Wow! Year 7! What an amazing start to your art sessions at XP. You have all been a pleasure to teach and I am sooo excited to see your skills in art get better and better.
This half term, we have been concentrating on ‘line’ and ‘mark-making’.
I asked pupils to look carefully at this artwork by Olga Gamynina and have a go at re-creating it. Look at this beautiful work!
by Ben (X27 Admiral)
by Lidija (X27 Skipper)
Amazing work Year 7! Well done!
Really impressed with Y8’s prints from today’s art lesson.
It was lovely to see the enthusiasm and excitement of the students with this new technique.
X27 has had their first extended study set for art this week and I have been really impressed with their submissions.
Here is some of the beautiful work by X27 Admiral.
Bryson.
Jasmin.
Alysia.
Well done X27 Admiral. I am looking forward to seeing X27 Skippers’ efforts (they are due in on Monday……no pressure).
This week we have welcomed a new arrival to crew Kahlo. Introducing Kearan!
He fits in fantastically with our quirky little bunch and he has told crew that he is so so happy to be a student at XP and that really shines through!
Kearan’s teachers have been really impressed with his attitude and enthusiasm in sessions. He has just got stuck in and is thriving.
Miss Ibbotson (Human) told me that Kearan is a superstar. She said that they have done an assessment this week and he just cracked on with it. He wasn’t worried at all. She said that he is awesome!
Miss Ridout (Science) said ‘Kearan has been amazing in my sessions!!! He is fab and should keep up the great work. He always gives amazing answers!’
What a cracking start! We are so happy to have you in crew Kahlo!
On another note…
I have noticed that this week has been especially difficult for a few members of crew Kahlo (and other pupils at XP) when it comes to their emotions and worries about the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, I would like to say that I really do feel for our students and I am super super proud of how they are handling our ‘new normal’ at school.
The coronavirus has caused significant changes in our daily lives (at home and at school) and left us feeling stressed, anxious, and even afraid. The world has experienced pandemics before, but nothing quite like COVID-19.
I have been trying my best to help my crew to stay positive and focus on the things we can control in order to make it through the coming days and months.
We have had some really lovely crew discussions about how we can try to support each other when we are feeling a bit rubbish and worried about stuff.
Here are some of the things that we thought were important:
It’s all go at XP after our time at home during the lockdown. It’s so good to have the crew back together again. I’m really proud of crew Kahlo for settling back into their school routine (even though they’re all a bit tired). Each and every member of crew has made a fantastic start to Year 8 and has received some lovely feedback from their teachers.
For our first day back we had a full day together to re-connect and catch up.
I was impressed with their mature attitudes towards the new rules that we have to follow to stay safe in school. They also let off a little steam by playing a few games outside to get some fresh air…
We discussed ideas for crew pledges to try and help each other when we need support
The crew has had some changes this week like our first whole school virtual community meeting:
We also had the introduction to ‘Wise Wednesdays’. For our first week, we were looking at ‘Understanding Identity’. We discussed how social and cultural factors help to shape our identity. It was a chance for the crew to explore who they were as people and think about how others see them. It was challenging for some members of the crew but they grappled with the tasks and supported each other. It was lovely to have the chance to speak to them all about ‘what makes them who they are’.
Well done for having a great start to Year 8!
So, crew EJN presented their crew name suggestions to Miss Robinson in last week’s crew hangout. They were prepared, confident, and articulated their reasons for each individual really well.
I was very impressed!
After almost an hour of presenting their slides, Miss Robinson decided that our new crew name was going to be…(drum roll please)…
This is after the famous Mexican artist ‘Frida Kahlo’. You may recognise some of her artwork below:
She created a number of self-portraits as well as paintings about her disabilities.
She had a really tough time and was in a lot of pain throughout her life.
Here are some of the pages that Arthur in our crew prepared to describe her:
So, as you can see from Arthurs slides – she didn’t have it easy. She had a lot of challenges to overcome in her life – but she was so determined and courageous!
Harrison read through most of the slides as Arthur had a few technical issues and was losing connection. Harrison read really well, he was clear and confident. He showed a lot of courage as I know he was not in his comfort zone whilst doing it. Well done Harrison.
For Arthur’s last page he described why he thought that we should name our crew after Frida Kahlo…
The reasons that he gave above absolutely blew me away and actually brought a tear to my eye – thinking about how far we have come as a crew and all that we have been through!
We have been through some hard times, some challenging times, some difficult times – but we are crew and we can get through it! We support each other and back each other up.
I am a very proud, emotional, embarrassing, and ‘cringy’ crew leader – but I don’t care!
I’ll leave you with this quote from Frida which I think is VERY true.
This week, crew EJN have been working on their crew name presentations that they will be showing Miss Robinson next week during their weekly crew hangout.
Crew have a few ideas about who they would like to be named after and why:
Crew have also been busy completing their home learning, creating some beautiful work.
These are for the nature page for their visual diaries:
Positive and motivational quotes for their visual diaries:
In other news, Olivia has been swimming in a river!!!
…and Jessy has a new dog called Callie.
We are back to school for a new term. Back to home learning and trying our best – having good days and bad days and just trying to get through and stay safe.
Crew EJN were ready for a break and a little time off last week. Luckily the weather was absolutely stunning!
This is what crew got up to:
Arthur went on lots of walks, met his grandad and took Dotty the dog for a walk and play. He had his first KFC in months (Its was delicious!) He went to Birkin fisheries for ice cream and a picnic and he saw lots and lots of ducklings. He also made a bug hotel for his garden by cutting lots of bamboo up and putting twigs around an old pop bottle in a plant pot. He also painted a pebble to say thankyou to the NHS.
Brandan went to Cleethorpes for the day (social distancing of course) and sat and played on the beach. He also went to his sisters for the day where they had a new pool and a 7ft dinosaur sprinkler called Dino.
Tammy built a bird table and found an old colouring book to colour in.
As well as being out in the sunshine, crew were still keeping busy with their home learning tasks.
Max has created some lovely artwork based on the artist Kandinsky
Crew EJN have also made a cracking start on their Visual Dairies for their new expedition called ‘Above all, compassion’. Here are their front covers
Im really proud of crew EJN and all their hard work. They have enjoyed their holiday and have got back to working hard with their home learning!
Well done crew!
Crew EJN have produced some beautiful work based on the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky during lockdown.
By Nida
By Tammy
By Bryan
By Arthur
By Jessy
By Olivia
They have also started their new expedition ‘Above all, compassion’ off with a bang by designing a storyboard to show the environmental changes during ‘The Lorax’.
By Harrison
By Arthur
By Jessy
There is a website that has been created especially for this expedition to help pupils find the tasks that they need to complete and to give them extra guidance. The link for the website is here.
Keep up the good work crew and remember that I want you to concentrate on the most recently set tasks on google classroom and try to meet your deadlines. If you fell behind with the work from the beginning of lock down – that needs to be done after you finish the new work.
Take care and stay safe!
