Our Y10 Silver DofE students have been unable to undertake their usual charity fundraising activities this year, so they’ve decided to create food hampers for our local food banks.
We’re all very aware of the financial impact the various lockdown/tier 3 restrictions have had on our community, especially on those who have been furloughed or are self employed and unable to work. So, in addition to the staple non-perishable items (cereals; tinned and packeted foods; tea/coffee/juice) we are specifically asking for donations of those ‘treat’ items that some families may have to go without this year.
For example:
nice biscuits
chocolates/selection boxes
Christmas crackers
mince pies, cakes, etc.
small gift sets (e.g. hand cream/deodorant)
If you are able to contribute, please can you send items in to be passed on to your child’s Crew Leaderby Monday 15th December.
The school are also collecting items for our kindness boxes, which we’ll be putting together to support families within our XP Trust. See this blog post for more information and, again, please donate if you can.
Since last Friday students have been analysing their Habits of work and Learning (HoWLS). This forms part of our Narrative for success, together with our attendance and academic progress. (Academic progress data will be out early December).
Our HoWLS (Habits of work & learning) are:
Work Hard:
I arrive for each class on time and prepared
I participate fully and mindfully in class
I complete all work in a timely manner to the best of my ability
Get Smart:
I take responsibility for my learning by asking questions and seeking help when needed.
I assess my work based on established criteria and rubrics
I welcome feedback and revise my work
Be Kind:
I communicate politely and kindly
I work cooperatively with others
I take care of resources and materials and act as a steward of our community
Teachers assess students on their HoWLS at set times during the academic year and are graded between 1 to 4.5.
< 2.5 Serious 2.5 – 2.9: Concern 3 – 3.4: ok / secure 3.5 – 3.9: Great > 4: Awesome
Students should be achieving at least a 3!
This data is then analysed by students during crew so they can identify areas of success that can be celebrated and areas that need to be improved on. By doing this students take accountability and ownership of their learning.
I’d like to mention there were a number of students that achieved 4’s across all their subjects so Mr Portman offered to buy them a KFC as a treat to say well done!
Well done to Ethan booth, Maisey Sutherland and Klaudia Bieszczad!!!!
This is us last week analysing our CREW HoWLS together
Once students have analysed their data they make pledges on what they are going to improve on. This is then supported by a crew leader pledge of how we can support them further.
We will be displaying this information in our XP16 area so that we are continuously reminded of where we are and where we want to be and what pledges we have made.
Our next session, Friday 4th December, students will be sending a copy of their HoWLS analysis home for you to see. We will also be spending some of crew doing ‘an act of Christmas Kindness’ by serving out hot chocolate and mince pies to staff around both schools.
XP16 Students will be sitting Mock exams in the final 2 weeks of this term. Next week I will share our Mock Exam process with you so you know when to expect Mock results in January and when the student led conferences will take place.
Please can I remind parents to sign up to the XP East Website to receive automatic web posts so that you don’t miss any important information to do with XP16.
Ever been to Spain or a Spanish speaking country? Would you like to learn some Spanish? Well, Year 8 at XP and XP East have created some beautiful work to help you out!
Students have been learning to describe their morning routine, and how to explain when or where they do something in our expedition “La rutina”. They also recorded their work in Spanish and English, to help you follow the words through sound. Take a look at their very first product!
Inspired? Then use the slides to create your own storyboard, it would be amazing for Year 8 to enjoy and critique your work too!
Before the October break, year 8 in XP and XP East had a brilliant time completing some heart dissections!
This was all to help with the science part of their cross subject expedition “Fight the Power!”. This expedition has the guiding question “Where does real power exist, in the heart, body or mind?”
In science we have been covering several aspects of the human body (skeleton, muscles, digestive system and the heart) and the students have been working really hard as there was a lot of content and key words involved.
When learning about the heart, diagrams can only tell you so much. It’s made a lot more real when you can see them in real life! Needless to say, year 8 got stuck in and I was amazed and staggered by their maturity as this is usually a higher level GCSE practical!
The best part of the practical was hearing them all correctly identifying the atriums, ventricles and vessels for themselves! It gives me confidence for future practicals with this lot!
Enjoy some pictures of the dissections (or not, if you don’t like blood!)
We started the day with a check in, by looking at images of friends gathered around fires, images of marshmallow being toasted over campfires and commenting on the feelings these images evoke. Most students thought of friendship, happiness, and a sense of togetherness. And this is exactly what I was hoping to achieve by bringing all the XP16 students together for the day as crew.
Our task for the day was to build XP & XP East’s very own fire circle. An outdoor area where crews (staff & students) can come together to engage in shared experiences outdoors.
Our aim for the day was to have FUN! I wanted the students to work together, communicate, grapple, and grow in ways other than just academically but that are just as important.
2020 has been tough for A Level students and it doesn’t look like its going to get any easier as we get closer to the final exams. There’s a sense amongst them that the road ahead is a long and tough one and with the added pressure of the pandemic, feelings of isolation and loneliness and in some cases, what’s the point?
So the reset button was pressed. The student got a day to recharge, laugh, learn new skills, play with their friends and sit around a campfire that they designed and built, drinking hot chocolate and toasting marshmallows.
And what a fire circle they built! A legacy for the XP16 students to say they helped creat the beginning of Forest School for staff and students of XP & XP East schools. Well done guys, I enjoyed every minute with you all, and look forward to spending more crew time with you.
We even had some of their teachers come and join us for a brew and a chat.
Check out the photos below which really sum up our day.
Here’s a quick update on how our Bronze and Silver students are progressing with their DofE award.
Skills
Both groups are well on their way to completing the skills section, and will be demonstrating their First Aid skills and knowledge at the end of term to their other year group bubble Crews at a mini Presentation of Learning event (hopefully they’ll not have to use their skills in ‘real life’ anytime soon!)
Volunteering
Students are also about to start work on their volunteering section, where they will be undertaking various school community service activities, such as litter picking. In addition to this, all Crews have chosen a charity to support this year. There would usually be various fund raising activities planned across the year, but CV19 restrictions mean that this is going to be a bit of a challenge as they can’t do the usual things like bake sales, etc. But we’ll do what we can!
DofE aside, we as a school think it’s very important to support our wider community, so Silver students across both schools will be collecting items for Christmas Food Hampers, to be donated to our local food bank. They’ll also be designing/sending Christmas cards to local care homes. These activities will be done during Crew’s Mindful Monday sessions.
Physical
We are more than aware that many out of school clubs that would usually count towards the physical section have been disrupted. Students will still be able to submit evidence of what they’ve done so far, and we will support them by providing in-school activities so that everyone is able to complete this section.
Expedition
We are hopeful that we will be able to run the outdoor expeditions next year, depending on the situation and national restrictions in place at the time. The DofE have made changes to the qualifying criteria meaning that participants will be able to gain the full award without the need for overnight stays, and hikes will probably start and finish at school. The Expedition Team are excited to start planning and exploring some local walking routes!
That’s all for now, but if you have any questions about the temporary adjustments to the Bronze and Silver awards please visit the DofE website or contact [email protected] (Outdoor Expeditions Lead) or [email protected] (DofE Activities Coordinator)
Crew Turing have had a really eventful end of term 1. We’ve been spending time as part of the Wise Wednesday sessions looking into the effects of social media on our lives and mental wellbeing.
The sessions have been centred around deconstructing how much time we spend on social media, each crew member looked at their average screen time using their smartphones. We were all gobsmacked that so many people had clocked over 10 hours on one of the days at the weekend!
We also watched The Social Dilemma, the documentary that explores the damage social media has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through data mining. It explains how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates), and its role in spreading conspiracy theories such as the flat-earthers.
At the end of last term we culminated the work done in Wednesday’s crew sessions by preparing for a debate, arguing for and against the motion:
‘social media has caused more harm than good’,
All crew members prepared speeches as well as rebuttals. I was especially impressed with how maturely my crew took on board the debate, as we’d spoke in the Wednesday afternoon sessions on the difference between a formal and structured debate, and an argument. Both sides were actively listening to the other, and responding to the opposing team’s arguments. I’m hoping that this work will help them prepare for their PoL towards Christmas.
Another activity I have really enjoyed has been following the US presidential election. On Tuesday last week, we examined the presidential system of the US and how the electoral college works. We discussed the merits and pitfalls of this electoral system, as well as learned about the two presidential candidates. Over the following days last week, we were checking the BBC news website to see how the swing states were looking, it was really exciting watching the votes roll in.
We also went on to watch the Newsnight broadcast from the night of the election, and noted down tonnes of key information about both of the campaigns, and the candidate’s policies. Congratulations to Dylan, Mollie and Ralph who managed to call bingo on their note catcher sheets!
I’d like to give a special mention to Jess, who was able to fill in her entire sheet with key information from the broadcast, I was totally blown away. All crew members except one person predicted Biden’s win on Wednesday afternoon, after we did the maths on how many votes Trump would need.
Finally, my crew came back to school knowing that their teachers had been asked to input the data for their habits of work and learning. Last week during academic crew, I created a doc with all of their names and subjects on, so they could predict their HOWLs before the data was released to them. We had really interesting discussions about homework records, effort in class, and it was great to see people showed real integrity if they felt this term hadn’t been their best. I’ve minimised the images below, but blue is excellent, green in good, and yellow is secure.
I was slightly disappointed to see that some students felt that they dipped in certain classes, and I’m expecting upcoming pledges to relate to those lower than average predicted HOWLs. We’re going to review these predictions this coming week once the actual grades are released!
Welcome back to the new term, I hope everyone managed to rest over the holidays.
I just wanted to reiterate the message I posted out last term that all xp16 students need to be in school every day. If for any reason a student needs to be away from school this needs to be discussed and agreed between parents and Mrs ap Harri.
Students should sign in at reception as soon as they arrive at school and must sign out when they leave school at 3.15pm. If students need to leave early again this must be agreed with Mrs ap Harri beforehand.
It is really important that students are in an environment that is supportive of their studies and we believe school is the best place for this. During the last Covid lockdown it was apparent that the majority of students in post 16 didn’t study as well at home as they do in school.
If we have already discussed and agreed situations where students need to be out of school during the school day then this will continue to be supported by us.
Please feel free to phone or email me if you have any concerns regarding our post 16 provision.
All Crew sessions and lessons will take place LIVE via Google Hangout and the timetable is highlighted below.
Students will receive input from teachers and have time to complete activities on Google Classroom.
Students are registered in Crew (8.30am), at the beginning of the morning session (9.15am) and afternoon (1.15pm).
All students are expected to join each session. If a student is absent, Crew Leaders will contact home to ascertain the reason why. If a student is unable to join a session, for example, they are unwell, we ask parents to please contact the office.
Crew Leaders and Subject teachers will send Google Hangout invitations to their classes.
Several centuries ago the Romans observed the connection between mental and physical health – “mens sana in corpore sano” translates from Latin as “a healthy mind in a healthy body” – and more recent research has shown that physical exercise can not only help arrest the decline in cognitive skills amongst older generations, but also boost memory, neurological networking, concentration and mood in younger learners.
Last Friday Crew Young and their E24/Year 10 group were given a choice of physical activities in Crew time, though limited by the need to maintain social distancing wherever possible, they were intended to promote team work and competition with their peers. Most opted for dodge-ball, whilst Lewis and Tom refined their basketball skills. Very impressive!!!!!
