A student’s final years of secondary school and the build up to GCSEs can be a challenging and difficult time in itself; not to mention having to do it after missing 6 months of school and in the middle of a global pandemic. But our students in Year 11 are here. They are showing up. Working hard, getting smart and being kind. I am unbelievably proud of the courage that they showing each day. It is a difficult time for all of us, but one thing that stands out is the sense of Crew in all if our young people and amongst our members of staff. Every day I see students looking out for each other and supporting each both in and out of session, and never has it been more apparent that ‘Courage, Compassion, Respect and Integrity are not just words written on the wall. But something that I see our young people living and breathing. They’ve also managed great Craftsmanship in their work despite the adjustments we’ve have had to make.
Whilst lessons are working almost as normal for now, we are introducing a number of additional layers of support for Years 10 and 11 which I’d like to share with you all.
D6
D6 is our voluntary Saturday School planned and led by our XP alumni. Students in Year 11 at XP are welcome to join us each Saturday at the XP East site to access this wonderful provision where they can tailored and personalised study support from experts who have been through the process themselves and who are now continuing their studies at A level. Our first two sessions have been a tremendous success and have had lively and supportive atmosphere, and despite being an amazing start, its can only get better. Out Student Coaches will be working with Dr Pountney from Sheffield Hallam University to develop their mentoring and coaching skills to make this provision even more successful. Whilst D6 is currently only open to Y11, in the new Year we are looking to extend this offer to Y10 in both XP and XP East. Further details can be found on an earlier blog post here.
The GROW Project
Building on the success of the pilot programme in the summer term, I am delighted to share that the GROW project facilitated and delivered by Sheffield Hallam University has begun this week. The GROW project sees 30 students in Year 10 and 11 access personalised 1:1 mentoring from accredited Post-graduate mentors for up to two hours per week for 7 weeks. The purpose of the GROW project to provide our young people with personalised support in dealing with the consequences of lockdown, helping to manage academic study and begin thinking about careers and next steps after XP. The pilot was a great success and received national attention in the media and I look forward to seeing how our students respond.
Learning Lab
Our teachers in Y11 are now running our Learning Lab sessions which are additional study and intervention sessions in each subject which take place both in school time and after school where students are given additional targeted support to help them to get exam ready.
Coffee with Cocliffe
One of our most important additional layers of support is ‘Coffee with Cocliffe’ where the wonderful Miss Cocliffe spends 1:1 time with any student who needs support with their health and wellbeing. Students can ask to meet Miss Cocliffe and she’ll make time to check in on them and help to develop strategies for managing emotions and relationships over the course of the year. Miss Cocliffe has already had an incredibly positive effect on a number of our students and I can’t thank her enough for the work that she does for us all.
All this, on top of our usual sessions and interventions, and of course our most powerful support mechanism; Crew.
