Crew Blogs | XP East

How am I spending my time?

By J Townson10th April 2020

We had our second Google Hangout this Monday and I’m glad to say we had almost a full-house! It was lovely to hear from you all; it’s really important we have that contact each week to make sure everything is going ok. We had two students missing, so I have been in touch with them and next week we will be aiming for all 13 online together.

The Crew Challenge this week was for each member of the Crew to come up with an idea of something they wanted to do or work on during the time spent away from the classroom, particularly for some of our students who live further from the school site, who are gaining in some cases almost 2 hours a day in saved travel time! Here are some of the ideas they have had so far:

Caiden – he and his dad have built a vegetable patch and he even took his device out into the garden to show us. We’re looking forward to seeing how it goes, with potatoes and carrots being just some of the vegetables they plan to grow.

Charlie – keeping fit, as Charlie is a keen footballer and obviously can’t play with his team at the moment!

Ruby and Leoni – Ruby and Leoni have been tidying their rooms, getting it all in order and Ruby really wants to have a solid plan in place for next week’s Crew session. There’s a lot to be said for setting aside time to organise the space you spend so much time in.

Tom – learning to solve a rubix cube. We have requested a video of him doing it once he has mastered the skill!

Marshall – alongside putting a focus on his schoolwork, Marshall has dedicated time to playing family games with his parents and younger siblings

Zak – developing his basketball skills is on Zak’s to-do-list, including perfecting his slam dunks. We’re waiting for some photos of his makeshift basketball net!

Mrs Townson – alongside keeping my two small daughters busy, I have been reading, playing board games with my husband and taking time each day to develop my meditation skills – some of the Crew enjoy it when we take a few minutes to quietly refocus in Crew – some of them feel a bit silly sitting still with their eyes closed, but they humour me and do it anyway!

A few of you mentioned getting a bit bored once your schoolwork is out of the way each day, so remember the resources on our Crew Google Classroom to inspire you, including the Duke of Edinburgh resources to develop your Physical fitness, your Skills and also ideas to allow you to do Volunteering, even whilst in lockdown. We won’t start D of E until Year 9, but the ideas apply to people of all ages.

Looking forward to our next Crew Hangout next week!

Mrs Townson

Gratitude turns what we have into enough

By A Parker10th April 2020

Crew Task

It’s very easy at the moment to focus on the things we haven’t got and all the things we are missing out on. It’s easy to think we’re “stuck at home” when, in fact, we’re “safe at home” and that’s the mindset we’ve been fostering in Crew. So whilst it’s more than OK to be missing people and things, this week’s Crew task was to list ‘ten things you feel grateful for in life’ to make us really appreciate what we have got available to us right now, at this time. Crew are continuing to work on this task over the Easter weekend, but here are some highlight’s from Tom’s list:

a healthy life
parents
pets

and from Ali’s list:

the love and support people are giving me
understanding family
the love and support people are giving to me

and a lovely image of Noah’s list who has presented his work beautifully!

I’m so looking forward to reading everyone else’s lists; they’re certainly making me reflect on what is truly important right now.

This was one of the brilliant suggestions from the Action for Happiness Coping Calendar we’ve been dipping in and out for our Crew check-ins and weekly tasks. Here’s a copy of the calendar just in case you want to try some of the challenges too:

Crew Hangout

Almost a full house for this week’s check-in, but we’re still missing the same 3 or 4 Crew members every time. I have emailed these students about this. Please remember that these hangouts are really important, just as our daily sessions are at school, so I and the rest of Crew expect everyone to attend!

This week’s Crew check-in was led by Megan, who asked us “if you could only have one birthday present to last the rest of your life, what would it be?” An interesting range of responses from Crew… Thomas would like his own fishing pond, Kobe would just like some headphones and Ali would like another lightsaber (!)

We had an academic check-in just to make sure everyone was on track and it was great to hear Tom offering advice to Thomas who was struggling to access some work on classrooms. Still Crew! It was also nice to welcome Mr Smith along to our hangout, who wanted to check-in with Crew Finch and check that everyone was getting on OK.

We decided to just have the Tuesday hangout this week, as we’re off school on Thursday anyway for the Easter break, but Crew know they can contact me any time over the break if they feel like they need a 1:1 check-in with me.

An Appreciation

I’d like to end with an appreciation for Megan who unknowingly made a difficult day better for me by sending me a really lovely email. Such a small act of kindness had a huge impact on my day. So, number 1 on my list of things I am grateful for is:

Crew

Have a safe and enjoyable Easter break, everyone.

Mrs Parker x

Crew Mercury

By Rachael Rothwell9th April 2020

It has been great to check in with crew and see what we have all been getting on with our learning. The learning that you are producing is fab, and we’re getting lots of praise from teachers. Well done everyone!

I’ve also enjoyed hearing about what crew have been getting up to in their free time.

For this week’s post I’m going to share what Lewis has been up to. He has been enjoying taking Thor for a daily walk. Look how big Thor is!!

Lewis is particularly proud of his maths learning, and I’m sure Mr Nixon is super impressed too! Mrs McCarthy also said she is proud of what you have done so far Lewis, keep it up!

Check back next week when we have an update on another member of Crew Mercury!

Morning Youngsters! Make it count!

By D Pearson3rd April 2020

Crew Young are used to my cheery salutation of “morning, Youngsters!” to welcome them to Crew at 8.30 every morning, and also my daily “make it count!” reminder as they are dismissed at 9.15 to begin a day’s learning at XP East.

Incredibly, it is over four weeks since they last heard these greetings and reminders, as life as we know it was turned upside down by the effects of the Coronavirus restrictions. Simple routines such as this are very important to me, and to us, as they help to define our concept of “normality” in an increasingly abnormal world. Whilst we might be enjoying the extra time to ourselves, it is sometimes overwhelming to be suddenly given so much unstructured time.

I was really pleased to speak to nearly all of Crew Young and their parents today, to check in with them, recognise, celebrate and praise their work completion (and issue a few reminders) as we all come to terms with the new restrictions on our lives. I discovered that Louie recently achieved his NVQ Level 1 Fire Cadet and First Aid awards, Maclaren is managing to maintain his Tae-kwon-do skills using instructional video tutorials, and that Dominic is using lego for one of his distance learning task set. Summer was just one week away from completing the physical standard of her bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.

A special shout out must go to Summer and Lewis for being completely on top of all their studies – nice work you two! Most of Crew Young are not too far behind!

Cliff Young, the Australian farmer who was the inspiration behind our choice of Crew name, became famous for approaching things from a new angle, for doing things that nobody else had even considered, and from thinking “outside the box”. It is this approach that we must all embrace as we grapple with the practicalities of working and studying from home.

STAY AT HOME > PROTECT THE NHS > SAVE LIVES

Crew Frank in lockdown!

By Brandon Burke3rd April 2020

Schooling from home is just the new norm as google hangout is for Crew Anne Frank.

Google hangout has been a brilliant tool to check in and keep an update with our Crew members. It as been vital for all crew members to check in with each other as much as possible during the lockdown period, keeping that crew spirit.

We have struggled and adapted to the new system of school and all crew members are doing fantastic. We communicate really well as a crew and this has been a big influence in the success of the continuity in HOWL’s and spirit as a crew.

By using the timetable provided and our own personalised timetable, this has given us the ability to get all our typical day to day lessons in. With deadlines for tasks and assignments, we have been trying our best to meet these. This wouldn’t be achievable without the motivation we give each other as a crew.

Away from the school work we have been working hard at, there as also been the struggle to keep yourself entertained during the downtime period. We would like to recommend some activities we have found for boosting our moral and boredom:

Biking, Running, Trampolining
Joe Wicks, Make your own workout
Netflix, Disney
Cleaning the house, DIY…with parents!

We hope everyone stays safe in these times we never thought we’d experience in our lifetime.

Crew Frank

‘Rowling’ on through isolation…

By Natalie Johnson3rd April 2020

Who said technology was a bad thing?

Crew Rowling took some time out of our new normal in order to catch up and reunite this week. It was lovely to see most of you and hear about what you had been upto!

We started off by asking “If you could be an expert in anything, what would it be?” A question which was posed to me by Mrs Poncia last week during our Google Hangout which really got me thinking. It was brilliant to hear the vast array of responses from Crew, varying from Criminology to Gaming, then some more touching ideas surrounding Science and being able to find a cure so we could end lockdown or languages so we could converse with other countries easily and share ideas! The selflessness of my Crew never fails to amaze me.

Keeping things ‘Rowling’:

This leads me to our catch up about what they had all been up to this week, again putting others before themselves for the better:

Faith had kindly looked after a friends dog and taken him for walks whilst they couldn’t (cue cute dog pics!)
Cerrina had created pictures with her sister to be displayed from her window to thank the NHS and key workers for the fantastic work they are doing.
Harvey had made the sacrifice of giving up his dog walks in order to protect others whilst one of the family members were ill. Now he’s keeping busy creating models, which he knows we love to see in Crew!
Rhys had settled into a new exercise regime in order to allow his Mum to be able to crack on whilst working from home.
Lily had baked a cake to cheer those around her up (she forgot to take a picture of the cake though, so we settled for pictures of her cats as we know how mad she is about them!)

Academic progress:

Whilst we were all together we also had a look at what we have achieved over the last two weeks- I was blown away! Raising concerns last week which had been passed on I was worried about how we would match up against the deadlines this week, but, as always, we smashed it! I am so proud of the progress Crew Rowling are making independently! I have created a spreadsheet which logs all of the deadlines Y7 have to meet, there are specific tabs for Explorer and Pioneer. I have been encouraging Crew to use this in order to plan their days and their timetable and they seem to be doing just that! (Well, most!)

A massive well done to Ben, Harvey, Faith, Thomas, and Lydia who have managed to plan their time to ensure that they haven’t missed a deadline in these first two weeks! Also, a special well done to Logan who has been working really hard despite being ill! You’re doing a brilliant job- keep up the hard work!

Take the time to do what you enjoy!!

During our Crew Google Hangout we discussed how important it is to keep in touch with your friends and family around this time and I encouraged the students to take a step back from the work once they’d completed what they needed to for that day and have some time for self care! I demonstrated this by showing them that i’d taken an afternoon to go on a walk, find some head space, and chill out! (As much as i could, ending up in a farmers field full of sheep wasn’t on the agenda!)

I think its important that not only do we get some work done but we remember to look after each other, and most importantly ourselves.

Stay safe everyone, already looking forward to our next catch up!

Crew check-ins and lockdown leisure!

By A Parker3rd April 2020

Timetable and tracking progress

Mr Portman released the new timetable on Monday and feedback from students has been positive. This will be updated every week with specific task details, so make sure you sign-up for website alerts so that you don’t miss this and other important posts.

I’ve been keeping track of academic progress and went through this with Crew during Thursday’s hangout, reminding them all of what needed to be done and by when. I’ve asked them to start using their Google calendar and to get into the habit of checking it everyday. Work due dates and hangout invites will all appear automatically in the calendar. Students can get to their calendar by logging onto the website and selecting it from the ‘other apps’ section:

Checking in

It’s been a wonderful week of catch-ups, not just with Crew but with other staff, too. The Y9 Phase Team (that’s Mr Smith, Mrs Poncia, Mr Pearson and myself) are meeting once a week just like we did when we were in school. We use this time to update on Crew, student progress, resolve any issues, make sure that every one is getting the support they need and plan for the week ahead. So yes, it’s business as usual – we’re just doing it in our living rooms instead!

I’ve also spent this week catching up with Crew individually. I really enjoyed this 1:1 time. It was great just to chat outside of our whole Crew hangouts and to find out how everyone’s coping with the whole lockdown situation. I’m also really pleased that most (not all!) are really focussed on their school work and are producing some beautiful work.

A massive well done to Thomas for working exceptionally hard on his maths and for smashing his MEG!

And well done to Kobe for working hard on his Art task.

Crew hangouts

Crew hangout time is my favourite time of the week!

Tuesday’s check-in was led by Ali, who asked us to choose three people we’d want to be stuck in a room with. We had to choose a celebrity, a family member and a friend. I had to google some of the celebrities the young ‘uns came up with – never heard of them! We then had a group discussion about the new timetable (which got a big thumbs up from Crew Finch!) and shared ideas on how we can strike the right balance between “school time” and “leisure time.”

Noah came up with Thursday’s check-in: If you could be any age, what would it be? The majority of Crew seem to think that 18 is the magic number: the age where they become an adult, leave school, buy cars and… go to the pub! As mentioned above, we also had an academic check-in. Just a couple of Crew members needed a gentle prod to get the work done (and we’ve had individual conversations about this, too), but other than that I’m really pleased with how everyone’s doing.

Every time I talk to Crew I mention the importance of self-care and why we must look after our mental wellbeing during this time. I encourage them all to switch off their consoles, get off social media, leave their rooms, go outside (observing social distancing measures, of course), get active, try something new or just do something they love!

So, with that in mind, we’ve decided to launched a new weekly feature called Lockdown Leisure (I know, it’s terrible – if you’ve got a better name, let me know!) Here, we’ll be showcasing some of the things we’re getting up to with our new found spare time at home.

So, ladies and gents, Crew Finch present <<insert fanfare here!>>

Lockdown Leisure, Edition 1 – featuring Noah, Tom, Ali and Mrs Parker!

Tom isn’t able to go to the gym or play Basketball at the moment, so has taken up running.
Ali has been spending quality time with her cat, Thelma (cute pet pics are always welcome!)
I’ve been crocheting rainbows!

And finally, I’m going to leave you with these stunning photos of Noah who is still managing to practice his dance.

Stay safe, everyone.

Crew Ali checking-in from home

By J Townson3rd April 2020

The school highlight of my week has definitely been our Crew Google Hangout on Monday morning; whenever we have had time away (even just for the weekend!) I always find seeing our Crew members in our morning sessions sets me up for the day and reminds me of why I work at XP. The last few weeks of the ‘new normal’ have been anything but normal I think, but Crew Ali is doing well and I’m so proud to be their Crew Leader!

In our Google Hangout this week we just did a simple check-in to see how everyone was getting on with workload and the new ‘timetable’, as well as find out what they had been doing to fight the boredom that some of them were feeling, particularly with not being able to visit friends or family or leave the house for days out, etc.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us (me included) have found being away from the rhythm of daily Crew and carving out a routine at home a challenge. Many of us have more distractions at home and the lack of structure can be stressful for some; conversely, for others, in the first week that school was closed, the high expectations and volume of structured work on the timetable were overwhelming! We appreciate the work Mr Portman and the leadership team have put into taking student and parent concerns on board and creating a flexible but really clear and manageable overview to support students in engaging in their learning from home. I particularly love the scheduling of Common Mission time to enrich our students’ learning opportunities and give breadth to our existing offering. Remember that across the XP Trust we take a 3-dimensional approach to learning, which incorporates Academic Success, Beautiful Work, and Character Growth.

This week, in response to our check-ins, I challenged Crew Ali to think about their personal as well as academic development, by reflecting on the question: What will you do with the time you have available in lockdown? We had some ideas in the Crew session and they are spending this week planning goals for themselves and coming up with more ideas to make the most of their spare time around their academic studies. Here are some of the things our Crew members have been getting up to so far – why not try a few out yourself?

Watching a new series on Netflix with other family members – Ruby recommends ‘Locke and Key’
Learning a new instrument – Lacey’s family brought their piano down from the loft and they have been learning to play it
Lots of us have been keeping in touch with friends on Facetime or Houseparty
Exercise – several of the Crew have been doing the Joe Wicks workout each morning; Caiden has been cycling; Leoni has been playing football in the garden; Ruben has been walking his new puppy!
Cooking – Caiden has been making bread and homemade lemonade
Crafting – Marshall has been making salt dough handprints, then baking them ready to paint; he has also been drawing and playing console games with his dad
Mrs Townson has been writing a list of goals I want to achieve before my new baby arrives in June – then putting a plan in place to action them! One of these is to make time for myself each day – it can be difficult to do when you’re in a house with other people all the time, but is really important for your wellbeing.
Check out the resources on the XP Trust EMBRACE website to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing. Encourage More, Be Resilient And Consider Everyone

Keep safe and stay home everyone!

Crew online check-in with Mandela

By J Smith2nd April 2020

It has been fantastic to have a Google Hangout from everyone in Crew Mandela. It seems a lifetime since we had to finish at school so abruptly, however all crew members are in good spirits and we discussed some ways that people have been keeping busy!

Everyone in the crew commented on how the new timetable has made routines much more manageable learning to be a solid structure of the day.

Big shout out to Alfie and Chloe who have been completing STEAM work to an excellent standard. Check out the pictures below:

Also a huge shout out to Beth who has been going above and beyond in Spanish Plus and completed all tasks to an excellent standard! well done Beth!

Our next Check in online will be Tuesday at 11:30 am. Holly is going to lead the check in- with a pub quiz style competition to follow. See you then!

Check-Ins with Crew Churchill

By K Poncia30th March 2020

It has been lovely to touch base with each member of crew Churchill since we finished school.

We have been liaising through regular email updates and today we held a Google Hangout.

It was wonderful to be able to talk to crew and find out what they have been up to.

So far, things are going well, with crew reporting that they have established good working routines, with many using the timetable to help them structure their days and they are successfully completing the work which is being set.

Check out some of the STEAM work Theone and Tyler have completed:

I’d also like to send a big ‘SHOUT OUT!’ to Tyler, Theone, Kyle, Ben, Aran, Rhys and Kaiden for completing all of their maths tasks and achieving high scores. Super stuff!

We finished our crew session by checking out with the question: ‘If you could be an expert in anything at all, what would it be?’

There seemed to be a running theme as Adam, Rhys and Ruby wanted to be experts in business and make lots of money! Kaiden said he’d like to be an expert in Space, along with Ben, who has the wonderful ambition of being an expert in all things Aeronautical and Space, too. Theone would love to be an expert on how the brain works and Alyssa would like to be an expert in cooking. When asked why, she said ‘because I can’t cook anything at all!