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.
We are living in uncertain times, what students don’t expect is having the uncertainty of how they are getting home from school at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, like many other schools in the area, XP has been hit by bike theft.
At XP we feel strongly about supporting our community, showing kindness, compassion and respect. We were devastated to hear that a member of a Crew had had their bike stolen, after hearing so much about the jaunts they had been on during lockdown with their siblings on it- plus the fact it was relatively new! Therefore, we want to put right the actions of others!
Crew members wanted to help and therefore a fundraising page was set up. This had an amazing response in such a short space of time. The target was smashed in no time!! So watch this space…
Keeping with the notion of showing compassion, we were privileged to be asked if Crew Rowling could model how we ran our Crew sessions to Mrs Watson’s Crew, Crew Rashford. This was a really positive experience and there were some amazing notices, wonders and questions about what was shared. We even had the opportunity to observe Crew Rashford in one of their sessions and give guidance on writing their Crew norms. Crew Rowling were excellent role models and gave praise and useful feedback to Crew Rashford which will give them the tools to keep them going from strength to strength. This in turn led us to reflect on how far we had come as a Crew and how much we wanted to continue to set a good example for others.
Today Crew Anoa’i were on litter picking duty. This involved the whole crew taking part in our weekly clean up session. During crew time, we collected the equipment and headed out to the field at the back of the school. There we started our hunt to collect all of the litter we could find and dispose of it appropriately. Everyone got stuck in, taking it in turns to use the pickers. We found lots of different things along the way!
Surprisingly, Crew Anoa’i found this very entertaining. It was great to see some smiles this morning whilst we helped keep our environment clean and safe. As we made our way around the field, we found more and more rubbish. It was alarming to see how much rubbish that had gathered at the bottom of our school field. Good job Crew Anoa’i were here to clear things up!
It was also really great to see everyone working as a team. James and Jacob led the way by thinking outside of the box to creatively work together to gather some rubbish on the outer border of our school premises. Great work lads!
Crew Anoa’i would like to appreciate April Crawshaw in particular for getting her hands dirty and demonstrating great cleaning up skills. Well done April, keep it up!
During this weeks thoughtful Thursday, Crew Frank have been self assessing their HoWL grades since returning to school. Each Thursday crew session, students individually fill in their HoWL grades which they believe they have been working at each week.
During this time, crew members check in with others to agree and disagree with other students HoWLs. This pushes forward meaningful discussions in crew where students then change their HOWLs based and peer feedback. This provides a more accurate HoWL data input.
Integrity is key with self assessing and as crew we have helped each other improve on areas of HoWLs in each individual subject since looking at the data.
As a crew we have really strong HOWLs in ‘ Be Kind’, its seen that throughout sessions, we help, encourage and are always their for our friends and others, This a really nice thing to see. Although we thrive of the good stuff we do as Crew Frank, we also believe it’s important to look at where we can improve. We have identified that through lockdown and since returning, we need to work with all our HOWLs across Art, Music and Spanish. We have intentions to do this through our Crew Narrative which we refer back to support us as a crew.
It’s brilliant to see how well our students are doing in sessions and how they are taking responsibility with their own learning.
Here’s an update on Crew Finch’s 500 Mile Challenge for Firefly.
We have pledged to walk, run or cycle a total of 500 miles over a 3 month period – find out more in this previous blog post.
We’ve totted up the miles for March and I’m delighted to announce that we have already smashed our target with a combined total of 509 miles done in the first month of the challenge!
Massive shout out to Noah for clocking up the most mileage, by walking and cycling a total of 167 miles – that’s the same distance from Doncaster to Cardiff (although Noah stuck to walking around the lake and woods near his house 😉 )
When we first spoke about setting the mileage target we thought 500 miles was going to be tough for us. But Crew have really pulled together here to reach the target and to raise much needed funds for our Crew charity, Firefly.
Even though we’ve reached our target, we’re going to carry on walking until the end of the challenge to see just how far we can go together.
Thank you for the donations so far. We are still a little way off our £100 target so all donations are gratefully received and will really push us to put a few extra miles in.
‘A spine-chilling story about a boy who finds himself drawn to an empty house. He enters the house to find twelve ghostly figures sitting around a large table. A thirteenth chair is pulled out for him. He takes his place at the table and the story begins.’
Crew Anoa’i have been reading Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton as part of our weekly book club. Each week, on Tranquil Tuesday, we read a new chapter of the book. Taking it in turns to read aloud, we follow the story of a boy called Jack. After reading a chapter, we answer a set of questions that help us understand and retain what has happened before we move onto the next chapter. Each chapter is one of the thirteen tales told by the ghostly figures. So far, we have read up to chapter 3. Each week we learn something new about the characters in the story – Jack doesn’t know anyone at the table, the ghostly figures have names and the tales that are told are eerily cryptic.A few students from Crew Anoa’i wanted to share their thoughts about our book club. Let’s see what they’ve got to say.
Lucie-Mae Cordell
I am finding the book club interesting, as it is a fun way to learn about reading. It also gives us a chance to find a new story to read. Thirteen Chairs has given me a break from my usual type of book. Having the book club helps me to focus on one story at a time.
Zachary Hague
I am really enjoying the book club in crew, as the book Miss Mitchell has chosen is interesting and it’s from a genre that I wouldn’t normally read. It’s fun to read something new and exciting. I’m looking forward to reading the next chapter!
Faith Farmery
I’m really entertained by this book club we have during crew, because Miss Mitchell has chosen a book for all of us to read together instead of reading individually. This gives us a chance to communicate over the same book and wonder together instead of alone in our own world. Everyone is there with you in this world. This type of book isn’t one that I would normally pick up off of the shelf, it is a good change and something out of my comfort zone.
One really important part of the XP identity is the compassion and maturity pupils show when delivering appreciations, stands and apologies in front of their peer group. The appreciations really showcase the breadth of reasons we have for valuing our fellow members of the XP community. I especially liked an appreciation this week for someone who tried, even though they ultimately failed to achieve their goal!
Crew members have spent time considering their progress this week by assessing their own HOWLs scores. This is yet another example of how children at XP are given a voice. Over to Imogen and Scarlett for a reflection on Crew Obama’s progress this week:
“During our HOWLs self assessment this week, we noticed that we have been struggling with maths this week as we are doing a new topic. We wondered how we could improve on the subjects we struggle with. We could do this by contributing more in our lessons and working hard. Our HOWLs in HUMS and STEAM have been very good because we engage more in these lessons. Currently in HUMS we are writing a first person narrative through the eyes of a migrant and this has been spread across all our lessons. We had some experts come in and we had a look at the ‘I am A Migrant’ website. This helped us collect our ideas to put into our work. In science we have been looking at parachutes and how the different forces act on them. We made our own to see this for ourselves and timed it to find out the perfect design.”
We’ve been enjoying our reunion form lockdown 3.0 since coming back in March and we’re glad to be back together after months of isolation. We spent the first day back in crew, with an extended check in on how we’d found 9 weeks online.
The guiding question for the upcoming weeks as a crew was:
We reminded ourselves about the protocols, timings of the day and the importance of wearing masks and washing hands regularly. We then spent the afternoon discussing how lockdown had impacted our lives and wellbeing. Some members of crew had really enjoyed learning online and spending time at home, but many were like me, and much preferred being back at school.
We then adjusted to the regular testing that we’ll be doing in the coming weeks, we all had a bit of a laugh watching each other swabbing noses and throats! Luckily, we’ve not had any issues with having to self-isolate so far, we hope to keep it that way!
Last term we started working towards our Duke of Edinburgh award, we completed the First Aid element of the award. For the second segment, we are working on fitness. Students were able to select from either 5 mile walk, ultimate frisbee or football. We then spent the Friday afternoon in groups, playing best to 5.
Another important feature of crew over the past few weeks has been the work that my crew have done self-assessing their HoWLs (habits of work and learning), namely, work hard, get smart and be kind. Coming back to school has been a big shock to the system for many of us, leaving us exhausted after the first few weeks, but we’re getting there.
In order for us to get a handle on our learning, we have been grading the HoWLs across each subject to look at areas for development and improvement, as well as celebrating where we’ve been doing really well and applying those principles to other classes.
Here’s a summary of week 1, PE and art have been a highlight for my crew. Being a stickler on students giving themselves 3.0 (secure) for HoWLs that aren’t always so secure, I decided to reboot what we mean when we talk about ‘beginning’ or ‘excellence’, so the self-assessments made can be accurate. I felt that some members of my crew are working more on a 2.8-9 across the lessons I’ve been visiting, and I felt that this also reflected my experiences in the maths lessons I teach.
My crew got into groups and worked on creating their own rubric for the HoWLs, and we spoke of times where students in E25 had fallen into the beginning, developing, secure and excellence categories. We uncovered that from those conversations, we were going to work on avoiding passenger behaviour in sessions moving forward into next week. I am wanting each student to be in at least secure across the board in the upcoming weeks, and we’ll be setting crew challenges and working on encouraging others to achieve in their HoWLs.
“Would you rather be really good looking, or super intelligent?“, “What is your ‘go to’ tea?“, and “What song always gets you on the dance floor?”. These were some of the prompt questions that Crew Young members fired at each other, in a 2 minute “blind date”, conducted in a Covid-friendly way recently. The aim was for our crew to reacquaint themselves with each other and strengthen the bonds that bind us together after such a long period of remote learning.
