‘Fish Bowl’

By J Smith25th November 2018

Crew Mandela are into the final stages of their SLC preparation! Beth was the first to model this using a ‘fishbowl’ protocol for the crew. The fishbowl allows other students to observe and critique the SLC process and give kind specific feedback to Beth using the rubrics. Fantastic feedback was given from Alfie as a reminder to give eye contact during the SLC.

A huge appreciation goes to Beth on behalf of the the crew as it really helped other crew members to see how they could improve their SLC delivery and preparation.

How do we build an Eco School of our own?

21st November 2018J Townson

E24’s most recent STEAM Learning Target was “I can evaluate to what extent my school meets the criteria to become an Eco School”. The Guiding Question for this joint HUMAN-STEAM expedition is “How can we build a place of our own?”

They researched what it takes to apply for Eco School Bronze Accreditation and presented their findings to E25 students; consequently they drummed up so much interest we now have 47 nominees for 8 positions on the new Eco Committee!

E24 students then carried out their own Environmental Reviews of the school, identifying what we are doing well and what we could improve on across 10 topic areas. Thank you to all the staff who helped in answering questions ranging from “do school meals use fish from sustainable sources?” to “what steps have XP East taken to reduce energy usage?” All of this builds on the work we have been doing since September on energy usage, sustainability and efficient building design.

Finally the students each created their own Action Plan with suggestions which the final Eco Committee may take forward in the real whole-school Action Plan. Here are photographs of a selection, including Nathan’s, which considered increasing student intake of fruit at sporting events; through live class critique of his work on the board Nathan could share his original ideas as well as gain constructive feedback as to how to improve his answers in the ‘monitoring’ column.


Watch this space to learn more about who is selected by their Crews for positions on the Eco Committee as well as the Committee’s final three focus topics for the school Action Plan…

Crew Turing prepare for SLCs

By Katie Haughey19th November 2018

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!

 

Crew Ali: Look beyond instead of backwards

By J Townson16th November 2018

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.

 

Taking inspiration from the everyday

By Katie Haughey9th November 2018

In X-Block this week the year 8 classes have taken advantage of the seasonal transition and how this can inspire our art practices.

We did a session on creating a still life composition, firstly by looking at how some professional artists create flat lay photographs using inspiration from the everyday (https://www.haarkon.co.uk/portfolio-still-life/):

The class were given 5 minutes in small groups to select their autumnal artifacts to create an aesthetically pleasing flat lay, and I have got to say, I think that they are christmas card worthy!

The classes were also given some time to work on a still life in lesson, they each selected a leaf and were allowed 5 minutes with a drawing pen to complete a short sketch, followed by a further 10 minutes to do a second draft in pencil. The discussions that arose from working with the two media (pen and pencil) were really interesting, and the focus and attention to detail in what was produced was fantastic, great job year 8!

Here’s an example of how, in just a short space of time, Theone was able to produce some really proportionally accurate and well shaded pieces of work. I can’t wait to move onto using colours next week so we can capture what truly makes autumn so magnificent!

 

E24 Pioneer/Explorer Extended Study: Sustainable building design write-up

By J Townson11th October 2018

Both 8 Pioneer and 8 Explorer have an extended writing task for which the deadline is next Thursday 18th October.  The question is How was XP East sustainably designed around the principle of…? – the students complete the title by including their personal area of interest following the visit from XP East’s architect, Leanne Stamp, last week. 

All the resources to support this task, including the assessment rubric, are available on Google Classroom and students have been given time in a number of sessions this week to begin their writing, with peer-critique of their work and class-critique of WAGOLLs to support their development of ideas.

The majority of students will type their final draft, but if they have limited access at home to devices they will be permitted to handwrite their work in their book.

Please do email me if you have any questions.

Mrs Townson

Climbing our Everests in Crew Ali

By J Townson11th October 2018

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!