XP Gateshead

Good morning

At the start of each academic year we normally experience an increased volume of traffic, especially as new Year 7 students get used to making their way to and from school and more of our younger students travel to and from school by car.

When parking close to the school gates we ask that families consider our neighbours and ensure that you do not block any drives, and also ensure that space is left in the road to allow safe passage of cars, cycles and other vehicles.

Most importantly, whilst there are traffic calming measures such as speed bumps on Swards Road and Colepeth, we have had recent reports of vehicles travelling in excess of 20 miles per hour close to the school. We would appreciate if families could consider their speed. Before and after school many of our children cross the road or leave via cycles; as motorists we can all reduce the risk of an accident by reducing our speed.

Of course we will continue to stress the important of safe crossing and cycling with our children too.

Thanks for your consideration and cooperation.

A reminder that Newcastle College and Newcastle Sixth Form College have their first Open Evening event this week on Wednesday between 4.30pm and 7pm at the Rye Hill Campus.

More details on how to reserve a slot at Newcastle College can be found here.

More details on how to reserve a slot at Newcastle Sixth Form College can be found here.

A reminder that we are also hosting an event at XP Gateshead on Thursday 15th October at 6pm to support all G29 families to understand and navigate the options at Post-16 for your children.

On Wednesday 30th October, G31 students went on the second fieldwork trip of their expedition, ‘Another Brick in the Wall’. Students completed a regeneration workshop at the Farrell Centre and visited an exhibition showcasing social housing around the world. Students saw the compassion of affordable housing in the UK compared to countries like China, Switzerland and the Netherlands. 

The workshop encouraged students to work in groups as town planners to design a sustainable town. This built on their work regarding healthy high streets, which they previously investigated in Gateshead.

The other half of the day featured an architecture walk conducted by Miss Macphail. She encouraged students to consider what structures form a community as they visited local community buildings and analysed why those structures are successful. Students can use this learning to help them to think about how we could give back to our own community.

G31 POL will be held at the Farrell Centre on the evening of Tuesday 1st December from 3:30pm to 5:30pm (Newcastle University Campus).

On Thursday 8th October, G29 Geographers will be taking part in their second compulsory fieldwork visit of the GCSE course, to Seaham.

This fieldwork is compulsory for students GCSE fieldwork. 

The focus of the day will be the enquiry question: “How is erosion changing the coastline at Seaham?”

At school, students have already begun researching this by utilising GIS to map coastal erosion from 2008 to 2023, discovering losses of roughly 3 meters in certain areas. I encourage you to explore this with your child at home if a computer is available, as tablets can occasionally be tricky to use for this!

To be properly prepared in addition to normal kit, students will need:

• A packed lunch
• A waterproof jacket
• Suitable footwear (sports trainers or walking boots)

The weather is currently sunny with clouds and 12°C but it may be windy at the coast so please ensure students are wearing warm clothes.

We aim to return to school by 3:30pm. However, as trains from Seaham to Heworth only run once per hour, it is possible that we may not arrive back until around 4:30pm. If there are any delays to our expected 3:30pm return, an update will be posted on the school blog.

Beautiful work this week

Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust!

To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org.

Top of the Blogs

Colour Run, Scientists, Lincoln Castle and more with Class 6 @ Green Top

Special Old Bears @ Plover

Number of the day @ Carcroft School

Wise Wednesdays: celebrating Diversity and Belonging @ XP

Showing care for our nature nook @ Norton Infants

Let there be light @ Norton Juniors

Weekly Update @ XP Gateshead

Crew Dufton: starting monday right @ XP East

Share your stories with us!

We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.

It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.

Write to us at [email protected] –  we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!

Dear families,

Sparx Maths extended study platform is now back up and running and students should start their assignments today, due for Thursday next week (unless explicitly told otherwise by their class teacher). Students need to log on by selecting XP Gateshead as their school (note that this is a change from XP School which was previously used to log in).

Tassomai (the extended study platform for Science) was launched with students on Monday – who have all checked they’re able to log in last week. Expectations and Frequently Asked Questions can be viewed on the slideshow linked here (also accessible via students’ Google Classroom). You should receive emails to remind you about your child’s progress towards their weekly goal (due each Monday at 8am).

Find out more here and apply to #JoinOurCrew

The next G32/33 football fixture is this Wednesday 30th September at Emmanuel College, 4pm kick off. Mr Devitt will pick a squad that will be shown on student notices this morning (Tuesday 29/09). We will take part in fixtures against Emmanuel and Whickam Secondary School. Students selected will need to bring football boots, shin pads, football socks, and a PE top to travel in. Official football kit will be provided to all students. 

Students will travel to the venue straight from school at 3.15pm and will be brought back to school after. The arrival time will be around 5.30pm and this will be updated should there be any change. Parents are able to attend this fixture if they wish too and are able to take their child home straight from the fixture, as long as this has been communicated with Mr Devitt before departing Emmanuel. 

If there are any further questions please don’t hesitate to email Mr Devitt. Thank you. 

We are looking forward to welcoming Year 6 families to our school this evening.

Again, we apologise that we are not able to have this as a walk-in event. We are using limited spaces in our building and the event is student-led with presentations from our students in our classrooms. This means that we do not have the capacity to have any more families than those that have signed up. Please do not call the school today asking to be added as the event is fully booked.

This does not affect your chance of admission and you can still apply for a place at the school if you have not attended our open evening. Details of our admissions arrangements can be found here.

If you have signed up, please arrive for 5.45pm and our students will direct you to your correct starting point for the evening. You will hear from staff and students about our school and each aspect of our 3-D curriculum: beautiful work; character growth; academic success.

Your group will be allocated on the basis of your child’s surname:

• Surnames A-C: Group 1
• Surnames D-H: Group 2
• Surnames J-Q: Group 3
• Surnames R-Z: Group 4

If you have not signed up for the event, we are sorry but we will not be admitting any additional families. The need to book a place for the our open evening is advertised in the secondary school admissions booklet, Gateshead Local Authority website and on our website too.

For those families that are not able to make it to the event this evening, we will post all of the resources that are shared tonight on our website, later this week.

More information about our school

You can find our prospectus here.

Our website is also a valuable source of information and will give you a real flavour of the rigour of XP and our relentless focus on academic success, character growth and beautiful work.

We have also put together an information website for families that are not able to attend, which you can find here:

https://sites.google.com/xpgateshead.org/xp-gateshead-online-open-eve/home

Information on how to apply for a place at our school can be found here:

https://xpgateshead.org/how-to-apply-for-a-place-at-xp-gateshead/

Frequently asked questions about our school can be found here:

https://xpgateshead.org/category/faq/

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.