Crew Ibbotson

By Web Blogger24th September 2020

For the last two weeks we have been looking closely at diversity in crew, resulting in some fantastic and really mature discussion. We have looked at what diversity is, what ways people are different and why we should embrace these differences. This creates a culture at XP that is like no other!

I would like to thank a few crew members individually – Tammy, Alyssa, Brodie and Riley – for sharing some really personal and difficult things in crew, which I think brought us all closer together and really consolidated our bond. We have each other’s back in crew Ibbotson NO MATTER WHAT and that is evident from the courage and compassion shown in these sessions. We understand that whilst we may not all play in the playground together, WE ARE CREW, and that’s what matters.

It’s an honour to work with such wonderful young people. 

We have also been working on memory techniques in crew last week. We played some memory games and tried to figure out the best way we remember information as individuals. You can see Alex, Cam and Ben in the picture trying very hard to remember all the items they were shown (I promised the winner a sweet!). It was so much fun  and very insightful for us to figure out which way worked best for us, hopefully to help us in our sessions!

Crew MKE Blog….# 2

By Web Blogger24th September 2020

Michael Jordan once said……..” talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships…”.

All of the new students within XP Trust have embarked upon the most important championship of their academic (and life) career so far…..and Crew MKE are really beginning to work together as a team.

They have had a solid start to the next phase of Crew. We have collectively and individually developed our awareness and understanding of one another’s needs and abilities – and this is vital if we are to progress incrementally onto the next step, and the next, and so on…

The students have decided on two final Crew names to identify with ( I can tell you that one is a Premier League Footballer who does massive work with charities and has recently managed to change a Governmental decision regarding the allocation of school meals to children who may otherwise go without……and the second is a global pop superstar who has utilised her profile and skills to support social activism in areas relating to mental health awareness and LGBT rights. The students are really excited about these two choices, so we’ll announce the winner shortly.

Friday afternoons are the time when we really get together as Crew and are given the time and the opportunity to show off individual skills in order to develop ourselves and inspire others. The first student to do this was Isabelle, and her session proved to be a bit of a groundbreaker – not only for us as participants, but for Isabelle herself.

Imagine the scene…its Friday afternoon, the students have come to the end of a long and demanding week….and Isabelle has elected to teach a collection of three Year 7 Crews……Origami !!!!

Isabelle wasn’t phased by the task. From the moment she began to demonstrate how to make an origami swan to the group of around 35 students, she had them in the palm of her hand ! As soon as the inevitable pleas of ‘I don’t know what I’m doing” and “I don’t know where I am” began to come, Isabelle calmly and confidently went to each student – in the guise of a Florence Nightingale figure – and tended to every students needs. She was AMAZING…

When the class was complete and the students had gone, just one solitary swan sat on top of a desk, as if to pay tribute to Isabelles display of character. WELL DONE ISABELLE !!

On the basis of this session, we have decided to introduce a Crew MKE ‘Superstar of the Week Award’ and the title will carry a trophy which the recipient will take home for a week and then present to the next winner on a Friday afternoon. The first recipient of this trophy (when it arrives ) will be Isabelle.

This weeks Friday Figure It Out session will be presented by Sofiya who will be teaching Sign Language !    Well done Crew MKE….

 

XP16 important updates for students in school

By XP East23rd September 2020

Dear parents & carers,

It has been great to see our XP16 students back in school.

All students need to come into school for 9.15am this Friday (25th September) for a Community meeting. We will be discussing plans moving forward in their programme of study and then focusing on year 13 students with UCAS references and moving on from XP. The year 12 students will spend this time for pastoral care and other life skills.

From Monday 28th September students need to be back in school from 9.15am – 3.15pm everyday. It is important for students to be studying between taught sessions in a supportive environment.

Students need to register at 9,15am in their first session with their teacher. Any students that are not in a taught session will register with me at 9.15am at the top of the main steps in the XP16 area.

If students need to leave school for any reason before 3.15pm each day have prior permission from myself and must sign out at reception before they leave for fire regulations and safe guarding.

If you have any further questions or would like to talk with me regarding your child’s programme of study in XP16 please feel free to phone or email me.

Thanks

Kate
Post 16 Lead
Outdoor Expedition Trust Lead

Settling back in…

By Web Blogger23rd September 2020

We are all settled in and enjoying being back in routine! Our new expeditions are Snakes on a plain, looking at adaptations of animals and organisms! And in HUMS we are looking at welcome to the machine which focuses on the industrial revolution and the modern day impact!

It has been lovely getting to know everyone and I am so impressed with how well everyone has welcomed me and I cant wait to see what else is to come this year!

Miss Burrows and Crew Ali 🙂

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader!

By Natalie Johnson22nd September 2020

After a long weekend break, it was nice to get back into Crew and get down to business this morning.

Today we started by reflecting upon our Accelerated Reader results from the test we completed in last weeks Tranquil Tuesday. We were all pleased to see that we had all made progress from last year and we were keen to take this to the next level.

We spent some time thinking about a previous session, ‘Why is reading important?’ and reminded ourselves that GCSE papers are set using the reading age 15 years 7 months. We discussed how much more difficult we would make it for ourselves if we didn’t reach this goal… and although GCSE’s are a long way off, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day!’

During Crew this morning we started by looking at just how much we had improved, but also how far off we were from the target of 15 years 7 months. We discovered that many of us still had work to do, but some of us were ready:

Harvey                                                                                        Shawn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d like to personally appreciate both boys who showed compassion towards their peers in Crew today by not bragging about how much they had exceeded the target reading age, but offering support and advise to their peers about how they too can reach the same goal and exceed it.

We decided that you don’t stick to anything unless you pledge it. So in true XP style we cut out pictures of a reading book and wrote a pledge which we thought would support us in improving our reading ages. We then agreed to include a note of just how many years and months worth of improvement we wanted, so when it lives on the wall it will be a daily reminder of our goals.

I was proud of how Crew maturely dealt with their results and supported one another to make achievable pledges. I will be even prouder to see the result when we come to the next testing period!

It would be brilliant if Crew parents could discuss the pledge your son/ daughter has made with them, and ask about their reading age and what goals they have. In school we offer reading time for 15 minutes at the start of Sessions 1 and 4 in order to reach the advised 30 minutes a day but I know some pledges included home reading too!

Dashboard update: 

I have spoken to a number of Crew parents and agreed that the blog posts will also feature an update on the praise and conduct log. Students are aware that this will happen too so the stakes are high! This weeks praise log looks like this:

We remain on the highest average praises this week too! Great effort Crew Rowling- keep it up!

Stay safe, look after yourselves. 

Wise Wednesday meets Thoughtful Thursday – AND my favourite photo so far showing compassion on DofE Fridays

By D Pearson20th September 2020

Last week Crew Young blended the use of graphic organisers with academic study of other techniques used to help retention and recall of key facts and concepts. We started by pooling our ideas, using the “silent conversation” protocol, whereby in 2 groups we annotated ways and means of fixing knowledge in our long term memory, piggy-backed each other’s ideas before then swapping our notes with the other group so as to silently consider and build upon theirs.

Tried and tested techniques such as graphic organisers, flashcards, mnemonics, spider charts, colour coding were discussed and later we practised creating spider diagrams of things we enjoy doing to see how we might apply this in hums and steam sessions.

Last Friday we began our DofE Silver skills challenge with a full re-boot of the online St. John’s Ambulance First Aid Course, and my favourite photo of compassion so far from Louie shown towards Adam…..

 

Coming back stronger and wiser

By A Parker12th September 2020

Crew have been well and truly on it this week, no more so than on what we now call Wise Wednesday, where we’ve started to look at revision techniques to help prepare for GCSEs (it’s never too early!)

This week, we looked at memory recall – in particular, cognitive load theory and the forgetting curve (thanks to a master class from Mr Portman!) which illustrated why it’s so important to keep on going over new information until it is stored in our long term memory.

So, Crew have started to create flash cards to help them remember key points from their GCSE text ‘A Christmas Carol’ which they can keep on revisiting over then next 18 months or so, and I’ll be encouraging them to do the same for other subjects, too.  Hopefully this will make the last few weeks before exams a little bit less stressful as they will have had a head start on retaining key information.

It’s really great to see how Crew are becoming leaders of their own learning since returning to school and already planning how they can do their absolute best in their exams.

We’ve had lots of discussions around our HOWLs and getting back on it over the last couple of weeks, and I’d like to give a special mention to Thomas H who has been working exceptionally hard and contributing in all lessons.  He is setting a fine example to the rest of Crew.

XPE Lost Property

By K Poncia11th September 2020

Please take a look at the following items which have been found and placed in Lost Property this week in XP East.

If any of the items are not claimed by Friday 16th September, they will be donated to charity.

Thank you

Crew Ibbotson settling in!

By Web Blogger8th September 2020

Crew Ibbotson have had a fantastic first two weeks at XP East and they have adapted and shown amazing courage! We started amazingly developing our sense of crew by carrying out team building exercises and we had so much fun doing so, especially the marshmallow towers! Appreciation to Tammy, Brodie, Alfie, Cameron and Arina who won the challenge!

 

We have spoken about diversity in our crew and they have developed some fantastic and mature ideas and discussions, they have shown respect and integrity throughout all discussions! 

 

We have a strong sense of crew already and we are currently discussing possible names for our crews of influential figures which is prompting some amazing debates! I know our crew will only get stronger with these guys bringing out the best in each other and the best in me! 

Crew MKE…..the journey begins !

By Web Blogger8th September 2020

So…what do a dancing expert, a future England cricket star, an origami master, a tech guru and a Harry Potter Wiz all have in common ? Well, they are just some of the diverse hobbies, interests and aspirations of some of the new members of Year 7 Crew MKE !

My new Crew have already hit the ground running and proven themselves to have qualities, characters and capabilities well beyond their years. The students have willingly grasped the concepts of XP’s Character Values and they already understand the ethics and importance of our HOWLs.

Just as important, Crew have identified the importance, and found the courage to be able to make apologies and show their appreciation to others within open forums. Well done !

This is going to be as much of a journey for me as it is for my Crew, and I’ll keep all of you informed every step of the way so that we can share the important moments as they occur.

Crew MKE, give yourselves a pat on the back. You’ve made a great start. Stay strong, stay proud and carry on as you’ve started. YOU ARE XP !

 

Martyn Kellett

Learning Coach & Year 7 Crew Leader