Crew Finch: Giving Back

15th January 2022A Parker

Crew Finch, along with other Y11 Crews, have been giving back to the school community by offering their help and expertise to their “buddy” Crews.

This has involved running Crew sessions for Y7 and Y8 focussing on Crew team building and character traits. For example, Dakota and MacKenzie led activities in the sportshall for Mr Currie’s Crew:

Meanwhile, Noah, Ali and Callie have been helping Y9 Crew Mercury prepare for their upcoming Passage Presentations.

Here’s Noah’s explanation of how they have supported in these sessions, by drawing on their own experiences of Passage:

“These sessions have consisted of individual peer critique and how it could be improved. Whilst others may have seen a fishbowl activity, where somebody would read out a piece of work for everyone to hear, which would then be critiqued by ourselves and others in the crew. This ultimately prepares them the best they can so that they have the best key points to make and that they have already built up the confidence to speak in front of an audience.”

Moving on – we will be focussing on how we can give back to our wider community. Crew Finch have already done some amazing fundraising for Firefly and collected items for our local foodbank, so we are looking forward to being able to make more positive impacts throughout the rest of our time together.

Busy morning at D6!

15th January 2022A Parker

Absolutely fantastic to see so many Y11s here at D6 this morning, especially as it meant dragging themselves out of their warm and cosy beds on such a cold and frosty Saturday morning!

We’ve got about 20 students here either undertaking independent study or taking advantage of the support on offer from our Student Coaches to produce some high quality revision notes.

Some of the boys have even snuck in a game of chess during a ‘brain break’ – still developing their mathematical and critical thinking skills 😉

D6 runs every Saturday morning during term time, 9am-12.30pm, over at XP. East. It is open to all Y10 and Y11 students.

Working hard and getting smart – that’s what we like to see!

Keep up the fantastic work, Y11, we’re so proud of you!f

Mrs Parker & Miss Cocliff x

Y11 Learn2Earn revision rewards

12th January 2022A Parker

Today we launched our Learn2Earn Revision Rewards scheme to Y11 as a way of recognising the hard work and commitment of those students who are attending our lunchtime and after-school GCSE revision sessions (and perhaps encourage some of our other students to attend, too!)

So, what is Learn2Earn?

  • A rewards ‘loyalty’ scheme for revision – the more sessions students attend, the more points they earn! 
  • After 5 sessions, students receive a small ‘reward’…
  • After 10 sessions, students receive a medium ‘reward’…

All completed cards will be entered into a ‘big CREW reward’ prize draw – so the more crew participate in sessions, the more chance their crew have of winning the bigger prize at the end of Y11!

Y11 students working hard in one of our lunchtime History revisions sessions.

Here is our current revision timetable. Please note this is currently under review and we’ll be adding more sessions soon:

Don’t forget that Y11 – and Y10 – students can also attend D6 on a Saturday morning, from 9am – 12:30pm, which is back up and running this weekend (15th January). D6 provides students with a relaxed and informal study space working alongside our expert Student Coaches. We are expecting these to get busier as GCSEs get closer (16th May – 24th June.)

How far we’ll go!!

4th January 2022Web Blogger

We hope you have had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

You may remember that as a crew we were fundraising to support the local charity, Big C Little Warriors and that Rhys had offered to cut his hair as a way of raising money.

We originally thought that this was going to take place 18th December but Rhys gave us all a huge shock when he came to crew on 17th December and pulled down his hood to reveal his new do!

I’m sure you will all agree that Rhys’ hair looks so good and we wanted to thank everyone for their support in sharing and donating. We have raised an epic £720 in total for Big C Little Warrior! I am in the process of liaising with Big C Little Warrior in order to present this to them.

We will hopefully be able to share more about this soon!

Mrs Barnes and Miss Johnson

Big C Little Warrior

6th December 2021Web Blogger

As a way of giving back to others in our community Crew Rowling have chosen to raise money for a local charity called ‘Big C Little Warrior’.

 
Big C Little Warrior was founded in 2019 and specialises in boosting the self esteem and confidence for individuals going through treatment for cancer by offering beauty and grooming treatments. After speaking with Big C Little Warrior they informed us of a new venture that we could support with. This is to raise money towards vouchers that individuals undergoing treatment who have lost their hair, can use towards handmade hats and headbands with hair pieces. Every £50 raised will help go towards one voucher per person.


We brainstormed ideas on how we could raise money and one of our amazingly kind and thoughtful crew members, Rhys has offered to cut his thick shoulder length hair, going for a short back and sides! This is something he felt fitted well with the charity and what the money raised was being used for.


As a crew we feel it is important to give back and support others in out community. The character values and traits that we strive to maintain at XP East are extremely important to us and we hope you will agree this is for an amazing cause!


Crew Rowling would really appreciate a small donation to help our charity and for Rhys’ courage in having his hair cut short.


The proposed date is 18th December for Rhys to have his hair cut so there will be updates to follow this 🙂


We are already doing so well in such a short amount of time but here is the link to donate. 


https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-big-c-little-warrior?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1


We want to thank everyone in advance for supporting Big C Little Warrior and Crew Rowling.


Kirsty and Natalie

Crew Finch’s Acts of Kindness Advent

3rd December 2021A Parker

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and Crew Finch have created a ‘reverse’ advent calendar where, instead of us getting the chocolate, we give a little treat to the Year 11 team (don’t worry; there will be a few chocolatey treats in it for Crew, too!)

Our advent is very much based around on doing good things for others and making an extra effort to be kind and thoughtful on the run up to our Christmas break, which tends to be when staff and students feel a little bit more frazzled than usual!

We’ve also pledged to do other little acts of kindness over the next couple of weeks, which will hopefully bring a little bit of happiness to someone else’s day.

I really can’t believe that this will be Crew Finch’s Last Christmas* together but I’m happy that we will be spending it spreading a little bit of joy to our wider school Crew 🙂

(warning: don’t click that link if you’re taking part in Whamageddon! like us… too late? oops!)

C28 (Year 7) fieldwork to the University of Sheffield – Tuesday 14th December

2nd December 2021Katie Haughey

Students in C28/Year 7 will be visiting the University of Sheffield on Tuesday 14th December as part of their current expedition ‘’Food Glorious Food’. The primary purpose of the visit is to work with Dr Megan Blake and her International Development postgraduate students to look into how we might go about improving food distribution and waste. Whilst at the university, students will also be able to meet with student ambassadors and have a tour of the campus to give them a sense of what uni life is like!

We will be departing at around 9:15AM and returning for approximately 15:50PM so there will be a slight change in finish times of the school day for students. Students will need to bring a packed lunch unless they access free school meals, in which case school will provide one for them. Students will need to dress appropriately and in a waterproof coat and warm layers, as we will be walking around the campus at parts. If you have any questions about the day, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Best wishes,

Miss Haughey

E27 / Year 8 “Rutina Diaria” Final Product!

30th November 2021D Pearson

Our E27 / Year 8 Spanish students have recently completed their 6 frame daily routine storyboard, that provides a model for Year 5 students in our XP Trust Schools to follow. By connecting their learning to previous material covered in year 7 – such as telling the time, naming family members, and identifying rooms of the house – most of our E27 / Year 8 linguists were able to evidence up to and including excellence standards on the rubric table.

We’re really proud of their achievements and wish to share their beautiful work, curated here into a short video-clip, with the wider community. ¡Enhorabuena a todos!

E24 Active Citizenship Investigation

26th November 2021A Parker

Despite an intense couple of weeks sitting the first set of Y11 mock exams, E24 haven’t put the learning brakes on and are continuing to work hard across all sessions.

I have been particularly impressed with the focus in Citizenship this week as students prepare their investigation portfolio, which is worth 15% of their final grade.

This part of the qualification focuses on active citizenship and asks students to explore through case studies and by their own actions how citizens are able to try to make a difference to society. Our students have always been encouraged to be activists, starting way back in Y7 with our Stand Up expedition, so researching and producing this investigation portfolio is right up their street!

Here are some of the topics being explored:

  • How can we encourage Society to better accommodate those with hidden disabilities advocate for them?
  • Why do 1 in 4 people in the UK experience a mental health problem each year and as citizens of the UK, how can we fulfil our moral duty to support them?
  • As members of UK society we have a moral duty and a responsibility to protect all living things. How do we ensure that our most vulnerable living creatures are looked after?

The class are already having considered, insightful and mature discussions around their chosen topics not just in their Citizenship lessons, but in Crews too.

Absolutely fantastic, Y11!

D6: business as usual

22nd November 2021A Parker

C24 can breath a huge sigh of relief as the first set of Y11 mocks are almost over (they still have the Spanish Speaking and Art mocks to look forward to!)

However, it’s really important that students keep the momentum going with their revision all through the year, and not just before the next set of mocks (which are scheduled for March).

Click here to view our current enrichment timetable, which includes details of all the all the lunchtime and after school revision sessions available.

We are also encouraging all Y11s to attend D6 on a Saturday morning from 9am-12.30pm each week to access additional support, or just to have a relaxed space for a bit of focussed self-study away from any potential distractions at home.

For those of you who don’t know, D6 is our voluntary sixth day of school which will take place each Saturday during term time. D6 is led by ex-students of XP who are returning to provide our current students with peer to peer academic study support. There will be additional support from our school learning coaches and members of the Leadership Team.  Refreshments will also be provided.

We’re really looking forward to seeing our Y11s at D6 this Saturday!

(Please note that D6 is only open to Y11s at the moment).