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This week has seen the start of Crew Finch’s Y10 Student-Led Conferences. A massive well done to this week’s presenters – Ali, Noah, Mackenzie, Tom and Bryn – for the hard work and integrity evident in all their presentations, which went ahead online with only a few technical glitches! I am one very proud Crew Leader this week (even more so than usual!)
I’m looking forward to more of the same next week. I did email all Crew parents last week with the link to the booking form so if you haven’t already booked, please can I politely remind you to do so before next Thursday (11th Feb) – just email me if you’ve lost the link.
The first SLCs of Y10 are also the first time since the Y9 Passage Presentations that students have had chance to reflect on their academic progress and character growth, as well as presenting examples of their beautiful work. This process has been made easier by the information analysis sheets provided by Mr Allen (thank you, Sir!) They have really made our discussions and reflections much more meaningful, and have helped Crew to come up with some really pertinent pledges and targets.
(ICYMI: I spoke about how we’re using the information analysis and crew narratives to help us frame our pledges for the academic year in this post.)
There has been a new addition to our SLC agenda this time round. Crew have been asked to reflect on their work from home experience, including their online attendance, engagement and productivity. This has meant that we have had some difficult conversations (with more to come during next week’s conferences) but Crew’s self-awareness and honesty around the challenges they are overcoming have been truly humbling. Although I am a little bit heartbroken that one of my Crew thinks that the lockdown period will cause a ‘hinderance’ to his future prospects, despite his absolutely outstanding work ethic and attendance at every single session…
On the subject of attendance…
I’m disappointed to report that I’ve only had 50% attendance at Crew sessions this week. Even more disappointing is the fact that our Crew also have the lowest attendance and engagement levels in online sessions across the whole year group.
However, I don’t want this to overshadow how immensely proud I am of those who are turning up on time to Crew and daily lessons every single day: Tom, Thomas, Ali, Noah, Dakota and Kobe deserve a special mention and we’ll have to think about how we can celebrate your lockdown learning achievements once we’re back in school 🙂
So, I’ll just let Noah have the final word with his perfect explanation of why every day at school matters:
Here is the second installment of the expeditionary arts gallery to show the beautiful work that pupils at XP and XPE are creating at home.Â
Absolutely amazing work!Â
Last week, the whole of year 8 in XP and XP East had an absolute treat when an expert came to talk to us! The expert was Dr John Hart from Sheffield Hallam University and he came in (virtually) to tell us all about his research in using knowledge of forces and physics to help optimise performance in sport.
This was all to help with the current year 8 STEAM expedition ‘Flying High’ where students are grappling with the question: ‘How can we use STEAM to optimise participation and performance in mixed gender sport?’
We got to learn from Dr John all about how to use engineering and maths go make a bike go faster, a sledge slide easier and to make a frisbee can fly!
Its great to see all 100 kids engaging so well, respecting and listening beautifully to our expert and showing him what XP is all about! From all the fascinating questions that were being asked at the end, I definitely know we have some budding scientists and engineers in this awesome year group! I’m sure the year 8s will agree that it was so cool, so interesting and I’m sure we were left feeling the same as Rhys G who said at the end: “When can I come to University?”
Set your goals and Fly High!
Hi all,
Here is a rundown of some of the beautiful artwork that has been produced by our wonderful XP and XPE students during lockdown 3.0.
As a team, we have been blown away by the effort and resilience that our pupils are showing.
I hope you enjoy having a flick through their work as much as we have.
Please find an overview of key events for the remainder of this term:
Y9 & Y10 (both XP & XP School) Leaver Booster and Men-ACWY vaccinations: will take place on Tuesday 26th January as per this blog post.
Staff Days: As per the normal school calendar these will take place on Friday 29.01.21 and Monday 1st February (all of our staff take part in training concerning the planning of expeditions, safeguarding, SEND and Teaching & Learning.) The in-school provision will not be available.
XP16 Student Led Conferences are taking place between 25.01.21 and 05.02.21. Parents are invited to attend online via invitation.
Y7, Y8, Y10, and Y11 Student Led Conferences: These will take place online for all students during the window of Tuesday 2nd February and Friday 12th February. The process will be a slightly different version to the normal in-school format, and parents will receive an Academic Snapshot that contains details of HOWLs and academic progress. Parents will be invited to select an after school appointment this week. *Y9 students do not have an SLC because of their involvement in Passage (see below).
Passage: This will take place for Y9 students during a 2 week window between Monday 15th February and Friday 26th February. Due to Covid restrictions, Passage presentations will take place online and parents will be invited to attend by students shortly – stay tuned for further updates on the process and purpose of Passage.
Please contact your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance regarding any questions or concerns.
Best wishes,
Jamie Portman.
The Vaccination and Immunisation Team will be attending East School on
TUESDAY 26TH JANUARY 2021. For all those students who have consented to have the adolescent vaccinations.
Year 9 East School students  12:30 – 14:00 pm
Year 10 East School students  14:00 – 15:30 pm
It is a drop-in service between those times.
Further information on the vaccination Leaver Booster and Men-ACWY can be found on NHSÂ Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber.
The MenACWY vaccine is given by a single injection into the upper arm and protects against 4 strains of the meningococcal bacteria – A, C, W and Y – which cause meningitis and blood poisoning (septicaemia). The School Leaver booster, also known as the 3-in-1 or the Td/IPV vaccine, is given to boost protection against 3 separate diseases: tetanus, diphtheria and polio.
Well, back online it is…Â but as expected, Crew Rowling are smashing it out the park!
As we know, we’re not a competitive Crew at all 🧐 🤪Â However, i am super duper excited to reveal the latest HOWLS data:
Work hard: 3.59
Get smart: 3.5
Be kind: 3.8
Which is not only impressive as far as a set of Crew averages go… but it also means…
WE HAVE THE BEST HOWLS IN XP EAST!
and
THE BEST (WH/ BK) ACROSS BOTH SCHOOLS!
This is down to the fantastic efforts of all members of the Crew, sharing their ideas, contributing to sessions, supporting one another, and generally being Crew. Mrs Barnes has definitely joined the best!
Speaking of Mrs Barnes, all Crew members received a phone call or email home over the last week or so and feels they were really positive. She enjoyed getting to know Crew parents and we hope that this supports the transition into having not just 1 Crew Leader.. but 2!
Over the last couple of weeks Mrs Barnes has been taking some of our Crew sessions whilst I have been attending meetings under my new role, I have been pleased to see students still logging in on time, paying attention, and completing what is expected. I am proud of the grafters they have become/ are becoming!
Crew highlights:Â
- All Crew members are attending sessions on time and completing work expected.
- The hangout chat has been a huge success again. Students are relying on each other for support and removing any issues by simply reaching out. This has also helped students to complete work when they are struggling.
- Shawn provided some thought provoking Check In questions.
- Harvey has taken on the first of the returning Friday afternoon quiz (I know some parents will be pleased to hear this!)Â
- Cerrina and Harvey have been keeping everyone organised ensuring they share the relevant hangout link before sessions.
- SLC scripts are coming along nicely and all Crew members are working hard- even adding peer critique!
- Faith has been acting as a Learning Coach in the in school provision, alongside doing her work to support other students. Take a look at the notes she has captured:
There’s so much more i could go on all day…Â
In light of the work we have been doing around Crew HOWLs, we intend to raise the profile of students being Great and Awesome by spotlighting one student per week on our blog, this will be written by a Crew member so they can highlight what has been discussed during sessions. This should give support to others who are trying to improve their HOWLs grades and inspire them to become Awesome too! Keep your eyes peeled for who is in the spotlight in next weeks blog post!
I appreciate all of the hard work Crew Rowling are doing, and i know Mrs Barnes does too. Not only are you becoming leaders of your own learning but you’re making our job super easy too!
Stay safe and well.Â
It’s fair to say that the start of the new term was rather different to what we were expecting! We’re now all back to working online due to lockdown but, oh my, that hasn’t stopped Crew Churchill smashing it!
It has been great to see all crew members attending crew in the morning and we’ve had some interesting check-ins such as, following the snow last week, what would you name your snowman? The names ‘Bill’ and ‘Bob’ were popular, as well as Clarence. However, Aran couldn’t understand why you would want to name a snowman so hers was the ‘snowman with no name’.
Crew Churchill are now in the process of preparing for their Student Led Conferences (SLCs) which will be slightly different this time as they will be held online. Crew are working hard to plan their presentations, during which they must talk about their recent expedition, HoWLs grades and academic grades. They must also make pledges which will help them on their path to becoming the best versions of themselves.
Theone impressed everyone on Monday when she shared her presentation which she had completed at home. It’s absolutely wonderful!
Here are a couple of slides from Theone’s presentation. See what you think…
Pretty good, eh?
Crew, Mr. Allen and I can’t wait to meet with your parents and listen to your presentations. We know you’ll smash it!
We all know what a challenge it is for our staff and students to study and teach remotely under the current lockdown situation, all the more so with a subject like Spanish that often demands a high level of linguistic proficiency and strong face-to-face communication skills.
My highlight this week was to receive an e-mail from Zak that just served to remind me of how secure his Habits of Work and Learning have become:
Me: “Thanks (for sharing your Linguascope self-assessment certificate score of 33% with me) Zak, but knowing you like I do, I think you’ll not be happy with your score and may wish to repeat it. What do you think”?
Zak: “I’m going to re-try and I aim to get at least 60%“.
Me: “Go for it”.
Zak: “I managed to achieve my goal of over 60%“. He actually doubled his result to 67% and has the certificate to prove it.
Smashed it out of the park, Zak. With HOWLS like that, anything is possible…….!