Donde quiera que vayas

E28’s Pioneer had an outstanding session in Spanish on Today, they started off by going through ‘things they could do’ at the weekend and how to say this in Spanish along with where they would do these. Such as, Voy al cine. Voy a ver una película’ (‘I am going to the cinema. I am going to watch a film’). 

Students then made their way outside of the classroom to conduct their surveys of what their peers were doing over the weekend, in Spanish of course!

During this task the students were impeccable in the way that they conducted themselves.

From their surveys they were then asked to write a paragraph of what they had found out about their peers’ weekend plans. This encouraged students to use the guidance provided to push to ‘excellence’ on the rubric given to allow them to assess where they are at.

Throughout  the session, Pioneer’s HOWLs and character traits were fantastic, they showed courage, integrity, compassion, showed craftsmanship and quality, worked hard, got smart and were all kind to others.

Well done!

Señor Pearson and Señora Barnes

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.

E26 and E25 have been learning about warm and cool colours in their X Block art sessions.

They have a really good understanding of this, as you can see from their work!

E25 (Year 8) STEAM Presentation of Learning

The Year 8 STEAM presentation of learnings will be held on:

  • Pioneer: Wednesday 18th December, 5-6PM at XP East

  • Explorer: Thursday 19th December 5-6PM at XP East

The students look forward to sharing the work they’ve been studying in the STEAM expedition, where they have been working towards the guiding question “What is the state of the nation’s health and what should we do about it?”

We welcome you to invite family and friends to the event, sign in will begin at 4:45PM on both nights. We also ask that students remain in school from 3:15PM until the event, if there’s an issue with this don’t hesitate to drop me an email: [email protected]

E24 (Y8) Fieldwork: 7th June 2019

E24 students will be out on fieldwork on Friday 7th June, 7.45am-4pm.

As this is an immersion activity, the location will be kept secret until the day, when we will also reveal the Guiding Question for our new expedition (can you believe it’s the last one of the current school year?!)

Please take note of the details below:

Students need to arrive at school no later than 7.45am, to ensure prompt departure at 8am.

  • Students will need to bring a packed lunch and bottle of water (no glass bottles, fizzy drinks or sweets.)  A packed lunch will be provided for those students receiving free school meals.
  • 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 1.5 hours.
  • Sensible clothing, coat and shoes need to be worn (we will be outside for most of the day.) Sandals/sliders/open toe shoes are not permitted, but trainers are fine.
  • I know we can’t predict the weather but if sunshine is forecast, please make sure your child has sunscreen and sunhat. Or, if it’s forecast rain, please send them with an appropriate waterproof jacket (with a hood) and suitable footwear.

We will arrive back at school at 4pm.  However, this is dependant on traffic so we’ll keep you updated via social media.

If you have any questions about the fieldwork, please contact your child’s Crew Leader or email [email protected]

Y8/E24 Assessment reminder

Students in C24 have their end of case study assessment on Wednesday 17/04/19 this week. This will be an exam of 1-6 mark questions and a combination of the work we have been doing on:

  • Magnets
  • Voltage, current and resistance
  • Building circuits
  • Electricity and how it works
  • Static Electricity
  • National Grid

For revision students will be able to use the Case Study 2 resources on the expedition website and the explore further page on the website also.

Expedition Website High Voltage 

 

 

 

 

My most enjoyable time as a teacher!

Below are a few highlights of the last STEAM expedition ‘Why am I me?’
This has been by far my most enjoyable time whilst teaching in secondary.
All thanks to the hard work put in by C24 students and learning coaches of XP East.

Fieldwork: Leeds University

 

Presentation of learning and Final product: Student led experiment demo

 

Expedition Wall Curation: Photo of students at various stages of their life

Is Knowledge Power?

Following on from a successful POL of ‘Why am I me?’, students in Year 8 started this week a STEAM expedition called ‘High Voltage’  Over the following two months, we will explore the guiding question:

‘Is Knowledge Power?’

  

Immersion

The immersion for our expedition focused on the key themes of ‘Where is it from?’ and ‘What’s so shocking about it?’, including: gallery walks, BBK, notice, wonder questions and silent conversation. This suggested and provided clues to the content of the expedition before the guiding question was revealed. We investigated a murder that resulted in a criminal being put to death via the Electric chair!

 

Say Hello to Jeff!

This is Jeff! Jeff was the creation of Alfie and Adam in Pioneer STEAM expedition ‘Why Me?’

Jeff was the product of genetic inheritance. Pioneer found that some characteristics are controlled by a single gene, such as fur in animals and red-green colour blindness in humans. Each gene might have different forms, and these are called alleles. The monster Jeff shows the dominant and recessive genes in shown in the Phenotypes! Great work Pioneer!