Crew Rowling’s XPionage

17th January 2022Web Blogger

Over the past couple of weeks E26 have been tasked with a secret mission. Their mission was to collect information on a member of their class (pioneer or explorer) and to produce a positive statement about them which would remain anonymous. The aim of this was to reboot crew after the Christmas holidays.

Here is what the secret spies observed…

‘Logan has worked really hard throughout the week in all sessions. Mainly quietly getting on with his work, showing respect, and occasionally helping people who are stuck on the work, showing compassion. In Art especially, he shows Craftsmanship and Quality in all areas of the work and his book.’

‘Lydia worked well in HUMS lessons on Wednesday, she always gets on with her work and is good at partner work. Even though she may be quiet she is always ready if anyone else needs help.’

‘Lily worked hard in all sessions this week. During the week, she has had an excellent work ethic and worked hard. She got most, if not all, work done and to a high degree. I believe this is a great start to the term and the year of 2022.’

‘Harvey has shown respect to everyone and he is not scared to tell you if you did something wrong he is always there to help people. For example, today he helped clean the classroom after doing art and he always has got time to play a game of chess with anyone during break and sometimes lunch.’

‘Ben has worked incredibly hard during these couple of weeks, without particularly being noticed for it. In HUMs, Ben created some beautiful work regarding annotating texts. During active lunch, Ben worked very hard in Dodge-ball, and did very well. And of course, Ben always works hard and always creates great work!’

‘Thomas has worked very hard in maths this week. He has also been very attentive in lessons such as Spanish and HUMS. In Maths, Thomas has shown compassion as he was helping others once he had finished his own work.’

‘Shawn has worked hard in all lessons this week. In class, Shawn answers a lot of questions, which shows courage. In Maths, he has worked hard and completed the work to get onto and finish the pushing for 4 and above worksheets. In HUMs, he produces a good quality of work, all the time, and is very compassionate as he helps others with their work in lessons such as Spanish where others get confused. Others around him are always laughing, which shows that he is a great person to be around.’

‘Cerrina has been helpful in Crew. She always has my back and tries to help me. She participates in most sessions and is kind.’

‘Charlotte has knuckled down in passage and has been asking older years to help her with it. In maths I feel she has also been working really hard with our new teacher Mr Hamilton, she’s working really hard with getting on with her GCSE work.’

‘Rhys has been trying harder in lessons to get the work done as every time i look up he has been having his head down. I haven’t heard anything negative about Rhys’ behaviour in sessions which is amazing and an outstanding improvement.’

‘Faith has worked really hard by writing a lot of notes down when told to .She has also been really respectful in most sessions by always listening to the person who is speaking. Faith has shown craftsmanship and quality by keeping her book neat.’

‘Layton worked really hard in HUMs this week. We were learning about diseases in the past and he ‘got smart’ by asking questions and talking to his partner, Robert. In art, Layton showed craftsmanship and quality by keeping his art book and work tidy. In PE, Layton showed respect by listening and following instructions.’

It has been great to see all of the positive comments for each person.

I also wanted to congratulate Faith and Harvey on successfully gaining places on the Doncaster Youth Council where they will be representing XP and XPE. I am very proud that 3 out of the 5 candidates were from our crew, they all did a great job!

Mrs Barnes and Miss Johnson

How far we’ll go!!

4th January 2022Web Blogger

We hope you have had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

You may remember that as a crew we were fundraising to support the local charity, Big C Little Warriors and that Rhys had offered to cut his hair as a way of raising money.

We originally thought that this was going to take place 18th December but Rhys gave us all a huge shock when he came to crew on 17th December and pulled down his hood to reveal his new do!

I’m sure you will all agree that Rhys’ hair looks so good and we wanted to thank everyone for their support in sharing and donating. We have raised an epic £720 in total for Big C Little Warrior! I am in the process of liaising with Big C Little Warrior in order to present this to them.

We will hopefully be able to share more about this soon!

Mrs Barnes and Miss Johnson

Big C Little Warrior

6th December 2021Web Blogger

As a way of giving back to others in our community Crew Rowling have chosen to raise money for a local charity called ‘Big C Little Warrior’.

 
Big C Little Warrior was founded in 2019 and specialises in boosting the self esteem and confidence for individuals going through treatment for cancer by offering beauty and grooming treatments. After speaking with Big C Little Warrior they informed us of a new venture that we could support with. This is to raise money towards vouchers that individuals undergoing treatment who have lost their hair, can use towards handmade hats and headbands with hair pieces. Every £50 raised will help go towards one voucher per person.


We brainstormed ideas on how we could raise money and one of our amazingly kind and thoughtful crew members, Rhys has offered to cut his thick shoulder length hair, going for a short back and sides! This is something he felt fitted well with the charity and what the money raised was being used for.


As a crew we feel it is important to give back and support others in out community. The character values and traits that we strive to maintain at XP East are extremely important to us and we hope you will agree this is for an amazing cause!


Crew Rowling would really appreciate a small donation to help our charity and for Rhys’ courage in having his hair cut short.


The proposed date is 18th December for Rhys to have his hair cut so there will be updates to follow this 🙂


We are already doing so well in such a short amount of time but here is the link to donate. 


https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-big-c-little-warrior?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1


We want to thank everyone in advance for supporting Big C Little Warrior and Crew Rowling.


Kirsty and Natalie

C28 (Year 7) fieldwork to the University of Sheffield – Tuesday 14th December

2nd December 2021Katie Haughey

Students in C28/Year 7 will be visiting the University of Sheffield on Tuesday 14th December as part of their current expedition ‘’Food Glorious Food’. The primary purpose of the visit is to work with Dr Megan Blake and her International Development postgraduate students to look into how we might go about improving food distribution and waste. Whilst at the university, students will also be able to meet with student ambassadors and have a tour of the campus to give them a sense of what uni life is like!

We will be departing at around 9:15AM and returning for approximately 15:50PM so there will be a slight change in finish times of the school day for students. Students will need to bring a packed lunch unless they access free school meals, in which case school will provide one for them. Students will need to dress appropriately and in a waterproof coat and warm layers, as we will be walking around the campus at parts. If you have any questions about the day, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Best wishes,

Miss Haughey

Back to Business!

9th November 2021Web Blogger

After returning from half term we have been busy in Crew, alongside our additional Common Mission and Duke of Edinburgh sessions, which are new for this year and it is great to see. 

Before breaking up for the half term, Year 9 were introduced to ‘Passage’. This is something we will be working on in our Crew sessions and Common Mission sessions in order to demonstrate why each individual is GCSE ready. As part of this we began to think about careers and what our hopes and dreams for the future were. This led to a fantastic afternoon of Crew researching careers, and job roles they may be interested in.

Last Wednesday was the first session working on our Passage presentation scripts and I have to say that we were blown away with how hard each person worked and how seriously they took the task.

Since starting the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award Crew have been learning the skill of First Aid and have worked on specific topics each week which have included, practical skills, completing a workbook, posters and diagrams. It has been great to see how the Crew have helped and supported each other in these sessions when completing tasks and produced some beautiful work.  

We also don’t want you to think we have forgotten about our charity we selected to help at the end of Year 8, as this certainly is not the case. As a Crew we emailed ‘Big C Little Warrior’ at the start of last term asking how we could best help them. They were so grateful we had selected them as our charity and were keen for us to be able to help. They had a team meeting where our offer of help was discussed and they came back to us asking if we could raise money, as this would be used towards the cost of making hair accessories for those undergoing cancer treatment. How we can raise money is something we are currently looking into and organising in Crew. 

As we have moved Crew rooms this year this meant that we were able to redesign the Crew wall. This is something Crew Rowling pride themselves on and take very seriously. Our plan is to continue to add to this throughout this year’s journey and move it with us if we relocate again next year. Just like the photos from the Year 7 Outward Bound week have!

We have already begun thinking of how we can decorate the Crew room at Christmas!

We can’t wait to show you more beautiful work and keep you up to date on all things Crew Rowling.

Mrs Barnes and Miss Johnson 🙂

What a week!

3rd September 2021Web Blogger

First of all I would like to say how great it has been to be back with crew this week. We have all pulled together and helped each other so much. We were missing a key member of our crew this week as Miss Johnson has been unwell and we wish her a speedy recovery.

The first day back we completed crew challenges against crew Frank, this became quite competitive but we had lots of laughs. Challenges included, magic carpet riding, tennis ball dropping (with your knees), lid moving (no hands), tea bag throwing, balloon and cup game, jigsaw puzzle races, skittle sorting and finding the kings in a deck of cards. I’m sure crew will love filling you in on the ins and outs of these challenges, if they haven’t already. 

During the afternoon we held joint crew dodgeball and corner ball competitions where we were teamed up with crew Mercury. There were some brilliant shows of integrity by those who were out and we ended the day by circling up and sharing apologies, appreciations and stands.

For our second day we went caving and abseiling. This was something that I know some crew members and myself were feeling very apprehensive about but we threw on our waterproofs and headed to the caves. We ended up having a blast and really showed how well we work as a crew by encouraging and supporting each other. We were especially proud of Lily as she decided at the last minute to give caving ago, the smiles on everyone’s faces when she came through the cave entrance was priceless!

After a short coach ride we arrived near the bridge on the Monsal Trail. When we saw the bridge it dawned upon us how extremely high it was and that after around 6 foot the wall of the bridge disappeared, as this was then the arch. This is where most of the panic started to show and that was just from me! There were some who decided they really did not want to complete the abseil but they were a massive support to others by cheering them in and greeting them at the bottom. Layton did well by unhooking everyone’s buckles when they reached the bottom ready to send back up to our guides. Those who did complete the abseil said that they felt a great sense of achievement and I had to agree with them!

Day three was our ‘solo’. For this we walked to Potteric Carr nature reserve and students were given a space and time where they could go through their journal and also reflect on the week and generally themselves. The majority coped with this really well and it was lovely to see them in deep thought. 

In the afternoon as a crew we made a presentation of our week and answered our guiding question which was ‘What does it mean to be ‘crew’?’ This was presented as a product of learning on the stairs at XP east. Each person in the crew contributed by either adding information to the slides, photos, spelling and grammar, arranging the layout or presenting. It was lovely to finally have some parents and guardians be able to join us for this.

Although I am extremely tired as I’m sure the rest of the crew are after this fun packed week, I am looking forward to what this year holds for us.

Mrs Barnes 🙂

Maestras/Maestros de Español

By Web Blogger17th June 2021

As a Crew the HOWLs grades we collectively needed to work on were in Spanish. We discussed in Crew why we thought this was and we established that many were not as confident to offer answers in these sessions because they were unsure of pronunciations of words. So in true Crew spirit we decided that we would practice Spanish together via the website linguascope. in Crew, Miss Johnson and Mrs Barnes included! Our first go at this was great fun and we look forward to improving with this and building everyone’s confidence, hopefully resulting in an increase in HOWLs grades and becoming Spanish masters (maestras/maestros de Español).

 

We have also been looking into which local charity we would like to support. Crew Rowling selected Big C Little Warrior which is a Doncaster based charity that works in hospitals, homes and hospices in the surrounding area providing free beauty and grooming treatments to anyone undergoing treatment for cancer. We thought this linked with our drive to encourage confidence. During our sessions we are looking at possible ways of fundraising for the charity and we can’t wait to get started!

We look forward to keeping you all up to speed with our Spanish and fundraising efforts.

 

Mrs Barnes and Miss Johnson

 

Above all, Compassion!

By Web Blogger11th May 2021

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.

 

Above all, compassion!

 

Miss Johnson and Mrs Barnes

 

Pulling Together as Crew!

By Web Blogger27th April 2021

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…

 

https://gofund.me/9b11c4c1

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.

Above all, compassion

 

Mrs Barnes and Miss Johnson