For most people, an important part of staying sane during this period of lockdown has been keeping in touch with friends and family. It’s been such an important part for us as a crew too.

As you know, we have regular hangouts every Wednesday to hear what everyone has been up to. This week, Charlotte’s been busy on her Animal Crossing game, starting her adventure on her very own island. Ava has been continuing her entrepreneurial fashion pursuits and Maddie has been spending lots of time playing games with her siblings.

However, this week we’ve been treated, as we didn’t just hear about Kira’s past week. Instead, her mum also shared some brilliant pictures with us — it’s nice to see so many smiling faces (and amazing looking cakes!)

There’s more to lockdown than washing your hands, there’s marshmallows and organelles…

Over the past week Kira has had an incredibly busy one: she’s been getting her Mary Berry on and baking for her brother’s birthday. She made some fabulous cupcakes and an excellent birthday cake. It all looks worthy of a Paul Hollywood handshake — very well done, Kira!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Alongside working hard and completing lots of school work, Kira has also been working with her mum and looking at cells and the different organelles! She’s mixed this with her artistic flair and has has produced an excellent diagrammatic model of a cell. After all that hard work its always good to relax, and Kira certainly been making the most of her down time! She’s been enjoying the sun in their pool, and toasting marshmallows as the evenings draw in. But to top it all of, Kira’s had a wonderful tea party, which looks like something straight out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland!

What an absolutely fabulous week, Kira!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Keep the pictures coming, we love to see what everyone has been up to — you can send them to: [email protected]

Remember, we have 2 weeks off, so make sure you give yourselves a well-deserved break! I will be sending a reminder on Monday for any work that needs catching up on as well, so check your inboxes.

This week during our crew session we thought back to Wales and the time that has passed whilst we have been at XP. We couldn’t believe that this time last year, we were all getting ready to start our journey together! It was surprising to think how the quickly the time has gone…

We did an all important check-in with each other to see what everyone has been up to. Asha has been keeping up with her gymnastics, meeting her group online for practice every few days, and Oscar has been doing the same with his martial arts.

Ava has been getting creative once again, and has started her own business venture, customising fashion pieces to sell on — I’m sure you’ll see me rocking the latest line when we’re back at school!

William and Maddie have both been spending lots of time with family, celebrating birthdays or playing games with siblings, which seems more important now than ever.

Speaking of birthdays, it was Kristian’s birthday on Saturday so a big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTIAN

is definitely in order. He said he had a great day and enjoyed celebrating with his family and his bearded dragon.

Yes, dragon’s do exist — here is Jeffrey, Kristian’s bearded dragon, as proof:

Anyway, stay safe Crew JNI and enjoy the bank holiday!

Crew is at 1:30 every Wednesday.

Mr Nixon will also be emailing out at the start of next week for hangouts to help go through any work that has been missed.

It’s been a record breaking week for Crew JNI

Recently, there’s been a phrase used a lot by news reporters, politicians, and even me! It goes something like this: In these uncertain times…

In fact, I almost started this blog post with the same phrase before I paused and thought, what things are not uncertain… what do we know for certain? Well there is certainly one thing:

Crew JNI have worked SUPER HARD this week

In fact, it’s been the hardest that we’ve all worked since we have been away from school. Looking over the tracker for our crew, I can see that Crew JNI have completed the most work this week than since the start of our distance learning journey!

I feel humbled that even in times as uncertain as these (there’s that phrase again), that these students are still exemplifying what it means to WORK HARD. I think it’s testament to the tenacious spirit of Crew JNI to want to succeed. On top of everything else they been doing, they’ve managed to impress me and all their other teachers.

Kristian, Charlotte and Maddie were praised by Mrs Tonwson this week for completing EVERY PIECE of science work that has been set. William has also been consistently working hard since the beginning of lockdown too!

I want to give a special mention to Kira too because Mrs Vayro has noticed her going ABOVE & BEYOND in her HUMS work and completing all tasks for the new expedition, including the optional tasks as well!

There isn’t much more to say except:

Keep up the amazing work, and keep working hard, Crew JNI

I’ll leave you with this fantastically simple, creative and yet effective message from Ava to just BE HAPPY!

To create a work of art is to create the world. — Wassily Kandinsky

Mathematics is often a discipline that is described as an art motivated by beauty; it seeks to balance and create a harmonious existence amongst its elements, presenting life in its most abstract form. Unsurprisingly then, as a maths teacher, it is a real treat for me when I get to see the excellent art work that is being produced in Crew JNI, and I love looking at their work!

Over the past few weeks, students in X26 have been looking at the work of Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter and pioneer of abstract art. The quote above is particularly significant when we consider that our normal world has been all but shut down. To create a work of art now, in these times, is to open up a new space for us to occupy and allows us to enjoy something a bit different. I have loved seeing Crew JNI get involved and stuck in with their Art work over the past few weeks (sadly the closest I’ve come is painting skirting boards!)

Here are the excellent pieces that have been handed in so far:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Keep up the excellent work everybody!

I will send email reminders out again on Monday for students that still have missing work.

Crew sessions are on google hangout every Wednesday at 1:30pm.

“Everyone in our crew is strange in their own way.”

Happy Easter! Hope you all managed to get out and enjoy the weather and a well-deserved break.

Whilst Crew JNI manages to smash everything a crew should be — compassionate, courageous, kind, just to name a few qualities — I think it’s definitely safe to say that we are not your ‘average’ crew. In fact, as self-confessed ‘strangest crew’, there is definitely a nonsensical aura that we hold dear; as Lydia puts it, “everyone in our crew is strange in their own way.”

It comes as no surprise then that we manage to produce some great nonsense poetry, the likes of which Edward Lear, nonsense poetry legend, would be proud of!

Here are a few from Lydia, Maddie and Ava, which they wrote during our Common Mission time over the past week. These perfectly capture an integral element of Crew JNI, our strangeness, which manages to transgress the physical distance and helps us get back to what has brought us all together: our humour, nonsense and sense of belonging through difference.

P.S. Quick reminder that crew is every Wednesday on Google Hangout at 15/04/20 and all of Crew JNI should attend