Yogi Crew

By Katie Haughey28th January 2019

Last week Crew Turing have had their first student-led crew session, courtesy of Alice and Abi. The girls led a yoga demo, where they released muscle tension and practiced relaxation and enjoyed the scent of tea tree oil. Afterward, we circled up and discussed how we felt before and after doing a bit of yoga. Most people were feeling calmer and more ready for the day which was good to hear! We’re going to try and make it a monthly crew activity, because while it’s important to push yourself in school, it’s also equally important that we have those chances to wind down every once in a while. Particularly when we’d had a couple of difficult conversations regarding conduct, allowing ourselves the time for clarity and reflection was really helpful moving forward into this week.

Another crew activity that has been cherished from crew members is our quiet AR comfy reading sessions. Each member of crew has a habit of finding a little nook in my classroom to get engrossed in their books. As mentioned before, this is a great way to get smart, but it’s also chance to get a lost in a good book! I’ve set a 100 book challenge by summer, that we have to reach collectively – myself included. I want to hear less about fortnite during check-in and more about how much my crew enjoyed something they read at the weekend!

This week, we’ve got a session planned out by Torran, he’s putting on an Active Crew where we’ll be getting a badminton masterclass. C25 have a spanish assessment coming up on Friday too, so we’ll also be putting on a Crew Español to support their preparation for that. I’ve also had requests for art-based crew sessions, a competitive crew session against another crew, so watch this space!

Kristian and Aaron’s Crew Session

By H Hickson27th January 2019

I was approached by some members of the Crew at the beginning of the week asking if they could run a Crew session. Of course, I said yes – what a great way to take on responsibility improve organisation and leadership skills. Kristian and Aaron led a well planned crew session on Wednesday. They thought about everything they needed to run their activity, such as booking the sports hall, and gave clear instructions to the Crew which was aided by visual slides. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Well done! 

Rosie, Florence and Dylan also attended a Digi-Crew session this week, led by Mrs Parker. As part of this, they were taught how to write a blog post. Rosie, Florence and Dylan have started to prepare their first blog post for Crew – so watch this space! I am really excited to see what they write, I’m sure it will be a credit to themselves and Crew.

The “Youngsters” continue to grow…..

By D Pearson22nd January 2019

Crew Young have now finalised their academic resolutions and these will be displayed in a prominent place in our Crew room. Discussions around attendance, punctuality, character traits, and our Habits of Work and Learning are routine, and it is through these discussions that we are beginning to realise that just as staff have very high expectations of us, then in turn we have increasingly high expectations of ourselves….and of each other.

To witness the degree of compassion that Crew members extend to their peers, whilst also listening as they hold each other to account, at times when needed, is a unique and privileged position to be in. It is due to the quality of relationships that we enjoy within Crew and with staff that we can have difficult conversations sometimes, but always with compassion, integrity and respect.

We continue to grow – in pride, confidence and in character – and whilst we are far from becoming the best version of ourselves, we have started out on the journey. We’ve hit the ground running…..and we’ve no intention of stopping. These are our pledges:

Zach at the helm!

By A Brown22nd January 2019

Zach showed courage this week to step out of his familiar zone and lead an entire Crew session.

His idea. His hard work. His success.

What started as a really simple idea about what we could do one morning as a Crew session, turned into an amazing session enjoyed by all of the Crew, with some excellent work produced as a result.

Zach: “Mr Brown, I’ve got an idea for a Crew. Could we do something where we all bring something in or draw something that represents us as a person so we can learn more about each other?”

Me: “Yeah. Do you want to do it?”

Zach: “Er. Okay!”

So a few days later, Zach came prepared with resources, an engaging greeting activity and a plan of the entire session, complete with protocols.

He even had a WAGOLL, which he’d worked hard on at home!

I’ve got to say, I was massively impressed with the attention to detail and enthusiasm he showed to produce the entire 45 minute session. He showed great leadership qualities and confidence – he never faltered! Like a rock!

And it would be remiss of me if I didn’t congratulate the Crew for their support towards Zach shown by their hard work and respect for the effort he’d put in. Although it is testament to the quality of the session that everyone was on task and thoroughly enjoyed the session.

Zach, great job!

Perhaps (dare I say it) a teacher in the making?

Crew Ali: seeing through each others’ eyes

By J Townson22nd January 2019

Last week Crew Ali spent time really thinking about our conduct norms in Crew and dug down into what we expect from one another in Crew sessions; we asked, how do others see us and how might our conduct affect others?   This is particularly the case where jokes are concerned, as we don’t all share the same sense of humour!  Our discussions encompassed the HOWLs and tied in closely with what we see in lessons.

On Friday we really had to focus on our Crew conduct principles, playing a challenge game with blindfolds on, which required trust, clear communication and organisation.  Some challenges were harder than others, including getting into yoga poses, writing the answers to mathematical equations and drawing a route for a ship through shark infested waters – all with a blindfold on and only your Crew mates to guide and instruct you!

Earlier in the week, some Crew members had been courageous in sharing some personal experiences; in response, the Crew really rallied together and worked to see the situation through the eyes of their Crew mate.  They decided to support their Crew member by putting together a fundraising proposal for charities supporting a cause close to their heart.  Keep an eye out for more news in the future as to charity events we are planning.

I am also pleased to announce that Leoni and Taylor will be training to be Crew Bloggers tomorrow morning; we look forward to seeing their first published posts, viewing Crew through their eyes, in the coming weeks!

Amazing Academic Check-ins!

By K Poncia22nd January 2019

This morning in Crew Churchill we shared work we have been doing in STEAM so far in our new expedition.
We shared a piece of work we were proud of and told crew key facts we had learnt.

Theone shared her piece of work focusing on the structure of cells. Her work also demonstrated beautiful craftsmanship and quality.

Lewis was proud of his paragraph where he could name and describe some of the bones in the human body.

Kaiden spoke confidently about an experiment he had carried out which investigated how finches had adapted to life on the different islands of the Galapagos, with their beaks adapting depending on the type of food they ate.

Take a look at some of our beautiful work!

We also had a HoWLs check-in and then Crew Churchill used this session to make a pledge about how they are going to drive their learning even further forward throughout this week.
We can’t wait to find out how we have done at our check-in on Friday!

Getting smarter!

By A Parker21st January 2019

Last week we spent a lot of time exploring how we can Get Smart, as we continue to support each other with our HOWLs.  Our particular focus was on our attitude to learning, using the video above to help us recognise the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

We followed this up with a ‘self-awareness’ task, where we had to list three of our recent successes, and say why we were successful and then two things that we could could have done better, and explore what we could have done differently.

We also discussed some of the fixed mindset phrases we are all guilty of using, and flipped them to be more positive, for example:

  • Instead of “I can’t do this” we are going to try and say “I need help understanding this.”
  • Instead of “This is too hard” we are going to say “It’ll take me some time to get this.”

I have to say, it was good to see Mackenzie employ some of the tactics and strategies we have spoken about in Crew during a particularly tricky maths session on Friday 🙂

By the end of this week, we will all have a Growth Mindset Action Plan in place, to help us refocus and keep trying instead of giving up when the going gets tough!

Praise for Crew Parkinson!

By H Hickson19th January 2019

Crew Parkinson have had another fantastic time in Crew this week.

Our Crew sessions involved discussing who had made it onto one of the Work Hard, Get Smart and Be Kind boards in lessons. This is where staff (and students) acknowledge where students have been meeting the HOWLs in lessons.  I am pleased to say that every member of Crew Parkinson made it onto one of the HOWLs boards at least once this week. An improvement on last week where we only had 5 members of the Crew on the boards – onwards and upwards! We also looked at the praise sheet – this is where students are mentioned for meeting one of the character traits or HOWLs to an outstanding level.

A special mention to Bob who has been entered onto the praise sheet 5 times this week!

Wednesdays are dedicated to activities, either with other Crews or by ourselves, which often revolve around team building. This week we challenged ourselves to the human knot game. The students had to untangle themselves to create a circle without letting go of each other’s hands – communication was key. The Crew dived in trying to untangle only themselves, they soon realised this wouldn’t work and they needed to change tactics. After realising this, they discussed a plan and untangled one person at a time, leading to success! 

I’m looking forward to seeing what next week has in store for us!

Crew Churchill: Still Hitting the Ground Running!

By K Poncia17th January 2019

Well, it’s fair to say that Crew Churchill have had one of our best weeks ever!

Throughout our first week back, we had to think about the guiding question:

‘How can I hit the ground running?’

After sharing our HoWL grades for Work Hard, Get Smart and Be Kind, we decided we wanted to do even better. We revised the pledges we had made following our SLCs as these are our foci as we move forward.

At the end of the week, we had a HoWLs check-in to see how we are getting on in our different classes.

Take a look:

How are Crew Turing getting smarter?

By Katie Haughey16th January 2019

Crew Turing have focused this week on one particular HOWL- getting smart. We agreed that this was the most difficult HOWL to discuss, because some crew members saw this as a product of working hard. We thought about how we could go above and beyond as a crew to work on this, here are some of our ideas:

One focus that we’ve touched on quite a bit as a crew is how reading can positively impact our lives, making us smarter in the process. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s studies on the impact of education and reading shows that teenagers with a reading habit are more likely to get the top grades in GCSE exams. It has shown to improve vocabulary, spelling, and increase creativity in students. We spent a whole crew session recently making book recommendations, discussing our favourite books, and it was lovely to see how passionate everyone got about literature!

What really struck me was a genuine love for reading from each member of my crew. Mr Ryder covered my crew session on Tuesday during their accelerated reader session and he even felt that they were worthy of an entry on the praise form for being so engrossed in their books! While the research on reading and grades is a legitimate reason for me to promote it in crew, I’d hate to think that was the only reason we bothered reading. It does make us smart, but it is able to do so much more than that! A good book is a window into another world, it allows us to empathise and understand experiences that are beyond our own. I think the Harper Lee quote above summarises how transformational reading can be in terms of developing free thought. I can’t wait to do our next accelerated reader crew.

Another feature we’ve been looking at in crew to help us get smarter is having a bit of a handle on what’s going on in the news. This week has been monumental in our country’s history and whenever Brexit has been brought up in crew, there have been some really interesting insights on the matter. I left them with the following question, which again, Mr Ryder led on as I was out on training:

I was delighted to hear my crew had spent a whole 40 minutes deeply discussing issues such as the voting age, Brexit, what they thought about our leaders, and who deserved to have a say in such matters. Apparently there is consensus that the voting age needs lowering so that their voices can be heard. We’ll definitely be taking another look at major news stories next week and how they may affect us!