Crew AJA’s Time Capsule

During our first week together we decided to create a snapshot of the beginning of year 7 at XP for crew AJA.  Our plan was to make a time capsule that we could bury in the school grounds and excavate in five years time, at the end of year 11 when our crew are preparing to say their farewells and to have their “Final Word” (an XP tradition where graduating students speak to family and friends about their experiences over the previous five years.)

In the time capsule we placed letters to our year 11 selves, artwork representing us and the things that we’re interested in, and also a few personal items that some crew members chose to represent themselves.  There’s a photo of all of us together on our very first day in school too!

Sadly due to Covid, a couple of crew members missed the official capsule burial ceremony on October 1st, but we’re going to give them an opportunity to re-open the package and to make their mark on the capsule before it’s re-buried until 2026!

C28 Putting It All Together In Spanish!

C28 showed how far they’ve come in Spanish in just a few weeks. Their learning target for this session was “I can recognise some questions about myself and answer them.” A series of questions were placed around the room, and students were invited to write their answers in Spanish to show that they could indeed recognise the questions and answer them. The questions were:

¿Cómo te llamas? (What’s your name?)

¿Dónde vives? (Where do you live?)

¿Cuántos años tienes (How old are you?)

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? (When is your birthday?)

Students have learned word order, correct placement of accents, numbers up to 31, and the months of year in Spanish. ¡Buen trabajo C28!

Today students aged 12 in Year 7 and all students in Year 8 and Year 9 were given information letters and a consent form for the Covid Vaccine. These students are able to have a Covid Vaccine on Monday 27th September.  Please could parents read the information letter and return the consent form back to school by Thursday 23rd September.  If a student is not having the vaccine, this can be indicated on the consent form and returned, please.

C28 Crew JEL Micro-adventure

Crew JEL have had an excellent start to life at XP. They have all settled in very well. In the first week students participated in a Micro-adventure. This involved them looking at the environment and the Eco-systems around XP. They looked at the plant and wildlife types and how they might design a garden to attract insects and birdlife to it.

We then had an expert (Dennis), come to visit Crew to speak about garden birds and to help students to build their birdboxes. The students started with a pack of pre-sawn wood and screwed it together to form the birdboxes, which were then painted, and which will be taken home and placed in the garden. Hopefully over the coming years we will be getting updates as to what birds have used it.

Check out the finished Bird Boxes. Fantastic work Crew JEL!

 

Parent Information – JEL has Crew Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and NEA has crew Monday and Wednesday.

Year 7 Immersion in HUMAN

What a week year 7 is having so far! They have all been working hard gathering information to reveal our new topic for the term ahead. Today we have been learning all about what makes a successful, positive community. They have produced some beautiful work! Getting closer to the big reveal C28!

Crew AJA: Starting our journey together…

So, a new school year and the start of their XP journey for crew AJA.  We had a great time learning names, playing games and getting to know each other a bit.  We’ve discovered that members of our crew have talents in Football, Taekwondo, languages, arts, and predicting the future!

In our sessions in the first week we planned a microadventure – building  time capsule and filling it with things that show a snapshot of our crew as we start our time together here at XP.  We hope to bury it in a secret location in the school grounds, and dig it up as we approach the end of year 11.  We’re excited to look forward to being able to look back on where we began.

Here’s hoping that we have a great 5 years together!