Our current expedition, “You Give Me Fever,” has seen Year 9 diving deep into the world of pathogens and medical history. To bring our study of pathogens, immunology, and history to life, Year 9 will be heading to the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds later this month!
Dates & Times
XP: Wednesday 25th February (8:30 am – 3:15 pm)
XP East: Thursday 26th February (8:30 am – 3:15 pm)
Logistics
Dress Code: Normal school Dress Code
Equipment: Usual school supplies and fully charged iPads.
Lunch: A packed lunch is needed. (Students eligible for Free School Meals will have a lunch provided).
Contributions: To make this and future fieldwork possible, we are asking for voluntary contributions of what is financially suitable for your family. We aim to keep these opportunities accessible to everyone, so please contribute what is financially suitable for your family. The Parent Pay option will be added by half term.
We look forward to an purposeful and amazing fieldwork experience!
This week in Crew Brunel has been a great mix of rest, reflection, and preparation as we move closer to an important milestone in our learning.
We started the week with a staff day, which meant students had a long weekend. This was a brilliant opportunity for everyone to take a well-earned break, recharge, and catch up on any work that had been missed or not yet completed. It was great to see students returning refreshed and ready to learn.
As the week continued, we focused heavily on our Passage presentations, as this is our final week of preparation before presenting next week. Students have been working hard to refine their ideas, improve their structure, and make sure their presentations are clear, confident, and purposeful. The progress made has been fantastic, and we are really looking forward to seeing the final outcomes next week.
One of the highlights of the week was teaming up with Year 10 for a peer critique session. Year 10 students acted as our “experts” since they completed this process last year, and their feedback was incredibly valuable. It was brilliant to see older students supporting and guiding our Year 9s — a great example of teamwork, leadership, and our school community working together.
We ended the week with a whole school community meeting, celebrating and highlighting the excellent work being done by students across the school. It was a positive way to finish the week and a reminder of the high standards and ambition shared by everyone.
A huge well done to David, our standout student this week. David earned Spanish Star of the Week and was also placed in the top 3 Year 9 students across the trust for completing Tassomai tasks in his own time. An amazing achievement that shows dedication and excellent learning habits — well done, David!
Another strong week for Crew Brunel — keep it up everyone, and let’s finish our presentation prep strongly!
This week marked our first week back after the Christmas break, and Crew Brunel returned with a real sense of fresh beginnings and renewed focus. While it’s always an adjustment coming back after the holidays, it’s been a positive and productive start to the new year.
We kicked off the week with a whole school community meeting, giving everyone the opportunity to reset expectations. This session focused on revisiting our shared norms and non-negotiables, helping to re-establish routines and remind us of the standards we hold ourselves to as a school community.
Back in crew time, we continued our Passage work. Students spent time thinking carefully about who they would like to be present at their Passage presentations and why. This encouraged reflection and helped students consider the importance of audience and support as they prepare to showcase their learning and growth.
Midweek, we started our new Wise Wednesday case study work. Students were placed into new groups, giving them the opportunity to work with different peers, share ideas, and build new collaborative skills. The fresh groups brought new energy and perspectives to the case study discussions.
We also spent time looking through portfolios, focusing on selecting pieces of work to highlight in Passage presentations. Students checked that their work was in the correct order and reflected on which pieces best represented their progress and achievements so far.
To finish the week, we came together once again for a whole school community meeting. This final gathering was a chance to celebrate successes, including reviewing the praise leaderboard and the attendance league. Crew Brunel had a particular reason to celebrate, finishing top for Year 9 attendance with an impressive 97%.
Overall, it’s been a strong first week back. Everyone is understandably tired, but it’s the result of a week filled with focus, reflection, and a positive start to the term ahead.
This week in Crew Brunel, we kicked things off in true festive style with our Crew Christmas party. Everyone arrived ready for a cheerful check-in, sharing positive moments and holiday spirit while enjoying some very Christmassy treats. The room was full of smiles, laughter, and seasonal cheer — a wonderful way to start the week.
After celebrating together, we shifted our focus to learning by revisiting the final reflective section of our Passage presentations. Crew members thoughtfully considered their journeys, recognising their progress, challenges, and achievements.
One of the week’s highlights followed soon after — Secret Santa! Gifts were exchanged with excitement and gratitude, and it was lovely to see how thoughtful everyone had been. Every gift was received with appreciation, reinforcing the kindness and respect that defines Crew Brunel.
Crew Brunel raised both money and awareness for the Coral Reef Alliance by hosting a successful bake sale for students. The event featured a variety of delicious homemade treats that attracted many buyers and encouraged generous donations. Through this bake sale, Crew Brunel not only supported an important environmental cause but also helped educate students about the importance of protecting coral reefs, raising a total of £68!
As the term drew to a close, we completed our final HoWLS assessment. Crew members reflected honestly on how they have improved this term and identified clear goals for the new year. Time was also spent ensuring our passage presentations had a set of slides to go along side our scripts, highlighting key pieces of work.
We finished the week by coming together for a whole-school community meeting, where we reflected on the many positives of the term. As part of this, we also celebrated our Crew Champions of the Term. A special congratulations went to Chloe, who was named Crew Champion for Crew Brunel. Chloe was selected for her consistent demonstration of XP character traits. Her resilience, positivity, and commitment are a true credit to herself and an inspiration to others. Another shoutout goes to Matilda for being one of just 10 XP students randomly selected for achieving 100% attendance, earning her an Amazon gift voucher. It was a proud moment to recognise collective achievements, resilience, and growth across the school.
Overall, it has been a meaningful and memorable week for Crew Brunel — full of celebration, reflection, and gratitude. We’re heading into the break feeling proud of how far we’ve come and excited for the opportunities the new year will bring!
Happy holidays to everyone — we hope you all have a restful and well-deserved break.
What a brilliant week it’s been for Crew Brunel! Even though the week started a little differently, we certainly made the most of every moment.
Because Monday was a staff day, students enjoyed a longer weekend — and we kicked off Tuesday by checking in and sharing what we all got up to during the extra time off. From family days out to chilled time at home, it was a lovely way to reconnect and ease back into the school routine.
We then continued our important Passage work, focusing on how our character has grown through Years 7 and 8. Students took time to look inward, thinking about how they’ve changed, matured, and what they’ve overcome. These reflections are shaping their Passage presentations beautifully and helping them recognise their own development.
This week marked the start of our Wise Wednesday presentations, with our first two groups stepping up to deliver their topics. The rest of Crew Brunel listened carefully, shared thoughtful feedback, and offered WWWs (What Went Well) and EBIs (Even Better If) to help each other improve. We’re already excited to see the next two groups take their turn!
Later in the week, we reviewed our praises and conducts, then dug into our HoWLs (Habits of Work and Learning) assessments from Years 8 and 9. This helped students reflect on their consistency, their growth, and where they want to push themselves next. We also weaved these insights into their Passage presentations.
In Friday’s community meeting, we celebrated students who topped the praise leaderboard — a special shout-out goes to Rowena, who placed top of the leaderboard for Year 9! A fantastic achievement and well-deserved recognition of her dedication, hard work, and consistent positive attitude both in and out of sessions.
This Week’s Highlight
Without a doubt, the standout moment of the week was Thursday Night Live. Four members of Crew Brunel – Lily, Pippa, Brooke and Chloe – took to the stage as part of a band and performed in front of a live audience. With singing, guitar and drums, they absolutely smashed it. Their confidence, talent and teamwork shone through — true rockstars in the making. Well done, girls!
Crew Brunel kicked off the week in a calm and positive way with a mindful session in the sportshall. We spent some time burning off a little energy – kicking a ball around, skipping, playing throw and catch, and enjoying some relaxed time together before settling into the week ahead. It was a great way to start with focus, connection and a clear head.
On Tuesday, we continued our Passage work, diving back into our science books from Year 7 and 8. It was interesting to look back at how far everyone has come, identify the progress made, and reflecting on their learning journey so far.
Midweek, we explored our final Wise Wednesday topic for this term. With all our topics now finished, students will begin creating and refining their own presentations, bringing together the progress, insights, and reflections they’ve gathered throughout the term.
Later in the week, we looked at praises and conducts, checking out who has climbed to the top of our Crew praise leaderboard. It was great to see so much positive recognition being shared.
We rounded off the week with our whole-school community meeting, where we celebrated character traits and shared real examples of staff and students showing them in action. We also found out who topped the praise leaderboards across the school – huge congratulations to Liam, Matilda, Pippa and Ayden who all tied for the top spot in Year 9! A fantastic achievement. As always, there was time for apologies, appreciations and stands, strengthening our community spirit.
Another brilliant week for Crew Brunel – well done everyone!
This week, Crew Brunel returned after a well-deserved two-week break, refreshed, energised, and ready to dive back into learning and community life. It was great to see everyone recharged and eager to catch up with one another. We kicked things off by checking in and sharing stories from our time off — some relaxing, some adventurous, but all full of fun memories.
Once we’d reconnected, we jumped straight back into our learning. We revisited our reading routines and explored our weekly Wise Wednesday topic, sparking thoughtful discussions and establishing expectations for a strong start to the term.
A highlight of the week was the launch of Passage. Designed to prepare students for the next stage of their academic journey, Passage offers students a structured opportunity to reflect on their learning, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and assess their readiness to progress to GCSEs.
During this week’s session, we explored the purpose of Passage, its importance in supporting both academic and personal growth, and the specific expectations for each student. By providing a clear roadmap for success, including defined milestones and achievable targets, Passage ensures that every student understands the steps they need to take to reach their full potential and transition confidently to the next stage of their education.
We rounded off the week with a whole-school community meeting, celebrating a fantastic first week back. It was a wonderful opportunity to recognise everyone’s contributions, highlight achievements, and reinforce the strong sense of community that makes our school so special. A big congratulations to Pippa for being awarded the Spanish Star of the Week. Her excellent work and beautiful craftsmanship and quality have really stood out. Well done, Pippa!
This week has set the tone for a term full of focus, resilience and collaboration. Crew Brunel is back, buzzing with energy, and ready to take on everything the weeks ahead have in store.
What a fantastic final week of the half term it’s been for Crew Brunel! We kicked things off in true Halloween spirit with a themed party that included some frightfully fun games such as Trick or Treat and Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin. Students were told there was a special Boo Basket up for grabs at the end of the week — and tokens could be earned through various activities. The student with the most tokens would be crowned the winner!
Midweek, we held a Year 8 and 9 Community Meeting, where we reflected on how awesome our students have been this term. Teachers shared lots of praises and appreciations, recognising students for their effort, kindness, and commitment both in and out of lessons.
Our creative challenge this week was to design a Halloween costume, and the results were Creeptastic! From scary monsters to clever, funny designs, students really let their imaginations run wild. A special well done to Pippa, whose creative design won her an extra 10 tokens!
We also kept an eye on praises and conducts — every praise earned 5 tokens, while each conduct resulted in 2 tokens being deducted. It was great to see so many students gaining tokens through positive actions and great behaviour.
To top off our busy week, Crew Brunel took part in a Penalty Shootout Fundraiser to raise money for our chosen charity, the Coral Reef Alliance. There were plenty of laughs and friendly competition — and congratulations to Blake for winning the hamper!
We ended the week on a high with a whole-school community meeting, celebrating the end of our first half term of the year. It’s been a fun-filled week full of teamwork, creativity, and community spirit. Huge shoutout to David, who has absolutely smashed it this half term by finishing at the top of our praise leaderboard with an impressive 43 praise points! Well done, David.
In true Crew Brunel fashion, our students showed great teamwork and strategy — instead of competing individually for the boo basket, they decided to join forces and pool their tokens. This led to two teams forming and battling it out throughout the week to see who could collect the most tokens. The competition was fierce, but in the end, the girls took the win! Well done to the girls’ team for claiming the Boo Basket!
Now it’s time for a well-deserved rest over the half-term break — I can’t wait to see what the next one brings!
This week, Crew Brunel has been all about resilience, reflection, and responsibility. Students have continued to show commitment even when routines have shifted a little – something to be proud of!
Monday
With Miss Mitchell feeling unwell, Crew Brunel joined Crew Peake for their weekly check-in. It was great to see students adapt quickly and still take the time to share how they were feeling and set themselves up for a positive start to the week.
Tuesday
As Miss Mitchell was still recovering, students joined Crew Sinfield and Crew Attenborough for their Tranquil Tuesday reading session. Everyone settled in beautifully and engaged with their reading — a perfect calm moment in a busy week.
Wednesday
Midweek brought our Wise Wednesday focus. Students worked in groups to take notes and discuss the weekly topic, showing great teamwork and thoughtful contributions. It was brilliant to see everyone learning from one another and building on each other’s ideas.
Thursday
Thursday was a big day for reflection and celebration. We looked at praises and conducts, recognising those who achieved their goals and challenging everyone to aim for a ‘no-conduct’ week next week. Students also reviewed the targets they set last week and made action plans to help them achieve them.
Friday
To finish the week, Crew Brunel joined the whole school community meeting. Students reflected on behaviours that didn’t align with XP’s character traits and offered apologies where needed, showing real maturity. We also celebrated those who have achieved a ‘no-conduct’ term so far — a fantastic achievement!
Special shoutout to David again, who topped the Crew Brunel praise leaderboard this week with an incredible 15 praises! Well done, David — your hard work and positive attitude are setting a brilliant example for everyone.
Overall, it’s been a week of growth and ownership. Crew Brunel are showing increasing responsibility for their HoWLs and are really beginning to take charge of their progress. I’m proud of the effort, honesty, and improvement I’ve seen — let’s keep it going!
This week in Crew Brunel we kicked things off by checking in after the long weekend. It was great to hear what everyone had been up to and to share our stories. We were joined by members of Crew Attenborough for this session too, which made the conversation even more enjoyable and gave us the chance to connect with others across the year group. It was a positive way to ease into the week and reminded us how important it is to start with connection.
On Wise Wednesday, we continued our focus on developing note-taking skills. We took it in turns to take notes and worked in our small teams to make sure we captured all the information.
Together as a crew, we reviewed our praises and conducts before reflecting on the targets we had set ourselves last week in order to think carefully about our progress. It was a valuable chance to pause, be honest about where we are with our HoWLs, and consider the steps we need to take to push ourselves further.
The week finished with a whole school community meeting, where we came together to share appreciations, apologies, and stands. These meetings are always a highlight because they bring the whole school together to celebrate each other, reflect on mistakes, and show support where it’s needed. It was powerful to hear so many voices and know that everyone has something valuable to contribute.
Finally, a special mention goes to David, who has managed not to receive a single conduct so far this academic year! This is something he has been working on, and his consistent effort is really paying off. We’re really proud of him for showing determination and self-management – keep it up, David!
All in all, it’s been another strong week for Crew Brunel, filled with connection, reflection, and community.
