Return of the MC…. (Miss Cocliff!)

By Melissa Cocliff25th November 2020


Tomorrow is FINALLY the day I can return to work after having to self isolate for 8 days; the longest I’ve been away from Crew!

As a crew, we would like to say a HUGE thank you to Mrs Johnson for stepping in whilst I joined Crew on hangout from home. And a personal thank you to Charlie – who has made sure I’m able to join crew, organised everything that needs organising, and has just in general been a great deputy crew leader. I wasn’t joking about getting you a badge! 😉

It seems Crew Macmillan have still been flying the flag around school whilst I’ve been working from home, which is evidenced by the data on the praise form. Take a look at our figures so far – I’m so glad you’ve carried on being just as amazing, you have all done me, yourselves, and crew really proud!

Alfie, 60 praise entries is unbelievable. Frankie, 50!? INSANE. The fact that we have EVERYONE in crew with over 15 praise entries blows my mind – remember, praises are entered when students go above and beyond expectations in sessions, whether that relates to working hard, getting smart, being kind, or compassionate, or respectful, or showing brilliant craftsmanship and quality; it does get noticed! Let’s make it our mission for ALL of Crew to reach at least 25 praise entries by Christmas!

I can’t wait to be back with crew and give you more updates in the upcoming couple of weeks.

Remember this Friday and Monday (27th and 30th November) are staff days, so students won’t be in school; crew, make sure you’re caught up on any outstanding work; our focus as a crew is going to be on handing in all extended study on time!

 

 

Keep working hard. You’re incredible humans!

Miss C x

Crew Webb beautiful work with their DofE First Aid Skills

By B Batty23rd November 2020

Crew Webb HOWLing on Flexible Friday

Crew Webb showed their habits of work and learning during our Duke of Edinburgh session this week by working on their outdoor first aid skills. Students worked in teams to examine case studies of outdoor scenarios that they might face in future Duke of Edinburgh expeditions once Covid restrictions change. Once Crew Webb worked through the case studies, they prepared presentations demonstrating the steps they would take to provide first aid in each case. Great teamwork and beautiful work on a Friday afternoon!

 

Crew Berger’s Beautiful Revision

By Mr A Jackson23rd November 2020

       

 

Crew Berger have been focussing again on revision tasks.  A couple of weeks ago we started a programme of revision inspired by Mrs Sprakes work last year with crew Bronte.

Each member of our crew selected an area of study that they were comfortable with and pledged to create some revision materials based on that.  We gave ourselves two weeks to get it started and this week we presented our work.

Abi worked on the Vikings and shared several pages of notes that she’d made on Viking society.  Joe found and shared a sample Maths question and Henry produced some notes on Cell Biology, looking at cell structure and moving into DNA.

Rex and Laura also worked on Biology – producing flashcards on Hormones and Menstruation.  Laura went down the more traditional route of writing hers out on cards and then taking photos so she could share them.  Rex used an app to create his flashcards which allows you to see how long you’ve spent studying each one.

     

Laura also produced some character notes for one of our English texts – An Inspector Calls, and Khushi worked on flashcards for characters in Macbeth.  We enjoyed testing each other on these – can you remember who Fleance is!?

Jac decided to focus on Physics and, although he is doing the higher tier papers, he produced foundation study material to help others in crew.  His worked examples of answers on volume, density, electricity and other topics are beautifully presented and explained.

We’ve pledged to continue to produce this revision material and to make it public over the coming months leading up to the exams in summer next year.  We’re also pledging to put together a website so that our work can be made available to other crews and other students hoping to do well in their GCSEs.

 

My Mental Health Took Kit

By Mrs K apHarri19th November 2020

This term our Wise Wednesday crew sessions are focusing on how we can support our own mental well being.

Some students may feel that this will be of no benefit to them, that they feel absolutely fine, don’t need any help or techniques to help with their mental well being…

However what if we think ahead and create a tool kit of supportive strategies now, before problems like anxiety, depression, isolation, and other life pressures hit us. Hopefully, if or when any of these problems arise we are already equipped to deal with them.

Like anything, these techniques need to be practised to get the true benefit from them. By becoming familiar with them sooner rather than later, will make it easier to engage in them when things get tough.

This weeks session was the BODY SCAN. A body scan is a type of meditation whereby you mentally scan yourself from head to toe. You are bringing awareness to every single part of your body, noticing any aches, pains, tension, or general discomfort. Staying present and breathing into these sensations can help bring relief to our minds and bodies.

Our learning target was: I can identify the benefits to my mental health through taking part in a form of relaxation technique called a body scan.

As expected not everyone felt an immediate positive impact from it. As crew Hahn had already done this last term, we tried an alternative type of scan where we focus on contracting our muscles before relaxing them which helps to identify what it actually feels like for certain areas of our body to be relaxed. For example when we are stressed we naturally tense our shoulders and neck so sometimes we might think we are relaxed when actually we are not.

As i previously said, not everyone will feel its benefits after doing it once or twice. For people who haven’t done anything like this before it can seem very odd lying on the floor next to your mate concentrating on parts of the body and your breathing. Hopefully though, if and when students are experiencing difficulty such as poor sleep or if they are feeling overwhelmed with anxiety they can look back to these session and have a go.

Why not have a try at this yourself? There are loads of body scan meditations on the internet. Here is a link to a headspace.com body scan free trial, why not give it a try yourself…….

Crew Thunberg Pizza Party!

By Joe Nixon15th November 2020

As a child I was quite the fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This quartet of humanoid turtles, working together to fight evil, always celebrated victory by eating an inordinate volume of pizza. And never have I seen a better way of honouring triumph than the humble pizza party.

Way back before lockdown (if we can remember such a time), back when Crew Thunberg were in Y7, our attendance was so high, that we actually won the whole school attendance league. The result of this was that, as a crew, we were asked to decide on a reward to celebrate.

For months we have umm-ed and ahh-ed about what our reward could be. With another lockdown seemingly on the horizon, a few weeks before October half term, we decided to take the decision to have pizza and watch a film.

Crew Thunberg absolutely loved their Friday afternoon crew: pizza all round, loads of games, and the Simpsons Movie. It was a pizza party that Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello would have been proud of.

Very well deserved, Crew Thunberg! Keep up the excellent work, and let’s hope for some great attendance this year as well…

Crew name display, crew pledges, analysing HoWLs and celebrating a birthday.

By Emily Jones15th November 2020

So, crew Kahlo is back to full strength. We have welcomed another new student to our crew…Alex. He has well and truly fit in with our crew

When speaking to his teachers, it has been lovely to hear such wonderful feedback about Alex and how he has hit the ground running at XP. He has been working really hard and getting smart in his sessions. Here are a few things that his teachers have said about him:

Mrs. Sprakes (Spanish) – Alex shows COURAGE, he’s never done Spanish before but he’s come into Y8 and he’s giving it a real go. Awesome!

Mrs. Ibbotson (Hums) – Alex is doing great in Hums. He is always getting involved and has lots to say and input to the sessions. 

We created a crew display with our name ‘Crew Kahlo’ by adding colour to mindful colouring pages and laminated them. I think it looks great! Every member of crew also wrote a pledge that they feel is important to them to work towards in the run up to Christmas. Some of the pledges were:

  • to concentrate in lessons (Tammy)
  • to be kind (Alex)
  • to use integrity all the time (Max)
  • to remember things (Arthur)
  • to remember to bring my water bottle and equipment (Bryan)
  • to be more organised and to concentrate more (Olivia)
  • to help other people (Kearan)
  • to speak more in class (Billie – Lou)
  • to get my homework in on time (Jessy)
  • to ask more questions in class (Harrison)
  • to be in school on time (Callum)
  • to answer and ask more questions in class (Nida)

We will be checking in on these pledges throughout the term to hold each other to account and make sure we fulfil them.

The crew has also started to analyse their HoWL’s data this week. Looking at the marks they have received for ‘Working Hard; Getting Smart and Being Kind’ for each subject

Next week, we will be making pledges on how to improve our HoWLs as the year progresses.

We will be looking at how we can support each other as a crew to do this by giving kind, specific, and helpful feedback to each other.

We also celebrated a birthday. Happy Birthday, Olivia! Now officially a teenager! (Oh dear. Haha)

Mindful Monday: Crew charity presentations

By Sarah Hannam9th November 2020

Crew Pankhurst have been researching different charities during ‘Mindful Monday’. Each group chose a charity they’d like as our crew charity and prepared a presentation to present to Crew.
Today was presentation day.
After watching each others presentation we had a vote. Crew decided they wanted Macmillan as our Crew charity. We also decided to support another charity that was more local to our community, the ‘Doncaster cancer detection trust’

Well done to those students who really tried hard.

Crew Tomlinson and Stan Lee getting smart learning first aid

By C Burnitt6th November 2020

This Friday Crew continues with their first aid for Duke of Edinburgh. Crew looked at what to do when someone is having a diabetic emergency. Crew also independently researched possible causes and treatments of type 1 and 2 diabetes. Crew showed great maturity in group discussions and are well on their way to be trained first aiders. Great work this week everyone!

Mrs Burnitt and Mrs Pulham

Amazing prints by X26

16th October 2020Emily Jones

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.

 

Superstars in Crew Macmillan – Term 1!

By Melissa Cocliff16th October 2020

…we’ve only gone and done it! We’ve finally reached the end of the first term in what has been one of the most weird, unpredictable times that we’ve experienced.

I wanted to end this term on a positive, and so i hope this post does Crew Mac some form of justice!

Throughout this term, Crew Macmillan have worked together on a number of different tasks and topics. We’ve learned about how stress can affect us and our sleep; and how sleep (or lack of) can affect us too! We’ve completed our Star Reader tests to find out our reading ages; and started a book club on Tuesdays, reading Pay It Forward; something we, as a crew, aspire to do this year. [check out these concentration faces!!]

We’ve laughed, cried, and everything in-between. Crew really have been incredible this term – thank you, guys!

Here are crew Macmillan working hard; and as a team, to learn about stress!

 

Possibly my favourite moments of this term, though, have revolved around some of the incredible work crew Macmillan have produced. As a learning coach in Y11, it’s not often i get to see their amazing work – so i love it when i do!! Can you BELIEVE this is a drawing that Alfie has done as an artist study?! I thought it was a photo!

Courtney has also been working hard in Art: check out this brilliant viewfinder study she was working on. Some great tonal work and shading!

In 3D Art, students have been looking at steampunk style face masks; and there are some incredible examples. I was really impressed by Archie’s, and Joe’s attempts to create one!

I also wanted to highlight this fantastic piece of work done by Ricki. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a poetry analysis so detailed. Ricki led a bit of the session, along with Jayden. The amount of writing on this piece of paper is astounding!!

And finally this term, crew have been working on going above & beyond, and trying to beat the other Y10 crews on praise. I set them a secret mission, to get the most entries on the praise form as a crew. We’ve an average of 24.7 praise entries in Crew Macmillan; WOW!

Courtney has been entered on to the praise form 32 times during this half term! Courtney has worked incredibly hard and shows up every day, works hard, gets smart, and is kind, even when she isn’t having the best day! I am so proud of you, Courtney – well done! Some of Courtney’s praise entries are:

“Brilliant conduct during DofE when MCO had to tend to a first aid issue. Crew just sat and got on with DofE. Huge amounts of respect and compassion shown.” – me!   “Excellent paired work in sessions” – Mrs Batty. “These students are working so hard continuously in all sessions.” – Mrs Johnson.  Keep up the hard work Courtney!!

Heather has been entered on to the praise form 21 times during this half term! What an achievement!!!! Heather has put in an incredible amount of effort since returning to school – in to all sessions!!! Well done Heather – keep working hard! Some of Heather’s praise entries are:

“For producing amazing work in Expeditionary Arts” – Mrs Johnson. “really working hard this week on GCSE content” – Mr Shakesby. “All these students were working really hard in Art today. They grappled with their 3D work and were thinking creatively to produce facemasks in a steampunk style.” – Mr Jackson. Well done Heather!!!

Alfie has been entered on to the praise form 39 times this half term. WOW – that must be a record?! Alfie is an incredibly hard worker, who comes in and shows kindness and compassion every single day to anyone he crosses paths with. An incredible effort, amazing work Alfie! Some of Alfie’s praise entries are:

“Great hotel conversation, well done.” – Mrs Sprakes. “Great focus throughout the lesson” – Miss Taylor. “For being really supportive and kind when they could see a staff member was upset/struggling. Sent a lovely email too to ensure the staff member in question was okay. Such kindness and compassion goes a long way. Well done guys, and thank you.” – me!!

Frankie has returned to school almost flawlessly! Frankie has been entered on the praise form 35 times!!!! this half term – how amazing is that!!!! Frankie has also been working on a Dr Who project outside of school, so has had tonnes on her plate this term – and still shows up to sessions and works hard with a smile! An absolute pleasure to have in Crew Macmillan – keep up the fantastic work Frankie! Some of Frankie’s praise entries are:

“Accurate use of the present tense (different people) in a writing task.” – Mrs Sprakes. “Excellent paired work in sessions.” – Mrs Batty. “Fantastic start to English GCSE. Focused and keen to get on. Brilliant HoWLS- Well done! Keep it up!” – Miss Johnson. Well done Frankie!!

Isaac has also returned to school brilliantly after lockdown, and has been entered on the praise form 31 times this term. An amazing achievement!!! Isaac has knuckled down so well, come back in to school and worked hard, gotten smart, and has been really kind this term. Keep working hard Isaac – i promise that it will pay off!!

Some of Isaac’s praise entries are: “Fantastic start to English GCSE. Focused and keen to get on. Brilliant HoWLS- Well done! Keep it up!” – Miss Johnson. “Beautiful work on KWL, well done.” – Mrs Sprakes. “Great attitude in lesson.” – Miss O’Grady. Such positive feedback, Isaac – excellent work!!!

Imogen comes into school every day and SMASHES IT. She is such an incredible person, who works incredibly hard, has great attendance and a fantastic attitude in sessions. Imogen has been put on the praise form 33 times this term – that’s 33 times where staff have noticed Imogen going above and beyond what is expected of her! Wow!!!

Some of Imo’s praise entries are: “Improvement in vocab test results from one week to the next, well done.” – Mrs Sprakes. “Working hard in Maths” – Mrs Johnson. “Brilliant level of focus. In depth annotations made. Lovely session where everyone was on it!!” – Miss Johnson. What a superstar – Amazing work Imogen!!!!

Joe has come back into y10 absolutely brilliantly! We’re working on Joe’s HoWLs – he’s been working incredibly hard this term, and his HoWLs grades are set to be tip-top! Joe excels in STEAM, and his maths talent is second to none – he knows way more than i do!!! Joe has received 14 praise entries this half term – what a guy!!! Some of Joe’s praise comments are as follows:

“For producing amazing work in Expeditionary Arts” – Mrs Johnson. “Fantastic start to English GCSE. Focused and keen to get on. Brilliant HoWLS- Well done! Keep it up!” – Miss Johnson. “Great attitude in lesson.” – Miss O’Grady. Well done Joe – have a relaxing half term!!!

Milo is just an absolute superstar, and his hard work really doesn’t go unnoticed. Milo is aiming high for his GCSE’s, and that doesn’t come without graft! He comes in every day, asks some brilliant questions, and gets on with his work day in, day out. Milo has also received 14 praise entries this half term – what an achievement!!!

Some of Milo’s praise entries are: “Always works hard in PE.” – Miss O’Grady.  “Worked hard and created beautiful work in the session” – Miss Taylor. “Creative hotel conversation in Spanish.” – Mrs Sprakes. Keep up the great work Milo!

Vinnie has also just been amazing this term! Coming back into school, Vinnie has really matured and adapted well to the regular school routine. He’s been working hard in sessions and i’ve had tonnes of positive feedback. He’s really engaged well in his Geography sessions, too! Vinnie has been entered on the praise form 18 times this term – Crew Mac really are killing it this term!!!!

Some of Vinnie’s praise entries are as follows: “Brilliant conduct during DofE when MCO had to tend to a first aid issue. Crew just sat and got on with DofE. Huge amounts of respect and compassion shown.” – me!! “Working so well on their assessment in citizenship ” – Mrs Burrows. “Excellent recall of knowledge in quick fire test” – Mrs Batty. Keep it up, Vinnie, and you’ll achieve amazing things this year!

Finn is an absolutely wonderful human – what a joy to be around, and to have in crew. Finn constantly asks fantastic questions, he works hard, gets smart, and focuses on being kind – this comes with being the resident comedian!! Finn has had an amazing term and has been entered on the praise form an impressive 20 times!!!

See here some of the comments about Finn this term: “Working so well on their assessment in citizenship ” – Mrs Burrows. “really working hard this week on GCSE content” – Mr Shakesby. “All these students were working really hard in Art today. They grappled with their 3D work and were thinking creatively to produce facemasks in a steampunk style.” – Mr Jackson. Amazing work, Finn – keep it up after a nice 2 week break!!

Ricki has settled properly into Crew Macmillan absolutely perfectly. He has had some tough moments this term – but has been proving to everyone what an incredible young man he is! Ricki has received 30 praise entries this term as a result of his hard work and his dedication to turning things around in school. He really has blown me away – i really hope this continues Ricki – you’re a fantastic addition to crew Mac!!!

Some of Ricki’s praise comments are as follows: “Admiral have been on fire since they returned to School. Its a pleasure to be in their sessions.” – Mrs Johnson. “Working so well on their assessment in citizenship” – Mrs Burrows. “Excellent paired work in sessions” – Mrs Batty. Keep up the brilliant work; you’re capable of amazing things!!

Charlie has also returned to Y10 almost flawlessly. She goes above and beyond every single day to help others where she can, all with a smile on her face. Charlie, you’ve been an absolute delight to have in Crew this term – I really hope you know how much we appreciate your hard work! As a result of this, Charlie has been put on the praise form 29 times this term; AMAZING!

Some of the comments made about Charlie are: “Really impressed with the last few lessons, listening, helping with equipment and putting effort into the sessions. Well done girls. Please keep it up.” – Miss O’Grady. “Great translation into Spanish, well done.” – Mrs Sprakes. “Worked hard and created beautiful work in the session” – Miss Taylor. Keep up the fantastic work, Charlie – you’ll go far!!

And last but certainly not least, Archie; who has worked like an absolute trooper this term. Archie has produced some top quality work this term which demonstrates XP’s character values. He has worked SO hard this term, he’s getting involved in sessions, and he’s being kind every day. And his efforts have been noticed by staff-  Archie has received 15 praise entries this term – along with some praise postcards!!

Some praise entries for Archie are: “Remained on task and didn’t say a word for a whole 18minutes! Record!!” – Miss Johnson (haha!!), “Working hard in Session 1. Expeditionary Arts” – Mrs Johnson. “Working hard on demonstrating an understanding of key plots in Stave 2 of A Christmas Carol” – Mrs Mawby. Archie seems to be really smashing it in Humanities; please do keep this up, Arch – i’m so excited to see what you achieve this year!

So, Crew Macmillan – it’s over and out for 2 weeks. Don’t miss each other too much… try and relax a little – you need to recover ready to work just as hard next term!!

See you soon… stay safe!

Miss Cocliff x