Students | XP East

Y9 Presentation of Learning – Wednesday 4th December

By A Parker26th November 2019

Students in 9Pioneer and 9Explorer will be presenting their learning from our expedition Small Change on Wednesday 4th December at 4.30pm in XP East School. Students have been working towards a number of learning targets focused on the GCSE text ‘A Christmas Carol’ and the historical context of the period when Dickens wrote the novella. We would like to invite you to hear from your son or daughter and see the work they have produced in order to answer the guiding question: Why do we still need charity?

We will also be asking, if possible, for donations to support the work of the Balby Church food and clothing bank.

FOR THE FOOD BANK: food that just requires hot water adding: e.g Instant porridge, Cup Soups, Mug Shots, instant/pot noodles(supermarket own brands are ideal)

FOR THE CLOTHES BANK: all types but the greatest demand is for jeans, joggers for men and all clothes for children aged 6-18.

Thank you in advance.

E25 Sponsored Run

By Natalie Johnson25th November 2019

As you will be aware, E25 were due to complete their 5k sponsored run/ walk around Lakeside today afternoon (26th Nov) but unfortunately due to unforeseeable circumstances and staff absences this has had to be postponed until next week, Tuesday 3rd December. Could we please ask that all sponsorship forms are brought into school by Thursday 28th November. Sponsor money will should be brought in by Friday 6th December – thank you to those who have already done this.

Please be aware that students are still expected to bring in their PE kit on Tuesday.

We appreciate all of your support in helping us to fund an education and support people in Doncaster’s Community.

A special mention to Aaron and Denim who have raised between them £55! – this is fantastic and any amount sponsored will be much appreciated, it’ll all add up!

ABOVE ALL, COMPASSION.

Marginal gains in Crew Turing

By Katie Haughey24th November 2019

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Green for coming in and doing a session on careers with my crew! I can’t wait to build on the work she did helping my crew come up with careers they might be interested in or suited to based on the questionnaires they filled in. This week we’ll look further into some options and what they will need to do in terms of qualifications or work experience to enter certain industries or careers.

This week, my crew have been focusing on our position on the crew dashboards comparatively with other crews in E25. I’m delighted that we have almost no entries to the negative conduct form and that on the whole, extended study is handed in on time and equipment is organised amongst my crew.

There were two aspects of the dashboard that we acknowledged needed working on: praise form entries and our attendance. There were lots of bugs being passed about last term, even I ended up really poorly at one point! However, we’ve made an agreement that this term we focus on making marginal gains in terms of our attendance percentage as every day at school mattered.

We even did the maths, since our average attendance last term was just 90%, as a collective crew we’d miss out on over 100 days of school if we carried on like this! I’m already seeing a great improvement this week.

The issue of our praise form entries was something that we also needed to intervene in as a crew. We discussed how we could improve our number of entries on the praise form, and we decided to set a challenge. Daily, each member of my crew were to record how many times another crew member put their hand up and answered a question or posed a question to a teacher to help clarify their understanding. Here’s how they got on:

I’d like to massively appreciate Torran for his improvement from no entries on day 1 to 5 by day 3 and Dylan for increasing his to 13 on one day! Most of my crew really rose to the challenge and I, amongst others, noticed a real difference in sesion. We even went from the bottom scorers on the praise entries, to the 3rd crew in the year, making gains of +4.0 in our entry average. I’m going to carry this on next week until we reign supreme at the top of the crew dashboard, I’m determined that each marginal gain will have a huge impact on our comparative scores across the crews.

Another focus we’ll be looking towards as a crew this week is the general election and taking a wider look at the world around us. I’ve got us a subscription to National Geographic magazine which I’m going to make the focus of this week’s accelerated reader crew, I can’t wait to delve into important issues in our global community!

E26 Fieldwork to Leeds Armouries

By H Hickson21st November 2019

E26 had a fantastic time at the Leeds Armouries Museum on Tuesday. All students were a credit to the school and definitely met all our HOWLs and character traits while there.

We had time to explore the museum and have a look at some of the fantastic artefacts that we on display. We were lucky enough to be able to watch a rifle fire display which was based around WW2 but the experts explain the links and similarities between the weapons which were used.

After lunch, students took part in two workshops – one was a handling session where students could try on uniforms and explore the weapons and equipment that was used in the trenches to get a better understanding of trench life. Students then got to experience training thanks to our very own Captain – he certainly put the students to the test! We learnt about the Pals Battalions and their roles in the war and how the soldiers would’ve been trained and treated during the war. I had the pleasure of accompanying Pioneer in the afternoon and I was so proud of how involved they’ve got in answering and asking questions – they will certainly Get Smart with this attitude!

It certainly was a brilliant day and the conduct of the students was great!

‘Just one thing’ about Crew

By A Parker21st November 2019

We didn’t have the best start to Crew this week.

I received an email from Mr Pearson telling me that (with the exception of 2 students) Crew Finch hadn’t behaved very well during Friday’s DofE session. They’d been disrespectful to him and to each other. To top it off, other teacher had similar feedback about certain members of Crew. As you can imagine, I was not a happy Crew Leader!

So they spent Monday’s session writing out reflections on what they’d done and how they were going to put things right with Mr Pearson, myself and with each other.

However, what struck me about their reflections is that there was no sense of accountability in any of them and that they were all blaming each other! We had a discussion about this during Tuesday’s Crew session, and it became apparent that Crew are actually a bit fed up with one another at the moment, be it because of general conduct, missing extended study deadline, or not respecting each other during Crew time (talking over people is a major issue in my Crew!)

I thought it was worth regrouping and revisiting what Crew should be, and all it has been to us in the past.

I set up an activity where they had to tell me “just one thing” about Crew, focussing on the following areas:

Crew makes me feel…
Without Crew I would be…
How has Crew helped me?
How have I helped Crew?
What could be improved?
If I could give one piece of advice to another Crew it would be…

We used the silent conversation protocol for this – a dialogue using writing rather than speech – meaning that we all had chance to have our ‘voices’ heard.

It was heartwarming to see that Crew is still something special: it makes us feel safe, welcome and not alone.

There were lots of examples of how Crew had helped one another (Aden broke the rules here and added 3 things rather than just the one!)

The ‘What could be improved?’ sheet gave us the chance to reflect on what is going wrong at the moment, and open up discussions on how we are going to fix these issues.

The activity really helped to clear the air and we’ve now got a plan to get back on track. I guess like most relationships, we will have falling outs and annoy each other from time to time, but what matters is that we make the time and space to address the issues and make things right!

An appreciation goes out to Libby for making an apology to Mr Pearson on behalf of Crew Finch during our Y9 community meeting.

E26 Fieldwork Tuesday 19/11/19

By H Hickson17th November 2019

This week, all students in E26 will be going on fieldwork for their expedition on Tuesday 19th November. They will need to arrive at school for normal time and should be back at the end of the school day. We will be travelling about 45 minutes away in a coach so please give students who experience travel sickness any medication if necessary and/or bring it with them for the journey home (please hand into staff).

Students will need:

a warm coat (we will be inside for most of the day but will spend a period of time outdoors)
a packed lunch and drink (there will be nowhere for students to buy this so it is vital they bring this with them – FSM students will be provided for by school).
blue/black pens
a bag to carry the above in.

Students are not allowed sweets or fizzy drinks.

We will reveal the location on the day to the students, but for now – keep guessing!

E26 Pioneer Have a Gander at Propaganda

By H Hickson17th November 2019

This week 7 Pioneer began their History learning target which is based around a source analysis of propaganda. We started the week by following a Gallery Walk protocol, so we took a break from the classroom to have a look at numerous First World War propaganda posters and make notices, wonders and questions about them. Once back in the classroom, we discussed our thoughts and then learnt about why and how propaganda was used in the Great War.

We then analysed and annotated two posters looking at the messages behind them.

We explored and explained how the body language, facial expressions and the language used would persuade and convince people to enlist whilst placing the poster into the context of the time. Next for 7 Pioneer is to look at a written WAGOLL of a source analysis in order for them to understand the structure before they write their own. All students work fantastically well at this and were so focused and insightful in their analysis – keep it up!

Crew Parkinson’s Clean Up Crew

By H Hickson17th November 2019

This week, Crew Parkinson had our clean up crew session. We went out litter picking on the school grounds and braved the weather to do our bit. We discussed stewardship and why it’s important to clean up litter for environmental reasons and to make our area look better so it’s more enjoyable to be in. Here we are in action:

E24 Silent Conversation

By A Brown14th November 2019

Silent and super speed conversation by E24 Explorer to revise and consolidate our understanding of stave 3 in A Christmas Carol.

Having previously read, annotated and analysed key parts of the stave over a series of lessons, this was an excellent opportunity to not only recall specific ideas and events, but to assess our understanding of the ideas we’ve been working on.

Great effort today, Explorer!

Given Freely, Freely Given Fieldwork

By A Brown13th November 2019

An incredibly eye opening and powerful morning of fieldwork for Pioneer and Explorer over the last two weeks. As part of our expedition ‘Small Change’, we visited Balby Church to take part in their ‘Big Sort’ on a Monday morning, providing much-needed clothes, food, toiletries and household items for those who have very little.

Both classes have done the school and themselves proud with their contribution to the ‘Big Sort’ working hard alongside existing volunteers sensitively, respectfully, and with lots of compassion. Well done!

See a bit of the Big Sort for yourself below:

A number of students commented on how lucky they were in their home situation to have easy access to things that are so easy to take for granted, such as soap, basic food and water, and it made them feel more grateful for the things they have. And question what they actually need!

It was also really uplifting to see just how many things are donated, and the variety of donations, reinforcing the positivity and compassion of the local communities providing for those in want.

And yet it is shocking that we learnt that everything would be gone the next day when those in need queue up outside the church in the hope there is enough to go around.

What a wonderful operation being run at Given Freely, Freely Given, and what a privilege it has been for our students to be able to take part and work alongside these amazing volunteers.