Students | XP East

In praise of productivity in E24/Y9 GCSE Spanish

By D Pearson19th January 2020

I was very pleased with the high levels of engagement and focus in E24 (Y9) GCSE Spanish on Friday. Our students were practising asking and answering health-related questions, using a board-game and dice to introduce an element of unpredictability and “spontaneous speech” – exactly how our students will be assessed in their final GCSE Spanish speaking exam.

Due to the level at which they are working now, when using interrogatives and correct intonation it is no longer a case of what they say, but also how they say it. These are higher level thinking skills that our young linguists are developing with great proficiency. Well done!

X25 & E25 are producing some fabulous oil pastel studies in their Art sessions

By Emily Jones19th January 2020

Year 8 students have been experimenting with oil pastels this term in their art sessions to create some beautiful sunset inspired blends. Can’t wait to see the finished pieces.

E24 / Y9 GCSE Spanish Extended Study

By D Pearson15th January 2020

This week’s E24/ Y9 GCSE Spanish Extended Study is centred on learning the irregular verbs “tener” (“to have”) and “estar” (“to be”), currently being used to describe ailments and injuries. Vocabulary retrieval, i.e. a test on these two verbs, will take place in session on Friday 17th January. Relevant slides will be shared with students.

Thank you.

E25 HUMAN Fieldwork 22nd January!

By H Hickson14th January 2020

On Wednesday 22nd January, E25 will be going on fieldwork to develop their knowledge and understanding of the medieval period.

Their current expedition ‘I’ve Got the Power!’ has the guiding question ‘how does power affect us?’. We are undertaking a thematic study of power over time, with our first area of study focusing on the medieval period. This fieldwork will directly link to our learning in lessons and greatly help to support the expedition.

We will be going to a mystery location that will be revealed to students on the day.

Students need to arrive at school by 8:15 and we will be returning to school at 5:30.

Students will need a packed lunch and a warm coat as we will be outside for some of the day.

E25 HUMAN Presentation of Learning

By H Hickson13th January 2020

Last term, students in E25 studied the expedition entitled ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ with the guiding question of ‘Why should we care about migration?’

Our final product for this expedition is a documentary that explains our answer to this question. The first screening of this documentary will shown at X25 Presentation of Learning next Monday 20th January at 6.40pm at Cast theatre, Doncaster.

We have worked closely with the Conversation Club, a charity which helps asylum seekers, during this expedition. It has been a valuable experience for all involved and our work with this charity has played an important role in our documentary.

Every student will be expected to attend on Monday with one ticket for one adult companion. Unfortunately, as the theatre has a full capacity of 130 people, students are unable to invite more than one person. Students need to make their own way to and from CAST theatre as transport will not be provided.

Therefore to allow students to showcase their hard work to more relatives/friends we are putting on another screening at XP EAST on Thursday 23rd January at 4.30pm.

Please arrive in enough time to be seated before the screening begins.

We look forward to sharing our expedition with you.

E24 Pioneer (Bring a coat and spare trainers)

By J Smith13th January 2020

E24 Pioneer students will visit Hatfield Moor tomorrow morning as part of their immersion into their new learning expedition.

Students must dress prepared for the weather. It is likely to be wet/muddy so hiking boots or a separate pair of trainers, along with a plastic bag to place them in (PE trainers will be fine).

Students will eat lunch in school as normal.

Explorer will visit Hatfield Moor on Thursday morning.

Crew Young explore rites of passage

By D Pearson13th January 2020

In an attempt to explore the social, moral, spiritual and cultural reasons behind rites of passage practised by communities throughout the world, we spent Crew time this morning studying the Apache and Fulani tribes. It quickly became apparent that Crew Young were largely ignorant of the term “rites of passage” and its significance in E24 Year 9 at XP East.

We watched Dashina, of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, prepare for the trials of womanhood, by enduring four days of ancient tests of strength, endurance, and character before taking her Apache woman name of “morning star feather”. We saw two adolescent boys of the Fulani tribes of Benin, Western Africa engaged in a whipping trial to prove their strength and courage before tribal elders.

We then considered the similarities and differences between these two cultures and made a connection between these rites of passage, and “passage” that is being planned for this term.

It was the French anthropologist and folklorist Arnold van Gennep, who coined the phrase rites of passage in 1909. In 2020 at XP East our students’ preparations for a more academic “passage” are well under way.

What will 2020 bring?

By Katie Haughey12th January 2020

Crew Turing have just reunited for their first week of crew in 2020 after a joyous 2 weeks off celebrating Christmas and getting some well deserved rest! We started check-in on Monday by sharing any new year’s resolutions that we had thought of. Some included

Lexi wants to gain confidence in gymnastics so she can accomplish more
Reece would like to learn certain skills with his surfing that he wasn’t able to master last summer
Many students wanted to improve their organisation – making sure they had their equipment and homework was completed on time
Lots of us spoke about increasing time for reading

I invested in a crew calendar to help with the resolution of improving our organisation. In the coming weeks, we will have SLCs to prep for, a HUMs presentation of learning, and various other deadlines to meet. Crew agreed that by tracking this we’d be much better prepared for what we’ve got coming up so we can hold each other (including myself) to account.

On Wednesday, we ate breakfast together in the student kitchen and created a ‘Crew To-do list” for the student led conference preparation, which included dates for when work needed to be completed by. It was nice to refresh ourselves of the whole process and what we would need to do. We agreed that rather than doing SLC prep in crew every day, that this time some of the work would be set as extended study. I trust that my crew can work well independently on these tasks now they’re a whole year wiser, and I can’t wait for them to share their expeditionary work with me.

I’m going to be putting on Monday night sessions where students can come and work in my room (A04) to get scripts completed.

We ended the week with a little inter-crew competition of capture the flag. I loved how my crew discussed their defensive strategies and were working as a team to fend off the other crew. It was also lovely to get a bit of fresh air and get our blood pumping after an exhausting first week back!

E24 Passage Presentations Starting 27.01.20

By J Smith12th January 2020

Week 4 starting 27.01.20 students will be delivering their passage presentations to a panel of parents, teachers and outside visitors to the school. This is an incredible piece of work that allow students to start their chosen GCSE or common mission subject.

The students have worked extremely hard to put together the presentations and we look forward to your attendance.

Booking slot options will be sent out to parents by crew leaders via Sign Up Genius over a 2 week window. Please see the attached letter to see the presentation content:

Above all, compassion, Crew Young

By D Pearson19th December 2019

It’s fair to say that this week Crew Young have needed reminding of why the XP Trust sign: “above all, compassion” greets them as they enter the school premises. We decided to re-boot our concept of Crew as a result of recent issues involving relationships within our group. Starting with a focus on our character traits – courage, integrity, craftsmanship and quality, respect and compassion – we considered where students have exhibited these in sessions and around school, and, remaining with the latter we contemplated the guiding question: “what do we want compassion to look, feel and sound like in Crew?”.

Following a silent conversation protocol, we collated our ideas:

using kind words and empathy
being sensitive towards others
being able to feel comfortable in Crew
feeling that everyone is there for each other
supporting others when they need it, e.g. Crew can support someone subject to reflection

This is a work in progress, and it’s likely that we’ll need to return to this character trait and develop our ideas further after the Christmas break, but at least for now we’ve started the ball rolling.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.