Crew Shackleton have been working hard to focus on the real purpose on SLCs to get the most out of their learning and experience. Lots of discussion, peer support, planning and hard work.
These are going to be good!
Category : 8 Crew
It has been a busy couple of weeks since returning from half term for Crew Turing! We’ve returned rested, and ready to prepare for our student led conferences which will commence on Tuesday 27th November.
During our time off, Alan Turing hit the headlines – there has been speculation that he is likely to be the new face of the polymer £50 note! As a crew, we discussed why we believed he was the most worthy candidate, and we each took turns to vote for him on the Bank of England’s survey. You can vote too, here’s the link: https://app.keysurvey.co.uk/f/1348443/10fc/
I was delighted to hear of the many fantastic achievements from numerous members of Crew Turing over the past weeks. I’d like to congratulate Lexi for placing 4th in a national gymnastics competition and Jess for her horse riding achievements. Not only this, I was genuinely moved by the beautiful remembrance service that C25 held last week. Seeing you all develop and grow as people, standing up in front of a packed out audience and showing the courage you did was inspiring.
If your service was anything to go by, then the SLCs are going to be amazing! Judging from all the positive news I recieve from members of staff about my crew, having looked through their portfolios, and hearing the lovely appreciations that are made in community meetings, there is certainly lots to be discussed in terms of their progress in the first 10 weeks at XP East. The link to sign up is below if you have not done already:
https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/70a0b4ca9ac2ba4ff2-student
We discuss our struggles or goals frequently in Crew, we acknowledge that here at XP East there is always room for development and improvement in our academic work, but also through thethe charac traits and HOWLs. In the upcoming two weeks, we’ll be populating our crew notice wall with personal targets which we will set in our SLCs. We will then hold each other to account once a week, during academic crew, where we will evidence the steps we are taking in order to achieve these targets.
Watch this space!
This week in Crew Ali, we have been preparing for our Student-Led Conferences by sending formal emails to our parents and planning which three pieces of work we will share with them: one to demonstrate mastery in our learning, one which we are proud of and one which needs improvement.
Mrs Townson quoted Kyle from last week’s Community Meeting, when he said we should “look beyond instead of backwards”. Yes, our SLCs will involve a great deal of reflection on how we have been working since we began our XP East journey, but they also focus on the future beyond the SLC and how we will continue to improve. We are definitely not looking backwards at the types of Parents’ Evenings we had in Primary School; we are looking forward to sharing with our parents how we can be accountable for our own learning and facilitate a formal event which illustrates the depth of our learning journey so far.
A fantastic week in Crew, the highlight of our week being the team-building competition against Crew Ali on Wednesday.
Take a look at the video below for a glimpse into our morning.
The power of Crew brilliantly demonstrated at 1:07!
Last week, Crew Ali focussed on climbing their personal and academic mountains. Some we had discussed at the beginning of the week, some were more unexpected. We dealt with our emotions, physical and mental challenges and worked as a Crew to get through the week.
Ruby’s mountain was to “think about what I say before I say it”; being more mindful of her mountain really helped her to begin to achieve her aims.
Lacey said “my mountain was to stop cracking my fingers and I still do it a bit but not all the time”
Leoni chose to “try to use grammar correctly in class” and she feels she has improved in HUMAN this week in her poetry writing as a result of focussing on this mountain.
Charlie’s mountain was to “work hard in every lesson because I really enjoy HUMAN but I want to show my determination in other subjects too”; he’s getting there, but still has a way to go!
Cerys said she wanted to “put my hand up in HUMAN more often” and she is improving here.
Tom’s mountain was to “get the best poem possible in HUMAN”; he’s on his third draft this week and is feeling really positive about it.
Marshall’s mountain was “not to laugh in lessons unless it is appropriate” and his Crew have reported that he has worked really hard on this area. He appreciated the Crew this morning for keeping him on track.
Well done Crew Ali! Now to get further up the mountain or tackle the next!
Firstly, I’d like to state a massive thank you to all members of Crew Turing that helped out with our Y6 Open Evening, you were fantastic! I was so impressed to see Sammi’s, Jess’, Callum’s, Dylan’s and Charlotte’s confidence in talking to parents and year 6s about their expedition. They have grown so much in their maturity and character just 6 weeks into school and I really appreciate them taking time out their evenings to help us out!
This week during crew we’ve had three separate focuses, one being stewardship, another being their WW1 expedition, and the final being a personal focus on their life so far.
Whilst at Outward Bound, we came across the protocols of “de-gunge” and “leave no trace”. We spoke this week about how important it is that we respect our environment and how we can adopt these same protocols in school, especially after our busy open evenings. This is why stewardship has been our first focus, we spent half a session clearing up after we had the year 6s visit. We discussed the value we felt in keeping our school tidy, and how it should not be left to other staff to sort it.
Another highlight from our sessions has been the time we spent dedicating to show and tell. Lewis brought in some real ammunition which we passed round and some members of the crew were able to identify. Callum and Alice showed us pictures from their weekend trips to War Museums, which was insightful and really interesting! Finally, Reece brought in his family’s medals and historical documentation, as well as some pictures, which we really enjoyed looking through. I love to see how engrossed we all are in our expeditions, and how we’re taking time at the weekends and evenings to do additional research!
Finally, this week we’re working on a piece of art work in our crew, where the students will create a ‘river of their life’. We discussed pivotal events in their lives, such as starting school, siblings being born, getting pets etc., which they have all been encouraged to add to their rivers. It’s opened up some really amazing discussions about where our crew members have lived (Oman and South Africa!) and what fantastic achievements they have made, be it sporting, academic, with their friendships or families.
Jess’ piece showed just how incredibly creative she is, she added a beautiful drawing of herself kayaking, which she also competes in during the weekends – I loved this little touch that made her river so personal.
I look forward to updating you with our final products!
Crew Mandela have again had a Humanities focus this week- our academic Tuesday crew was focused on Hums book work. The crew held each other accountable and showcased the work they were most proud of and presented why. They also held each other accountable for any work that did not showcase the HOWLS. Outstanding contributions to the discussion came from a number of students, in particular Holly N. who showcased some outstanding craftsmanship and quality of draft and redraft work.
Crew have started Accelerated Reader now. They have taken their STAR reader test and now Tuesdays in Crew are dedicated to reading and taking the AR quizzes.
Reading is so important for building vocabulary and stretching the imagination – as well as reading in Crew and during school hours, pupils should also be reading for 2 hours at home over the course of a week.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies…the man who never reads lives only one.”
George R. R. Martin
When Crew Ali circled up for the first time, it was on the first of four days at Outward Bound in Wales. Now four weeks into the academic term at XP East, we spent this morning’s Crew answering the question ‘What mountain will you climb this week?’ Our answers were both personal and academic, but what we can be sure of is that the mountain we climbed in Wales was the first of many mountains we will climb as a Crew, supporting one another, holding each other accountable and making sure we reflect on how we got to the top.
Here is another taste of what we got up to in Wales, at the start of our journey together:
Today in Crew we had our ‘check-ins’ where the pupils spoke about what they had done at the weekend. It’s lovely to hear what an exciting and relaxing time crew had!
We then reflected on the last week – most importantly, looking at the praise sheet. I was filled with pride to see so many of Crew Parkinson being praised for the wonderful hard work they have done and the compassion they have shown in their lessons and around school.
Here’s some examples of how fantastic the pupils in Crew Parkinson are:
Kristian – “Kristian has been a superstar this week. I am forever catching him being kind, asking if I need little jobs doing, or for extra work in extended study. He tries really hard in maths which is what I like to see. Keep it up Kristian!”
Marcus – “Marcus has shown mature conduct when performing practicals in STEAM”
Dylan – “Dylan was nominated and voted for by his class to be put onto the praise sheet for consistently working hard in HUMs lessons and being kind”
Shanna – “Shanna has been nominated by her peers for her hard work in Drama”
Rosie – “Rosie stepped up to the role of Director for her role play group in X Block Drama, enhancing the flow of the piece and using thought tracking to add depth to the narrative”
Keep it up Crew!