XP Gateshead

Dear Families

We hope you have had a restful break and enjoyed the lovely weather. We are looking forward to welcoming students back for the final half-term of this academic year. This half-term we will welcome our Year 6 G33 students into school for the first time supported by student leaders from G32 and G31, G30 will be making important decisions on their pathways into Key Stage 4. G29 are presenting their SLCs following their recent mocks and work placements and G28 are in the final weeks of exams.  

This half term we are looking forward to a couple of firsts – our G28 Pioneers will present their Final Word to families, staff and peers which will mark the end of their 5 years at XPG, we will be hosting our first XP Live music event, and where our final Crew Day will be a sports day as usual which will be hosted at Gateshead Stadium in July.

Look out for a post later this week on the XPG Live event, and how this connects to our Year 8 presentation.

Our usual reminders for a good start back…

Attendance

Can I remind all families about the importance of students attending school everyday. School attendance is vital to the life chances of young people and being in school improves health, wellbeing and socialisation throughout life. Put simply if pupils are not at school then they are not learning and quickly fall behind in all areas of their development. Term time holidays are not authorised at XP Gateshead. Let’s all work hard together to ensure school attendance is high – students, parents/carers, Crew Leaders.

Punctuality

School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew. A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning so we ask that parents support their child with this.

Dress code 

Please refer to our website post for full details on our dress code. Can I remind parents of the following expectations around daily dress within school and ask for your full support around this as we move into our final Summer half term and warmer weather.

For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:

• Hats, hoods & coats inside school
• Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh
• Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes
• Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery
• For example heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails
• Impractical footwear:
• For example sliders, flip-flops or high heels.

Daily kit list

As always, all students need to be fully equipped for school and bring a school bag with:

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
• A fully charged iPad 

• Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
• Headphones 
• A healthy snack for break (no sweets, fizzy drinks or energy drinks or nut products)
• A notebook

This week

G28 GCSE exams

Exams continue for our Y11 students with another full week

• Monday 1st June
  • Religious studies – Component 3 (1 hr, pm)
• Tuesday 2nd June
  • Science – Physics Combined Paper 1 (1hr 15, am) 
  • Statistics – Paper 1 (1hr 45, pm)    
• Wednesday 3rd June
  • Mathematics – Paper 2  Calculator (1hr 30 am)  
  • Geography paper 2 (1hr 30, pm)
• Thursday 4th June
  • History – People’s Health, Elizabethans (1 hr 45mins, am)
• Friday 5th June
  • English Language – Paper 2  20th Century Non-Fiction Reading, Writing (2 hrs, am)

We have continued to put timetable changes in place to allow focused revision sessions prior to exams and make sure that our Y11 students are fully prepared. 

Once again we offered May Half Term Revision sessions for our Y11 students and it was great to see our students take full advantage of these sessions across the week. School is the best place for students to prepare for exams as support is on hand alongside revision resources.

Good luck again to all of G28 – keep on keeping on, you have definitely got this!

G30 Pathways Drop In Evening – Tuesday 2nd June

On Tuesday at 5pm, we are hosting a drop-in event in school for families that would like to talk to Key Stage 4 course leaders, to support them and their child to make decisions about the subjects that will be studied in year 10. Please see Mr Said’s post here for more details.

G32 Baltic fieldwork – Thursday 4th June

Please see Mr Said’s post for more details and important information about kit and lunches..

G29 KPMG visit – Thursday 4th June

This is for students that choose to sign up. There are still 5 places remaining, please see Mr Said’s post for more details.

G29 Student Led Conferences

This week, we welcome our Y10 families into school so that G29 can present their SLC with a  focus on recent mock results, work placement and their next steps in terms of readiness for Year 11.

PE sessions this week

Our PE sessions this week are as follows. There are some changes due to exams so check the days carefully. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.

• G32 students (Y7)
  • Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week
  • Class 2 have PE on Wednesday this week
• G31 students (Y8) have PE on Tuesday this week
• G30 students (Y9) have PE on Monday this week
• G29 students (Y10) have PE on Monday this week

Extended Study and after school clubs

Due to the SLCs for G29, and our first week back from the break there are no after school clubs or extended study this week. They will return next week, w/c 8th June.

As usual if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance. Thank you as always for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley

We come to the end of another strong half term where our students and staff have continued to embody the core principles of XP Gateshead: Working hard, Getting smart, and Being kind in service of Beautiful Work, Character Growth and Academic Success.

This is testament to the strength of our Crew culture and the high expectations we set.

A Note on Our G28 Pioneers

Our G28 Pioneers (Year 11) have continued to lead the way, showing maturity, determination, and resilience as they navigate their GCSE exams. They are now half-way through their final exams and to thank them for their efforts and dedication, we celebrated this half way point with fresh pizza and ice lollies out in the sun.

Staff will once again be offering revision sessions during the May Half Term break to ensure they are fully prepared for the final push.

Expedition Highlights and Community Impact

• Year 10 (G29): Students approached their first GCSE mock exams with admirable courage and commitment. They have started to reflect on their progress to date and look at next steps. These will be shared in their upcoming SLCs. They successfully completed a week of work experience in diverse fields such as engineering, retail, and education, receiving positive feedback from employers across the region.
• Year 9 (G30): Students culminated their ‘You Give Me Fever’ expedition by hosting a powerful Public Health Conference at the start of this half term, where they shared their expertise on health inequalities and created leaflets on alcohol dangers for local health centres. Their work is now well underway with this term’s expedition ‘What a wonderful world’ and already completed a geographical study around the Ouseburn.
• Year 8 (G31): Our students returned from a successful Crew Day where they developed leadership skills and prepared for charity bake sales, as well as engaging in important fieldwork at Windy Nook Nature Reserve. They are now immersed in their new expedition, ‘Is Migration worth the risk?’. In the rest of this term Year 8 will play a central role in our first XPG Live Festival in school. More on this very soon.
• Year 7 (G32): Students recently completed the demanding ‘Walk for Water’ Crew Day challenge, where they walked approximately 10 miles carrying 5 litre water bottles to raise funds, showing immense courage and compassion. This charity work aligned to their last expedition. This term’s  expedition, ‘How does water shape our world?’ is well underway with upcoming fieldwork improving local beach environments, and also studying our local river The Tyne.

Across Years 7 and 8, Student Led Conferences (SLCs) have continued, serving as vital moments in the deliberate development of character and seeing our students’ confidence and maturity grow.

School Culture and Community

The strength and spirit of our school culture are continually recognised; a recent visitor was “completely blown away” by the commitment students show to their learning and to each other. The investment in Crew remains our most important work, as it is the bedrock of our school culture and ensures that, as a community, we all support each other to get to the top of the mountain. This term we have also successfully navigated our first JCQ exam inspection and continued our transition work with our new G33 (Year 6) families.

We return to school on Monday 1st June 2026 at the normal time.

As usual if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance. Thank you as always for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley