An ‘Ernest’ decision…

By A Brown18th September 2018

An update from the newly christened Crew Shackleton!

I am delighted to announce the new name of our crew, as nominated, researched and voted upon by each member of our crew.

There were some brilliant nominations: Crew Hamilton (Lewis Hamilton), Crew Columbus (Christoper Columbus), Crew Spencer (Princess Diana), and Crew Edison (Thomas Edison). Presentations were carefully planned, and confidently delivered to the rest of the crew, but in the end, Crew Shackleton won!

Sir Ernest Shackleton was a courageous and bold adventurer who was famed for his dramatically failed expedition to the Antarctic. His vessel, The Endurance, became stuck in thick ice, and eventually gave way to the immense pressure of the shifting ice packs and sank.

Shackleton, The Boss, was credited for his determination, leadership and positivity in the face of adversity, which enabled him to launch a daring a treacherous rescue mission to save all 22 members of his crew.

There’s more to that story, but anyone from Crew Shackleton can fill you in with the amazing details…

I was delighted for the reasons our crew voted for this individual. As it was the name of our crew given to use during our Outward Bounds expedition, we felt it would be a great opportunity to forever remember the challenges we faced and the mountains we climbed on our first week of school together. And what a week!

Also, his courage, respect and compassion shown before his crew embodies everything we believe here at XP East.

We’ve already spent a little bit of time looking at a famous advert he placed in the newspaper to understand about the type of man he was:

Our new name marks the beginning of what has already been a fantastic start to XP East. We’ve tackled our challenges head on every day from day 1, and long may it continue!

“By endurance, we conquer.”

Great work, Crew Shackleton.

Me at my best

By A Parker18th September 2018

Today in Crew we focussed on ‘Acceptance’ and, more specifically, being happy with who you are as a person. The quote above was used as a discussion point: what if we spoke to other people the way we spoke about ourselves?

It’s not always easy to focus to what we are good at, but we’re all pretty good at telling ourselves (and others) what we’re bad at!

So for this morning’s task we all had to share the following information with our Crew, to show “Me at my Best”:

I felt proud of myself when…
I am good at many things, including…
I am special because…

Not an easy task, but we all managed to be kind to ourselves and focus on what’s right with us, rather than what’s wrong. As I said to my Crew, I’m special because I’m perfectly imperfect and we should all embrace that 🙂

We will be exploring how to be happy with ourselves some more over the next few weeks. After all, we should all make more of an effort to become our own best friend!

The votes are in…

By Katie Haughey18th September 2018

Update from Crew Turing, formerly known as Crew Haughey (KHA)

This week, our crew voted on the name that we would be adopting for the next 5 years. We had a very large selection of inspirational people’s names (over 50!), for instance: Obama, Henry Ford, Anne frank, Aneurin Bevan, J. K. Rowling, Alan Sugar, JFK, Churchill, George Washington, Steve Jobs, Lincoln, MLK, Mary Shelley, Queen Elizabeth, Bob Marley, Frida Kahlo, Ben Parkinson, Newton, Edison….

Firstly, we did some research at home for our own choice that we were to present to crew in the morning sessions. We each found out key facts, quotes and prepared a piece on how they had embodied the character traits during their lifetimes.

Once we had all presented, we all voted to see who would be our crew name. After one round of voting we ended up with a tie, so we did a second vote of our top two selections, Enid Blyton and Alan Turing, and Alan Turing was chosen in the 2nd round of votes.

Alan Turing was a very gifted mathematician, some even argue that he was a math genius, who studied at Cambridge University where he made some amazing breakthroughs.

We chose Alan Turing because he showed the character traits of courage for telling people he was gay in a time when being gay was illegal. He showed craftsmanship and quality for managing to crack the Nazi’s enigma code using his invention, ‘the Bombe’ (if he didn’t it is predicted that World War 2 would have lasted 2 more years!) as well as building the first machine that is considered to be the first modern computer – Turing’s machine. He showed commitment to working hard and getting smart (the HOWLs), by riding his bike 60 miles just to get to the first day of school!

He also was the father of the modern computer science. Sadly, Turing committed suicide after his employers found out about his homosexuality, he was prescribed a hormone treatment and was sent to prison. He inspired Steve jobs so much he used the icon of the apple laced with cyanide as the Apple logo. He was awarded the Smiths prize and an OBE for cracking the enigma code and decoding the messages the Nazis were sending, but this remained a secret until 50 years after his death.

Alan Turing played a crucial role in winning the Second World War, he was a pioneer of modern computing and mathematics. Despite being a war hero and revolutionary, his life had a tragic ending.

We felt that Turing was not given the dignity and respect for his achievements during his lifetime, and this is why we’d like to acknowledge his greatness by honouring his name as our crew name. We know that at XP East, we will always reward hard work, efforts in getting smart, and kindness and compassion, as well as make stands against all forms of prejudice, such as the homophobia Turing faced, and the way he brought down the Nazis.

We’d like to finish our blog post with a quote from The Imitation Game (a biopic made about Turing’s life):

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine”

We are Crew Turing, and we will continue on our journey through education, doing the things that no one could imagine we are capable of.

Introducing Crew Parkinson…

16th September 2018H Hickson

Crew HHI (as we were known until now) have been busy deciding on our Crew name over the last week.

We started with about 25 suggestions of inspirational people, before narrowing it down to Charles Darwin, Rosa Parks, Steven Spielberg and Ben Parkinson.

The pupils then researched these 4 people and presented their argument for why we should vote for the person they wanted our Crew to be named after. Well done to all crew members who presented with confidence and clarity.

Then came our confidential vote – the moment of truth!

It was very close, with Parkinson winning by 1 vote.

So, why Ben Parkinson?

Paratrooper Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson is regarded as one of the most injured soldiers to survive the war in Afghanistan. In 2006 the vehicle he was in detonated an anti-tank mine, which caused Ben to have over 40 injuries. He suffered brain damage, which impacted his speech, and needed both legs amputated due to his injuries. It was thought he wouldn’t walk, talk or even survive his injuries but the sheer determination shown by Ben has meant that he has achieved this. Ben has been awarded an MBE and has taken part in a variety of challenges and charity work to raise awareness and gain support for other injured service personnel.

Our Crew have been learning about WW1 in their expedition ‘Over the Top’ and they have explored the qualities and characteristics associated with soldiers. Courage, determination, defying all odds, loyalty and compassion are all qualities shown by Ben and are characteristics valued by XP East. Therefore, the majority of the Crew felt Ben was the best inspirational person to name our Crew after, as he embodies the characteristics that we value as individuals and as a school.

He really is an inspiration to us all – and also a Donny lad!

Introducing Crew Mandela

16th September 2018J Smith

Written and posted by Callie S.

Crew JSM is now Crew Mandela!

On Tuesday the 11th each Crew member was asked to present their speech (that each crew member had been working on) about what name we wanted and why.We all started doing research to find someone inspirational that represented what XP is about. There were many great suggestions such as Crew Johnson, Crew Ali, Crew Mandela and Crew Young each with just as good reasons. We then put it to a blind vote, writing which one we wanted on a slip of paper and then tallying up the scores. It was quite close between Mandela and Ali but in the end Mandela won the most votes! Unfortunately he died two years ago, but we all thought that he was an inspirational person and exactly what Xp is about and we are looking forward to further researching his life and legacy!

Crew Ali step into the ring

15th September 2018J Townson

There were several candidates for our Crew name, but Ruben’s nomination of the boxer, activist and philanthropist, Muhammad Ali, was a clear winner when the votes were cast in a secret ballot.

He demonstrated relentless courage to keep going, even against huge odds; he was compassionate, being named one of the first United Nations Messengers of Peace for his humanitarian work and campaigns against apartheid, illustrating his respect for people around the world; he trained and fought with such craftsmanship and quality that he was widely considered to be the greatest boxer in his heavyweight class; his integrity was such that even though he stood to lose his titles, he held true to his beliefs and refused to fight in the Vietnam war, even when he was drafted by the US government.

In response to the question, “What would you like people to think of you when you’re gone?“, Muhammad Ali said: “I’d like for them to say he took a few cups of love. He took one tablespoon of patience, one teaspoon of generosity, one pint of kindness; he took one quart of laughter, one pinch of concern. And then, he mixed willingness with happiness, he added lots of faith and he stirred it up well. Then he spread it over a span of a life time and he served it to each and every deserving person he met.”

Just like Muhammad Ali, our Crew have already demonstrated huge amounts of courage by stepping out of their Familiar Zones and into the Learning Zone at XP East. Our Outward Bound adventures built a strong foundation for us and we will continue to be courageous together as Crew Ali.

We are Young! Crew Young!

14th September 2018D Pearson

This week we have been heavily involved in choosing our Crew name. Crew prepared and delivered presentations to promote their suggestions – Magellan, Knox-Johnson, McGregor, Tenzing and Columbus – but we finally voted for Crew Young.

“I like to finish what I start doing. I like to see it through to the end, to the best of my ability.”

Our Crew took the name Young in honour of Cliff Young, a 61 year-old Australian potato farmer who:

entered the Westfield ultra-marathon in 1983, running from Sydney to Doncaster in Melbourne (Australia) in his gumboots, against all the world’s lycra-clad top athletes.
didn’t realise that accepted practice amongst competitors was to run for 18 hours per day and sleep for six hours a day – he just carried on running for over a week without stopping or sleeping!
wasn’t even aware that there was a cash prize for the winner of $10,000 Australian, which motivated the competitors to run even faster.
shared the prize money amongst the other runners when he came in first.

This astonishing hare-and-the-tortoise story is absolutely true….and inspires our Crew to come at things from another angle, to try things that nobody else has even considered before, to innovate and to motivate us to become true pioneers and explorers. Mr Pearson.

Introducing Crew Churchill!

By 14th September 2018

We are proud to introduce our new crew name as ‘Crew Churchill‘.

We chose Winston Churchill as our inspiration because of his following achievements:

he was an accomplished artist, creating more than 500 paintings
he received the Nobel Prize for Literature
he served in the British Parliament under six monarchs
he served as Prime Minister twice
he was the first to receive the abbreviation ‘OMG’ in a letter
he had a speech impediment
he led Britain to victory during World War II

We believe he embodies our character traits and culture here at XP East because he showed courage to lead his country during a war, respect because he valued the ideas and thoughts and others and craftsmanship and quality through his beautiful artwork.

‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give’

‘Crew Churchill’ was the name we were given during our recent outward bound expedition to Wales and so reminds us of the our amazing experiences there together as crew.

More than words

By 12th September 2018

This week in Crew we discussed how our ‘online’ selves may differ to our ‘real-life’ selves, and how sometimes we may say things online to people – or about people – which we would never dream of saying face-to-face.

The video above highlighted some of the awful comments people feel it’s OK to post behind the anonymity of the keyboard, without realising the impact those words can have.

Some of us even admitted to not always being mindful of our online comments, which led onto a discussion about some of the derogatory terms people think are OK to use in their everyday conversations, without fully understanding their meaning.

‘Language is our culture’ at XPE, and I’m hoping my Crew will now reflect on how powerful our language choices can be. We all pledged to make sure that we use our words to be kind, rather than cruel.

Introducing crew KHA

By A Brown9th September 2018

This weekend I’ve been reflecting back on our first day as crew, particularly the half hour we spent in the car park at the very start of our journey: the uncertainty of what the next few days had in store for us, the slight worry of not knowing the strangers stood around our circle, combined with the usual first-day nerves (yes, teachers feel them too!) It feels so surreal thinking back to those moments now, knowing how far our crew have come in just 2 weeks.

Just 4 short hours after meeting in the car park, our crew were running into the freezing estuary, all linked up, with a promise not to let go no matter how cold it got. We finished our ‘jog and dip’ with chattering smiles. I was immensely proud, and I know the 12 shivering crew members standing before me were too.

This was possibly our first experience of what ‘crew’ truly is. Crew is a fundamental part of what we do across XP and XP East, some think of it as like a small form, but the reality runs deeper than that. Naomi, our fantastic Outward Bound instructor, explained that crew is a navy term. She told us that during training, navy crews would spend hours floating in the same formation that we did our jog and dip in, so if one crew member fell asleep in the water, the rest would keep them afloat.

That analogy felt fitting for the rest of the weekend. Various members of the crew, at times, were struggling. This was due to their heavy bags, walking uphill, making beds, setting up camp, packing their bags, doing a speech, missing home, rowing – the experience was challenging but extremely rewarding. What impressed me above all of the amazing outdoorsy achievements we made during the week, was actually how compassionate and respectful our each student was to their fellow crew members. I truly believe that what got us up the mountain wasn’t physical strength, or stamina, but the support my crew provided for each other during the expedition.

Members of our crew assisted others putting tents up, they carried each other’s gigantic bags, they reassured their fellow crew members when they were feeling a bit homesick, I couldn’t possibly list every kind act I saw out on Outward Bound – there are too many great examples. They each showed a level of maturity that I wouldn’t expect of some adults, it reassured me that we were about to embark on a fantastic 5 years together.

We finished the week delivering a speech to over 100 other students and staff. We decided to propose a toast to our crew, this had become a bit of a tradition to keep hydrated on our expedition. This toast was to tackle the question, “what is crew?“. The general consensus was that ‘crew’ was not necessarily something that we could do justice in explaining, but that we all felt it, and had experienced it. Still, the toast that was proposed was beautiful, and as I watched my 12 crew members clink their empty plastic bottles, with beaming smiles, I can’t describe the sense of pride I felt in each of them, particularly those who had told me public speaking was a big deal for them.

So I guess I’d like to finish this blog post with a toast to Crew KHA; for a delightful 4 days during Outward Bound, and to the 12 bright sparks that I am lucky to call my fellow crew members. May their futures be bright – I am certain that they will be.

Cheers!