Welcome back crew Hahn… again!
Unfortunately due to my role with covid testing and then the year 11 students having to go home again i haven’t seen much of my crewbies. So as today was the first proper session with them for ages I decided we’d do something fun…… an Easter egg hunt outdoors!
Here’s a photo of what we collected.
It’s great to have them back in school and back in crew!
Kate
The amount of time staff and students are spending on screens because of covid is a lot and believe me it’s pretty exhausting. I don’t know why its more tiring but it really is. I really praise our students for how they are spending the day doing sessions online starting in crew every morning.
So I wanted to think of ways we can still be crew but actually get away from the screen and spend a bit of time looking after ourselves, slowing down and caring for and nurturing ourselves. What better way to encompass all those things than a nice big home cooked breakfast…. and what better time than during crew to do this together.
At the beginning of the week we each thought about a breakfast we’d like to prepare and cook for ourselves or someone else in our house. Some knew within seconds what they were mocking whereas it took others till Friday morning to decide.
We checked in this morning (Friday) as normal to do the register and then discussed what each of us was cooking. James S must have been starving as he’d already started sending pics of him cooking his scrambled eggs!
Tom wasn’t feeling hungry so he lovingly cooked his mum beans on toast, brilliant!
James L even went to the trouble of making homemade hash browns, he said he’d over spiced them but i was still impressed.
Gracie prepared herself a beautiful healthy and colourful breakfast of crumpets, fried tomatoes and rocket, it looked so pretty!
Maddison continued the pancake day theme with chocolate chip pancakes that looked yummy!
Although Cara hadn’t a clue all week of what to cook she did a fab looking poached egg on toast, poaching an egg takes skill!
Sam did a classic egg & bacon sarnie on brown with his morning cup of coffee, our Sam does like his coffee!
Sophie also had an egg & bacon sarnie but in a bap with a perfectly fired egg, (she’s also partial to some butter on her bread by the looks of it ; )
James SK looked a natural in the kitchen and couldn’t wait to get started with his bacon and scrambled eggs which tempted me into cooking myself scrambled eggs with a couple of left over sausages.
We then rejoined the hangout and talked through how it had gone and I think everyone enjoyed themselves being off screen having some restful and much needed time looking after ourselves, I know I did!
Click here to have a look at these tasty pics!
in Thursday crew sessions over the last couple of weeks, Hahn have been looking at their Habits of work and Learning (HoWLS). This forms part of our Narrative for success, together with attendance and academic progress. (Academic progress data will be out early December).
Our HoWLS (Habits of work & learning) are:
Work Hard:
I arrive for each class on time and prepared
I participate fully and mindfully in class
I complete all work in a timely manner to the best of my ability
Get Smart:
I take responsibility for my learning by asking questions and seeking help when needed.
I assess my work based on established criteria and rubrics
I welcome feedback and revise my work
Be Kind:
I communicate politely and kindly
I work cooperatively with others
I take care of resources and materials and act as a steward of our community
Teachers and crew leaders assess students on their HoWLS at specific times during the academic year and are graded between 1 to 4.5.
Less than 2.5 is Serious
Between 2.5 – 2.9 is a Concern
Between 3 – 3.4 is ok / secure
Between 3.5 – 3.9 is Great
And 4 and over is Awesome
Students should be achieving at least a 3!
This data is then analysed by students during crew so they can identify areas of success that can be celebrated and areas that need to be improved on. By doing this students take accountability and ownership of their learning.
When students have analysed their data they make pledges on what they are going to improve on. This is then supported by a crew leader pledge of how we can support them further.
We will be checking in weekly with our Pledges to really hold each other to account. at the moment our overall average HoWls are between 3.0 and 3.2. There are a few people in crew who can really make a difference in helping to bring our average up to a 3.5 and there are some who are already achieving this as individuals so well done to them!
we have made pledges as a crew before, however we have not regularly looked over them so they have often slipped or not actually improved. As it says in the name, HABITS of work and learning….. if we want to improve on this we need it to become habit and for habits to form we need to keep practicing and returning to it over and over again.
This is my pledge as crew leader:
to return to pledges and HowLS every Thursday to reinforce our habits to support my crew to work harder, get smarter and continue to be kind.
Our pledges will be displayed in our crew room and students will be sending a copy out to parents soon, however you can ask to see your child’s as they have access to them on their devices.
If you have any questions about HoWLS or anything else please feel free to email me.
Best wishes,
Kate
XP16 Lead
Hahn Crew Leader
XP Trust Outdoor Expedition Lead
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…….
As part of our continued focus in crew on wellbeing and things we can do to have a more positive impact on our mental health we started this morning by ‘saluting the sun’. This is a flow of yoga poses & stretches that focus on breathing and self awareness.
Before we took part in the activity we did a purposeful check in where I asked everyone to use a maximum of 3 words to describe how they feel. This was their list:
Cold
Tired, happy, Cold
Fine
Tired & Sleepy
Tired
Tired and anxious
Tired and cold
Tired and cold
tired and cold
Pleased, tired and disappointed
unsure
Tired, emotional and annoyed
We then completed the activity by doing the yoga poses and stretches 5 times. The final 2 times were lead by Tom who seemed to have a really good grasp of directing the flow and sequences of the activity.
After we completed it we sat back in our circle and I asked them again to use a maximum of 3 words to describe how they feel now.
This was theIr list in the same order:
Energetic
Happy and tired
Fine
Fine
Awake
Tired and relaxed
tired
tired
tired but less cold
A bit calmer
unsure
Tired (and in pain from stubbing toe)
As you can see overall there was a positive impact from engaging in the activity, where previously most of crew commented on being cold, tired and sleepy to now feeling more awake, less cold and more relaxed.
As a crew we decided that we’d be happy to try other methods of relieving stress and anxiety during our crew sessions.
p.s I tried to take some photos but they were having non of it!
Rufus (my dog) has had his second day at school last week where his day starts in our crew Hahn morning session.
Rufus enjoyed this weeks session as he got to have a chilled half hour in a dimly lit room relaxing before the onslaught of admirers through out the day.
Not only did Rufus get to enjoy a relaxing session but that was the aim of the session for all of Hahn. We spent the session doing a mindfulness body scan which took 18 mins listening to a recording where instruction is given on how to relax each part of the body from your toe to the tip of your head. This may sound easy but it takes practice to teach your body to recognise how each finger feels, what the difference is between a relaxed or tense Knee or to focus in on the muscles in your arms.
Some students found this beneficial, emotional In some cases, however others found it difficult to concentrate and be still for the duration of the task. Again this is something that comes with practice.
I believe if we can learn some anti stress and anxiety management skills now before our lives become overloaded with pressures we will hopefully be better equipped to deal with them.
Crew Hahn had a great week and were rewarded with a trip to McDonalds for a drink / breakfast on Friday morning. Well, it didn’t turn out to be as I imagined as the Covid restrictions caused a few problems so we ended up standing outside in the cold for a while, however a warm hot chocolate and a sausage and egg McMuffin helped. I was too cold to think about taking a photo of us all but will next time!
It has been great getting back in crew. I got to spend the first 2 full days with them for their immersion. This was so much fun but had a really important message about being the best version of yourself and that we need to work hard to achieve our dreams.
Students seem to have settled back into school really well, especially in crew. I’m delighted with the way crew are engaging in the topics we talk about and although we started a bit wobbly with not speaking in turn, everyone has quickly got back to using our norms such as not speaking over people and being on time.
We’ve had a slight facelift when it comes to delivering crew across the 2 schools which i think will make our sessions even better. This week we have focused on accelerated reading which allows us to identify students reading age. Being able to read is so important and has a direct impact on their exams. Every Tuesday during crew we will be reading, either individually or as a group looking at texts that will come up in their GCSE’s.
Many of crew Hahn have received post card praises from teachers and learning coaches for their hard work and general attitude since we returned, WELL DONE GUYS!
We are also having a big push in coming to school everyday prepared. This is part of getting smart. If we are not prepared and dont have the appropriate equipment then we can’t work to the best of our ability. Please can you support your child in making sure they come to school everyday with a pen, pencil, ruler, charged device, reading book, water bottle and school bag.
I’d like to thank everyone in crew for adhering to the guidelines for social distancing and following our school procedures. We check each morning that all of crew have washed their hands and don’t have any of the symptoms. As a reminder please dont send your son or daughter (and siblings) to school if they have any of the symptoms. If you are unsure and need further advice please speak with the office staff or check the web posts.
On a Friday afternoon i also get chance to spend More time this year with my crew doing leisure activities. It’s so important for students to do some physical activity, especially during what could be a stressful year for them. Last week we played badminton which was great fun beating them all and I’m looking forward to doing it again this week.
So today was our last crew hangout of this academic year.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to those students that have regularly turned up to the hangouts, you have kept our crew together during this difficult time. Shout outs to James Sk, Jon, Sam, Sophie, Tom, Rhys and James L!
I honestly cannot wait to see you all next term in our new crew room ready for our journey into our GCSE’s.
I’ve asked my crew to spend sometime thinking about the positives they can get from lockdown over the last few months. During this time students have had to grapple with getting organised, being self disciplined, creating their own working environments, schedules and trying to do this when all around the world seems to have stopped.
I’m proud to say most of Hahn have done this and overcome a number of hurdles along the way. I believe that by reflecting on this time and learning who they are in terms of their academic learning, that this will give them an insight into them selves that will help them during their GCSE’s.
They will have already experienced many similar situations they will encounter in the run up to their exams, such as making revision plans, finding out they work better at a desk that sat on their bed or vice verse. This knowledge is the foundation to them becoming leaders of their own learning and so we will spend sometime focusIn on this on our return.
So have a fab summer and stay safe, see you in August!
Kate
Today I had an fantastic turn out of students at today’s hangout and wow it did me good to check in with them!
We did a quick check in ‘chicken’ of how we were feeling. Pleased to say most of us are feeling ‘alright’ and some a little better since finding it easier to access work and teachers. I think we are learning to accept the situation and realise that life continues and doesn’t wait for us to catch up… it just keeps on going.
I feel positive that so many were at the hangout this morning and I feel the remainder of the term is going to be spent purposefully.
Today’s session focused on the current situation in the world that has developed from the tragic death of George Floyd. I asked them to tell me what they knew about the recent events surrounding this. Most students knew about it and were aware that this has had a huge impact on the subject of racism which still seems to be a part of the world we live in even in the 21st Century.
During the protests and riots there has been a huge focus on the statement ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’. We all used our voice to express what this term means to us. There were comments such as: ‘all people deserve equal rights’, ‘people having to fight for their rights’, ‘speaking out against abuse’, ‘black people should be equal to White people’, ‘Just because our skin colour is different on the outside that we are all the same inside’.
I’m proud of the comments my crew shared and couldn’t agree with them more. However although most people will agree with my crew, sadly this is not the case for everyone, and racism and other discriminations continue within the world and within our own local communities.
Obviously all lives matter, we know that, however at this moment in time something terrible has happened and has highlighted the inequality that is still happening against black people. Therefore this is the right time to elevate that people won’t tolerate racism by bringing it to the forefront of all peoples thoughts and actions by making bold statements such as BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Until we have equality we need to highlight and work harder for those that suffer because of it. I went through this comic strip with my crew that had been shared with me by a colleague.
I love this!
It highlights that sometimes we need to go beyond treating people the same or equally and that actually we need to do more for them at certain times.
This can often be a problem we need to address in school where often students feel they haven’t been fairly treated. One student in crew (I wont name him) highlighted something that he personally experienced in school. He said that he often got told (by me) to stop talking out of turn and that when another student did it I didn’t always say something to them and that this wasn’t fair. However they explained that by understanding the difference and necessity of equity and equality he understood that because he spoke out of turn more than anyone else during crew sessions then I needed to focus this intervention on him more than someone speaking out of turn just once.
We used this to understand how although we know that all lives matter, that at this moment in time we need to focus attention on the inequality felt by many black people.
Hopefully one day we won’t need to wave banners stating ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ or protest about inequality because hopefully through using our voices now and waving those banners high enough on behalf of those who are oppressed, action will be taken to end inequality and racism and the banner we can then fly high and be proud of is ………..‘ ALL LIVES MATTER’.
This morning we had a crew session where each student brought along a parent to join our crew hangout…. a bit like bring your child to work day…..! Most students managed to come along with a parent in toe, though it seemed much to their embarrassment.
I thought this was a great opportunity for parents to get a taste of what we do in crew and allow them to engage in a crew session. Obviously crew is a little different on a hangout to when we are all sat in our circle at school but never the less we have still managed to have 3 sessions a week at 9.30am since lockdown!
During this period these have developed into an academic crew on Monday morning, a compulsory crew on Wednesday morning and then an end of the week a check in on Friday morning.
Today I began by giving parents a brief overview of a normal crew session – registration, student notices, equipment check,…. yes…. students and parents were asked to bring pen and paper so they were prepared however some naughty parents were seen scuttling off to get them…. yes I saw you! lol
Then we had our checkin or as we call it in Hahn, ‘Checkin Chicken’. I’m not sure how or when this became established, but I think its the ‘role’ of the students eyes when i say it that made me think, it’s a keeper!
After check in we moved onto our current topic. In school this would include academics, PSHE, reading, current news articles etc but since lockdown we’ve focused on our studies and how we can support each other.
Our current topic ‘Habits’ kicked off last week when i asked them all to name one bad habit they have. There was a range of different answers from biting nails, eating too much, playing on games too long and leaving windows open. I went through the list and asked parents to guess which answer belonged to their child. I was a little worried this might have caused a few family arguments but actually they did pretty well at guessing correctly, well done mums n dads!
This week is about developing good habits which we know is not easy. However there are certain skills, knowledge and resources we can use to help us develop good practises and establishing them into habits.
While we are all at home studying without our teachers and peers to in the same room to support us and our other usual school structures we need to be able to develop new ways of creating an environment that is going to help us study and we’ve been expected to adapt really quickly.
At home there are so many distractions, so many other things we need to do or would rather do, no teacher by our side to ask for immediate help or no friends to give us a quick nudge to tell us to get on with our work. We need to find a new support system and identify what things work and what things don’t. We can actually use this time during CV19 to learn more about ourselves in terms of self motivation, self discipline, accessing resources and what else can we do to become leaders of our own learning.
I asked each student to identify one new habit that they would like to develop to help them improve studying at home that parents could support them in doing each day. Here is Hahn’s list:
James, to work on Maths every day
Rhys, to go to bed by 11pm
Cara, spread her work load out
Sam, get to bed before 11pm
Sophie, share her thoughts more
Jibba, make a planner to organise his time better
Maddi, remember to submit her work
Sureya & Tom, to do 1/2 hr English & 1/2 hour maths every day
Jon, to reduce his distractions
Next week we will discuss ‘what worked well’ and ‘Even better if’ to continue developing these new habits.
Lastly we did a quick ‘check out’ by asking parents to name one thing they were proud of their son or daughter for during the lockdown. There were some lovely answers from making parents cups of tea each day, exercising everyday, getting work submitted on time, not complaining about lockdown, taking the dog out and helping around the house…
What a fantastic crew I have and I’m really proud of all of them and I thank each of them for making my mornings at school enjoyable although sometimes slightly challenging. ; )
I can’t wait to see you all in school again!
