Friday is definitely my favourite Crew Day.
Firstly, it’s Quiz Friday so we start the day with a bit of healthy (but not always friendly!) competition by splitting into teams and seeing who can score the most points for the whole-school Crew Quiz League. Congratulations this week to Team Wilmot who beat Team Parker by just 1 point.
Secondly, I love Friday’s because we have an extra Crew session in the afternoon. We use this as an opportunity to reflect on the past week. This week, I asked Crew for the highlights and lowlights of the week.
The Highs…
As Crew Leader, there have been so many highlights:
One of my highlights is welcoming Mr Wilmot to Crew Finch. He is currently volunteering at the school and will be joining us in Crew three days a week. He’s already contributed so much to our sessions and we’re looking forward to spending more time with him.
Another highlight for me was seeing how well Crew have done on their recent Star Reader test, an assessment of students’ reading and comprehension skills.
Miss Johnson recently shared a presentation with us on why reading is so important. During the presentation we learnt that:
- The current GCSE exams (including subjects such as Maths and Science) require students to have a reading age of at least 15 years 7 months.
- Recently studies have found that for the latest exams the average reading age was just 10 years 7 months, indicating a 5 year disparity between where they are at and where they need to be, to be able to access a question.
I’m delighted that three of our Crew members are already above this reading age – Noah, Brendan and Tom – and their love of reading is definitely evident in their academic work and attainment.
Being told by two members of staff how well Libby is doing in sessions was a major highlight of the week for me! It’s no secret that she struggled to keep up with her learning during lockdown but since coming back she has really taken charge of her own learning and has started to create her own revision aids during lessons. Great work, Libby!
Meanwhile, Mackenzie’s lowlight actually ended up being his highlight!
Mackenzie was struggling to manage his behaviour is lessons (low level stuff bit enough to disrupt his own and others learning) so was placed on a behaviour tracker at the start of the week. He told us that being on a tracker has actually helped him focus more in class and he is enjoys having set targets to work towards in class. He was given the target to achieve a 3 across Work Hard, Get Smart and Be Kind in all sessions, but he has absolutely smashed this target by consistently working to a level of 4 and 4.5! I’m so proud of your attitude and work ethic, Mackenzie and this just goes to show that you CAN do it!
Other Crew highlights included enjoying the challenge of Further Maths (Tom), sorting out some friendship issues (Dakota) and Bryn’s highlight was just being back and settled in school!
…and the Lows
As we worked round the circle, one crew member had the courage to share with us that he didn’t have any highlights to share and that he actually felt a little ‘lost’ since returning to school. Crew allowed him to explore why he felt like this, offering guidance and support in a compassionate and respectful manner. As he spoke, others had the courage to share their own thoughts and worries.
What came out of this is an acknowledgment that, even though we’re back in school, the new normal is anything but normal!
Some of us are obviously still struggling to cope with the previous lockdown, current restrictions, and uncertainty about he future.
It’s something we’ve all agreed to explore in more detail during Monday’s Crew session.
The highlight for me from this is that Crew instantly recognised that a fellow crew member needed their support. Their problem has become “our” problem because… #wearecrew
