After a busy day at the UK Uni Search last Friday, both our Careers Hubs in XP and XP East are now FULL of University prospectuses.
Come and be inspired by these amazing courses on offer to you!
Can I go to uni? YES YOU CAN
We’re getting to the exciting part of our Bronze DofE – the outdoor expedition! A few of the DofE team attended a 2-day Outdoor First Aid course at Peat Rigg, tackling different emergency scenarios right in the middle of Storm Ciara (we’re hoping for better weather conditions on our actual hikes!) You’ll be pleased to know that we all passed.
So far Crew Finch have completed their skills section and are well on the way to completing their volunteering section (reading with Y7 students.)
Crew have already chosen their hiking groups – they’ll be walking in two groups of six rather than all together – and the nice part of this for me was hearing them say that they wanted to be in groups with those members of Crew who they wouldn’t usually spend time with so that they could have the chance to bond with them a little bit.
We want to make sure that students are fully prepared for the qualifying expedition element, so our Friday afternoon sessions are now fully dedicated to preparing for the outdoor expedition and will cover such things as:
- Basic first aid (including CPR)
- Menu planning
- Stove safety/cooking
- Packing rucksacks
- Route planning
- Codes of conduct
Key dates:
- 14th Feb – Medical consent forms to be returned to me please!
- 3rd April – Kit check (we’ll send a list home with students)
- 23rd April – Practice hike (day only)
- 9th-10th July – Qualifying expedition (overnight)
I’ll be handing over the DofE blogging to Crew so that they can keep you updated on their planning and progress.
Post-16 Work in Spanish: Practising verb tenses in the context of social media in Spain
In Y12 Spanish, we are working on developing our grammar and verb skills in the context of the impact of social media within Spanish society. We learn key verbs to describe how the average Spaniard might use social media, and how social networks can influence global movements like Occupy and Real Democracy Now.
Our student was given a timeline showing different tenses ranging from past to future, and post-it notes with verb phrases from this topic (for example, I update, I have posted, I will interact, I would be influenced). Year 12 had to order the verbs by tense, then translate them into English. Finally, we finished off the activity with a rapid-fire, oral exercise, conjugating the new verbs into other tenses using the timeline verbs as a guide. It’s all about the verbs!
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:Â
Water BottleÂ
Black ShortsÂ
Shin PadsÂ
Moulded boots or trainersÂ
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 are creating beautiful work in their art sessions
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!