XP and XP East meet with Rav from ‘A little History of the Sikhs’

23rd February 2024B Batty

As part of our expedition Do your bit! students have been learning about the role of propaganda in WW1 and how people from across the British Empire answered the ‘call to arms’. We welcomed Rav Singh, the founder of ‘A little History of the Sikhs’, to XP. Rav spoke us about the role of Sikhi soldiers in WW1, how soldiers carried out their beliefs and practices on the battlefield and helped us to understand the experience of Sikhi soldiers. https://alittlehistoryofthesikhs.org/

As we work towards answering our HUMAN expedition exploring the guiding question: ‘Why do we need to honour all those who made sacrifices during WWI?’

A big thank you to Rav for taking time to speak to us.

X27 Ethics – Piecing together the puzzle

2nd October 2022Eleanor Wilkinson

Over the past few lessons X27 have been grappling with GCSE content regarding Christian Belief’s about the Creation story. We have embedded this further by splitting into groups and producing a jigsaw piece which symbolises one of the 7 days of creation. 

Students then presented their thoughts in their groups regarding which day they think is most important. A fantastic discussion had by all! Well done for working hard Ethics!

X28 Crew Darling (EWI) What do our HOWLS really mean to us?

16th May 2022Eleanor Wilkinson

During crew time, Crew Darling (EWI) have been looking at what our HOWLS really mean to us! Crew split into three groups, focusing on working hard, getting smart and being kind.. this was then followed with a fantastic presentation to the rest of crew, sharing their thoughts and ideas about HOWLS and how they can be the best version of themselves going forward!

Praise and Reward indeed!

25th March 2022Nicola Marshall

Our students in crew Tubman have been working exceedingly hard this term at improving their HOWLs and especially looking at our Spanish HOWLs in more depth. We have done this by self assessment of our own behaviour within this session. The reason for this is that the students had begun to grapple with how to move forward, as well as in other sessions.

By looking at their own behaviour and making pledges every week and sticking to these pledges, the students have been able to see the rewards for their consistent hard work, with everyone achieving either a 3.5/ 4.0 for all of their Work Hard, Get Smart and Be Kind HOWLs in the last two weeks of term.

There has been a marked improvement across all subjects as a result of the mini pledges our students have made this term based on their work around SLCs. As their crew leader i am tremendously proud of all their efforts and as such they were rewarded this afternoon with a picnic and team games.

It was lovely to see the students kick back and enjoy the sunshine i particularly enjoyed hearing their giggles.

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Crew AJA: Starting our journey together…

By Mr A Jackson5th September 2021

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!

Crew Berger: Final Word

By Mr A Jackson23rd April 2021

Crew Berger have made a great start on their preparations for their Final Word at the end of their time with us.

We’ve been looking back at past expeditions and thinking about how being at XP has built character.  But mostly so far we’ve been being entertained by photos of everyone looking really young!

Thanks to parents who’ve already booked slots for the presentations – we’re really looking forward to seeing what our amazing young men and women have got to say about their growth and development over the past 5 years at XP.

Crew Berger: Things we’ve learned in lockdown 2.0

By Mr A Jackson11th January 2021

So, a new year arrived filled with hope and possibility – and then we got the news that we were learning from home again.  Crew were determined to write to Gavin Williamson this term to ask the government to make a decision about GCSEs, and then it was announced that they wouldn’t go ahead as planned.  It’s felt a bit like we’re walking on shifting sands as we make our way towards the end point of our XP journey, but it’s been really inspiring to see how crew Berger have got stuck in, and are working hard to make the best of the situation.

As well as learning loads of things in our online sessions, and getting to grips with working from home again – we’ve found out some interesting things about crew in our morning hangouts…

One member of crew can’t live without their hot water tap – so they can survive on hot drinks and ramen…

Someone needs help waking up in the morning, but luckily they have a personal alarm call each morning from a very kind crew member…

Two of us have broken our video game controllers – probably due to excessive overuse after being stuck inside all day…

Lots of us feel like we’ve exhausted the possibilities that Netflix has to offer…

Four of us are still catching Pokemon…

And one of us really likes their towel!

 

I wonder what next week will bring.

 

Crew Berger’s Beautiful Revision

By Mr A Jackson23rd November 2020

       

 

Crew Berger have been focussing again on revision tasks.  A couple of weeks ago we started a programme of revision inspired by Mrs Sprakes work last year with crew Bronte.

Each member of our crew selected an area of study that they were comfortable with and pledged to create some revision materials based on that.  We gave ourselves two weeks to get it started and this week we presented our work.

Abi worked on the Vikings and shared several pages of notes that she’d made on Viking society.  Joe found and shared a sample Maths question and Henry produced some notes on Cell Biology, looking at cell structure and moving into DNA.

Rex and Laura also worked on Biology – producing flashcards on Hormones and Menstruation.  Laura went down the more traditional route of writing hers out on cards and then taking photos so she could share them.  Rex used an app to create his flashcards which allows you to see how long you’ve spent studying each one.

     

Laura also produced some character notes for one of our English texts – An Inspector Calls, and Khushi worked on flashcards for characters in Macbeth.  We enjoyed testing each other on these – can you remember who Fleance is!?

Jac decided to focus on Physics and, although he is doing the higher tier papers, he produced foundation study material to help others in crew.  His worked examples of answers on volume, density, electricity and other topics are beautifully presented and explained.

We’ve pledged to continue to produce this revision material and to make it public over the coming months leading up to the exams in summer next year.  We’re also pledging to put together a website so that our work can be made available to other crews and other students hoping to do well in their GCSEs.