Don’t Worry… Be Happy Crew JRI!

By Web Blogger19th January 2021

And so begins another week in the land of online learning and honestly? I could not be more proud of what I can see. I am amazed everyday with how my crew are grappling with the ever changing circumstances, coming to crew every morning ready to learn and fuelled with motivation. This start to term has been tough… but I want to appreciate every member of my crew and their wonderful parents for all the work and encouragement going on at home!

So far this term in crew we have been discussing about and preparing for our Student Led Conferences with a particular focus on how we can improve our HoWLs. Everyone has spent some time reflecting on their HoWLs ready to make them even better in the next data drop so we can make our way to the top of the leader board!

I wanted to make a few appreciations to some members of my crew who have particularly impressed me so far this term:

I appreciate Holly and Lily Harbour who have been early for every single session, your attendance has been brilliant. Your hard work pays off.

I appreciate Poppy and Max who has been completing work to a very high standard and helping others, well done.

I appreciate Lukas who was AMAZING in a preparing for SLCs crew session and helped everyone remember the last expedition

I appreciate Louie and Nik for reading sections of the book Wonder very beautifully in a group reading session.

Everyone really has been pushing themselves working hard, getting smart and being kind so I appreciate the whole crew for that!

Working from home has definitely has had its challenges for everyone (teachers, students and parents). We had needed to learn new skills quickly, attempt tricky tasks and use a lot more patience than usual. I think this quote from William James says it best: “It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.” With a good attitude and a willingness to grapple with hard tasks, we can acieve anything!

It’s safe to say, I miss having this lot around. I sure am looking forward to more laughs, discussions and funny check ins when we are all together again. For now though our daily Google Meet catch up will have to do. To finish off, here are a few pictures that I took in one of our last crew sessions before Christmas where we were doing Christmas crafts! Enjoy these festive photos!

Checking out for now…

Crew JRI

 

We’re Back!

By H Hickson19th January 2021

Crew Parkinson have had a wonderful return to school despite it being an online return rather than in person. The last time we were all together we were celebrating Christmas with each other, opening secret Santa gifts, listening to music and having a laugh as you can see below – it all seems so long ago now. I don’t think any of us thought that we’d be returning to school under lockdown number 3 and facing the next term online, but we’re making the most of it.

In terms of how they’ve been getting on – they’ve been absolute angels! Despite the challenges of online learning we’ve had nearly 100% attendance for every crew session and lesson for the last 3 weeks! Students are doing so well tackling their new expeditions online – I got an email through with this lovely praise for Ava from Miss Haughey, it’s great to see she’s smashing it in maths.

Students have also been doing really well in their live science lessons – here’s some of the scores from the quizzes set by Mr Said on Prokaryotes & Eukaryotes and specialised animal and plant cells. Great scores from Lacey, Bob, Rosie and Aaron! 

We’ve also been busy preparing for Passage over the last few weeks in crew, continuing the hard work students put in when we were at school. We’ve had to adapt a lot over the last weeks and Passage is included in this but I’m so proud of the quality reflections students have made on their time at XP East so far and how they have grown and changed since year 7. I’m sure they will be able to explain really articulately during their Passage presentation why they are ready to start their GCSEs – watch this space for updates over the coming weeks!

XP16’s ‘worst’ check in! Lol

By XP East18th January 2021

It was wonderful to chat with some of my XP16 crew on Friday morning. I really want to say thank you to those that joined as it really brightened my day and was a real pleasure to hear their voices. Obviously we needed to chat about some important matters such as UCAS applications (see my email), however we started off with a very funny check in of, ‘what was the worst Christmas present you received this year’?… I was in stitches with their answers.

WORST presents they received ranged from:

Teabags…..

A belt…..

A raw chicken breast…..

Socks… which were thrown back at the giver!

a family board game which the person thought was going to be a pair of ugg boots!

Marmite flavoured deodorant…. love it or hate it?

I wonder if you can guess which was mine? ? ?

We moved on to more important issues such as getting UCAS applications in, the deadline of which is Wednesday 20th January. Please see my email for more detail on this.

The crew sessions is on at 10.30am every Friday, hope to see you all there.

Thanks

Kate

I know what Mr ap Harri is getting next Christmas! Lol

Crew Rashford (MKE)……What we think, we become…..

By Web Blogger18th January 2021

 

As part of a Wise Wednesday session, Crew Rashford recently took time to research and identify with online quotations which appealed to them. The students then presented their findings to the rest of their crew mates and explained exactly why the quotes they had chosen had struck a chord with them.

A selection of these were later chosen to appear on our new Crew wall (which is currently in the design phase……watch this space………or rather, watch that  wall  !!!).

The exercise served a myriad of purposes…..

It was another valuable opportunity for students to throw the grappling hook of exploration further up the learning wall, and pull themselves up to discover new areas of research. In the case of the quote above, not only did we discuss the beautiful meaning of the quote itself, but also the remarkable life and works of Maya Angelou – someone whom the students may not have previously known about.

The exercise encouraged them to be the leaders of their own mini learning expedition.

We found that quotations are a wonderful portal to the learning cloud – to areas of thought, discussion and research – and into areas which Year 7s certainly, may not have travelled of their own volition ordinarily.

My Crew are amazing, and I am so very proud to be able to be associated with them all. We have developed bonds of trust and respect and understanding. They have also taken on the challenge of the new Covid restrictions with courage and determination and their continued resilience to succeed against something which none of us totally understand, is remarkable.

So Crew Rashford – this blog is for YOU. It’s my opportunity (and my honour) to say to everyone out there, that this far, you have all proven yourselves to be worthy of your place at XP. There’s absolutely no reason why we cant continue to grow as Crew, and as a yeargroup and then roll on into the forthcoming years with more, and more, and more momentum.

And to end, a word from our namesake …….whom I’m still waiting to e mail me back.

 

“…..Always train hard, work harder, never give up, never give in and believe in you….”

Marcus Rashford.

 

Mr K 🙂

Tuning in to Crew Turing’s broadcast, academic success stories, and a sneaky game of Among Us!

By Katie Haughey17th January 2021

I’ve got a massive appreciation for a really impressive first couple of weeks of remote lessons, for the most part, attendance has been excellent. I have really enjoyed checking in with them in the morning, despite people not being up to much. Every single crew member made it to almost every session this week (X meaning ‘attended online’). I’ve loved to hear stories of crew members phoning each other with reminders to get up!

Crew News:

This week, on Tranquil Tuesday, rather than doing accelerated reader, I tasked my crew members to go on BBC News, or another reputable media outlet, and find a news story that interested them. After giving them some time to read the article, I then asked them to share a jist of the article they had been reading.

Callum shared an article that sparked his interest after checking he was allowed to read about football, the West Ham loss last week. He explained that to crew that this meant that they’d be playing Doncaster, and while he wasn’t so hopeful about celebrating a win, he was still excited to see the two teams play. Jess shared a really excellent article in relation to the Capitol riots this week, which highlighted the work of a Police Officer that had been trying to keep protestors out of the US Congress building. We had some other lovely stories, ranging from a Star Wars spin off from Lewis, to a heartwarming story from Alice about a group who had been helping locate missing dogs.

Thoughtful Thursday – an eye for an eye?

On Thoughtful Thursday, we looked into a story that had dominated the news this week, the story of Lisa Montgomery – the only female inmate on federal death row in the US who was executed on the 13th.

I asked my crew after we read the article together, whether they felt that Lisa deserved to be executed. Having looked into her background together, it was a difficult decision to make, and most felt that the case was far too complicated. There was a general consensus that she definitely deserved a life sentence, but that the death penalty was cruel considering her upbringing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a lighter note, we finalised the information on our Crew Narrative this week, which consolidates our crew’s data for the term. Each crew member has a pledge for their HoWLs, and their academic progress for the next term. It was really positive on the whole, we even came joint first in terms of our ‘Be Kind’ HoWL with Crew Ali. We’re definitely working on pushing more of our data in to the great/awesome categories though.

I felt that because of the fantastic work done in the first two weeks, as well as a really positive data sheet, we ended the final crew session of the week on a game of Among Us. It was lovely to hear everyone having a laugh to end the week on a high note, before a appreciation-filled community meeting.

 

XP and XP East Need You!

By Jamie Portman17th January 2021

Dear families, friends and partners of XP

I am sure you will have seen recently on the news that schools have been asked to provide Covid 19 lateral testing, in the first instance for staff and students who are attending secondary school, to help to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

I’m sure you will appreciate this has been a huge logistic challenge and a team in school led by Kate ap Harri, Michelle Jones and Nicola Mawby has been set up attending training, setting up testing protocols, processes and procedures and in a very short space of time have started to administer weekly testing for both staff and students who attend school. The testing in school is working safely and efficiently to help to keep staff and students safe. This is a remarkable achievement and we are grateful that our staff have stepped up to this challenge with such courage and compassion.

As testing numbers increase we are now looking to build our testing team so that we have the capacity to manage this increase effectively. Therefore, we are asking for volunteers who would like to help support the testing process in school. There are a number of roles that we require including both administering, and recording testing as well as helping staff and students conduct the tests. The testing takes place, at the moment, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, Thursday at 10.30 & Friday at 12pm so if you could commit to all or some of those times we would be extremely grateful.

We have already had a number of parents contact us to offer their help and if you wish to join them in supporting the school please contact us via the email [email protected] and we will get back to you with further details.

With your help we will continue to look after our school and community because we are Crew!

Thank you in anticipation.

Kate ap Harri

Testing Lead

XP/XPE

Crew Finch: better than ‘business as usual’

By A Parker16th January 2021

Two weeks into Term 3 – and Lockdown 3 – already!

And it’s been a very busy 2 weeks of  getting settled into our new online learning schedule, engaging in new expedition immersion activities (which have been brilliant!) and Crew, of course, which has been very much ‘business as usual’ from 8.30am every morning.

Although, as the quote above says, I feel we need to come back better than business as usual this term.  It takes an extra boost of motivation, determination and integrity to show up online to Crew and daily lessons (especially on snow days!) and, even though we’ve had some very tired Crew members who’ve needed a virtual prod to get them fired-up on a morning, I’m really happy with the attendance and engagement from Crew across all lessons.

Crew Narrative Update

So, as we strive to be better than business as usual, we have spent quite a bit of time in Crew revisiting and refining our Crew Narratives, which now include students’ first Academic Progress grades of the school year.  You can read more about the work we’ve been doing around Crew Narratives in this previous blog post: A HOWL-ing end to the year

Crew are looking forward to discussing their Crew Narratives, academic progress and pledges in more detail with parents at the upcoming Student-Led Conferences.  More details and booking slots will be available soon.

Habits of Work and Learning

The latest HOWLs League Table has been released:

Coming second in all categories is certainly something to be celebrated but, as we pledge to be better than business as usual, we know we can all push ourselves to work harder, get smarter and be even more kind than we already are to maybe get us back to the top of the leader board.  Our work and reflections in our Crew Narrative will help us to achieve this goal.

Happiness check-ins

It hasn’t been all work and no play for Crew: I have introduced them to the delights of Blankety Blank (how could they not know what that was?!) and had a daily happiness check-in using our very own Happiness Calendar.

I am a big fan of Action for Happiness’ Monthly Action Calendars and have used them in Crew before but this month we decided to create our own.  Crew have come up with some absolutely smashing ideas, and we invite you all to use our calendar and commit to a daily happiness task yourselves:

And finally:

Happy New Year to you all 🙂

Stay Safe.

E25 and E24 School Vaccinations

By Rebecca Mohammed14th January 2021

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

If you have not received a Vaccination email then please contact Mrs Mawby [email protected] or your child’s crew leader.

Further information on the vaccination Leaver Booster and Men-ACWY can be found on NHS Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber.

 

Many Thanks

XP East

Crew Young – top the HOWLs leader board again!

By D Pearson11th January 2021

This is the fourth occasion when I can proudly report that Crew Young top the E24 / Year 10 leader board following our Term 2 snapshot review of their Habits of Work and Learning! I was first able to recognise this achievement two years ago, when I noticed: “HOWLs about that? Crew Young hit the ground running” in January 2019.

Four months later I reflected on Crew Young’s HOWLs success in coming first place on the E24 and E25 leader board in May 2019, and then reiterated my pride in Crew Young at the end of that year.

Last term, in all three categories, they demonstrated the strength of their work hard, get smart and be kind HOWLs, and they will no doubt wish to reference this in their next Student-Led Conference, and improve further on their current ratings.

Great work from the Youngsters”!!!

Positive Covid19: Member of staff in our in school provision (No action required)

By Jamie Portman11th January 2021

In order to keep everyone informed, a member of staff has tested positive for Covid19 in our in-school provision at XP East.

Public Health England have advised me that no further action is required because the member of staff first developed symptoms yesterday (Sunday 10th January) and was last in school on Thursday 7th November.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any concerns.