I’m really proud of this photo. It represents just 5 days of the 1st week back after our 2 week holiday. It represents the quality of student experience at our school.
We use Diptic app to create our photo collages – it’s great but it’s limited to 9 photos for one collage, and I could have done with an option for 20 photos such was the week that we’ve had. In all honesty though, the activities and events that this week has contained haven’t really been out of the ordinary for us, but here we go nevertheless…
As part of the Immersion process for launching expeditions we went on Fieldwork to Leeds University as part of STEM’s ‘That’s Sick!’ expedition. This blended discussion and activities around the University experience with input on viruses, pathogens and diseases from student Doctors and professionals. It also helped our students to realise our ‘Common Mission’ (that as a Crew everyone will go to University if they so wish). This led to discussions during our review the following morning around working in the NHS, being an Engineer, working for the Police, wanting to work in Mental Health etc.
After Monday and in HUMS we continued with our ‘Stand Up!’ expedition and we’ve moved onto Case Study 2 which is an exploration of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. We began to watch, discuss and learn about ‘Roots’ – a powerful TV mini series that covers serious themes from the trade: kidnap, torture, sorrow, assault, enslavement, loss of freedom, love of family etc. (We’ve all fallen in love with Kunta Kinte and the struggles that he has encountered so far – some of us have even shed tears for what has happened so far.)
On Tuesday and Wednesday Kirsty Fong came into XP East as an expert and dissected a Rat to explore its anatomy and physiology. We used my iPhone 7 on a stand to connect to the classroom TV via the Airplay feature which allowed us to zoom into the specific features of the dissection. This provided a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the Rat’s body, and directly linked to STEM’s Guiding Question ‘What is my body made of why do I get ill?’
We’ve also launched a pilot which revolves around an exciting Maths initiative (more on that another time) and our Community meetings provided more opportunities for students to apologise and appreciate each other, and make stands about what they’re unhappy with or want to challenge.
From start to finish: University fieldwork, experts, ‘Roots‘, Community meetings, Maths initiatives – everything was met with an incredible sense of maturity, focus, and commitment from all of our students in ways in which I’ve never experienced before. A real sense of purpose has been established.
All of this. In just 5 days.