C29’s First Week Back!
C29 have had a brilliant start to the new school year, full of energy, teamwork, and plenty of laughter!
Our guiding question for the week was “how can we ensure that our future selves thank us for the next two years?” – we also had 3 different things to focus on this week. The first focus was “How can I have a positive impact on myself and my community?” – Tuesday’s activities focused on this, as we reconnected with our crews.
We kicked off our Tuesday with a year group community meeting, where we focused on the norms and expectations for Year 10. Together, we discussed the important qualities we’d like to see in our crew leaders and phase leaders for the year ahead – and realised just how much we’ll be relying on them to hold us to account and help us achieve our very best.
To round off the day, we came together for some light-hearted competition. Inspired by the TV show “99 to Beat”, crews faced off in a series of silly games and activities – we had to catch potatoes on a fork [including some attempted trick shots!], retract a tape measure and stop within 2 lines – and bouncing pencils in to cups using only the rubber on the end! From start to finish, it was an afternoon filled with laughter, teamwork, and just a little bit of friendly rivalry – with Crew Lovelace coming out on top!
Wednesday saw our microadventures; and crews in Y10 heading out into Doncaster. Armed with tasks beginning A-Z; with just a £10 budget, crews set out to complete a variety of exciting tasks. These included finding the most antique item, purchasing a crew mascot, heading to the remains of a Roman fort, going to locate Doncaster Racecourse and the Mansion House. At each stop, C29 were tasked with taking a photo or video of their crews doing something in those places – highlights included doing the Can Can in the corn exchange, Yoga at the YMCA, and racing like horses at the racecourse!
On Thursday, C29 moved on to learning about careers, interviews and life after Year 11. This helped us to zoom in on our second focus: How do I present myself as a leader, not a passenger? We worked with our expert, James, who discussed available careers in the NHS; and we also had the opportunity (and privilege!) to listen to five XP alumni speak about their experiences in sixth form, college and university, before engaging in a Q&A session with them – giving us a taste of what our lives may involve post-XP! After this, we took part in an interview skills workshop; before making a vision board showing where we wanted to be in our lives ten years from now. Hopefully we can look back on these and compare what we thought we’d want to do, to what we’re actually doing.
Friday culminated our week perfectly; we completed our vision boards; spent some time competing in some more crew games, and took part in a session on specific revision methods and tips, so we can head in to KS4 with some good techniques – meeting our third focus, How do I ensure I’m the best version of myself, so I can look after others, too?. After lunch we completed a 30 minute solo, looking back on our journeys through Year 9, and this week – we spent some time thinking about how we can become the best versions of ourselves by the end of Key Stage 4, before presenting our week to our whole school community.
Crews have created their own VLOGS as products this week; and they are incredible. Some phenomenal memories made, great teamwork and sportsmanship have been shown this week, and as crew leaders, we’ve loved every minute of it!
What a fantastic start to the year – and if this first week is anything to go by, C29 are in for an unforgettable Year 10 – and I cannot wait to work with them this year!
Miss Cocliff x
