Thursday 13th February 2020. 15.30-17.00 Away Hayfield
Faith F, Faith, Sareena, Abigail, Safi, Cerrina, Millie, Maddie, Leoni, Maddie, Lacie, Mollie
You will need to bring:
Water Bottle
Black Shorts
Shin Pads
Moulded boots or trainers
Black football socks (if you have them)/ any football socks.
Warm Jumper
I’d like to say a huge thank you for all parents and family members who attended my crew’s SLC over the past 2 weeks. The stakes rose this year as I introduced the pass/fail element. Thankfully and as expected, all my crew have passed! To prepare for their SLC, I gave them a quiz on what they thought they’d got in the most recent data drop, hoping that they would remember their most recent grades and HOWLs scores that I’d shared in crew. When they self-marked the following day, each crew member wasn’t far off their actual scores.
Hot chocolates were well deserved since my crew were highest in all 3 HOWL categories for the year group. We noticed that we were also 2nd from top for ‘be kind’ in the entire school, and that in the year 8 group, we were considerably ahead of other crews for get smart and work hard.
We also held our second student led crew this past week, Mollie and Torran prepared a football drill session. I told them I needed it to be well planned and structured so that everyone had a role and there was a clear goal for the session. They prepared 4 drills, including a warm up, passing drill, piggy in the middle activity that helped people develop their tackling skills and we finished on a short game. Roll on this coming sports day – my goal for crew is to try not to come last again!
I have asked a couple more students to prepare a session in the coming weeks, Sami has already pitched an idea to me that sounds really exciting. Finally, we doubled up with crew Parkinson on Friday to look at an important topic: sleep hygiene. We read this article and jotted down any surprising facts about sleep and the effects a lack of it had on our health.
Students were shocked about the links good sleep had with weight and appetite, dementia, cancers and performance during sports and everyday activities. We also watched a snippet of a National Geographic documentaryon how sleep can improve retention if we get a good 9hrs after a revision session. I’m challenging my crew to aim for 8-9hrs every day this week!
E26 pupils have been using watercolour paints to create beautiful sunsets and silhouettes inspired by African landscapes.
I am extremely impressed with E26 and their enthusiasm to create their artwork. We have some very talented young people at XP East! Well done!
Year 8 parents (E25), your child was sent home yesterday with a letter, form and information about their upcoming vaccinations. This is for the HPV vaccine and from this year it is being offered to both boys and girls. Please can you complete the permission form and return it to school as soon as possible.
Parents of girls in Year 9 (E24), a letter has been sent home as a reminder that the 2nd HPV is due soon.
This week was Crew Young’s turn to perform routine community service around the school site sporting colourful day-glow tabards and gloves, wielding litter pickers and plastic sacks. Needless to say with the strength of the wind this proved a very challenging task in itself, for no sooner having deposited a stray piece of litter in the plastic sack was it turned inside out or blown open and the contents left to blow away in the wind. Who would have thought that litter picking could be so much fun?
Still, it gave us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves, let off a little steam, and blow away a few metaphorical cobwebs of our own during a really challenging week of Passage Presentations. So far I have been hugely impressed with how our Crew have risen to the challenge, the sense of purpose with which they have approached this crucial entry into the next phase of their education. I am proud of each and every one of them. Well done, Youngsters!
Crew NJO completed their first Student Led Conferences this week, sharing both their academic and personal progress with their families.
I was incredibly proud to see how much all of the Crew had grown in confidence and was blown away by their ability to articulate what they have learnt, what they have struggled with, where they need support and finally how their data looks after our second data drop.
It was incredible for me to see Cerrina explain HOWLs and MEGs to her mum and sister, making pledges to improve even further by creating an action plan. Data isn’t the be all and end all it is important to say, but it was moving for me to see students engaging with it in a positive way, highlighting their own strengths and weaknesses by making links to their experience in school.
Students in Crew Rowling worked tirelessly to ensure they were ready for the event, writing their own scripts, practicing to each other, providing kind, specific and helpful feedback in order to help everyone achieve.
Special mention to Summer, a Y9 student who stepped in to help a very nervous Layton at the last minute! Embracing the aspect of Crew, Summer gave up her Crew, Break and Lunch time to support Layton, not only allowing him to practice but also writing difficult words down phonetically to support his reading. She also helped him to further understand his data and praised his efforts so far!
Under all of the strain and pressure that already existed, some of the Crew were even faced with a camera too! Filming for the Edge Foundation has followed the students progress from Wales… it will be good to see how far we really have come!
I am in awe of the bravery and confidence of all of the Crew this past couple of weeks, they have worked tirelessly so ensure that they understood their role in an SLC and get everything prepped and ready. I am looking forward to seeing what you achieve in the next data drop!
Well done all! Keep up the hard work!
This has been a short, but extremely positive week for Crew Young. Following my pride in no fewer than four successful Passage Presentations so far – from Summer, George, Adam and Maclaren – Crew Young returned to their DofE Volunteering role this morning, as they listened to members of Crew Rowling reading aloud, or practising their SLC presentations.
Crew Young were reminded to give their younger reading buddies some non-verbal feedback and encouragement, mindful of exhibiting positive body language such as maintaining eye contact, nodding and smiles, as well as checking for comprehension of the reading material. Awareness of body language and its effect on the audience is one of the four core aspects against which Passage standards are assessed.
Crew Rowling read with confidence and fluency and some seized the opportunity to practise their Student-Led Conference preparation with their more senior counterparts.
Well done everybody!
At XP East we have always had careers at the heart of our expeditions whether it’s working together with experts, out on fieldwork or creating our products. Given the importance of our career, its time to further develop and improve our programme throughout the school, not forgetting our new XP16 provision
I would like to invite you check out our NEW XP East Careers HQ Website
The website gives information on our career policy and programme we offer, helpful links and tools to aid guidance in GCSE options, post-16 & post-18 opportunities including university, apprenticeships & jobs of the future as well as details of careers related events happening throughout the school. This website is designed to be continuously updated to make sure our learners:
Please explore the website and I hope you find it useful when supporting our young people with these all important decisions. I would appreciate feedback on the website and please, do not hesitate to contact me (Dany Green) as the school’s career lead, at [email protected]
Enjoy!
Students in Crew Obama and Crew Rowling have completed CPR Training with Miss Mistry, following in the footsteps of students in Liverpool who have been pushing for it to be included in the curriculum after an incident whereby three students rescued a mother and her baby from the canal.
Our students recognised how important this type of education was and were keen to get involved incase they too should ever need to perform CPR.
Following Miss Mistry’s instructions, the students started by completing the Primary Survey and then followed this up with full CPR training. The sessions were fantastic and the students were able to recite the process at the end in order to inform and educate others.
Follow the video below in order to gain an insight into the training received:
