Wow! What a week. It was absolutely brilliant to be reunited with Crew after the Summer holidays. The guiding question for this week was ‘how crew are you?’
Here’s a summary of our wonderful week:
Tuesday: we had a check in where we shared the highlights of our summer holidays. It was wonderful to hear about the holidays, days out and family visits the crew had over the summer. We then discussed what we want from crew in year 8 and agreed to keep building crew over this new academic year, working on specific areas that need improving. Next, came the team building games – they ranged from activities revolving around construction to races to problem solving, it’s safe to say there was lots of laughter involved and communication skills being put into use.
Wednesday: we went on our Hike in the Yorkshire Wolds. Again, it was great to see crew chatting together and enjoying themselves in the beautiful surroundings. It was also tough at times with a few hills and a fair distance to walk – not to mention the rain (thanks to the Great British Summer). However, crew’s spirits were not dampened and there was a lively atmosphere amongst us as they were supporting each other, sharing food and checking in to see if they were all alright or if they needed a rest – that’s crew!
Thursday: this was by far the most challenging day for a lot of crew (me included!). We spent the day in Derbyshire completing outdoor activities such as orienteering and abseiling. It was great to see Crew working together to find the answers to the questions along the Monsal Trail – offering to go ahead to scout out different paths and helping Ava with the navigation, as well as double checking each others answers to make sure we got the right one. Needless to say this hard work paid off, we came first out of the Year 8 crews in orienteering, getting full marks! Next came the abseiling – get ready for nerves, tears and smiles. This was a real challenge for some members of Crew but it was lovely to see everyone supporting and encouraging each other. They truly showed courage and compassion when completing this activity. Dylan was a stand out student for me – he really faced a massive fear and with the help of Crew (particularly Rosie) he overcame that fear. What a massive achievement and we are all so proud. Feel the fear and do it anyway! 
Friday: Back to school! We reflected on the question ‘how crew are you?’. The students completed a solo where they reflected on and answered the questions:
- what are your strengths as a crew?
- what are your challenges as a crew?
- how are you going to overcome those challenges in year 8, as a crew?
Once crew members returned from their solo, we discussed their answers and completed a silent conversation protocol to feedback ideas. Next, we had the remainder of the day to prepare and practice our Crew’s presentation of learning to answer the guiding question and share with the rest of the year and parents our strengths and areas to work on as a crew. This was a wonderful way to see how united we are as a crew and we had some fantastic discussions. We explored the idea that in our crew we have very different personalities but that brings different strengths. Shanna and Dylan thought of a lovely idea that crew is like a jigsaw puzzle – every puzzle piece brings something different but the image is only complete with all the pieces, just like crew.
So, after kicking year 8 off with a wonderful week, I am absolutely bursting with excitement for this new academic year with crew. We have identified our strengths and challenges as a crew and agreed that together we will work on these to make crew even stronger. I really do believe that this week we have become closer and made our relationships stronger and I am so proud of and thrilled to have Harvey, Aaron, Ava, Shanna, Dylan, Rosie, Florence, Kristian, Lacey, Marcus, Bob and Callum in my Crew.
It seems appropriate to end with some words from Harvey, which overtime has become our accidental crew catchphrase: huzzah and hurrah!