Year 7 | XP East

E25 STEAM Fieldwork: Tuesday 4th June 2019 (7:45am start and 5pm finish)

By J Townson14th May 2019

E25 will be on fieldwork on Tuesday 4th June.

Please make arrangements for your child to arrive at school no later than 7:45am and be collected around 5pm.

The fieldwork arrangements are as follows:

All students to arrive at school by 7:45am for a prompt departure at 8am.
Students will need to bring a packed lunch and bottle of water (no glass bottles or fizzy drinks or sweets.)
Please bring any prescribed medication required, clearly labelled in a plastic bag or envelope with your child’s name and required dosage. This includes travel sickness tablets where necessary as we will be travelling via coach for approximately 2 hours.
Sensible clothing, coat and shoes need to be worn (we will be outside for part of the day)
Students will return to school at approximately 5pm – although we will post updates on the website and social media.
If any parents would like to know the destination of our fieldwork or have any questions, please contact me at [email protected]

Many thanks for your support.

Keeping our eyes on the prize

By Katie Haughey5th May 2019

This week in Crew Turing, we have been building on the data analysis that we completed last week during crew. I asked that each member of my crew come up with 2 specific action points to work on between now and the next data drop, so we can work on our weaknesses and improve our standing in the crew league tables.

I have loved how well considered these targets have been. Each member of my crew have really honed in on what aspects of their school life they need to work on, be it through their grades or their HoWLs. Here are a few examples:

Ralph:

My actions points are keeping up productivity in lesson and keeping my extended study organised, I can use my fries post-it notes to remind me what deadlines or if I need to remember my kit the following day. I also need to remember to bring a ruler and pencil to class, because I always forget these 2 pieces of equipment.

Callum:

My action points are to let people talk in crew and don’t talk over them because in my data drop 2 my be kind in crew is a 2.8 and a 3.8 in the previous one.

My other action points is working hard in science because in November it was a 4.0, but now it is a 3.6 and I think I could use the explore further section of the website to push for excellence.

Lexi

My science grade went down by 0.5 and that could be because my homework wasn’t in on time and I wasn’t paying enough attention because I drift of a lot, so my target is to stay on task and be tuned in. I will do this by trying to contribute at least twice, by either asking a question or answering one.

Lewis

In maths my action points are to work harder on be kind as my grade decreased. I will do this by working well in collaborative groups and staying focussed. I will also try to be more active in leston and try not to drift off. I will also work harder on my WH average and GS average as they stayed the same I will improve these by:

Contributing more in lesson even if I don’t think my answer is correct
Stay more focused on my work
Putting extra effort into my hegarty to consistently get 100%

Alice

My HUMs grade has gone up 0.7 but i’m slightly off my MEG by 0.1 To improve my grade in HUMs to achieve my MEG I will be more productive in lessons and use the expedition website more often to further my understanding of the topics we study.

I will be doing fortnightly check-ins with crew to make sure they are showing integrity and working hard to achieve the targets I have set them. I hope that as a group, we can all maintain that level of crew accountability and make each other proud by fine tuning and ironing out those targets.

During another crew session we were inspired by the words of Greta Thunberg, and her impassioned TED talk on climate change. I felt this was a really good example of a WAGOLL of their HUMAN final product and also was an issue that my crew are really passionate about.

It moved us on to a really interesting discussion about why nothing (or not enough) was being done about climate change?

In previous weeks in the news, Lexi pointed out that billions had been raised in the space of a week for Notre Dame Cathedral, yet the destruction of our planet was not attracting any attention despite calls from climate scientists and experts on the issue. Dylan built on this, pointing out how many of the victims of Grenfell are still homeless, where are the millions being raised for them and other victims of tragedy? We’re going to follow the climate stories over the next few weeks and also address what we might be able to do as a crew to contribute our bit, however small, to protecting our planet.

These last two weeks have also seen the birthdays of three members of Crew Turing: Lexi, Alice and Torran! We ended the week on a fully deserved high – eating cake!

STEAM Expert visit by Tapton Sixth Form students who built their own satellite!

By J Townson5th May 2019

During our current STEAM expedition E25 were fortunate to meet three students from Tapton School in Sheffield who have built their own satellite! Emily, Emma and Sam visited us as experts for Case Study 1 of our Escape Earth expedition, as we have been looking at the structure of the universe, galaxies and our solar system.

In addition to their A Level studies at Tapton, our experts have taken part in a six month engineering project, run under the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) run by EDT and supported by an electronics company called ARM. They were given a microprocessor and a £200 budget, which they decided to use to build and program a small satellite. They had strict parameters to fit within and had to create something which would be viable in space. This took a great deal of planning, problem solving and research, as well as using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, using a 3D printer for 19 hours during their residential at Sheffield Hallam University and showcasing their work at a Science Fair to industry experts.

Crew Ali – data, pledges and a bit of show and tell!

By J Townson25th April 2019

Crew Ali have had a busy couple of weeks, trying to get lots done around our days off for Easter. We have checked in as a Crew this week by sharing what we have been up to over the holiday.

The data drop results have of course been at the forefront of our minds, as we analysed our HOWLs grades first of all and this is discussed in a previous blog post. This week and last we have been focussing on individual subject grades, taking into account progress against MEGs in English, History, Geography, Science, Maths and Spanish. Each Crew member has completed their own data record which we can use as a supporting document in our Student Led Conferences in June. We have used colour coding to help us see what progress we are making against MEGs.

It is really important to mention that we look at progress very much on an individual basis; two Crew members may have the same grade, but it is their Minimum Expected Grade which we measure against, rather than one another. We’re very open about grades and it’s important we can celebrate and further challenge those that have met or even exceeded their MEGs and support those who are working towards theirs. A student’s MEG will rarely change, but the content will become increasingly more difficult as they go through school, so even if you meet your MEG now, be prepared to keep working even harder to maintain that grade!

Each Crew member is also working on an individual pledge which they will focus on in the next three weeks leading up to our May holiday.

Zak: I pledge to achieve my MEG in at least one more subject.

Billy: I will maintain my Work Hard grades and increase some of them to at least a 4.0 by arriving on time and participating fully and mindfully in class.

Charlie: I pledge to keep trying my hardest in maths and stay focused on what is going on in the lesson. I will try to get more work done and do it to the best of my ability at all times.

We also saw a new side to one another when we did a ‘show and tell’ activity on Tuesday morning, including visits from Ruby’s budgie, Blue, and Caiden’s stick insect, Woody; a taster of one of Zak’s favourite albums by Billie Eilish; a photo of Charlie’s top of the league football team; Lacey’s new business venture making hair bands; Cerys’ family holiday album from a visit to Rome, as well as many more.

Decipher the Data Drop

By Katie Haughey23rd April 2019

I have been immensely impressed with my crew’s contribution to our school’s community during the week running up to the Easter bank holiday, considering lots of their friends and family are off! Here’s a snapshot of what’s gone on in crew over that period:

Abi brought in a phenomenal model of our solar system in to show us, that links in really nicely with the STEAM expedition, Escape Earth. Her craftsmanship and quality really blew me away, it’s great to see her going above and beyond to set an example of what a 4.0+ (in the excellence category) looks like! As part of our academic crew session and assessment prep for maths, we did a Kahoot competition, where quickfire questions were presented to crew as a race against the clock. They clearly knew their stuff, and I’d like to congratulate Jess for coming first in both rounds! On Thursday, we enjoyed a table tennis tournament with Crew Mandela. It was lovely to get appreciations from members of their crew at the end of the session on how respectful Crew Turing had been throughout.

I was also treated to many a culinary delights from numerous members of my crew, with Torran and Junia’s blueberry pancakes being very memorable.

The final activity we participated in as a crew before breaking up for almost a week off was an individual breakdown of their personal data. We spent a lot of time last week looking at our stats as a crew, but I thought it would be more meaningful if we assessed our progress against our HOWLs data from November to see if there had been gains or losses, and explore why that might be:

I gave them the following criteria for them to colour code their HOWLs, on whether they had gone up/down.

HOWL Progress Colour Codes:

– 1.0 or more = red
– 0.9 to – 0.5 = orange
– 0.4 to – 0.1 = yellow
stayed the same = no colour
+ 0.1 to 0.4 = green
+ 0.5 to 0.9 = blue
+ 1.0 or above = purple

These codes match the criteria of how we colour code our spreadsheets and the charts we keep up across the school, to make it meaningful to my crew. We did this as a silent solo activity, some students noticed patterns and were able to decipher why their ‘work hard’ might have gone down ever so slightly, be it, they were contributing less in class, or maybe hadn’t been as diligent with their homework. There was also a lot of positives to take away from their stats too, such as Dylan’s, who had made huge progress in HUMAN after improving his productivity and concentration in session!

Each member of my crew annotated their thoughts on why they had been awarded the HoWLs they had received, while I floated around to discuss their progress individually. I was amazed to hear their thoughts about their learning and character development, and thought that we should seize this opportunity to set some further targets based on our findings.

I’ve left them with the task of over these next three days we have in crew, to set individualised targets which I will publish with next week’s blog post based on their data. Not only were they left with that to think about for extended study, they have also been sent home with these gorgeous easter bunnies that were kindly given to each member of crew by Torran, which he had handmade – what a great way to end the week!

Advance notice: E25 Fieldwork on Tuesday 4th June 2019 (7:45am start and 5pm finish)

By J Townson17th April 2019

E25 are well into Case Study 1 of our new STEAM expedition Escape Earth now and we are already looking ahead to our next fieldwork activity. This will be on Tuesday 4th June.

Please make arrangements for your child to arrive at school no later than 7:45am and be collected around 5pm.

The arrangements are as follows:

All students to arrive at school by 7:45am for a prompt departure at 8am.
Students will need to bring a packed lunch and bottle of water (no glass bottles or fizzy drinks or sweets.)
Please bring any prescribed medication required, clearly labelled in a plastic bag or envelope with your child’s name and required dosage. This includes travel sickness tablets where necessary as we will be travelling via coach for approximately 2 hours.
Sensible clothing, coat and shoes need to be worn (we will be outside for part of the day)
Students will return to school at approximately 5pm – although we will post updates on the website and social media.
If any parents would like to know the destination of our fieldwork or have any questions, please contact me at [email protected]

Many thanks for your support.

What is Crew?

By A Brown17th April 2019

I could comment on the excellent work we’ve done around tracking HOWLs recently; or as a Crew nominating three students who have made excellent progress towards their pledges; or how we’ve recently resolved conflict through the power of circling up and discussing issues maturely and sensitively.

But when two students make an effort to give everyone an Easter egg and a bag of chocolates, followed by two special presentations to students who they think have worked particularly hard to overcome challenges, you know something is going right.

That is Crew.

A huge thank you to Denim and Thea who brought Easter eggs and chocolate for everyone today, unprompted and out of the goodness of their own hearts.

I was particularly blown away by their decision to reward Lucie and Zach for the hard work, progress towards their individual targets, and work around their HOWLs. Complete with signed mug!

We continue to face our challenges, our ups and downs, our need for some positive reinforcement of expectations, some motivation to get going, encouragement – that’s life!

But life is better when there is Crew.

Should humans leave Earth?

By J Townson11th April 2019

This is the guiding question E25 students will be pondering for the next 14 weeks as we embark on our new STEAM expedition, Escape Earth.

We are just coming to the end of our immersion activities, which included:

a visit to the Diamond Building at the University of Sheffield, boasting cutting edge physics facilities, as well as giving us the opportunity to take part in higher education access workshops and a tour of the university campus;
a Notice and Wonder Gallery Walk activity in a circle around a large cardboard geodesic dome (hinting at part of the final product!);
watching our Anchor Text DVD: The 11th Hour, which documents the impact humans are having on the earth’s climate and the changes we need to make if we are to save the human race from extinction;
an expert visit from astrophotographer Chris Peace, who took us on a journey through space and time, showcasing his spectacular images of deep space objects.

Our first case study, Our Place in the Universe, is just the beginning. Make sure to ask one of our students what they think so far!

Please do check out our expedition website and watch it grow and develop as we move through the expedition.

HOW are Crew Ali doing in their HOWLs?

By J Townson6th April 2019

At XP East, not only are students given grades by their teachers which indicate how they are progressing relative to their Minimum Expected Grade (MEG), they are also graded on their Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs). Mr Portman has shared the league tables with us this week and students spent time in Community Meeting dissecting the data, drawing conclusions as to how much and why each Crew may have improved in their average HOWLs.

I’m proud to say Crew Ali are doing exceptionally well and are consistently high in the league tables, just as earlier in the year. Since the last data drop we have made improvements overall and part of this is due to an increased awareness and working knowledge of how we can develop these Habits in and out of school.

This week Crew Ali have been digging into the data to consider how our HOWLs might have had an impact on our grades. The table below gives you a flavour of where we are as a Crew. Each column represents Work Hard, Get Smart or Be Kind in each of HUMAN (WHH, GSH, BKH), Maths (WHM, GSM, BKM) and Science (WHS, GSS, BKS):

The Crew data above has been sorted according to the total HOWLs average for each student, with our lowest average of 3.0 still within the ‘secure’ range expected of all students – well done Crew Ali! We noticed that although we have some HOWLs which are below expectations, in the orange range, these are only slightly below and those students are determined to pull them up as we go forward, identifying what they need to do to improve. Another Crew member compared this with the huge number of green or ‘excellent’ HOWL grades which have contributed to those students meeting or even significantly exceeding their MEGs. Those who are struggling with their Work Hard, Get Smart of Be Kind HOWLs grades are being supported and we really do encourage dialogue between all members of the Crew as to how we can improve, regardless of where we are in our HOWLs learning journey.

Well done Crew Ali – I’m looking forward to more discussion and analysis in next week’s Academic Crew session!

X Block Nutrition: reminder for students to bring ingredients for sessions next week

By J Townson5th April 2019

This term, E25 are learning about nutrition in one of their three X Block sessions each week. We have looked at what constitutes a balanced diet, discussed the components of the Eatwell Guide and the nutrients present in different foods.

This week, students have been working in pairs or groups of three to plan how they will cook a plate of food which meets requirements of their choosing; for example, a vegetarian starter, a healthy dessert or a free-from main course.

Each group have a meal planner document which will be signed off by me on Google Docs before they can cook. These MUST be completed before the session, otherwise they will not be able to cook.

The meals will be cooked in their normal X Block session with me on either Monday or Thursday morning.

Your child will have been allocated responsibility within their group to provide certain ingredients of their choosing. Please could you support them in ensuring that these are purchased in good time so they can bring them into school on either Monday or Thursday for their X Block session (they know which groups they are in and which day they are cooking on).

If you would like to contact me to discuss arrangements for your son or daughter, please contact me at school by phone or by email on [email protected]

Thanks in advance for your support.