!

I’ve been left speechless by the outstanding passage presentations we’ve had this week. The quality of reflections from the students in Crew on their character and academic growth since year 7 has been eye opening. They have spoken with such maturity and integrity that has made myself (and their families of course) so proud. I’ve been pleased to have been able to mark so many of the students as exceeding the standard – all the hard work has paid off! 

It’s not happened by accident though, the students have been busy preparing, redrafting and rehearsing for months. Here’s Florence practising her passage in Crew this morning – all students so far have been very professional in their presenting skills and are way beyond their years in their ability to speak to adults and a guest panelist they have never met before, it takes some real courage and I’m sure there’s not many 13/14 year olds out there who could do this.

For students in year 9 to be able to so confidently identify and present their strengths, weaknesses and how they overcome challenges to improve, not only academically but personally as well, is exceptional – and all in a national lockdown! I can’t praise them enough for the strength they have shown. I am so proud of them and I hope they all realise how brilliant they are – I’m excited to see the rest of Crew’s passage presentations next week!

Passage Presentation

18th February 2021Web Blogger

This is the last week for me with crew Ali before Mrs Townson returns from maternity leave, and what a last week it has been. I have been so proud to be a part of some of the crew passage presentations. They have been absolutely amazing and such a great way to finish off my time with Ali.

 

I would like to express my huge appreciation to the whole crew for welcoming me in and keeping me on the straight and narrow with all things XPeast. I have loved being a part of it all and have been really lucky to start off my time at XP east getting to know you all.

 

Good luck for all the passage presentations to go and huge well done to Taylor, Marshall and Cerys for absolutely smashing yours this week!!

 

Miss Burrows

The Power of a Quiz!

By Web Blogger17th February 2021

Wow, what a couple of weeks! 

 

Everyone has worked so hard on their SLC preparations within crew time over the last few weeks. Quiz Friday has become something we all look forward to and Rhys’ ‘hardest quiz in the world’ on 5th February was a great way to unwind and have some fun. Even though we found it super difficult, we all laughed throughout.

 

Star Student Nominations!

 

Each week in our crew session on a Friday afternoon we vote for an over all star student, this is within Crew and the year group and announced within our community meeting. We are proud to announce that these students were selected as nominees for start student from not only our Crew but also others within E26.

 

  • 22nd January 2021, Shawn was nominated for trying every challenge he is given, giving detailed answers to questions and working hard no matter the situation.
  • 5th February 2021, Lydia was nominated for always being kind, contributing in lessons, always being on time and consistently working hard and trying her best in all sessions.

 

Well done both of you! Your hard work is paying off- keep it up!

 

Crew Highlights: (Discussed and nominated by Crew members)

 

  • Rhys has been working really hard especially in maths. His quiz was just as hard as Harvey’s the previous week, but great fun! (We were hoping Shawn might be easy on us with his quiz)
  • Cerrina always tries her best and answers lots of questions in her science session.
  • Logan has been working really hard and has improved by speaking up more in crew sessions.

 

The Crew also wanted to highlight how Miss Jonson always knows what to do in any situation, how organised she is and how much support she has given to the Crew during the preparation for SLC’s which has been difficult online.

 

I want to say a huge appreciation to all of Crew Rowling for their continued efforts with their online sessions, their never ending support for each other and never failing to make quiz Friday so much fun!

 

Stay safe 🙂

 

(Mrs Barnes and all of Crew Rowling)

Crew Young’s SLCs – a window into our world

15th February 2021D Pearson

“Student-led conferences require and empower students to take the lead role in communicating their learning. The practice helps to build dispositions and skills—such as adapting speech to the appropriate context and organising and presenting information—that will be vital for students in college and careers…..” (Ron Berger).

When Ron Berger captured in his definitive EL book “Leaders of their Own Learning” the essence of Student-Led Conferences, he could not possibly have foreseen the challenges of delivering these remotely during a global pandemic!

I’ve been very pleased with and proud of Crew Young recently as they prepared and delivered their latest round of SLCs, this time to a remote audience, selecting examples of work that they were proud of, showed their mastery or indeed require improvement, all without physically having them to touch in their hands.

The depth of their reflections on their learning, the correlations that they articulated between their attendance, their HOWLs, and their Assessment Point 1 data, all self-assessed against their Minimum Expectations were thoughtful and well-considered throughout. I particularly like how Isabel invited and then acted on Eleanor’s critique to improve her first draft before then presenting this to her audience, and how both Aaron and Dominic chose to include photos of their HOWLs trackers to evidence demonstrable improvements in working hard and getting smart over time.

I would like to appreciate students and their parents for arriving promptly to these events, and especially those students who kindly agreed to having their SLCs video-recorded for critique and modelling purposes. Crew Young have consented to sharing some of their work, showcased in their SLCs, below.

 

Student Led Conferences Appreciation

By Web Blogger15th February 2021

Wow!

Massive appreciation to everyone in Crew Obama for making my first experience of Student Led Conferences such a positive one. It was inspiring, and sometimes heartbreaking, to hear all about your achievements and the challenges you have faced. 

I have included a couple of images of the work pupils commented on during their SLCs, but it is sadly not possible to include everyone here. It was fascinating to learn about your expedition ‘Fight The Power’. Not only did pupils share the work they were most proud of, but they were able to talk meaningfully about what they found difficult. Pupils identified where they felt the quality of their work had fallen short, and explained how they intended to improve further. This is quite an undertaking for pupils of this age. It is especially impressive when we consider the extent to which remote learning has replaced traditional classes for these children over the last twelve months. As such, grappling with this task and adapting to its online delivery, is really something!

It was also wonderful to ‘meet’ so many parents and guardians, albeit through a computer screen. Thank you all for your continued support and for the probing questions you asked during the Student Led Conferences.

Miss Cross

E24 Community Meeting- Week 6

By J Smith14th February 2021

 

We are entering into the 7th week of online learning at XPE- with seemingly, no end in sight, and so our community meeting was focused around strategies to beat the screen fatigue, and a challenge to to get us all out of the house this weekend!

We started off with a brilliant check in of superhero names, based on dates of birth- some absolute, moving then onto apologies, appreciation and stands. Some fantastic work going on- as shown by the appreciation from staff and students within crew Churchill, for the work around student led crew sessions.

See all E24 apologies, appreciations and Stands made below on the Padlet

Made with Padlet

Scan this QR code or see applications here

Community meeting Photography Challenge

To encourage us as staff and students to get time away from the screen, a challenge was set for students to over the weekend take photos whilst out on walks out of the house, to be entered in the following categories, entries must be original, and be taken over the weekend whilst out of the house- see some of the entries posted on the challenge by students in E24-
Voting for category winners will take place in week 7 community meeting.

The categories…

1) Architecture

2) Near and Far

3) Nature

4) Food

5) Frozen

6) Technology

 

E24 Original photos, submitted by Alfie C, Chloe T, Summer, Keisha 

Crew Finch: my Valentines message to you!

By A Parker11th February 2021

Dear Crew Finch,

After almost a year of bubbles, online learning, lockdowns, tiers – and tears! – I just wanted to send you this Valentine’s Day message to tell you how much I admire you all.

I admire your resilience.

I admire your courage.

I admire your motivation.

I admire your positivity.

I admire your humour (or at least humouring me!)

I admire your hard work.

I admire your compassion.

I admire that you are still working hard to become the best versions of yourselves.

I admire you for checking in every morning in Crew.

I admire that even through the toughest of times (or should that be especially through the toughest of times?) we are, first and foremost, Crew.

So, this Valentine’s Day I want you to take some time to send some love to the most important person in your life: YOU.

Love yourself. Appreciate yourself. Do something that makes you feel good. 

(You definitely deserve chocolates and flowers, too.)

Because, as me and my mate RuPaul always like to remind you:

 

 

 

 

 

Imagination in Action

By S Mitchell7th February 2021

After a long week, Crew Anoa’i needed a little break, so we did something different in Friday’s crew session. As it is Children’s Mental Health Week, we discussed the topic of ‘Expressing Yourself’. 

We asked the question…

‘What does it mean to ‘express yourself’ and what does that look like?’

Some of the responses Crew Anoa’i came up with were inspiring and it really made us all think about the expectations society has of our younger generations. The pressure our young students face each day to follow the ‘norm’ has a massive impact on their mental health. So, we decided to boost our mental health by getting creative and having a laugh.

The Squiggle Game

The squiggle game is a simple game. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Make a squiggle on your page, then let your imagination run wild! What can you see emerging from your squiggle? Here are some examples created by Crew Anoa’i.

By Théa Clarkson

By Lucie-Mae Cordell

By James Hudson

By Nikodem Parzybut

By Fin Haines

By Miss Mitchell

Join us and get SQUIGGLING!!

 

#ExpressYourself

 

Every day at (online) school matters

By A Parker4th February 2021

This week has seen the start of Crew Finch’s Y10 Student-Led Conferences.  A massive well done to this week’s presenters – Ali, Noah, Mackenzie, Tom and Bryn – for the hard work and integrity evident in all their presentations, which went ahead online with only a few technical glitches!  I am one very proud Crew Leader this week (even more so than usual!)

I’m looking forward to more of the same next week.  I did email all Crew parents last week with the link to the booking form so if you haven’t already booked, please can I politely remind you to do so before next Thursday (11th Feb) – just email me if you’ve lost the link.

The first SLCs of Y10 are also the first time since the Y9 Passage Presentations that students have had chance to reflect on their academic progress and character growth, as well as presenting examples of their beautiful work. This process has been made easier by the information analysis sheets provided by Mr Allen (thank you, Sir!) They have really made our discussions and reflections much more meaningful, and have helped Crew to come up with some really pertinent pledges and targets.

(ICYMI: I spoke about how we’re using the information analysis and crew narratives to help us frame our pledges for the academic year in this post.)

There has been a new addition to our SLC agenda this time round.  Crew have been asked to reflect on their work from home experience, including their online attendance, engagement and  productivity.  This has meant that we have had some difficult conversations (with more to come during next week’s conferences) but Crew’s self-awareness and honesty around the challenges they are overcoming have been truly humbling.  Although I am a little bit heartbroken that one of my Crew thinks that the lockdown period will cause a ‘hinderance’ to his future prospects, despite his absolutely outstanding work ethic and attendance at every single session…

On the subject of attendance…

I’m disappointed to report that I’ve only had 50% attendance at Crew sessions this week.  Even more disappointing is the fact that our Crew also have the lowest attendance and engagement levels in online sessions across the whole year group.

However, I don’t want this to overshadow how immensely proud I am of those who are turning up on time to Crew and daily lessons every single day: Tom, Thomas, Ali, Noah, Dakota and Kobe deserve a special mention and we’ll have to think about how we can celebrate your lockdown learning achievements once we’re back in school 🙂

So, I’ll just let Noah have the final word with his perfect explanation of why every day at school matters: