We’re Back!

By H Hickson19th January 2021

Crew Parkinson have had a wonderful return to school despite it being an online return rather than in person. The last time we were all together we were celebrating Christmas with each other, opening secret Santa gifts, listening to music and having a laugh as you can see below – it all seems so long ago now. I don’t think any of us thought that we’d be returning to school under lockdown number 3 and facing the next term online, but we’re making the most of it.

In terms of how they’ve been getting on – they’ve been absolute angels! Despite the challenges of online learning we’ve had nearly 100% attendance for every crew session and lesson for the last 3 weeks! Students are doing so well tackling their new expeditions online – I got an email through with this lovely praise for Ava from Miss Haughey, it’s great to see she’s smashing it in maths.

Students have also been doing really well in their live science lessons – here’s some of the scores from the quizzes set by Mr Said on Prokaryotes & Eukaryotes and specialised animal and plant cells. Great scores from Lacey, Bob, Rosie and Aaron! 

We’ve also been busy preparing for Passage over the last few weeks in crew, continuing the hard work students put in when we were at school. We’ve had to adapt a lot over the last weeks and Passage is included in this but I’m so proud of the quality reflections students have made on their time at XP East so far and how they have grown and changed since year 7. I’m sure they will be able to explain really articulately during their Passage presentation why they are ready to start their GCSEs – watch this space for updates over the coming weeks!

SLC’s are Moving Online!

By J Smith18th January 2021

SLC Preparation:

The last two weeks in crew Mandela have been focused on moving the SLC process online. All crew members have been making the most of the home learning by going through the past 3 weeks online learning to find the very best pieces of work to include into their student led conference.

We have had some fantastic examples in crew Mandela, as shown by the example of the work below. Chloe T has gone above and beyond with her SLC presentation, not just in the preparation phase, but in the overall process of extremely impressive HOWL’s

Check out the quality of the online work collected into Chloe’s presentation

 

 

Student Led Online Crew

Massive appreciation to Raven O and Corey A for planning some fantastic online fun games for crew- examples of these are below, and it just goes to show that we don’t need to be in the building together to have fun as a crew.

 

The best activity was the game Scribble (online version of Pictionary) that really highlighted some highly creative ways of drawing some really difficult concepts!.

Tuning in to Crew Turing’s broadcast, academic success stories, and a sneaky game of Among Us!

By Katie Haughey17th January 2021

I’ve got a massive appreciation for a really impressive first couple of weeks of remote lessons, for the most part, attendance has been excellent. I have really enjoyed checking in with them in the morning, despite people not being up to much. Every single crew member made it to almost every session this week (X meaning ‘attended online’). I’ve loved to hear stories of crew members phoning each other with reminders to get up!

Crew News:

This week, on Tranquil Tuesday, rather than doing accelerated reader, I tasked my crew members to go on BBC News, or another reputable media outlet, and find a news story that interested them. After giving them some time to read the article, I then asked them to share a jist of the article they had been reading.

Callum shared an article that sparked his interest after checking he was allowed to read about football, the West Ham loss last week. He explained that to crew that this meant that they’d be playing Doncaster, and while he wasn’t so hopeful about celebrating a win, he was still excited to see the two teams play. Jess shared a really excellent article in relation to the Capitol riots this week, which highlighted the work of a Police Officer that had been trying to keep protestors out of the US Congress building. We had some other lovely stories, ranging from a Star Wars spin off from Lewis, to a heartwarming story from Alice about a group who had been helping locate missing dogs.

Thoughtful Thursday – an eye for an eye?

On Thoughtful Thursday, we looked into a story that had dominated the news this week, the story of Lisa Montgomery – the only female inmate on federal death row in the US who was executed on the 13th.

I asked my crew after we read the article together, whether they felt that Lisa deserved to be executed. Having looked into her background together, it was a difficult decision to make, and most felt that the case was far too complicated. There was a general consensus that she definitely deserved a life sentence, but that the death penalty was cruel considering her upbringing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a lighter note, we finalised the information on our Crew Narrative this week, which consolidates our crew’s data for the term. Each crew member has a pledge for their HoWLs, and their academic progress for the next term. It was really positive on the whole, we even came joint first in terms of our ‘Be Kind’ HoWL with Crew Ali. We’re definitely working on pushing more of our data in to the great/awesome categories though.

I felt that because of the fantastic work done in the first two weeks, as well as a really positive data sheet, we ended the final crew session of the week on a game of Among Us. It was lovely to hear everyone having a laugh to end the week on a high note, before a appreciation-filled community meeting.

 

Crew Finch: better than ‘business as usual’

By A Parker16th January 2021

Two weeks into Term 3 – and Lockdown 3 – already!

And it’s been a very busy 2 weeks of  getting settled into our new online learning schedule, engaging in new expedition immersion activities (which have been brilliant!) and Crew, of course, which has been very much ‘business as usual’ from 8.30am every morning.

Although, as the quote above says, I feel we need to come back better than business as usual this term.  It takes an extra boost of motivation, determination and integrity to show up online to Crew and daily lessons (especially on snow days!) and, even though we’ve had some very tired Crew members who’ve needed a virtual prod to get them fired-up on a morning, I’m really happy with the attendance and engagement from Crew across all lessons.

Crew Narrative Update

So, as we strive to be better than business as usual, we have spent quite a bit of time in Crew revisiting and refining our Crew Narratives, which now include students’ first Academic Progress grades of the school year.  You can read more about the work we’ve been doing around Crew Narratives in this previous blog post: A HOWL-ing end to the year

Crew are looking forward to discussing their Crew Narratives, academic progress and pledges in more detail with parents at the upcoming Student-Led Conferences.  More details and booking slots will be available soon.

Habits of Work and Learning

The latest HOWLs League Table has been released:

Coming second in all categories is certainly something to be celebrated but, as we pledge to be better than business as usual, we know we can all push ourselves to work harder, get smarter and be even more kind than we already are to maybe get us back to the top of the leader board.  Our work and reflections in our Crew Narrative will help us to achieve this goal.

Happiness check-ins

It hasn’t been all work and no play for Crew: I have introduced them to the delights of Blankety Blank (how could they not know what that was?!) and had a daily happiness check-in using our very own Happiness Calendar.

I am a big fan of Action for Happiness’ Monthly Action Calendars and have used them in Crew before but this month we decided to create our own.  Crew have come up with some absolutely smashing ideas, and we invite you all to use our calendar and commit to a daily happiness task yourselves:

And finally:

Happy New Year to you all 🙂

Stay Safe.

Snow!

15th January 2021Web Blogger

Crew Obama have been following their remote lessons during lockdown. Wifi supply issues and lost links to Google Hangouts for lessons haven’t held us back! Pupils have shown great kindness by sharing links, technology tips, and helpful explanations. Great appreciation to the individuals who have managed to attend every single session this week, and be on time too! 

You may have noticed that we had a little snow yesterday. Those of us in school were amazed at how quickly it came down! The first photograph of the school playground was taken just after morning Crew at around 9am, whilst the second was taken around midday.

9am

Midday.

Pupils at home were sorry that lockdown robbed them of the chance to play out with all their friends in the snow. However, Crew Obama are a resourceful lot who tried to make their own fun.

Crew Young – top the HOWLs leader board again!

By D Pearson11th January 2021

This is the fourth occasion when I can proudly report that Crew Young top the E24 / Year 10 leader board following our Term 2 snapshot review of their Habits of Work and Learning! I was first able to recognise this achievement two years ago, when I noticed: “HOWLs about that? Crew Young hit the ground running” in January 2019.

Four months later I reflected on Crew Young’s HOWLs success in coming first place on the E24 and E25 leader board in May 2019, and then reiterated my pride in Crew Young at the end of that year.

Last term, in all three categories, they demonstrated the strength of their work hard, get smart and be kind HOWLs, and they will no doubt wish to reference this in their next Student-Led Conference, and improve further on their current ratings.

Great work from the Youngsters”!!!

Crew Young – charity donation

By D Pearson23rd December 2020

Today we received the certificate of appreciation, below, in respect of Crew Young’s recent donation to Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity – our chosen Crew charitable cause – in lieu of Secret Santa this year. Thanks, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

 

Crew Young, compassion above all

By D Pearson18th December 2020

To add to the plethora of appreciations made by E24 / Y10 students in our Community Meeting yesterday morning, is a very special appreciation that I would like to make to Crew Young. They decided that they would donate the money that they would have spent on Secret Santa this year to our Crew’s chosen charitable cause, which is Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, based in Sheffield.

Their kind donation of £40.00 in total will be used wisely by this very worthwhile charity, to offer some dignity, compassion and support to patients in South Yorkshire and beyond that suffer the physical and emotional consequences of this dreadful disease. It’s a cause that I regularly support, so I’m really grateful to my Crew for their generosity, and for thinking of others at this time of year.

Until a letter of appreciation can be compiled by the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity fundraising team, I’ve attached a receipt from their clerical staff in recognition of this gesture.

Thank you!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from crew Mercury!

By Rachael Rothwell17th December 2020

Merry Christmas from crew Mercury!

What a way to end a tough term at school. It was fab to see the students back in school following their time completing online learning. Our crew certainly enjoyed opening their secret santa gifts!

Christmas Jumpers!

16th December 2020Web Blogger

Crew Obama worked hard during the recent bubble closure. The children didn’t want to be left out of Christmas jumper day so they joined in from home instead. It was great to see so many pets joining in too! I am sorry that I didn’t manage to snap everybody, but here are a few anonymous crew members. Can you guess who they are? 

Despite the bubble closure, we are still hoping to send a selection of food, treats and toys to the animals at the local RSPCA branch this Christmas. We were inspired by our hangout with an expert from the branch and we want to help. Please send any donations to our crew room (AO7) on the last day of term and we will make sure the animals get them. 

Merry Christmas everyone!