Crew Webb’s academic success

With the new term and expedition now well under way our check in today was focused on sharing a piece of work from the last few weeks that we were pleased with or proud of.

It was great to see examples from Art, English and Spanish as well as History.

Here are Crew Webb’s choices:

Charlie shared his 3D mask making designs. He has used both his Ipad and more traditional techniques when developing his Steam Punk creation.

Tristan,  Loris,  Kyra, Sam and Eleanor shared their History assessment on living conditions in the Medieval Period.

Amber also picked her Medieval living conditions assessment but also some of her Spanish work that she had drafted and improved. It’s great to see Crew Webb getting smart through revision and redrafting.

Here is Lara’s beautifully annotated version of the poem Living Space 

Tom and Kyle choose their work from 2D and 3D art. Here is Tom’s view finder study and Kyle’s steam punk helmet on Boba Fett! Beautiful work boys!

Hahn

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.

 

X23 Spanish make a comeback!

X23 have worked hard today discussing part time jobs. They have extended sentences with when they help around the house, and if they receive any pocket money (it seems that the GCSE Spanish group do a lot just for the fun of it!). You’ve made a great start X23, keep it up!

 

YEAR 9: New birdwatching world record*

We have a new record in Year 9 for the most birds spotted in a single session.

Kyle in X24 spotted an incredible 60 birds from 14 different species, including a sparrow hawk and two herons.

Whilst we have not set any work for students in Year 9 to complete over the two week break we would love it if they continued with their birdwatching, bug hotels and bird boxes. Please remind them to send us lots of photos. We are in competition with XP East for the most birds spotted.

*not verified by Norris McWhirter

Beautiful work in STEAM

This week I would like to appreciate a number of students for all sorts of reasons in STEAM.

We have just had our closing circle in a hangout meeting and reminded the students that we appreciate their efforts in such challenging times.

There are a number of challenges that students have been working on, linked to the learning targets of our new expedition:

  • building bug hotels
  • building bird boxes
  • bird spotting
  • doing citizen science research in Zooniverse

We’d love to see more photos from these challenges over the two-week break. But most importantly we want students to stay safe, and where possible to enjoy nature.

Here are my appreciations for the week. More images of beautiful work can be found in our expedition gallery by clicking on this link.

 

X24 – Closing Circle Hangout Meeting

This afternoon at 3.00pm we will be hosting a hangout for all of Year 9 across both schools to find out how they have been getting on with their STEAM immersion challenges.

Students can join the meeting by logging into their school account and going to:

http://g.co/meet/c24steam

Attendance for the launch hangout was fantastic. Thanks to all of our families for your continuing support.

#wearecrew

ETCH A CELL RESEARCH PROJECT

We need our student to help with important medical research!

In this second challenge of the new Year 9 learning expedition: Here Comes the Sun, mitochondria research scientists in London need our students’ help.

Nearly every cell in our body contains hundreds to thousands of mitochondria. These tiny structures are incredibly important. They are often referred to as the ‘powerhouses’ of the cell. This is because they convert the fat, protein and sugar from the food we eat into the energy we need to survive.

We couldn’t live without mitochondria, and if they do not work properly it causes very serious problems.

Students’ job is to identify mitochondria in images of cells at a very high level of magnification.

Volunteers like our students’ work will eventually train AI computers to help analyse new data even faster. This will help the scientists to do their research more quickly and develop new drugs.

More details can be found on Google Classroom or on the immersion section of our expedition website.

 

THIS WORK CAN ALSO COUNT TOWARDS DofE Volunteering during lockdown too!

Our new Year 9 STEAM expedition is called ‘Here Comes The Sun’. The website for the expedition is live now.

This afternoon we kicked off STEAM immersion week in Year 9 with a huge Google Hangouts Meet.

The meeting was attended by over 60 students from both XP and XP East who met to learn about the challenges we have set for their immersion this week.

One of the main things that we want students to get out of this week, and the whole of this term’s Year 9 STEAM expedition is an appreciation of nature.

 

CHALLENGE 1 – BIRDING

We have asked students to spend at least 30 minutes spotting birds. We have shared a guide and record sheet with them in Google Classroom. Staff have been having a go this week and spoke to the students about how lovely it was to spend time out enjoying nature.

We would love to see lots of photos from students of any birds that they see or just general shots inspired by nature. We are also determined to beat XP East with the number of birds that we spot!

In our meeting we had a massive game of quizlet live to compete with other in identifying 20 of the most common garden birds.

Spoiler alert: Penguins won! 🐧 🏆

 

 

There are also some optional challenges that we would like for the students to try if they can:

OPTIONAL CHALLENGE 1 – BUG HOTEL

If you have a garden or patio space, it would be amazing if students could gather resources to build a bug hotel, these can be as complex or simple as students want to make them.

Students don’t need to complete all of the work on it this week during immersion, as we will revisit it throughout the expedition. Again we would love to see photos of any that students build. Here is mine that I built with my son, we had a great time:

 

OPTIONAL CHALLENGE 2 – NEST BOX

If students have the resources and space they might want to build a small nest box.

This would be a great project to do with family members.

Again students would not need to complete it in this immersion week. It is something we will ask them to return to every week.

 

Details of all of the above are on Google Classroom.

 

There is another important challenge we will be sharing tomorrow, after which I will add a new blog post.

 

GOOGLE HANGOUT CLOSING CIRCLE – THURSDAY AT 3.00pm

It was wonderful to see so many students this afternoon to kick off the new expedition. Charlie even played us out of the meeting with what I believe the young people call ‘The Rave Music’.

On Thursday we will be gathering again on Google hangouts Meet at 3.00pm to see how students have been getting on with their challenges and share the photos that they send to us.

We will also share the guiding question and more exciting details about out new expedition then too.

Please do encourage your son or daughter to get outdoors and enjoy nature wherever possible, get them to send us photos and to join us in the hangout at the end of the week.

Thanks as always for your support.

Have a great week and enjoy VE Day with your family on Friday.

 

#wearecrew