This week I had the pleasure of joining the Year 7 Crews at XP Gateshead. It has only been two weeks since they completed their journey to the Outward Bound Centre at Ullswater to answer the Guiding Question, ‘What does it Mean to Be Crew?’ and I wanted to see how they had settled in back at school. During their time in the outdoors, students met their Crew and Crew Leader for the first time, showing courage to form new relationships and resilience in mastering shared challenges. Being away from home is not easy, and some of the physical activities were equally tough, but through these shared experiences, students began to see, feel, and hear the culture of Crew.
In the final presentations at Ullswater, students showed incredible growth. In the space of only four days, they formed bonds that would be unbreakable, and they saw things in themselves and in each other that they would not have imagined when they boarded the coach on their first day of school.
“In the space of only four days, students formed bonds that would be unbreakable, and they saw things in themselves and in each other that they would not have imagined when they boarded the coach on their first day of school.”
So it was with bated breath that I set out to see if this commitment was manifest in both Crew and Learning Expedition sessions. I can assure you that I was not disappointed. The first Crew I was welcomed into was Crew Diamond. The check-ins by students effectively modeled appreciation, and through expert Crew Leadership, students were explicitly encouraged to look out for opportunities to appreciate one another. A sense of calm and purpose pervaded the session.
After this, I dropped into Crew Bennett. This Crew session also featured a check-in followed by reading, a recap, and dedicated thinking time. Feedback from the Crew was exceptionally positive, as routines and norms were not only being established but also actively highlighted, praised, and discussed. The habits developed at Ullswater were beautifully brought to life in a school setting.
Next stop was Crew Crowder, who had checked in and were deeply engaged in reading, with many enthusiastically volunteering to read aloud and responding actively to the text. Turn-taking was demonstrated in this session, a crucial skill that builds and reinforces our character trait of respect. The Crew Leader subtly, and with great compassion, nurtured and gave value to student contributions.
There was a warm and welcoming atmosphere in Crew Cadenas, with every student closely following the text of their Crew read. The Crew Leader reinforced listening norms and facilitated shoulder-partner discussions around key questions, allowing the students to explore the text and share their ideas to deepen their understanding. High levels of student participation were evident throughout, with the Crew Leader encouraging non-verbal signals like “I agree” while continuing to embed strong routines.
Look below at the Crew walls that were already anchoring the importance of our Crew culture and providing students with explicit and applicable examples of what this looks like, feels like and sounds like.
It was beautiful to see that students had grasped the importance of transferring these shared experiences when they began their first week back in school. There was a strong and palpable sense of trusting relationships being built in the Crew sessions, which bodes well for the deepening of culture and high expectations with these new recruits to XP. Our important dimension of character growth, furnishing our young people with the skills, habits, and dispositions they will need to be agents for positive social change and compassionate citizens, was in clear evidence during my initial visits to the Y7 Crews at XP Gateshead.
“Our important dimension of character growth, furnishing our young people with the skills, habits, and dispositions they will need to be agents for positive social change and compassionate citizens, was in clear evidence during my initial visits to the Y7 Crews at XP Gateshead.”
Not only was this an uplifting experience in the moment, it fills me with hope for the future.
