A Lilly Faith

By A Brown15th May 2019

A huge thank you to Faith and Lilly today for the student-led crew session. It was an excellent session, enjoyed by every one of us!

Read on below to find out what we did…

Check-In

We were asked to think of a song that portrays how we feel, with an explanation if possible, to share to the rest of the group. “Happy” by Pharrell Williams was a popular choice, but there was an eclectic range within the crew.

Main Task

Everyone then took a piece of paper and some coloured pencils. Faith and Lilly had carefully selected a range of different styles of music, from classical to club classics, and played them to the crew. The objective: draw on your page whatever you feel inspired to draw from the different types of music.

Closing Circle

Finally, we were invited to to circle up around everyone’s artwork and do a Notice Wonder protocol. Lots of originality, including drawing images inspired by the music, such as a beach hut when listening to more tropical music; to a collection of shapes and squiggles that represented the feel and mood of the music.

It’s brilliant to the see the character growth of the students still in year 7 that have grown in confidence to be able to lead their own session and come up with such an excellent idea. Well done, Faith and Lilly.

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

By A Parker13th May 2019

That’s the question I posed to Crew on Friday afternoon (and no, I didn’t sing it ‘Miranda’ style!)

Apart from a few exceptions – for instance, Brendan being proud of scoring a goal with his left foot and Aden being proud of exceeding his MEG in his latest Math’s assessment – Crew were mostly proud of their completed propaganda posters.

And so they should be!  Take a look at the craftsmanship and quality on display here:

Year 8 have been working on these posters as their final product for their current HUMS expedition, ‘Making Your Mind Up.’  The aim of the poster is to highlight how we can avoid being manipulated by all the information we’re bombarded with everyday, whether that’s from the media or from posts shared on social networking sites.

Noah said that he was really proud of the hard work he’d put into his poster to have it completed on time, especially as he’d missed a couple of the planning lessons because he was taking part in a dancing competition.

Tom said he was proud of his work because he doesn’t really like art but feels he has produced a quality poster (I agree!) He persevered when he faced problems, particularly when it came to the detailing on his social network logos.

Mackenzie, Bryn and Thomas all said that they were proud of their posters because they listened to and acted on feedback from their peers to improve their first drafts.

Amazing work, Crew Finch! I’m particularly proud of the craftsmanship and quality evident in all your work and can’t wait to see them on display.You have every right to be proud of yourselves and the progress you’re making across all subjects.

Keeping our eyes on the prize

By Katie Haughey5th May 2019

This week in Crew Turing, we have been building on the data analysis that we completed last week during crew. I asked that each member of my crew come up with 2 specific action points to work on between now and the next data drop, so we can work on our weaknesses and improve our standing in the crew league tables.

I have loved how well considered these targets have been. Each member of my crew have really honed in on what aspects of their school life they need to work on, be it through their grades or their HoWLs. Here are a few examples:

Ralph:

My actions points are keeping up productivity in lesson and keeping my extended study organised, I can use my fries post-it notes to remind me what deadlines or if I need to remember my kit the following day. I also need to remember to bring a ruler and pencil to class, because I always forget these 2 pieces of equipment.

Callum:

My action points are to let people talk in crew and don’t talk over them because in my data drop 2 my be kind in crew is a 2.8 and a 3.8 in the previous one.

My other action points is working hard in science because in November it was a 4.0, but now it is a 3.6 and I think I could use the explore further section of the website to push for excellence.

Lexi

My science grade went down by 0.5 and that could be because my homework wasn’t in on time and I wasn’t paying enough attention because I drift of a lot,  so my target is to stay on task and be tuned in. I will do this by trying to contribute at least twice, by either asking a question or answering one.

Lewis

In maths my action points are to work harder on be kind as my grade decreased. I will do this by working well in collaborative groups and staying focussed. I will also try to be more active in leston and try not to drift off. I will also work harder on my WH average and GS average as they stayed the same I will improve these by:

  • Contributing more in lesson even if I don’t think my answer is correct
  • Stay more focused on my work
  • Putting extra effort into my hegarty to consistently get 100%

Alice

My HUMs grade has gone up 0.7 but i’m slightly off my MEG by 0.1 To improve my grade in HUMs to achieve my MEG I will be more productive in lessons and use the expedition website more often to further my understanding of the topics we study.

I will be doing fortnightly check-ins with crew to make sure they are showing integrity and working hard to achieve the targets I have set them. I hope that as a group, we can all maintain that level of crew accountability and make each other proud by fine tuning and ironing out those targets.

During another crew session we were inspired by the words of Greta Thunberg, and her impassioned TED talk on climate change. I felt this was a really good example of a WAGOLL of their HUMAN final product and also was an issue that my crew are really passionate about.

It moved us on to a really interesting discussion about why nothing (or not enough) was being done about climate change?

In previous weeks in the news, Lexi pointed out that billions had been raised in the space of a week for Notre Dame Cathedral, yet the destruction of our planet was not attracting any attention despite calls from climate scientists and experts on the issue. Dylan built on this, pointing out how many of the victims of Grenfell are still homeless, where are the millions being raised for them and other victims of tragedy? We’re going to follow the climate stories over the next few weeks and also address what we might be able to do as a crew to contribute our bit, however small, to protecting our planet.

These last two weeks have also seen the birthdays of three members of Crew Turing: Lexi, Alice and Torran! We ended the week on a fully deserved high – eating cake!

Crew Parkinson Step Up to the Challenge!

By H Hickson5th May 2019

What a week we’ve had! After our check in on Monday, I set crew a challenge: to get more than half of Crew on the praise sheet this week. They certainly stepped up to the challenge and succeeded with 8 people getting put on the praise sheet this week – with some people such as Florence,  Dylan, Callum and Shanna getting 3 and 2 mentions respectively!

I brought in sweets as a reward and we spoke about instant gratification – that immediate reward for completing a goal and delayed gratification, for example,  hard work paying off over time and reflected in HOWLs and academic data drops and which is more important.

A highlight for me was seeing Harvey genuinely thrilled that he had been entered onto the praise sheet for maths – which is an area he sometimes finds difficult. We discussed how this feeling of being proud and impressed with yourself is what should help to drive academic conduct in school.

A massive congratulations to Florence, Kristian, Ava, Callum, Shanna, Dylan, Bob and Harvey for being entered onto the praise sheet this week. Here are some of the entries:

Harvey: ‘Worked really well this afternoon on his metrics activity, thinking very logically on the task and asking great questions to help him get unstuck’ – maths 

Ava: ‘In Crew activity Ava absolutely gave it her all. Although she acknowledged football wasn’t something she found easy she put loads of effort and determination in and even managed to score a goal – a great attitude!’ – crew.

Shanna: ‘Requested and attempted much more complex grapple task after completing easier version of same activity – showing she is willing to push herself harder in Spanish. High levels of productivity over time’ – spanish 

Kristian: ‘ Smashing your MEG when writing your historical source analysis!’ – Hums

I’d also like to appreciate Callum for his crew activity – football. He incorporated skills practice such as dribbling and a series of games which led to a session enjoyed by all. He gave good explanations and demonstrations to help crew improve – well done!

 

Is no news good news?

By A Parker2nd May 2019

Inspired by Crew Mandela’s “What is going on the world?” session, we took the idea and made it our own!

We spent Wednesday morning exploring the BBC News website and reporting back on the stories that caught our eyes, as well as exploring how each story made us think and feel.

We noticed that the all but one of the stories we read and discussed were definitely bad news stories, the only exception being Noah’s excellent story choice about a determined African boy’s journey to the Artic.

We explored how the news stories and general headlines made us feel: Crew used words like ‘depressed’, ‘anxious’, ‘sad’, and ‘scared’. We left Crew thinking that only bad things were happening in the world and, whilst it’s important that we recognise that, we really needed to look for some good in the world!

So, for today, I set Crew the challenge of finding some good news stories to see what a difference it makes to read and discuss solely positive news articles.

Here’s a selection of our feel good stories, including our favourite about the Waving Granny!

After 12 Years of Waving to Students From Her Window, Watch Her Reaction to 400 Kids Saying Goodbye

The people who are trying to reunite a divided island

Dog receives 500 tennis balls for his birthday

Russia agrees to free 100 captive whales

Protesting climate change in Preston

Beavers are now protected in Scotland

Girl with backwards legs walks for the first time thanks to generosity of strangers

Louis Tomlinson helps Widower with his bucket list

Snow Leopards

World’s first plastic free supermarket opens in The Netherlands

We noticed that all these stories had several features in common, such as resilience, kindness and determination. They all inspired us in some way.

So, how did we feel after reporting back on today’s happy news? Happy, hopeful, and, as Brendan said, “optimistic for the future!”

I’m not saying that we should avoid or ignore everything bad that’s happening in the world. In fact, we discussed how keeping up-to-date with current affairs makes us more aware of the world around us allowing us to form our own opinions and engage in well-informed conversations.  Thomas made a good point when he said that reading the bad news stories should actually make us think about how we could stop “things like that” happening again.

The purpose of this session was to experience what a difference it makes to see and read solely positive articles (which are a lot harder to find on mainstream media sites). We certainly left Crew in a more upbeat mood than the day before, eager to share our happy news!

Finally, I’m a big fan of The Happy Newspaper – a quarterly publication that celebrates all that’s good in the world.  I can’t wait to share the next edition with Crew.

Yoga-T to try it!

By A Brown1st May 2019

What a fantastic joint crew session this morning with Crew Shackleton and Crew Ali, trying out a bit of yoga in the morning to flex and focus the mind and the body.

A huge thanks to both crews for keeping an open mind and giving it their all, especially those who stepped outside of their comfort zone and set themselves a new challenge.

“Change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Roy T. Bennett

We believe at XP East that it’s important to keep setting ourselves new goals and new challenges, however big or small it might seem.

For many students today, this was a new experience; for some, an opportunity to practise what they already do. And it’s fair to say each student will take something different from the experience.

But the world is full of many experiences, and if we’re up for it, we can make any one of them a new challenge and part of building the best version of ourselves we can.

And of course a big thank you to Mrs Townson for leading the session.

Well done all!

 

Final Product Check-In

By K Poncia1st May 2019

Today in academic crew, we have been sharing the drafts we are currently working on for our HUMAN final product.  We are designing a propaganda poster to persuade the public to think twice about the news and information that they hear and see in the media (fake news).

As we shared our first drafts, we explained to crew the reasoning behind our slogans and images.

Kyle spoke about how, in order to fight fake news, people need to ‘cut the strings’ as different media sources play us like puppets.  His image symbolises us breaking free.

Ben shared his draft and explained how he had drawn the real face of fake news: a demonic being that shouldn’t be trusted and that could harm you.  Wow!

Niven had used the concept of an anonymous figure which represented the idea that you don’t know who is behind the news you read.  He said, “Make sure you read it and think carefully before you believe it.”

Aran posed the question: Are our minds vulnerable to fake news?  She had used the image of a brain to indicate that people are easily brainwashed by fake news if they are not careful.

Do you recognise the phrase, ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?’

This was the inspiration behind Theone’s propaganda poster as she has depicted a news reporter who is being encouraged to say ‘No!’ to fake news.

Absolutely cracking work so far, Crew!

We can’t wait to see your final products!

 

What is going on in the world?

By J Smith30th April 2019

Crew Mandela were answering the DLT: What is going on in the world?

After a first check in from what students already knew, we then looked into using BBC News websites to notice wonder and question about the site.

After students researched various topics including political issues, world issues and local news, all students pop-corned their ideas to answer the DLT.

One memorable news story came from Holly W, she explained that a whale had been trained by Russians to be a spy!

 

 

Extended Study check-in

By A Parker30th April 2019

We regularly check in with each other regarding extended study, particularly on hand-in days.  However, I had noticed that the same Crew members were repeatedly not handing in their extended study and thought it was about time that we tackled this as a Crew, especially as we have a collective responsibility for our HOWLs grades.

We looked at the homework log together and were quite shocked to discover that only 4 members of our Crew have a 100% hand-in rate!  We do, of course, take into account valid reasons for not being able to hand in homework, but still agreed that this needs to be improved upon.  Time to pull your socks up, Crew Finch!

Firstly, we discussed why extended study is so important.  Not only does it help us to increase our knowledge and understanding of specific subjects, it also helps to build good habits, revision skills and shows that we are taking responsibility for our own learning.

Some members of Crew shared how they managed their extended study.  Thomas said that he liked to do his over a number of days, whereas Tom always does his on a Sunday afternoon.  We discussed what to do if we don’t understand the task, instead of just not doing it (check with the teacher who set it; ask a student; come to extended study).

We also discussed where we could get help if working at home was difficult: school runs an extended study session after school (3.15-4.30) Monday-Thursday.  So in other words, there is no excuse not to get the work done!

We’ll continue to monitor extended study hand-in rate.  I will also be contacting several parents over the next week to ask them to attend a meeting with their son/daughter to discuss their poor hand-in rate.

Crew Ali – data, pledges and a bit of show and tell!

By J Townson25th April 2019

Crew Ali have had a busy couple of weeks, trying to get lots done around our days off for Easter.  We have checked in as a Crew this week by sharing what we have been up to over the holiday.

The data drop results have of course been at the forefront of our minds, as we analysed our HOWLs grades first of all and this is discussed in a previous blog post.  This week and last we have been focussing on individual subject grades, taking into account progress against MEGs in English, History, Geography, Science, Maths and Spanish.  Each Crew member has completed their own data record which we can use as a supporting document in our Student Led Conferences in June. We have used colour coding to help us see what progress we are making against MEGs.

It is really important to mention that we look at progress very much on an individual basis; two Crew members may have the same grade, but it is their Minimum Expected Grade which we measure against, rather than one another.  We’re very open about grades and it’s important we can celebrate and further challenge those that have met or even exceeded their MEGs and support those who are working towards theirs.  A student’s MEG will rarely change, but the content will become increasingly more difficult as they go through school, so even if you meet your MEG now, be prepared to keep working even harder to maintain that grade!

Each Crew member is also working on an individual pledge which they will focus on in the next three weeks leading up to our May holiday.

Zak: I pledge to achieve my MEG in at least one more subject.

Billy: I will maintain my Work Hard grades and increase some of them to at least a 4.0 by arriving on time and participating fully and mindfully in class.

Charlie: I pledge to keep trying my hardest in maths and stay focused on what is going on in the lesson. I will try to get more work done and do it to the best of my ability at all times.

We also saw a new side to one another when we did a ‘show and tell’ activity on Tuesday morning, including visits from Ruby’s budgie, Blue, and Caiden’s stick insect, Woody; a taster of one of Zak’s favourite albums by Billie Eilish; a photo of Charlie’s top of the league football team; Lacey’s new business venture making hair bands; Cerys’ family holiday album from a visit to Rome, as well as many more.