Every week in Academic Crew, students in Earhart choose a topic to revise, and create resources for. Not only is this a perfect example of working hard, the crew are also getting smart, as these resources are then shared ready to support everyone’s revision. Here are Charlotte’s notes on the Vikings, and Mills’ Cornell notes on Hitler’s Rise to Power. Well done Earhart!
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!
This week in our Thoughtful Thursday crew session we focused on supporting each other to get on top of our academic work. Some students decided they wanted to work on revising for their test in History by studying the rise of Hitler, whilst others used this time to do additional work for Common Mission.
I was really impressed with Crew Earhart’s focus during this session. Well done to Bobby who also wrote a superb essay on how Hilter gained power in 1933.
Crew Berger have had a busy few weeks since returning to school at the end of August. Getting used to new protocols in school, meeting new staff and realising the reality of such an important year in our educational journey.
Meeting experts from our pioneering C21 year group made us realise that we needed to start working immediately on our studies for next year’s GCSE exams. Emily, Alex, Chloe and Gabby helped us to focus on what we should be spending our time on in the coming months and I was really proud of crew Berger when they identified that starting revision was something that we needed to do immediately.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been working on spending at least 10 minutes every night on revision tasks and crew have been sharing their success each morning. We’ve also been holding each other to account and reminding each other to complete these small challenges so that we can build strong habits of self study and revision. The best thing has been seeing members of crew explaining their learning and sharing revision techniques when we check in the next day.
Here you can see Abi and Callie’s personal notebooks and Isaac’s flashcards. Current topics of revision have included the rise of the Nazi party, ratios, electricity, spanish vocab and the great heathen army!
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!
Overall it was a very positive week for Earhart. We have some really notable members of Crew who have been working their socks off from day 1 of the lockdown period and have made massive efforts to do everything that has been asked of them. Mills, Charlotte, Lois Scarlett and Tyler get an extra pat on the back this week as they have completed all tasks but have also reviewed great feedback from their teachers about how well they are working through all of the online tasks set for them.
In the rest of Crew, we have definitely seen a lot of great progress in getting things done. Some of us were off to a slower start with work, (we don’t mind too much, we are living in a global pandemic after all!) there has been a marked increase in the amount work being produced and in the quality of it so I can’t wait to see what this week brings. There seems to be momentum building and if we can keep this up, we’ll be in the best possible shape when we finally do return to school!
We only had 4 members of Crew join us for our last hangout which was a little more disappointing. Mrs Robinson and I would really like to see a full house in our weekly hangouts so we can continue to help and support each other as Crew, with that in mind we have decided to make our Friday afternoon Crew sessions compulsory. We really want everyone to be present and in keeping with our Work Hard HoWL; arrive on time and prepared, and participate fully and mindfully. With that in mind, we’d like everyone to be a couple of minutes early to Crew (Fridays as 2pm) with their cameras on and mics off. This way, Crew will be as purposeful as possible.
In addition to this, Miss Robinson and I will be organising one to one tutorials for students via Google Hangout in order to support home learning and progress. Parents are very welcome to attend these sessions should they want to ask any questions or just check up on what work needs completing. To help with the organisation of this, Miss Robinson and I will be splitting Crew so we can give each students full attention (by splitting we mean just for tutorials etc, we’re still all Crew Earhart and will continue as normal!) We’ll be contacting students this week to organise a time to hangout:
Miss Robinson: Charlotte, Scarlett, Bradley, Alex, Bobby-Jack, Liam.
Mr Voltaire: Logan, Lois, Mills, Leighton, Tyler.
Keep up the hard work this week you lot and we’ll see you very soon!
We are Crew.
Footnote: Check out the baking from Mills this week for her own afternoon tea. She has kindly offered to bake me and Miss Robinson cake and fondant fancies every week until she leaves school and serve them with a brew! 🤪
A change in weather this week so Crew Attenborough Check in was indoors. Was good to see most students there, am hoping for 100% attendance on Tuesday at 12pm. Had some really good 1:1 tutorials with students this week, Friday has been a great day with getting my kids the support they need and getting them on track. Went on fieldwork with Ethan to the Smithsonian, use the link below to enjoy a good trip out without leaving the house.
Particularly proud of Charlie’s engagement with work, he’s smashing it at the minute, keep up the good work Chazza!
Discovering new things about my crew every week, which is nice after 4 years together, can’t believe we’ll soon be in year 11, it doesn’t seem 2 minutes since climbing on the coach to Wales!
Sorted my Kahoots! for Crew on Tuesday, get your thinking caps on guys. Here’s another one for you to try at home https://create.kahoot.it/kahoots/my-kahoots/folder/ff56ad6b-1a93-4e33-9a26-ad4cccdbf6fd
I know my crew are growing up but Harley looks so different!
