8 Admiral | XP School

When X28 Admiral designed and ran their own countries..

17th April 2023Eleanor Wilkinson

An awesome start to Immersion week for X28 (Year 8) today!

They have hit the ground running, designing their own government and country.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you gave a 12 or 13 year old keys to their own country? Have them choose the type of government to oversee it, and design their own immigration and international relations policies?

X28 have designed thoughtful countries, researched different forms of government, created and designed a national anthem, and decided which international organisations to apply for membership too.

A great start to Immersion year 8!

C28 Macbeth Production Evening

By Eleanor Wilkinson22nd March 2023

A one night only Macbeth Production.. Thursday the 30th of March.

If you would like to reserve tickets for the evening, please complete the google form attached in the letter. We look forward to seeing you in the evening.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepGO3oTSx3ADbmYhPv4s7587REOLKPN3duVK4br-uQljck_w/viewform

X28 – Yorkshire Sculpture Park Fieldwork

31st August 2022Rachael Rothwell

Students in X28/Year 8 will be visiting Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield.

This will form part of their immersion for their first expedition of Year 8.

Students will be visiting on Wednesday – 7th September 2022.

We will be travelling by coach, departing at around 9:15 AM and returning at approximately 15:00 PM.

Students will need to bring a packed lunch unless they access free school meals, in which case school will provide one for them.

This is an outdoor site so students will be required to take a waterproof jacket/coat in case of wet weather, and wear suitable footwear (old trainers).

Usual school rules will apply in terms of mobile phones and these should not be used by students on the bus. Students may wish to take devices such as iPads to take any photographs or to make notes.

If your child needs to take any medication, please inform their Crew Leader so that any necessary arrangements can be made.

All medication should be labelled with their name, and passed to a member of staff.

If you have any questions about the day, feel free to contact [email protected].

A busy couple of weeks for crew Kahlo

By Miss Jones3rd May 2021

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks in crew. We have been working hard and cracking on.

This week, crew Kahlo has been looking at ‘British Values’ as part of our crew curriculum. We have been learning about how British Values teach us tolerance and respect for others.

We even made a display in our crew room.

We then moved onto looking at the difference between weather and climate. Pupils carried out research into causes of climate change.

I wanted to highlight this beautiful work by Bryan and Jessy. For our current Y8 expedition ‘Wherever I Lay my Hat’ where we have been looking at the artist Luke Dixon for inspiration. Pupils have practiced adding lines and patterns to simplified copies of his work and also using a viewfinder to zoom in on details. I don’t know about you, but I think Jessy’s pencil-tone portrait is absolutely amazing! I only asked for a line drawing – but she went for it! We didn’t want to add any lines (like Luke Dixon does) over this drawing – so we have photocopied her work and she is adding lines to a copy so she has not one but two beautiful pieces of work!

On Thursdays, crew Kahlo has started to think about the HoWLs grades that they would give themselves for that week in each subject area and crew. Pupils critiqued each other’s grades and commented on whether they agreed with them or not. This led to loads of discussion about what ‘work hard’ looks like and how they could try and improve their own ‘get smart’ in lessons. It has been really great to have Mr. Challen in crew with us as he has been able to comment on pupils’ work in their maths lessons.

A very productive couple of weeks crew! Keep up the good work.

X26 Student of the Week

By Sophie Elliott16th February 2021

Student of the week in Year 8 / X26 goes to Arthur…

Congratulations Arthur, you have been nominated by so many of your teachers for working so hard in your online lessons and producing beautiful work. I am really impressed with what I am seeing and hearing about Arthur. Keep up the hard work, it is not going unnoticed.

Here are some of the comments teachers made about you:

I am really impressed with Arthur. He always has his hand up answering or asking questions. He is working and trying really hard. He has been working hard since the start of the new lockdown and i think he needs appreciation 🙂 (Miss Haythorne)

I nominate Arthur. He is working really hard in all his sessions and getting good feedback from every teacher. Dedicated to having a good SLC and being prepared and creating some beautiful artwork. (Miss Jones)

It would have to be Arthur for me for student of the week. Absolutely smashing it!! Example of work – OMAM character analysis – finding quotes to support his inferences! Independently! Always answering questions! (Miss Ibbotson)

Miss O’Grady also commented on how impressed she was in the quality of the work you are producing in PE.

Well done Arthur! Let’s hope you have a happier face when you see this post than in your picture! 🙂

Positive thinking and lovely feedback for crew Kahlo

By Miss Jones26th January 2021

On Friday, I had the pleasure of hosting our weekly community meeting for X26. I wanted to take the opportunity to speak to my crew and their peers about seeing the positives in life at the moment.

I started our online hangout by asking pupils to have a think about what this quote means:

One of the explanations from a student was ‘When you’re unhappy you don’t feel like doing anything but when you’re more positive you have more energy and you’re happier ‘. I have to say that I agree with this.

I described my own feelings about lockdown 3.0 and the fact that we are working in a very different way. We are all going to have good days and bad days but we must remind ourselves of the positives.

It’s very easy to think negatively about ourselves, about a situation, or about an event that has happened or is about to happen. However, it’s really important that we find positive thoughts to keep us happy and feeling good.

Finding the positives isn’t easy and is a skill that we definitely have to work on.

Last week, I asked all the teachers of Year 8 to give me some feedback about how pupils are getting on with their online learning.

I was so impressed and it genuinely gave me a warm fuzzy feeling being able to share this feedback with X26 and especially crew Kahlo.

Look at this lot!

#wearecrew

Crew Kahlo still smiling and having fun!

By Miss Jones21st January 2021

Well, what can I say!? What a strange time we are having to deal with at the moment! I have to say though, that I am a very proud crew leader and I am so impressed with how crew Kahlo has adapted.

We have had to change the way we do crew. We now have a video call every morning to have a catch-up and check-in. One of our check in’s was ‘Crew Kahlo Cuppa’ – where we all went to grab a cuppa to have a chat. As you can see, we have a few Harry Potter fans and one crew member who really loves his mum…can you spot which person that is?

I wanted to upload these photos of crew from just before Christmas. This is from our Christmas Jumper day in school with the fabulous MIss Haythorne!

This photo was taken on the last day before we broke up for Christmas, we had a bonus crew session at the end of the day. The last crew of 2020. It’s going to be weird to look back on these photos in years to come. Hopefully, by that time we won’t have to wear facemasks anymore! (fingers crossed!)

By S McCarthy3rd December 2020

He’s taken on Piers Morgan, but can Jon McClure- lead singer of the band Reverend and the Makers- handle grillings by X26 and E26?

They may only be Year 8s, but they’re the next generation to challenge injustice and support when it’s right to ‘Fight the Power’. As well as curently raising funds to commerorate the Doncaster Suffragettes, they’re working to become young, poetic activists as they write their own verses for their ‘Fight the Power!’ expedition.

For someone who doesn’t like ‘fake news’, Trump and his pal Piers know how to create it…(cue Jon McClure stepping into the ring).

South Yorkshire star Jon, brings his expertise as a song-writer and poet, as well as having a First Class History and Politics degree! Jon has collaborated on lyrics with the Arctic Monkeys, whilst also having written the music for his own band who have had chart success with anthems such as Heavy Weight Champion of the World. From drawing festival crowds and packing out gig venues, to appearing on politics shows and Good Morning Britain, this guy has lots of wisdom to impart on our Year 8s. The man who said “When we see people like yourself fawning over Donald Trump, then we feel the need to stand up and say something,” will hopefully be inspiring our students to do the same.

Jon will be chatting with our students via Google Hangout (we’re sure he will have the same presence and ‘draw the crowds in’, despite Covid restictions) on Monday afternoon (7th December). Good Morning Britain will be quaking in their boots…or booking us for their next debate!

Crew name display, crew pledges, analysing HoWLs and celebrating a birthday.

By Miss Jones15th November 2020

So, crew Kahlo is back to full strength. We have welcomed another new student to our crew…Alex. He has well and truly fit in with our crew

When speaking to his teachers, it has been lovely to hear such wonderful feedback about Alex and how he has hit the ground running at XP. He has been working really hard and getting smart in his sessions. Here are a few things that his teachers have said about him:

Mrs. Sprakes (Spanish) – Alex shows COURAGE, he’s never done Spanish before but he’s come into Y8 and he’s giving it a real go. Awesome!

Mrs. Ibbotson (Hums) – Alex is doing great in Hums. He is always getting involved and has lots to say and input to the sessions.

We created a crew display with our name ‘Crew Kahlo’ by adding colour to mindful colouring pages and laminated them. I think it looks great! Every member of crew also wrote a pledge that they feel is important to them to work towards in the run up to Christmas. Some of the pledges were:

to concentrate in lessons (Tammy)
to be kind (Alex)
to use integrity all the time (Max)
to remember things (Arthur)
to remember to bring my water bottle and equipment (Bryan)
to be more organised and to concentrate more (Olivia)
to help other people (Kearan)
to speak more in class (Billie – Lou)
to get my homework in on time (Jessy)
to ask more questions in class (Harrison)
to be in school on time (Callum)
to answer and ask more questions in class (Nida)

We will be checking in on these pledges throughout the term to hold each other to account and make sure we fulfil them.

The crew has also started to analyse their HoWL’s data this week. Looking at the marks they have received for ‘Working Hard; Getting Smart and Being Kind’ for each subject

Next week, we will be making pledges on how to improve our HoWLs as the year progresses.

We will be looking at how we can support each other as a crew to do this by giving kind, specific, and helpful feedback to each other.