Recent work covered by E26 Explorer Spanish students is centred on describing clothes using colours and other adjectives. Having played picture bingo to consolidate the correct position and spelling of colours, our students then completed a clothing wardrobe graphic to show learning, before applying it to celebrities to describe what they usually and sometimes wear. It was really pleasing to see students getting smart by using several sources of reference material to work independently. Special appreciation goes to Imogen for being our impromptu bingo caller!
As I sit here reflecting on the past week, Crew Young are in the middle of their last mock exam sitting a science paper based on hydrocarbons and electromagnetism. It’s been a very challenging week for Crew, and at times they’ve had to dig deep and support each other; whether it be through the vagaries of a GCSE Spanish speaking exam, the intricacies of communicable and non-communicable diseases, or the concept of living under Nazi rule, they’ve coped with everything in their stride and with consistently secure HOWLs.
Here they are inputting their penultimate self-assessed HOWLs grades, prepared to be cold-called and to share work that substantiates the grades that they are entering. A busy last week as we “wind up”, rather than “wind down” towards the end of their term. Well done Crew Young – you make me very proud of you all!
Mock exams are in full flow and Crew Finch have been working so very hard! We’ve been trying to keep our Crew time quite relaxed this week but it has, of course, been dominated with exam talk – be it comparing answers or discussing how easy or hard the previous days exams were.
We’re always up for finding ways to make revision a bit more fun, so today we played History Hangman. The usual rules applied but with an added twist: whoever chose the word had to end their turn by explaining how that word or phrase linked in with either of our two History exam topics: The People’s Health or Living under Nazi Rule.
Top Marks to Kenzie for ‘hanging’ the rest of Crew with his choice, John Snow. Kenzie then went on to remind us that Snow was responsible for identifying the water source responsible for a major Cholera outbreak in Broad Street in 1854, by plotting cases on a map of the area. The water pump was removed and cholera infections immediately dropped.
Crew have been absolutely amazing throughout this first week of mock exams. This is their first experience of sitting in an exam room and having to work under exam conditions. Having to stay still and quiet for up to 1 hour 45 minutes at a time is probably more difficult for them to manage than the exam content itself! As ever, they are making me proud 🙂
As most of you are aware unfortunately one of our Crew members’ bike was stolen a few weeks back and in our mindful Monday session as a Crew it was decided that a fundraising page was a way of helping the community, very close to home by raising money for a new bike. We were blown away by the generosity of so many people and quickly reached the target.
With bikes being a sort after item at the minute, sourcing one, in stock locally could have proved a challenge, but an amazing local company Cycle Supreme stepped in to help us out.
So with everyone’s hard work and kindness, Crew were able to surprise Logan with a new bike last friday in front of his family. We also raised enough money to purchase a diamond standard lock, to hopefully prevent such an awful event happening again.
In true Crew spirit, we tackled the issue of how best to use the new bike lock. This took a few attempts and many different ideas but they pulled together and Logan’s new bike was safely locked up.
Crew were asked how it made them feel to do something good or a good deed for someone else and some of the responses were:-
‘It makes me feel good as I feel like I’m making a difference even if its small’
‘I feel happy’
‘A sense of pride’
‘I’m just glad I can help someone else and make their day better’
There was a real excitement and buzz in Crew and the afternoon really highlighted the bonds and togetherness within Crew Rowling.
Crew Turing have loved being outside during Monday’s crew sessions to do check in, catching 45 minutes of sun before we go back to session. Now that lockdown restrictions are lifting slightly the check-ins are far more interesting. Everyone seems cheerier now they’re able to see friends and family, and carry on with the sports they’re involved in.
We’ve also managed to get booked into the sports hall during crew a couple of weeks back, we enjoyed a rather competitive game of dodgeball. We mixed crew to random teams, and even Miss Narey and I played.
As mentioned in my previous post, as a crew we’ve been self-assessing HoWLs leading up to the actual data drop, which finally got released last week. We spent the crew session adding our updated HoWLs to our crew narrative, gains were made across the board. We then compared the new data with our previous crew targets that were made in November 2020. Those targets were:
– Improve extended study record as a crew, aiming for 95%+: we greened this target as this has massively improved thanks to daily reminders in crew and students working together to support each other on any work they’re unsure about
– Improve HoWLs in art and HUMAN, aiming for at least secure in all HoWLs grades: this is partially completed, as HoWLs in these subjects have gone up across the board, however we’ve not 100% met the ‘secure’ section of the rubric or above in these subjects. I’ve got to appreciate Dylan, Callum, Torran, Mollie and Sami for smashing these targets, some of whom even received HoWLs in the excellence category!
In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at where we can be making improvements using Crew Turing’s HoWL improvement project. Every student in my crew has identified a subject in which their HoWLs could do with some work. I then asked students to write a rationale explaining why they’d chosen that particular subject and a SMART target that another member of our crew could peer-asses them on.
I then gave each student someone to peer assess on a mini HoWL tracker. Every student gave at least a secure on the peer assessment, and knowing that someone was tracking engagement, meant that members of my crew really pushed themselves in those sessions to contribute and ask clarifying questions. I’m going to try this again in a few weeks to get snapshots of what is going on in sessions.
To celebrate our successes, Dylan treated us to homemade sponge cake with custard and Torran bought in a chocolate birthday cake. Not only this, Miss Narey who has been with us over the past few months prepared a quiz for us to enjoy! Big appreciations to those who made Friday’s crew session so fun, and congratulations to Mollie, Charlotte, Dylan, Callum, Sami and Jess for winning the quiz.
Students have access to a digital textbook through Kerboodle. There are some hard copies of textbooks which we can loan out if students prefer. They can get those from me.
Recently our Year 10 / C24 GCSE Spanish group has been preparing for the forthcoming mock exams in speaking and writing. As our students were routinely exposed to the format and content of the role play and photo card tasks in sessions throughout year 9, they are already accustomed to their rubrics and are aware of the need to respond spontaneously to unexpected and unpredictable elements. This year we have additionally practised the general conversation task, that requires students to develop and extend their answers to a series of questions based on a general theme.
In terms of the Foundation Tier writing exam, our students are required to describe a photo in Spanish, write a 40 word paragraph using 4 bullet point prompts, translate 5 short sentences into Spanish and respond in writing to one of two 90 word tasks, again to the four bullet points that are provided. Each week since September, one of these tasks has been the focus of a full session, so that students have become familiar with what is required, and practised with a rubric according to exam criteria.
Our students will undoubtedly find these mock exams challenging, as opportunities for meaningful spoken interaction with others have been limited by the confines of distance learning, whilst retention and spontaneous recall of key grammar and vocabulary used in written Spanish has not been practised with anything like the regularity of previous years. However, we are confident that our students will continue the revision and preparation started in school over the last three weeks at home, and be well prepared for the two Spanish exams.
It would be fantastic if parents and carers could support during this time, even if it’s something as simple as listening to your son / daughter saying their General Conversation (either on School or Holidays.) As we said in class, students are completely in control of this part of the speaking exam. Please encourage them to spend time on this, along with drilling of verbs in the three main tenses (preterite, present and near future). Again, as we said in class, revision should be “little and often”, to help embed this current learning into long term memory.
Finally, thank you for your support during this period; please do not hesitate to contact me at school should you wish to discuss any of the above further.
Each crew at XP has a chosen charity that they raise money for. This charity resonates with the crew, ensuring all of the mindful work that is done is going towards something we hold near to our hearts. Crew Anoa’i chose Make-A-Wish UK.
Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 after a young boy, battling Leukaemia, wished to be a police officer for the day. The charity was inspired after Christopher Greicius’ family and friends came together to grant his wish ‘to be a police officer’. This kindness created a movement that would transform the lives of millions of sick children across the globe.
41 years later, Make-A-Wish has been granting life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses in nearly 50 countries, across 5 continents of the world. More than 500,000 wishes have been granted since that day.
Every year, Make-A-Wish brings people together in celebrating World Wish Day on April 29th, the anniversary of the wish that inspired the founding of the charity.
This year, the charity’s campaign ‘Don’t Wait for Hope. Create it.’ stems from the fact that wish families have been some of the hardest hit by the global pandemic. Feelings of detachment and trepidation have become the new normal for everyone, but they are often felt deepest by the most vulnerable, including children with critical illnesses.
Now more than ever, wishes can bring hope, joy and a sense of normality back into the lives of wish kids and their families. We can help make life-changing wishes come true, and that’s what Crew Anoa’i did this week.
On Thursday 29th April, World Wish Day, Crew Anoa’i held a raffle to raise money for Make-A-Wish UK. We gathered several prizes, ranging from confectionery to bath bombs sets, ensuring there were lots to be won. We then collected donations and drew the winning tickets. Let’s take a look at some of our lucky winners.
In total, we raised a whopping £90 in just two days!!
Crew Anoa’i would like to appreciate everyone who donated money towards our raffle, we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you everyone!!
This week, the blog for Crew Obama has been written by Lleyton and Robert and is a brief summary of their thoughts about plastic pollution. The topic generated some really varied responses from crew members. We learned that plastic pollution does not just harm exotic species in far away places. Only last month, I saw birds using plastic as nesting material at Lakeside.
“Recently in Wise Wednesdays, we have been learning about how plastic impacts the environment. We were angry to learn that the baby whales are dying from plastic pollution.
I noticed that there are over 15 things made of plastic in our Crew room. These included obvious items such as pens,chairs, and highlighters but we were surprised to find plastic in the door frame and the electric sockets!
We have spent time together as a Crew working on a letter we could send to a local MP. It suggests how to change packaging and make rules so that we only use a certain amount of plastic. We would like adults to change their lifestyles to use less plastic. If something isn’t done about plastic pollution soon then we will kill other species.” Lleyton and Robert
All students in Year 9 have been given some revision tasks for an assessment for their expedition ‘You give me fever’.
This assessment will take place on Monday 10th May for Pioneer and Tuesday 11th May for Explorer.
Students have been asked to join Seneca to revisit their learning, and have been given access to textbooks as well as their regular quizzing in Tassomai.
