Well, what a Sports Day! Crew Ali are delighted to share the news that our crew were the overall winners on our very first Sports Day at XP East. It was a tough day, with inter-crew rounders and football tournaments followed by track and field events at the fantastic Doncaster Keepmoat Stadium facilities.
The weather was great, the sense of community was palpable and today just felt like…Crew! I was particularly impressed with how all of our students across the school pulled together through the events where some individuals needed more support and encouragement. A huge thank you to all our parents and friends for helping our students to prepare and for your involvement this year. Our students are a credit to you all.
School starts on Tuesday 27th August where we will be embarking on a week of crew.
Throughout the week students are required to be at school at normal time (8:30am) but finish times will be slightly different depending on the schedule for the day. Students will require a pen, pencil and ruler this week and a kit list has been sent out for Wednesday and Thursday.
The week’s schedule will be as follows:
Tuesday – In school with a normal finish time of 3:15. There is no extended study in school this week.
Wednesday – Out of school on crew activities so students will need a backpack with a packed lunch, a bottle of water, hiking boots and waterproofs. Please check the kit list for further details of the required clothing. Please can students come to school in trainers, not their walking boots. We are expected to be back at school for around 5pm.
Thursday – Out of school on crew activities so students will need a backpack with a packed lunch, a bottle of water, hiking boots and waterproofs. Please check the kit list for further details of the required clothing. Please can students come to school in trainers with their walking boots in their bag. We are expected to be back at school for around 5pm.
Friday – Students will be in school all day. Their week will be completed with a Presentation of Learning commencing at 2:15pm which parents are invited to attend and support students as they answer their Guiding Question.
Please refer to these important docs and ensure you and your child are familiar with them.
Crew Mandela have been investigating their habits of work and learning this week. This is to fully understand the ‘why’ behind the grades from teachers and understand how they can improve. Students have really taken ownership in the crew to investigate their own HOWLS. There has been a major increase in the crew average for Be Kind that we were especially proud of as a crew. As the sign reads outside the school front gates…
Crew Ali have spent much of their Crew time over the last couple of weeks reviewing their progress, monitoring targets and selecting pieces of work to share with their parents and carers in their Student Led Conferences (SLCs) at the end of the month. This involves a great deal of self-reflection and an opportunity to share successes and challenges with a wider audience, as well as set themselves action plans to ensure they hit the ground running as they start Year 8.
Some students have pledged to ‘get their head down’, whilst others are celebrating smashing their Minimum Expected Grades (MEGs). In all cases, they have to plan what they will say, produce notes or slide shows to support their delivery and ensure they can speak articulately and confidently about their learning.
As their Crew Leader, I’ll be right there with them to support and critique. We are really fortunate at XP East that parents are so involved and supportive of our students, and I look forward to seeing our parents and having a chance to catch up face-to-face too. Keep it up Crew Ali, one week to go until the SLCs begin!
Yesterday during community meeting Mrs Poncia asked X25 about their highlight of the week, and I amongst other members of my crew struggled to pick! We have just six weeks left of this academic year, it is wild to think how quickly my crew’s first year at high school has passed and how much we’ve crammed into 2018-2019.
Both staff and students are winding up to the grand finale of the STEAM and Human expeditions, where they will be working on final products and preparing to share their learning in a presentation of learning. In STEAM, they are continuing on with ‘Escape Earth’ and yesterday their new Human expedition was announced.
On Tuesday X25 visited the Jodrell Bank Space Observatory, which is home to the UK’s largest radio telescope and the 3rd largest in Europe! Each student was immersed in workshops and classes that allowed them to discover elements of our universe, experience Newton’s Laws, and watch real accounts of the astronauts that visit the Space Station. I’ve uploaded the video file above, check out the incredible resources and facilities that we had access to!
We will be taking the lessons we learned from the specialists back into school to help answer the expeditions guiding question:
“Should humans leave Earth?”
With growing reports of the danger that climate change poses, and the scientific advancements in the technology that could allow us to potentially re-locate our species to another planet, X25 will be concluding what they think the future for our species and our home will be. I can’t wait to hear their responses.
I chose the backing track for the video from an album I really love by a band called Public Service Broadcasting, I was struck by this line that was originally part of a JFK speech from 1962:
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things
Not because they are easy, but because they are hard”
I’m taking this particular message back to crew this week. We will be encountering difficulty over the next six weeks with deadlines. We will be setting up Student Led Conferences over the coming weeks, to reflect on and review this years work. We will be finalising products and developing our presentations of learning. It may be the last few weeks, but as per every other day we spend at XP East, I hope that each of my 12 crew members recognises that despite this work being hard, it is also extremely important, and that working hard, getting smart and being kind is fundamental if we are to achieve.
The crew have conducted their own revision session on current resistance and voltage today. Corey and Raven led the revision session where students were asked to construct series and parallel circuits and compare the difference between current drops.
Raven noticed that when a component in a parallel circuit is removed, other bulbs and components still allow for electrons to flow, Raven also noted that this is why houses use parallel circuits and not series!
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]
This week we were fortunate to see some of the artwork Junia has been doing at home, as drawing is a passion of hers. She uses a range of styles and particularly enjoys drawing and painting her favourite anime characters. We discussed the craftsmanship and quality in her work and invited her to to lead a Crew session on drawing skills with Lacey, who is also a keen artist. It also takes courage to share your work with others; well done Junia!
This week Crew Mandela have been completing their final products for expedition High Voltage. This has needed a number of high level skills from the crew including soldering, drilling, scoring and shaping the wood.
Outstanding crew support has come from Raven who has helped the entire crew to finish their designs and complete the base of the boxes. See the image below for a sneak preview of the final games.
A huge thank you to Faith and Lilly today for the student-led crew session. It was an excellent session, enjoyed by every one of us!
Read on below to find out what we did…
Check-In
We were asked to think of a song that portrays how we feel, with an explanation if possible, to share to the rest of the group. “Happy” by Pharrell Williams was a popular choice, but there was an eclectic range within the crew.
Main Task
Everyone then took a piece of paper and some coloured pencils. Faith and Lilly had carefully selected a range of different styles of music, from classical to club classics, and played them to the crew. The objective: draw on your page whatever you feel inspired to draw from the different types of music.
Closing Circle
Finally, we were invited to to circle up around everyone’s artwork and do a Notice Wonder protocol. Lots of originality, including drawing images inspired by the music, such as a beach hut when listening to more tropical music; to a collection of shapes and squiggles that represented the feel and mood of the music.
It’s brilliant to the see the character growth of the students still in year 7 that have grown in confidence to be able to lead their own session and come up with such an excellent idea. Well done, Faith and Lilly.
