Staff do crew too! At XP, we always say, if it’s good enough for the children, it’s good enough for us.
Therefore, just like our pupils, staff also take part in staff crew events. Yesterday staff had to work with small crews they don’t often work with to complete the ‘Great British Bake Off’. The challenge was to produce Mary Berry standards cakes whilst also decorating and presenting their beautiful work. It was a challenge in just 60 minutes!
I’m sure you’ll agree that there were some wonderful creations which the children enjoyed exploring too!
In 1st place was ‘The Gruffalo’ followed by ‘Wonka’ in second place and in third, ‘Mary Beary’.
We enjoyed finding our new vocabulary today whilst reading outloud 🙂 We used a read around the robin and a partner read today whilst reading. Mrs McClare then timed us to see how far we could read in 1 minute but still ensuring we were reading accurately. We discussed the story as we read thinking about our thoughts on the characters and what was happening. We tried to empathise with some of the characters, putting ourselves in their position. We tried to text mark some ideas as we read then shared this with another group. We then explored some questions as a group and even unpicked our green challenge question. We showed a great understanding today 🙂
On Friday, staff across our Trust gathered to launch the first phase of our exciting new Teaching and Learning model, with a focus on our culture of Crew, underpinning principles, deliberate & intentional teaching/learning behaviours at its heart…
Staff from our secondaries and primaries grappled with this exciting new model and took part in a wide range of workshops to develop teaching and learning at XP.
More on this next week…
Carcroft School: How Could We Help Our Planet Survive?
In Autumn 2023, Years 5 and 6 completed an expedition looking at the impact we are having on the planet and what we could do to make a difference now and for future generations. They held their presentation of learning last week!
Their final product for this expedition was a picture frame made from sustainably-sourced materials. Students then chose their favourite piece of writing from across the expedition to publish in the frame alongside (or behind) a simple piece of artwork reflecting elements of our learning. Beautiful work!
Last week, we got our focus solely on our timetables and ensure we are secure with all of them. This year we’ll have the MTC so it’s important that we’re ready for it.
The children volunteered to lead chanting the timetables. We talked about the importance of saying the full number sentence rather than just the answers.
Our crew Challenge was to use a range of gestures to help people decide which card they had. Each person was given a card and you had to treat people based on the value of their card. After having time to greet each other, they then had to decide if they had a low, middle or high value card. Once they’d decided they could finally look at their card. Most children were able to guess the value of their card as some children bowed to them, waved or give them a thumbs up/down.
We discussed how there will be occasions when we don’t have to say anything because our body language will do all the talking.
Today children were sent home with a slip explaining that they’ll be visiting the recycling centre on 31st January. All details are within the slip but if you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thank you.
Today we had our demo comprehension lesson. We discussed how important it is to skim and scan for key words when answering comprehension questions. It was lovely seeing the children using these skills.
Yesterday we were lucky enough to have Doncaster council come in and give a presentation ahead of our visit to the recycling centre. The talk was very informative before children were given the opportunity to decide which bin certain pieces of rubbish would go in. I certainly learnt a thing or 2 as I’ve been putting some items in the wrong bin.
This afternoon, Crew Hamill’s grammar focused on sorting sentences into their different sentence types – commands, statements, questions and exclamations. We found questions much easier because we knew they ended with a question mark ❓ but we managed to sort them all correctly!
