Champions in action!

By A Parker19th December 2018

To some, this might seem like a casual game of basketball.  But this is so much more. This is Crew Finch putting in the practice to make sure we hold on to our title as Inter-Crew Sports Challenge Champions!

We currently hold the title for our badminton prowess, but we’re pretty confident that we can have basketball in the bag – or should that be, hoop! – too, thanks to our secret weapon: Hatfield Flyers player, Tom!

Despite being split into two opposing teams, there was a great sense of teamwork and crew throughout session.  We circled up at the end, where Crew had the opportunity to appreciate one another.

The biggest appreciation went to Tom for his excellent coaching skills, top tips and sportsmanship.  Mackenzie was also appreciated for being an excellent team captain and for making sure everyone on his team were involved.

Inter-Crew Basketball comp: Bring. It. On!

If you can’t do it, don’t pledge to do it!

By A Parker18th December 2018

A massive well done to Crew Finch for completing their SLCs, and an even bigger thank-you to all the parents who came and supported their child through the process.  It’s always such a privilege to listen to our students’ learning journey and I’m constantly amazed at the progress they’re making.

That’s not to say the journey is easy, and part of the SLC was to reflect on their learning.  I have listened to some really honest and mature accounts of how each student thinks they can improve, and what they’re going to achieve their goals.

We often say that pledges aren’t just words, we expect our students to act on them!  So, we’ve recorded our academic and HOWL pledges and displayed them on our crew wall.

Some fantastic pledges have been made, but my favourite by far is Libby’s who pledges to…

“Bring all of my excitement every day!”

We will have regular check-ins during our academic crew sessions, and each student will be expected to update their parents on progress at their next SLC.

Well done, Crew!

Update from Crew Young

By D Pearson17th December 2018

Last week was a real mixed bag for Crew Young. As well as our weekly weekend check-in we spent time preparing tree plaques, completing our latest Accelerated Reader assessment, and constructing our own stories using improvisation and Mr Pearson’s Story Cubes.

It’s not all fun and games!

By H Hickson16th December 2018

On Friday, Crew Parkinson and Crew Turing competed against each other in a game involving drainpipes!

The aim was to roll the tennis ball along the drainpipes from one side of the sports hall to the other and back again in the fastest time. It’s harder than it looks!

At first our technique was lacking but the Crew soon realised the best way to manoeuvre the ball – make sure the drainpipes are connected underneath each other, don’t have the slope too steep, everyone stand on the same side so we don’t bump into each other to name a few.

It was a team effort with values of respect and compassion being shown, for example not getting annoyed if someone dropped the ball and letting each other have a turn to speak when discussing tactics.

It was great fun and really helped teamwork in the Crew – we also learnt that we’re quite competitive!

 

Crew Parkinson’s SLCs and Academic Pledges

By H Hickson13th December 2018

Crew Parkinson have completed their first SLC at XP East. I would like to appreciate them for all their hard work, effort and dedication they have put into preparing for them. They have worked as a Crew to support each other by offering critique, advice and their time to practice with each other.

I am so proud of how much they have grown both academically and socially since their time at XP East. Their confidence, maturity, knowledge, understanding and friendship has developed since meeting each other for the first time on Outward Bound in Wales. All this has happened in 3 months – just think where we’ll be in 5 years time!

Here’s a throwback to our first few days together in Wales, it’s immensely rewarding the journey we have been on together and I am thrilled to know that this will continue. 

Part of the SLC process is making an academic pledge in order for the students to develop further and continue improving. This is what we discussed today, it was great to hear how students have identified the areas they need to work on in regards to subjects and the HOWLs and what they need to do to achieve this pledge. It will be interesting when we review the pledges next year to see what progress we have made towards meeting them.

Well Done Crew Parkinson – you should all be proud of what you have achieved!

Teamwork is dream work

By Katie Haughey13th December 2018

After an intense couple of weeks working on our Student Led Conferences, Crew Turing had a couple of morning sessions that helped remind us what Crew is all about! We had a slightly disastrous crew session at the end of last term – we couldn’t get the induction hobs to work to cook our pancakes, despite managing to finish the batter as a crew in just 10 minutes.

As promised, as soon as the SLC period was over, we sat down and had 2nd breakfast together. This marked a celebration of how wonderful all of the SLCs have been. I was immensely proud of my crew’s craftsmanship and quality in their speeches. We discussed the importance of spending quality time together and celebrating each other’s successes. We are really lucky to have the 45 minutes each day to enjoy the company of Crew!

I was delighted to see our de-gunge skills are improving too! Each crew member pitched in with the tidying, washing up and clearing down. Whilst sat in the cooking room, I was reminded of one of the first meals we shared on Outward Bound. We’d just encountered our first mountain, and had diverted our walk to accomodate for struggling Crew members. Despite this small set back there was no bitterness, everyone was still in good spirits, cracking jokes and being compassionate to one another. I think we grew quite a bit as a crew over those pitta breads and nutella sachets.

Spending the terms back in school, I’ve seen the notion of ‘crew’ develop deeper roots. Jess and Abi kindly supported Alice this week with her SLC speech, leaving her lovely post-its in her folder to cheer her up. I see crew members help each other in extended study, and I’ve received a crew presentation from Sami that showcases our highlights. All I can say is that we make a great team!

Earth and Air Reboot

By J Smith12th December 2018

Expedition Earth and Air has taken a backseat in recent months due to other expeditions being completed by E24. Crew Mandela have been the first students in XPE to use the brilliant new workshop facility to complete their final product plaques. The plaques will be put into the ground to commemorate the tree planting in the school grounds. The crew worked extremely well and showed great care and craftsmanship and quality when using potentially dangerous equipment.

 

Product Lab in Crew

By K Poncia11th December 2018

Churchill Crew have spent time in our product lab creating their final product for the expedition ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’.

The final product involves planting trees around our school site and then commemorating each tree with a plaque designed by each student.

Take a look at their handy work…

 

Academic Crew: Poetic Devices

By A Parker7th December 2018

E24 have started work on their final product in HUMS.  They have been tasked with writing a poem about Doncaster, inspired by Tony Walsh’s ‘This is the Place’.

This week, we used Academic Crew to explore some of the poetic devices they could use in their poems.

We started off with a GoGoMo, before circling back up to have a game of bingo to see if Crew could match the definitions to the device.  Finally, Crew were split into teams, and each team had to find and give examples of 3 devices from the list.  There was some ‘healthy’ debate over the word ‘moaning’ as an example of onomatopoeia; Mr Brown later confirmed that it was! (Mackenzie – 1 Mrs Parker – 0!!)

Academic Crew gives us the opportunity to build on our skills and knowledge, to support what we’ve been learning in lessons.   It was lovely to see Crew support each other with their learning, and even lovelier to see members of my Crew putting some of their new knowledge into practice in lessons.

I can’t wait to read their poems!

Crew Young – perception vs reality

By D Pearson6th December 2018

This week in Crew Young we have been encouraged to consider our perception of ourselves, and others’ perception of us, versus reality. This is in order to reflect on our adherence to the HOWLs in an accurate and informed manner. Whilst Alesha finalised her preparations for her SLC this evening, the rest of Crew Young looked at Extended Study completion, as well as other factors that directly influence our attainment. We graded ourselves on the bullseye chart and then challenged each other for a rationale.