Clear Space, Clear Mind!

20th October 2021S Mitchell

Last week Crew Anoa’i, with the help of some of our friends from Crew Ali, took on the task of degunging our school. We had a week of cleaning up, making sure our school was clear of rubbish and ready for session time.

On Monday morning, we took our turn to litter pick around the school grounds. We quickly gathered the equipment from reception and headed out to the back field. The grass was wet and there was a chill in the air. The whole crew took turns to use the pickers and collect as much rubbish as possible. We moved with great pace and found many different things on our journey around the field, including a large tub of ice cream!

Throughout the week, we ensured our crew room was spotless for others to use. We tucked the chairs under after using them and we sanitised the tables. We also cleared the room of any lost property and bits of rubbish left from the previous day.

On Friday morning, we went into ‘degunge mode’. This included us carrying out our weekly class pack check. Everyone in our crew has a ‘degunge’ duty, where they count and check all of the equipment in our crew’s class pack. 

Once this was complete, we then moved onto tidying up our library. A handful of our crew took charge with this task, ensuring all of the portfolio folders were stacked appropriately in neat rows. They finished this task in record time and joined the rest of us in our crew room, to help sort the lost property. 

Sorting the lost property included us taking all of the lost items out of the box, taking a photograph of the items and then folding them back up to be placed in the box once again. As there were a lot of lost items this past week, all hands were on deck. We even had a system in place to speed up the process. We had Jacob, Woody, James, Fin and Denim on unpacking duty. Then Nikodem, April and Thea on photograph duty. Moving onto the next step, we had Zach H, Faith, Lucie-Mae and Zach M on folding duty. To finish the process, we had our friends from Crew Ali (Ruby, Ruben, Charlie and Caiden) on packing duty. With this amazing team, we managed to complete all of our degunge duties in just 15 minutes! That’s a record for Crew Anao’i. 

The last step of our degunge process was to sanitise the tables and put the chairs up on to the tables. This then allowed Miss Mitchell to hoover the room after we had gone home. Then our crew room was truly spotless!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the degunge process and wish to continue this next term.

Don’t forget to check the latest Lost Property post on our website to see all of the lost items. Remember to claim your lost belongings before Friday 5th November.

Thank you!

#LeaveNoTrace

Mindful Monday

5th October 2021Web Blogger

It was Crew Obama’s turn this week to take on some Monday morning litter picking duties. The weather was rather dull and overcast but at least we weren’t rained on! Pupils found a surprising amount of rubbish which may have blown onto the school site from elsewhere such as KFC chip cartons, but there were no complaints about clearing up after others. I was really impressed by the tenacity and determination of some Crew members to collect old items which had likely been hidden in the hedges until the leaves dropped. 

Please check the school’s homepage to see the lost property for this week. Remember to claim what belongs to you!

Preparing for SLCs – and the year ahead!

3rd October 2021A Parker

Crew Finch have spent the week preparing for the first Student Led Conferences of Y11. They will be reflecting on their Y10 mock exam results and sharing how they are preparing for the next round of mocks in November. Their presentations will also be focussing on the bigger picture of what they need to achieve in order to move onto the next stage of their learning journey, post-16 – and how they’re going to get there.

I’m really looking forward to welcoming Crew parents back into school for the first face-to-face SLCs in over a year. I sent out an email with the booking form link last week; if you’ve yet to book your slot please do so.

With the next round of mocks just a few weeks away, it is encouraging to hear that some students have already started revising. We will spend time in Crew looking at different revision techniques to find out what works best for everyone. Meanwhile, Crew have shared their revision tips with each other: the most popular method so far seems to be watching videos to reinforce learning.

I think that the time spent reflecting on their Y10 mock exam results along with last week’s taster day at New College has motivated Crew to really think more about how they are going to succeed, and this has been reflected in how they’ve been working in class. I’m pleased to see lots of praises for working hard and getting smart being put on the praise form from subject teachers for all Crew members.

It’s been a fantastic start to the year and our Y11 learning journey is right on track. Let’s hope it stays that way 🙂

Even MORE Beautiful Work from E25!

29th September 2021Web Blogger

This time, the beautiful work has come from E25 Explorer in Science!

Explorer have been working hard on understanding DNA – And these are just some examples of the Craftsmanship and Quality of learning taking place in Mr V’s classroom this morning.

This is an example of a quality diagram from Kris of a DNA Nucleotide – a building block of our DNA.

And some beautiful examples of the double helix that DNA molecules form, from Lucie, Billy, Faith, Lewis and Caiden !

Keep up the fantastic work!!

Miss Cocliff & Mr Voltaire 🙂

E24: Getting started: History Revision Guides

17th September 2021K Poncia

Students this week have been given their own copy of the revision guide for our History exam board OCR B SHP History. All students should have named their copy so that if they are misplaced they can be returned. Students are encouraged to annotate and highlight the guide as they carry out their revision. 

The revision guide has a number of different topics, however, students will need to focus on the following sections for revision: 

  • The Elizabethans 
  • The People’s Heath 
  • Living under Nazi Rule

The locations of these topics can be found in the contents page. We would recommend in general students start by revising The People’s Health as well as focusing on page 88 in order to prepare for the upcoming assessment in lessons.

If any student has been absent when these revision guides were handed out, they can see myself or Mrs Hannam directly and we will make sure they get their copy. 

A further revision guide focusing on the Viking Expansion will be issued to students in the coming weeks.

GCSE Psychology students are on it!

15th September 2021A Parker

Our GCSE Psychology group have had a brilliant start to the year. Mrs Pulham and I have been super impressed with how focussed everyone’s been and how hard they’ve all been working.

It’s hard to stay on task for 2 hours, especially when the emphasis is on being leaders of your own learning and undertaking a series of self-study tasks, but these lot are absolutely smashing it!

It’s fantastic to see our Y10 and Y11 students supporting each other in these sessions, demonstrating that the power of Crew is embedded into everything we do.

Mrs Parker & Mrs Pulham

Tranquil Tuesday

14th September 2021Web Blogger

Crew Obama spent Tranquil Tuesday updating their books, and catching up on some private reading. Reading is one of the most effective ways to raise performance in humanities, so AR time is highly valued here. We also worked in teams to apply our reading skills to a set of instructions to construct some new furniture for our crew room, which turned out to be trickier than expected!

New College Taster Day Monday 27th September

11th September 2021A Parker

Posted on behalf of Mrs Burns, Careers Lead: 
Today again Scott Faulkner from New College delivered a presentation to our year 10&11 cohort.  I can now confirm that there is an opportunity for all our C24 & C25 students from both schools to attend the NCD taster day on the 27th September.
Could all students complete the form below for the taster day at New College on Monday 27th September. They need to choose 3 options and then a 4th standby. This information needs to be completed by Monday and prospectuses have been shared. The links to the college for both taster day  options and the online prospectus are below.
Please encourage your students to choose sessions they think they will enjoy or are intrigued by rather than in friendship groups, this is an important opportunity to try out before they enrol. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email me. Crew Leaders will also be able to support and advise.
On the day we will be picked up by a coach at XP schools and taken to New College, we need to ensure all students leave from XP. Lunch is provided by college which I am excited about. They will attend 3 sessions and return to school by the usual finish time.

C26 (Y9) Bronze DofE

10th September 2021A Parker

C26 (Y9) across both schools have made a the first steps toward achieving their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award!

Students, with the support and guidance of dedicated DofE Leaders and Crew Leaders, will spend time each week working on a programme of activities which include:

  • Skills: students will be undertaking a 3 month First Aid programme.
  • Volunteering: students will spend 6 months raising money for their Crew charities, becoming reading mentors to younger students and litter picking around our community.
  • Physical: 3 months of undertaking any sporting activity done as part of an organised club out of school, or by joining any of the after school clubs which will be launching soon!)
  • Expedition: planning for and undertaking 2 days/1 night hiking expedition (dependant on Covid restrictions at the time).

Find out more here!

By the end of the academic year students should have done enough to have achieved their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. Students are expected to achieve all sections of their Bronze award programme unless they have a valid reason not to.

The DofE programme forms a crucial part of the Trust’s Outdoor Curriculum, and we are extremely grateful to the FXP for their continued support and fundraising efforts to ensure that we are able to purchase the Bronze welcome packs and enrol every student onto the DofE award scheme.  The welcome packs will be delivered to your home addresses after students have registered on the eDofE app and include a handy discount card for outdoor specialist shops!

If you have any questions specifically about the Bronze award, please contact your child’s Crew Leader, or you can contact me (Angella Parker) direct: [email protected]

*Just a note to add we have plans in place for C24 and C25 to complete the expedition element of their DofE award later this year! 

Year 10, week 1&2

9th September 2021Katie Haughey

It doesn’t feel right typing that my crew are in year 10(!!!!), entering their fourth year at the school, and their final two years at XP. We spent the first week back working together in crew, where we asked ourselves ‘how can we prepare for the next climb?’

One of the activities we partook in an intercrew competition, discussing strategies and cheering each other on while we completed the minute to win it tasks. While the activities were a little daft, it was nice to see crews circling up to strategize and making sure everyone was included.

On the Friday of the week we spent in crew, we were fortunate enough to get to walk the Monsal Trail. It was quite a physically demanding route at times, but the compassion I saw from my lovely ‘care bears/photographers’; Jess and Charlotte, was phenomenal. I’d like to give them a special mention for carrying others bags, slowing their own pace to help others catch up, and their supportive words during the route.

I’d also like to give Sami a special mention, he had the opportunity to flex his GCSE Geography skills as our navigator, and I felt he did a great job!

The walk was a great practice for the Y10s Duke of Edinburgh award, that I’m hoping that most my crew will opt to do this year. I took a tonne of pictures and videos on the day which I’ve compiled below:

Back in our new Crew Room in week 2, we discussed what is required of us over the upcoming two years with GCSEs approaching. We looked at how we procrastinate, and how we can start drip feeding a little revision into our habits at home to start the following two years right. Also, we celebrated Callum’s 15th Birthday the only way we know how – with chocolate fudge cake and lemon drizzle cake for the quirkier members of my crew.

That’s us checked into Y10!