XP Gateshead

Dear Families

Last week saw a lot of hard work from students across all year groups. Our culture at XPG is underpinned, fortified and sustained by our Character Traits and our Habits of Work and Learning

The character traits are a manifestation of the values and attributes we want everyone involved with XP (students, staff, families and wider partners) to develop and share, and our HOWLs are the habits, attitudes and behaviours we want our students to acquire and hone during their time at XPG so that they are ready for the world beyond school. 

In Community Meetings this week it has been great to hear students celebrating and reflecting on Character Traits and HOWLs when making their appreciations, apologies and stands. 

The Day

We have recently taken up a subscription with ‘The Day’  is a leading digital literacy resource providing schools with daily, unbiased current affairs to boost literacy, critical thinking, and debate.

This resource will be incredibly helpful to us in school in support of our text-rich curriculum, depp guiding questions and curricular seams and to provide reading and discussion points in Crew around current affairs and aspects of our Crew curriculum such as PSHE and RSHE.

This resource is available to all students from the homepage on the XP Gateshead website by clicking on the “TD” icon. You can also access from home using the link that will be sent out in a separate email from our Office. Please do try this wonderful resource, it would be great to hear from families that have been reading together at home.

Summer term expeditions 

G32 and G31 students have all had their Summer expeditions and guiding questions revealed and have made a great start to these new expeditions. This term’s expeditions and guiding questions are:

Year 7: How does water shape our world?

Students will investigate how river and coastal processes shape the land and the species that live in these ecosystems. They will also study a range of literature inspired by water 

Year 8: Is Migration worth the risk?

Students will look at push and pull factors that lead to migration, and will study some cases where conditions have led people to seek refuge such as war or climate change, as well as economic factors such as rural to urban migration in India. 

Year 8 students also had a further session with Into University where they looked at self-discipline and what is needed to succeed at university-level study.

New expeditions

Year 9 and Year 10 are both currently in the immersion of their new learning expeditions, more details to follow next week, including exciting news about the Year 8 final product and presentation of learning.

As part of their immersion, Year 9 this week carried out a Conference of the Parties, with each student taking the role of representatives from nations with different and sometimes opposing interests with regards to the changing climate and decarbonisation.

Year 10 used grid references and the features of our school site to create a Geographical fieldwork enquiry, all in the space of two hours!

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Year 11 Final Exams

G28 students have continued to work hard preparing for their final GCSEs. This term already our Media students have completed their non-exam assessment and last week our Spanish students completed the speaking section of their final GCSE. Our G28 pioneers continue to be role models for the rest of the school in the way they are approaching their final exams and the focus they display in every session and revision class. 

The exam timetable is here:

You can get further advice on supporting your children on our Revision Website. Navigate to Parents, GCSE Revision.

You can get further advice on the local offer for Post-16 on our Careers Website. Navigate to Students, Careers, Personal Guidance.

This week

G28 Art and Photography GCSE Exams

On Wednesday and Friday our Year 11 students will complete 10 hours of assessment. The art exam represents the culmination of months of preparatory work (worth 40% of their final GCSE grade). During these supervised hours, students will produce a final, focused outcome based on their chosen theme.

A huge thank you to Mrs Carter and Ms MacPhail for all of their hard work and support they have given our Y11 students. Our students have really appreciated their support.

G29 Mock Exams

This week our G29 students will get their first real experience of GCSE exam papers in exam conditions. This is the start of their journey to final exams and we will be supporting them all the way. In the coming weeks after marking and moderation takes place, we will share the mock results with students along with our predictions at this stage for their final outcomes next year. G29 mock exam week schedule is linked here.

G33 Transition – Family meetings

Transition has started for our new G33 cohort. We are really looking forward to getting to know our new students and families this week as online family meetings take place for every child with their family. Families will receive invites to these meetings in the coming days.

PE sessions this week

There are some changes to PE sessions this week due to exams and staff interviews. Please make sure that your child has their full PE kit for sessions.

• G32 students (Y7) have PE on Wednesday this week
• G31 students (Y8) have PE on Tuesday this week 
• G30 students (Y9) have PE on Monday this week with an additional session for Class 1 on Wednesday
• G29 students (Y10) have PE on Monday this week.
• G28 students (Y11) have PE on Monday this week

Extended Study and Clubs

Extended study and after school clubs will be running Monday to Thursday as usual this week.

If you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance. 

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.

Dear Families

It has been a strong first week back at XP Gateshead with some great work from students and staff alike. We have had several visitors in school this week who have all commented on how confident and articulate our students are when talking about their learning, the strength of relationships at XPG which mean our students are safe, are known, feel seen and valued.

G32 and G31 students have all both started their Summer expeditions and have made a great start  – guiding questions will be revealed this week.

G30 and G29 saw the culmination of their Spring expeditions:

Year 9: How can we continue to make progress on public health?

G30’s expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’’ culminated on Wednesday last week in a Public Health Conference  where students shared their knowledge and expertise on public health health inequalities in Gateshead today, looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation. Experts invited to the conference included local politicians, NHS experts and health charities and they were blown away by the quality of work produced by our Year 9 students and the confidence they showed when sharing their knowledge. The leaflets on the dangers of alcohol our students have produced were on display and are heading to printers now so local health centres and hospitals can stock these and share them across our community. 

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Year 10: Are we really free to choose?

G29 travelled to Newcastle Sixth Form College on Friday for their presentation of learning for their expedition ‘Act Naturally’. Families and guests enjoyed watching and voting on a debate between classes, dealing with some of the issues that have arisen during term two studies. During the afternoon our students got the opportunity to tour College facilities and find out more about the courses on offer at Sixth Form and student life.

It was a great afternoon for our Year 10 students and they conducted themselves with real maturity. A special mention goes out to those groups who picked up the load for absent students on the day. G29 are really starting to step up, facing challenges head on and showing real resilience. These skills are crucial now as we move towards mock exams in readiness for final GCSEs. 

XPG get their voices heard and demand change on a regional stage 

On Thursday, 12 of our Y9 and Y10 students presented a keynote at a North East Conference at the Baltic, Brighter Future, Young People in the North East. Yet again, our young people were amazing and we have had feedback from many organisations and experts who attended the conference praising students’ confidence, quality and the beautiful work they shared from the last three years of our Public Health Conferences. To get young people’s voices heard and listened to around issues of social justice is key if we want our students to affect positive social and cultural change.

This week

New Expeditions for G30, G29

This week sees the start of new expeditions for our Y9 and Y10. Immersion will take across the week and students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.

PE sessions this week

There are some changes to PE sessions again this week due to staff training and G28 exams.Sessions will be caught up in the coming weeks. Please make sure that your child has their full PE kit for sessions.

• Year 7 
  • Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
  • Class 2 have PE on Wednesday this week
• Year 8 
  • Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
  • Class 2 have PE on Tuesday this week.
• Year 9 
  • Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
  • Class 2 have PE on Tuesday this week.
• Year 10 and 11 will not have PE this week as Mr Devitt is not in school on Monday.

Extended Study and Clubs

After school sessions will all start again this week.

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

Dear Families

Welcome back, we hope you have enjoyed your Easter break.  We are really looking forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow for the start of our Summer term at XP Gateshead.

Passage feedback from G30 families 

We would also like to gather feedback from G30 families following last term’s Passage Presentations so would appreciate your time in completing the following form.

You can give us your feedback by clicking here.

Important reminders for a good start back to school…

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 in to a new term 

For a normal day within school, it is not 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, students need to bring a school bag with:

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser, pencil sharpener, glue stick and purple biro pen. 
• 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 confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
• A notebook

Last term we continued to have issues with individuals arriving at school without a charged iPad. Please ensure your child has a charger at home so that charging issues can be avoided this term. We do not provide replacement chargers. 

Attendance

At XP Gateshead, we believe that every day at school matters. If students are not at school, they are not forming positive habits and are not performing academically. There is a direct correlation between regular attendance and academic achievement. Regular attendance builds strong routines, boosts self-confidence, and fosters essential life skills like reliability and friendship building.  It is vitally important that all our pupils attend our school as much as physically possible, and that all stakeholders (students, parents/carers, Crew Leaders) recognise that every day at school matters and the part we all play in this.

We will continue to work hard to improve attendance this term and the ways we support those students and families who need to improve their attendance.  As you know, we expect every student to be in school and want every young person to hit our 97%+ attendance target. Attendance is discussed with students on a weekly basis and crew attendance is celebrated each week along with improved attendance and 100% attendance.

If, for any reason, your child is unable to attend school you must contact the school office before 8:25 am by telephone. This is a safeguarding procedure which has to happen on every day of absence.

We do not authorise pupils to take holidays during school term times. Please note our this year’s and next year’s term dates: 2025/26 Calendar and 2026/27 Calendar. 

The term ahead

This summer term is always a lovely time of year, as the weather improves and expeditions tend to focus on our curriculum seam: protecting our planet.

We also see our pioneering students in G28 move into the final chapter of their time with us. A huge appreciation goes out to the students and staff that worked over the Easter Break in preparation for the summer exams. This is the last push now for G28 students, and we look forward to sharing in their success later in the summer.

This week

New Term – New Expeditions for G32, G31

A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our Y7 and Y8. Immersion will take place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.

G30 and G29 Presentations of Learning

Year 9 HUMAN – How can we continue to make progress on public health?

G30’s expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’’ culminates this week. Our students studied public health over time and investigated health inequalities in Gateshead today, looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation.  

G30’s Presentation of Learning will be a Public Health Conference, hosted by our students in school on Wednesday 15th April at 2pm.

G29 – Are we really free to choose?

G29’s PoL will take the form of a debate on Friday 17th April at Newcastle Sixth Form College at 4:30pm. 

Alongside the Presentation of Learning which is in the form of a debate. See Miss Simpson’s post for more details.

PE sessions this week

• Year 7 have PE on Wednesday this week.
• Year 8 have PE on Tuesday this week.
• Year 9 have PE Monday this week.
• Year 10 and 11 each have PE on Thursday this week.

Extended Study and Clubs

As is usually the case at the start of a new term there will be no extended study or after school clubs running this week. After school sessions will all start again next week.

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