Crew Webb – A crackin’ start to a new term!

By B Batty16th September 2020

After such a long time away from school, the start of the new term means a new start for Crew Webb! We have two new Crew leaders and a new Crew member – welcome Eleanor! Mrs. Collinson and I are Crew Leaders this year for Crew Webb, and we’re delighted with the way that Crew Webb have settled back into school, despite all-new routines and the demands of being in Year 10.

 
We have set our academic pledges for the year, and we have begun to discuss ideas around how we can continue to support our Crew charity. Mrs. Collinson is a new Crew Leader, and she has been made to feel very welcome by Crew Webb. We’re spending some time reconnecting, sharing stories, and getting to know one another after spending so much time apart. We shared our strengths and weaknesses as a Crew, and talked about what we can do to make Year 10 Crew Webb’s best year yet.
 
X24 have made a great start to 2020/2021, and Crew Webb are embracing all the changes to routines, teachers, and classes. There have been wonderful examples of honesty, integrity, HOWLS, and beautiful work. Mrs. Collinson and I are looking forward to being a part of Crew Webb’s journey through the academic year. There is so much to look forward to!

It’s VE Day!

By Melissa Cocliff8th May 2020

VE Day marks not only 75 years since Victory in Europe, but also a bank the end of another great week for Crew Macmillan.

I go on enough about how I couldn’t be more proud of my crew, but I really am so happy with how crew have adapted to working from home. There’s some fantastic work being submitted, which you must keep up with – it’s so important that we don’t fall behind, but we also remember these circumstances aren’t normal, and that we do what we can, when we can! Remember, if there are any issues, you need to let me know so we can resolve them together!

There are a few more appreciations this week, from Miss Cocliff & Crew Macmillan:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, most of crew Macmillan have had 1:1 Google Hangouts with me, to review progress in each subject, find out where we are with the work set, and to get some support if it’s needed with any of the tricky tasks! There are just a couple pencilled in next week, but these honest conversations are really vital – and i’d like to appreciate all of you for having these conversations – i know sometimes it can be a bit tricky to admit you need some help. Being honest with what we find difficult opens up avenues for u sas learners – it might be that we have 1:1 hangouts every week, or group hangouts if there are more than one of us struggling with a particular task. You’d work together in school without question – that’s still possible virtually, too! 

I’d like to end this week by sharing a really lovely picture with you. Ricki’s little sister, Tiffany, has created some beautiful artwork for us, that I think is just incredible. She’s only 4 years old, but her use of different materials is fantastic. A proper little artist in the making! Thanks, Tiffany! 

Enjoy the (hopefully hot) bank holiday as much as you can. Don’t forget your sun cream, remember to hydrate yourselves, and spend some time in the garden if  you can (you might even spot some more birds, to beat XPE, too!)

Miss Cocliff x

X24 STEAM immersion: CHALLENGE 2 – Powerhouse hunting

By Mr M Said6th May 2020

ETCH A CELL RESEARCH PROJECT

We need our student to help with important medical research!

In this second challenge of the new Year 9 learning expedition: Here Comes the Sun, mitochondria research scientists in London need our students’ help.

Nearly every cell in our body contains hundreds to thousands of mitochondria. These tiny structures are incredibly important. They are often referred to as the ‘powerhouses’ of the cell. This is because they convert the fat, protein and sugar from the food we eat into the energy we need to survive.

We couldn’t live without mitochondria, and if they do not work properly it causes very serious problems.

Students’ job is to identify mitochondria in images of cells at a very high level of magnification.

Volunteers like our students’ work will eventually train AI computers to help analyse new data even faster. This will help the scientists to do their research more quickly and develop new drugs.

More details can be found on Google Classroom or on the immersion section of our expedition website.

 

THIS WORK CAN ALSO COUNT TOWARDS DofE Volunteering during lockdown too!

X24 New STEAM expedition launch: HERE COMES THE SUN

By Mr M Said5th May 2020

Our new Year 9 STEAM expedition is called ‘Here Comes The Sun’. The website for the expedition is live now.

This afternoon we kicked off STEAM immersion week in Year 9 with a huge Google Hangouts Meet.

The meeting was attended by over 60 students from both XP and XP East who met to learn about the challenges we have set for their immersion this week.

One of the main things that we want students to get out of this week, and the whole of this term’s Year 9 STEAM expedition is an appreciation of nature.

 

CHALLENGE 1 – BIRDING

We have asked students to spend at least 30 minutes spotting birds. We have shared a guide and record sheet with them in Google Classroom. Staff have been having a go this week and spoke to the students about how lovely it was to spend time out enjoying nature.

We would love to see lots of photos from students of any birds that they see or just general shots inspired by nature. We are also determined to beat XP East with the number of birds that we spot!

In our meeting we had a massive game of quizlet live to compete with other in identifying 20 of the most common garden birds.

Spoiler alert: Penguins won! 🐧 🏆

 

 

There are also some optional challenges that we would like for the students to try if they can:

OPTIONAL CHALLENGE 1 – BUG HOTEL

If you have a garden or patio space, it would be amazing if students could gather resources to build a bug hotel, these can be as complex or simple as students want to make them.

Students don’t need to complete all of the work on it this week during immersion, as we will revisit it throughout the expedition. Again we would love to see photos of any that students build. Here is mine that I built with my son, we had a great time:

 

OPTIONAL CHALLENGE 2 – NEST BOX

If students have the resources and space they might want to build a small nest box.

This would be a great project to do with family members.

Again students would not need to complete it in this immersion week. It is something we will ask them to return to every week.

 

Details of all of the above are on Google Classroom.

 

There is another important challenge we will be sharing tomorrow, after which I will add a new blog post.

 

GOOGLE HANGOUT CLOSING CIRCLE – THURSDAY AT 3.00pm

It was wonderful to see so many students this afternoon to kick off the new expedition. Charlie even played us out of the meeting with what I believe the young people call ‘The Rave Music’.

On Thursday we will be gathering again on Google hangouts Meet at 3.00pm to see how students have been getting on with their challenges and share the photos that they send to us.

We will also share the guiding question and more exciting details about out new expedition then too.

Please do encourage your son or daughter to get outdoors and enjoy nature wherever possible, get them to send us photos and to join us in the hangout at the end of the week.

Thanks as always for your support.

Have a great week and enjoy VE Day with your family on Friday.

 

#wearecrew

Beautiful work by X24 and E24

17th April 2020B Batty

It’s been brilliant over the last 3 weeks to receive daily updates and work from Year 9 in both XP and XP East.

During their time at home students have been immersing themselves into our new expedition entitled ‘Empire’ using the the google site which can be found here https://sites.google.com/xpeast.org/c24-yr9-empire/home

Our guiding question for this expedition will be Do we need structure to make society stable?

Our anchor text is Animal Farm and we will explore the content through one of our three case studies. The other two have yet to be revealed to students…

In this post I’ve tried to capture a snapshot of the great work we have received.

Students have looked at Russia both in its past and present formation. Explored the different ideologies behind Socialism, Communism and Capitalism and how these ideologies were part of the Cold War. Analysed historical sources and the poem Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes As well as created a facebook profile on Ted Hughes using research on him and his life.

A special mention must go out to Theone for creating a facebook profile on Ted Hughes in the first person, Milo who carried out some detailed research and to Noah and Maclaren who thought about the finer details and decided whether they would have befriended him and gave him a specific number of friends.

I hope the slides give a sense of how hard students have been working from home.

Leaver Booster and Men-ACWY vaccinations to Year 9 and Year 10.

By Mrs N Mawby12th January 2020

The Vaccination and Immunisation Team will be attending East School on

TUESDAY 26TH JANUARY 2021.  

XP YEAR 9       09:00 – 10:30 am

XP YEAR 10     10:30 – 12:00 am

This is for all those students to receive their School Leaver Booster and Men-ACWY vaccinations.  Thank you to those parents who have sent in their E-Form to confirm.

If you have not received a Vaccination email, please contact your child’s crew leader for the link to the E Form.

Further information on the vaccination Leaver Booster and Men-ACWY can be found on NHS Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber.

 

X24 Presentation of Learning Thursday 5th December

By B Batty21st November 2019

Students in X24 Skipper and Admiral will be presenting their learning from our expedition Small Change on 5th December at 4.30pm in XP East School. Students have been working towards a number of Learning Targets focused on the GCSE text A Christmas Carol and the historical context of the period when Dickens produced A Christmas Carol. We like to invite you to hear from your son or daughter and see the work they have produced in order to answer the guiding question Why do we still need charity?  

We will also be asking, if possible, for donations to support the work of the Balby Church food and clothing bank.

FOR THE FOOD BANK: food that just requires hot water adding: e.g Instant porridge, Cup Soups, Mug shots, Instant noodles and Pot noodles (Supermarket own brands are ideal) FOR THE CLOTHES BANK: all types but the greatest demand is for jeans, joggers for men and all clothes for children aged 6-18.

 

Thank you in advance the Year 9 Team

X24 Skipper using the ‘milling to music’ protocol to peer critique their work

By Miss Jones22nd September 2019

X24 have been giving kind, specific and helpful peer critiques to each other to make improvements to create beautiful work.

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They have been looking at lino cuts by an artist called Karl Schmidt. They have chosen two different designs to produce two A3 designs:

  • One using a black sharpie pen on white paper
  • One using a craft knife to carefully cut back paper.

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