Crew Kahlo at the end of Year 9

As they are coming to the end of Year 9, crew has been reflecting on their year. When thinking about their journey throughout the year, here are some of their highlights.

They have been looking at their HoWLs and AP grades from the last data drop. They have then made pledges each week to focus on small changes they can make to try and improve. Crew holds each other to account during this process, discussing whether they think they have been successful in achieving their pledges.

They have finished their second expedition of the year called ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ by creating beautiful work. They looked at Islamic tiles and then used rotational symmetry to design their own patterns to paint with acrylic paint.

Here are some examples from Crew Kahlo:

 

Crew also chose their options for ‘Leading Our Own Learning’ that they will be studying next year. The crew has picked a range of options such as Engineering, Citizenship, Psychology, Further maths, ICT / Computing as well as some members of the crew decided to take up the opportunity to join the ‘pushing for 4’ group that will support them with Maths, English, and Science leading up to their exams.

They cant really believe that they are coming to the end of Year 9 and going into Year 10!

C26 – Two Days of Inspiring Experts

As part of our You Give Me Fever expedition, year 9 have had two days of experts offering their experiences to show the human side of our health service. With talks from a hospice nurse, carer and chairperson of a charity, it has been an intense, emotional and humbling experience.

The students asked all the experts pertinent and sensitive questions which will help them retell their stories as part of our final product. Everyone involved exemplified our character traits by: having the courage to ask questions, having integrity when writing their notes and probing the responses further, showing respect to all our experts, showing craftsmanship and quality in their detailed notes. But above all they showed so much compassion particularly in their appreciations at the end of the sessions.

We are so proud of all the students. #WeAreXP

An example of the craftsmanship and quality of the notes taken.

Crew Kahlo going into Year 9

What a busy first couple of weeks crew Kahlo has had in Year 9!

There’s never a dull moment at XP, especially at the beginning of term. We kicked off the new year with an outward bound trip where we went abseiling off a bridge (80ft!) and caving:

On our second day of Year 9, crew took part in a number of fun challenges (working as a crew) in the morning and then played the other Year 9 crews in a bench ball tournament. We ended the day with a community meeting.

On our third day of Year 9 we walked to Potteric Carr nature reserve and then did a ‘Solo’.

When we got back to school, crew prepared for their POL to explain what they had done that week and what they had learnt from it. They worked well as a team to present to their peers and parents.

As you can see – we don’t mess about! We start as we mean to go on here at XP.

Cant quite believe that crew Kahlo are in Year 9 already – bring it on!

 

Ian Murphy workshop for year 9

Last week our year 9 students were lucky enough to spend the day working with artist, Ian Murphy.  This workshop was part of the immersion for our new expedition and allowed the students to spend the day improving their own practice and studying the beautiful canvasses, sketches, paintings and sketch books that Ian brought in to show us.

 

X26 (Year 9): First week back reminder

Hi X26 – just thought I would add another blog post to remind you all what the plan is for your first week in Year 9 (I can’t believe you’re going to be Year 9’s!!)

Your first day back is Wednesday 1st September and you need to be in school at 8 am (this is because you all need to do a covid test before we set off). You will be out of school all day so you need to come prepared with the following:

  • Backpack
  • Packed lunch (this will be provided for students on FSM)
  • Bottle of water
  • Hiking boots (these should be in your backpack – come to school in your trainers
  • Waterproofs (trousers and a jacket)
  • Plastic carrier bag (to keep everything dry in your backpack if it rains)
  • Baselayer top (not cotton)
  • Midlayer top (not cotton)
  • Warm hat
  • Gloves
  • Sun hat
  • Hiking trousers (not cotton)
  • Hiking / thick socks (not cotton)
  • Wellies (or these can be hired on the day for £1)

(All of these items will be used again throughout Year 9 – not just for this week).

We are expected to be back at school between 4.30 pm and 5.00 pm if you need to organise a lift home or plan which bus to catch. 

On Thursday 2nd September you will be in school all day and need to be in for the normal time (8.20-8.30 for crew). You need to make sure you bring your usual school equipment with you (pen, pencil, ruler, and device). Make sure you wear sensible footwear as you will be doing some activities in the sports hall and outside. You will be able to have a school dinner if that’s what you usually do or bring your packed lunch with you.  

School will finish at the usual time of 3.15 pm. 

On Friday 3rd September you need to arrive at school at the normal time for crew (8.20-8.30am) but will be out of school in the morning. You need to bring the same things that you have been asked to bring on Wednesday (apart from wellies – you don’t need those). You also need to bring your equipment and device to use in the afternoon. 

You also need to bring a packed lunch and a bottle of water as we will be out at lunchtime (this will be provided for students on FSM)

School will finish at the usual time of 3.15 pm. 

I hope you have all had a lovely summer break and we will see you all next week!

GCSE Geography Fieldwork

Students in Year 9 and Year 10, who have chosen GCSE Geography as their common mission choice, will be going on fieldwork on 23rd June to Sheffield city centre.

As part of the exam specification requirements for their Paper 3 exam, students will be collecting primary data during the fieldwork (we will be observing Covid guidelines and maintaining the school bubbles where possible). During their lessons in school, they will be analysing, presenting, evaluating and drawing conclusions from the fieldwork to prepare them for this section of the exam.

The fieldwork is based on the theory learnt in the Urban Issues and Challenges section of the course and will be focusing on the level of success and impact of regeneration (or lack of it!) in different area’s of Sheffield’s CBD.

Students will need to arrive to school at the normal time and we will be back to school by 3:15. Students will need :

  • a packed lunch and a drink.
  • appropriate clothing for the weather that day as we will be outside all day. We will be walking roughly 5 miles around the centre so comfortable shoes are a must!
  • Any inhalers/epipens etc if needed – staff will have a first aid kit/spares just in case
  • a couple of pens Sheffield Travel Guide | Sheffield Tourism - KAYAK

Any questions please email me [email protected]

All students in Year 9 have been given some revision tasks for an assessment for their expedition ‘You give me fever’.

This assessment will take place on Thursday 6th May.

Students have been asked to join Seneca to revisit their learning, and have been given access to textbooks as well as their regular quizzing in Tassomai.

The assessment will be on the following:

Cell Biology

Plant organisation

Infection and response

Y9 X25 Bubble Closure Timetable Update

As we have unfortunately had a positive Covid test in X25 Year 9 we will be moving to online learning from this afternoon (Tuesday 13th April). We have chosen this timetable as it reflects the online provision that was successful during our last period of distance learning. After speaking with students this morning we have adapted the timetable to mitigate the risks of screen fatigue. Therefore, the students will only do four out of the five sessions providing them with an extended lunch break. 

Please see the timetable below that outlines the times for each session. The teacher taking the session will send out the hangout link and post it on Google Classroom. We look forward to seeing all our students online this afternoon.  Thank you for your continued support. 

Link to Timetable.

 

When we return to school on Monday 22nd March, students in Year 9 will start working on the final product for their learning expedition ‘You give me fever‘, which has the guiding question:

“Why should we care about health inequality?”

The final product will celebrate and honour the work of NHS staff across the whole organisation during this most difficult of years.

 

We would like for small groups of students to speak with NHS workers to find out about their role, and how it has been impacted over this last year.

If you or anyone in your family is an NHS worker, we would really appreciate it if our students could speak to you about your important work.

Ideally we would like for workers to meet with small groups of our students online during Monday 29th – Wednesday 31st March.

 

We are looking for workers from across all of the NHS, and are especially in need of some of the typically unsung heroines and heros such as cleaners, porters or community ambulance drivers for example, although our students would learn a lot from speaking to anyone with a role in the organisation. We have many experts already lined up, but it would be great to get even more from our families at XP.

If you or someone you know can help our students to learn more about the herculean efforts of this past year, please contact Mr Said.

We can’t wait to welcome all of our students back very soon!

[email protected]

Within our expeditionary art sessions in Year 9 we would like students to use the Pixlr app to create some digital artwork.
This is a free and fantastic online image editing app. By doing this it will allow all students to work on the same platform regardless of the device being used.

Students need to sign up for an account, however it specifies that users should be over the age of 16. This is a condition of the app creators, however there are no inherent risks in using the software. Essentially it is an online photoshop equivalent.

Could you please complete this short Google Form to let us know if you give permission for your son/daughter to sign up for an account and use the app.

If you have any questions please contact [email protected]

Thanks as always for your support.