What an amazing start to the week Crew EWI has had! Everyone has come back eager to start new expeditions and the crew spirit is just as strong as it was before Christmas. We started our week revisiting our crew norms and starting our new book.. Private Peaceful.
Here are some pictures of Crew working hard and grappling with our new text!
Year 11 will be sitting mock exams over a 2 week period, starting on Monday 8th November:
Please note that Wednesday 10th November may be subject to change due to the school nurses being in to administer Covid Vaccines.
Students have been given revision resources to help them prepare for these mocks, as well as having access to Seneca (science), Hegarty (maths) and all their previous session slides on google classrooms.
This school year has started off with an action packed first week where X27 went to Wales!
Here are some photos alongside some thoughts from the students from crew Marsha P. Johnson…
“I really enjoyed the jetty jump because we were able to do something that some people were afraid of (heights) and we got to challenge ourselves. Also I enjoyed the hot chocolate because it tasted really good and we got it for breakfast and dinner and it tasted nice.” Billy
I liked the walk because even though we found it hard and argued with each other we still supported one another” Mckenzie
“I enjoyed the gorge walking because we were all working together to make sure everyone was safe and not slipping over, we did this by warning each other which rocks were safe to stand on and which rocks weren’t. We also helped each other down the waterfall and not leave anyone behind.” Sienna
“I enjoyed the gorge walk because it was funny watching everyone sliding and falling everywhere.I also enjoyed being shown the different plants and insects we could eat on the sides of the paths because they we weird to try” Grace
“I enjoyed doing the gorge walking, basically just watching Morgan fall over constantly. The walk was a struggle for multiple people, but we all still kept going. On the way there people were eating plants, we saw a bunch of cows, we drank river water. The food was definitely….something. Personally I didn’t like it but there wasn’t much else we could eat so we kinda just had to stomach it.” Millie
“I liked the jetty jump but it was scary. I really enjoyed the gorge walk. There were lots of rockslides. I liked the walk because there were many cool places to look at and be.” Nadia
“I enjoyed messing around with pieces of bread with my friends and jumping off a jetty and persuading other people to jump. It was funny with all the screaming and shouting. The funny thing is the scary part was climbing back up the ladder” Ewan
“I enjoyed doing the jetty jump I found it really challenging and over became my fear of the ocean heights I was very proud” Charlie
“I liked the gorge walk it was really fun because there was slides but it was hard because we had to help each other to not fall and to encourage each other” Theo:
“I enjoyed the walk to the campsite where we walked by a waterfall and found different plants that we could eat. One plant we found tasted like a green apple.” Elizabeth
“I enjoyed the gorge walking because I kept falling onto my back and it made me and Miss Taylor laugh. It was also a new experience and I would love to do it again.” – Morgan
“I really enjoyed the gorge walking because Morgan kept making me laugh and it was something I wouldn’t normally do. It was awesome to spend time with the crew outside of school and get to know them a bit better and have a load of fun in the outdoors”. – Kat Taylor
Crew JEL have had an excellent start to life at XP. They have all settled in very well. In the first week students participated in a Micro-adventure. This involved them looking at the environment and the Eco-systems around XP. They looked at the plant and wildlife types and how they might design a garden to attract insects and birdlife to it.
We then had an expert (Dennis), come to visit Crew to speak about garden birds and to help students to build their birdboxes. The students started with a pack of pre-sawn wood and screwed it together to form the birdboxes, which were then painted, and which will be taken home and placed in the garden. Hopefully over the coming years we will be getting updates as to what birds have used it.
Check out the finished Bird Boxes. Fantastic work Crew JEL!
Parent Information – JEL has Crew Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and NEA has crew Monday and Wednesday.
What a busy first couple of weeks crew Kahlo has had in Year 9!
There’s never a dull moment at XP, especially at the beginning of term. We kicked off the new year with an outward bound trip where we went abseiling off a bridge (80ft!) and caving:
On our second day of Year 9, crew took part in a number of fun challenges (working as a crew) in the morning and then played the other Year 9 crews in a bench ball tournament. We ended the day with a community meeting.
On our third day of Year 9 we walked to Potteric Carr nature reserve and then did a ‘Solo’.
When we got back to school, crew prepared for their POL to explain what they had done that week and what they had learnt from it. They worked well as a team to present to their peers and parents.
As you can see – we don’t mess about! We start as we mean to go on here at XP.
Cant quite believe that crew Kahlo are in Year 9 already – bring it on!
So, a new school year and the start of their XP journey for crew AJA. We had a great time learning names, playing games and getting to know each other a bit. We’ve discovered that members of our crew have talents in Football, Taekwondo, languages, arts, and predicting the future!
In our sessions in the first week we planned a microadventure – building time capsule and filling it with things that show a snapshot of our crew as we start our time together here at XP. We hope to bury it in a secret location in the school grounds, and dig it up as we approach the end of year 11. We’re excited to look forward to being able to look back on where we began.
Here’s hoping that we have a great 5 years together!
On Thursday 1st July, Crew Macmillan (and the rest of C24!) took part in fieldwork to Shrewsbury Prison, to support their current expedition ‘Karma Police!’ – and to focus on their guiding question of ‘have we got justice right?”.
Hi All!
Well, we have covered a lot since our last post. During the last couple of weeks we have been delving in to mental health, especially with the recent mental health week. Looking at outside factors and how that can have a real impact on us and how we can take control of the situation, recognising that we always have a choice and do the right thing! this topic has sparked many really interesting conversations which i have been really privileged to be part of.
We have looked at it from; what we consume and how we consume – to – respecting our environment, ourselves and others.
We’ve also discussed times when we have got angry or upset about a situation, how we have acted and what the consequences of that were. this discussion was really POWERFUL and saw our crew really open up to each other and begin to truly trust and understand what crew really means. It was a very heartwarming moment i can tell you…#goosebumpsmoment
Riley produced some beautiful thoughtful work during a recent art class he was really proud of it, so much so he voluntarily came in during his break to try and get it finished! Now thats commitment to craftsmanship and quality. Well done!!
Alongside participating in our classes more respectfully by using our voices at the appropriate time as well as using hand signal protocols to respect our teachers and fellow classmates.
Times table Rock stars battle – last few hours can we get to the top? Lidija was smashing it out of the park!
We have also taken time to respect our immediate community by litter picking. We found some interesting bits and bobs, some a little more disgusting than others. it really made us think about how we treat the environment we spend our time in and how others feel about the environment they spend their time in.
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.
Returning to the classroom has been a little tricky for some of us. But yet again Crew Tubman have really risen to the challenge!
We’ve taken to using the crew wall as a focal point to revise our learning and get us back on track.
Some of our points of learning on Mindful Monday have been around writing a letter to our future self about how we have faired during lockdown, asking how things are in the future and maybe if some things have changed or perhaps remained the same, what advice would we give ourselves.
Resetting our reading targets is a really important part of our time. Looking at what we can do to make sure we are reading regularly, in order to benefit from a better understanding which, in turn allows us to make better word and sentence choices in our own work as well as growing to understand more challenging texts. Making sure we have regular times to familiarise ourselves with the written word and the many contexts we find it in, so Tuesday is a great time to sit back relax and enjoy our favourite author. We have also looked at what Genre we enjoy to help others find something to challenge their usual reads and expand our experiences, followed by a pledge to improve on where we are currently.
This has been focusing mainly on our mental and physical health, discussing and exploring what this means to us and how we have a choice over how we deal with things and who we can turn to. We have had some really mature conversations about where they feel mental health affects physical and visa versa, resulting in the conclusion that they both rely on each other and how best to maintain this.
Here we are looking at reconnecting to our HOWLs and identifying how our behaviour directly impacts our academic achievement alongside our attendance, also how this impacts us as a crew. Over the coming weeks we will be analysing our classroom efforts and looking as a crew, supporting each other in order to get the best out of ourselves. Some of us may need a little more help than others but we are all there for each other.
We have taken time this week to reflect and analyse where we feel we sit with our HOWLs, really thinking and picking apart how we feel we are achieving in our lessons based on our current performance and how we are coming back after the break. As you can see they have used a lot of integrity in identifying where they need to work harder or need help in a subject in order to become a better version of themselves. This is something we will grapple with over the coming weeks with discussion, critique, notice, wonders and praise.
This is where we take time to catch up on any discussions we want to expand on, follow up work or finding time to share a good read. This week we have taken the opportunity to read Rosemary Sutcliff’s ‘Beowulf’
Whilst listening to the text we have used our visualisation skills to determine what we think Grendal, one of the main characters, would look like based on the description in the book.
Have a look at what they thought…
Another great week for crew Tubman, looking forward to next
All that best
