XP Gateshead

“If I were to make a list of the best schools in the world, XP would be on that list.”, 

Ron Berger, Senior Advisor, Expeditionary Learning USA.

If you are a teacher looking for a model of schooling that dares to break the mould,  then this might just be for you.

XP Gateshead is a new mainstream 11-16 Secondary School that opened in August 2021. We are a deliberately sized school with each year having 50 students. We are now in our fifth year of opening and have a full school of 250 students.

We are looking for great people who want to become even better to join our school.

We are looking to recruit an ambitious teacher of Spanish to join our team at the newest of our extraordinary schools. We are appointing a team of new staff so we will consider applicants from all stages of their teaching careers.

You would work within your wider faculty in school and Spanish team across our Trust to ensure a love of language at XP Gateshead, that Spanish is strong at KS3 and there is continued strong uptake at GCSE with great outcomes.

Our rigorous and ambitious 3-D approach develops activism, leadership and equity in our students by creating beautiful work, which develops character and ensures that our children achieve academic success.

You can read our recent Ofsted report here.

We have three cross-curricular seams at XP Gateshead: Protecting our Planet; Making a Stand for Social Justice; Cultivating Diversity and Belonging. Spanish is an integral part of ensuring that our students value communication, respect diversity and are capable global citizens. 

Through learning Spanish, we ensure social equity for all of our students by teaching in mixed ability groupings. This enables students to develop key skills in oracy, reading and writing to become effective users and interpreters of another language. This empowers them to have an impact on the wider world, where Spanish is the second most spoken language, and gives meaning and purpose to their learning in a truly global sense.

You will join our team of dedicated professionals in an innovative school setting with the purpose of improving life chances for young people in Gateshead. As a part of our team you would also be a Crew Leader for 12-13 students. 

This role is based at our school in Gateshead. There are seven other schools in our Trust which are based in Doncaster. You would also work closely with colleagues from across our Trust, particularly in your subject area. There is an extensive induction process when joining our Trust.

XP Gateshead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and the successful applicant will be required to undertake an enhanced check via the Disclosure and Barring Service .

If you would like any further information please contact us by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 0191 481 4360.

There will be an opportunity to look around the school at 4.30pm on Thursday 16th April or at 5:00pm on Monday 20th April with an ambassador tour from students and a chance to meet leaders. Please contact our office using the details above if you would like to attend this evening.

To find out more and apply for the role, click here: https://xptrust.org/xp-gateshead-spanish-teacher/

A reminder that G31’s POL for the expedition ‘What is Power?’ is on Tuesday at 5pm at Gateshead Central Library. Students will be performing the play Macbeth and explaining how different parts of their learning have taught them to think differently about the nature of power.

The event will begin at 5pm and end at 6:30pm.

Students are eating lunch in school at an earlier time than their regular daily lunch. We will be travelling to the venue for 1pm to rehearse in the space. We are travelling by foot. The forecast is cool with a chance of light showers.

On Tuesday G31 students will need:

• Black (or dark) clothing for the performance, ideally as plain as possible e.g. black jeans/trousers/skirt and black t-shirt. (XPG polo shirts are fine for this performance)
• Usual full kit including fully charged iPad and water bottle
• Comfortable walking shoes or trainers (not crocs)
• A coat
• Optional: A packed tea or healthy snacks if they want to eat before the presentation starts at 5.00pm.

Students have been working very hard preparing scenes from Macbeth, artwork inspired by issues of social justice, power structures in society, the power of the earth,  forces and motion. We are so excited for you to see the way that students connect these ideas together in this PoL.

Due to the limited capacity of the venue, we ask that each student has a maximum of three family members at the performance on the evening please.

As per our home-school agreement, it is our expectation that every student has someone there to support as they step up to this challenge and grow their character. Students will then leave with their adults at the end of the PoL.

Please can you use this Google Form to let us know how many family members will be attending.

This POL is always fantastic and is a key moment in the student’s journey at XP. I can’t wait for you all to see it.

Recently you might have heard about cases of meningitis in the media. While the recent outbreak is not in our area, it’s helpful to be aware of the signs and symptoms of meningitis and to have up-to-date information from reliable sources. 

Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord (meninges).

Our local immunisation team have asked us to share that they do not offer Meningitis B vaccinations. Families will need to access their GP for any further support regarding this.

Click here for more information from the UK Health Security Agency

 

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

KS1 Presentation of Learning @ Green Top

Calculating area and perimeter in the sunshine in Year 6! @ Plover

POL in Crew Ramsay @ Carcroft School

X30 Corner Football Thursday @ XP

The Power of Passage Presentations @ XP Gateshead

Where will our vehicles take us @ Norton Infants

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!

On Tuesday I was invited to attend Year 9 Passage Presentations at XP Gateshead. Passage Presentations are a formal, public rite of passage that mark the culmination of a student’s learning journey through Key Stage Three.

In Passage Presentations the emphasis is equally focused on character growth (being an ethical and compassionate human being) as it is on academic progress. As such, students present a comprehensive portfolio of their work to a panel of staff, peers, and community members, demonstrating mastery of Long Term Learning Targets, growth in their Habits of Work and Learning (HoWLs), and their understanding of the XP Crew culture to affirm their readiness to progress to their GCSE studies.

I attended four presentations and whilst very different they were all equally impressive. The first presentation was delivered by Amelia who spoke eloquently about her character growth and her realisation that thinking of others had strengthened her determination to be kind and focus on her studies. She referenced the Outward Bound experience as a turning point in her growth:

“Getting to the top of the mountain made me realise that I shouldn’t just focus on myself but I needed to help others.”

She is keen to pursue events management as a career and her focus on this was very impressive. She shared a metaphor about her time at XP, a key feature of each presentation, which summed up her conceptual understanding of our Crew culture:

“XP is like a garden. It is the right environment to grow and flourish. It’s not about being perfect but doing your best.” 

Next up was Finn who confidently and skilfully talked the panel through his learning journey at XPG to date. His reflections were highly articulate, discerning and showed a real understanding of self, impressive for a thirteen year old! Finn focussed on his resilience in both his studies and in his character growth. As a keen football player he talked at length about how his discipline in sport has helped him in his studies. You could clearly see that Finn is going to be successful in whatever he chooses to do. This couldn’t be better expressed than in his comment below:

“I show up ready to learn every day. Not just because I find Maths easy but it’s because of my work ethic… I take my independent work seriously: I’ve never missed a deadline from the start of Year 7.”

Finn showed and discussed numerous examples of ‘beautiful work’ he has created since joining the school. His understanding of the need to pursue high quality was evident in his reference to our Habits of Work and Learning and to critique and redrafting: 

“My written work has progressed because I’m widening my vocabulary and I don’t just settle on a first draft.” 

Finn delivered an outstanding Passage Presentation in spite of the fact that he was feeling unwell – I think that says it all about his resolve and determination.

Harrie’s Passage Presentation showed real integrity. He was able to talk about his progress and also how he is determined to become more focussed in sessions so that he is successful in his future studies. His metaphor below captured his honesty and a deep sense of self reflection:

“XP is like a highway. There are twists and turns and I’ve even had some crashes but XP has shaped me as a human.” 

Harrie talked about how he has matured, that he is now working more independently and is making sure he is balancing his new found love for boxing and his studies outside of school.  

Interestingly, he highlighted Presentations of Learning and creating outward facing products that impact positively on the community as the areas which have contributed most to his growth. He made some impressive pledges and I hope he meets with the success he deserves in the future.

The final Passage Presentation I attended was delivered by Warren. This young man had written an extensive reflection on his character growth and academic progress. He talked with honesty and openness about his determination to improve his reading and how by working hard he has done this, it is clearly helping in his sessions. He delved deeply into his assessments across subjects and Learning expeditions to show the progress he is continuing to make. Warren focussed on how the structures at XPG have helped him develop his confidence and oracy, particularly the fact that he has had to consistently participate and share his work in Presentations of Learning. Warren was proud of the progress he has made in developing his written work, showing compelling examples of this, and his growth in Maths:

“At first I wasn’t confident in Maths because I wasn’t good at it but I learned that confidence is essential in order to succeed and so is not giving up no matter how hard the task.”

Warren clearly understood the symbiotic link between character growth and academic progress which is extraordinary for someone of his age. I think the picture below shows how proud Warren’s Dad was of his presentation.

Passage Presentations are not easy. And it is exactly the reason why we do them. Passage Presentations transform traditional assessment into a meaningful “rite of passage” by requiring students to actively reflect on their academic mastery and character growth. This process not only empowers students to take ownership of their future but also strengthens the bond between the school, parents, and the wider community through a shared celebration of excellence.

I think I’ll leave the final word to Finn which pretty much sums up the essence of an XP school:

“It is great to come to a school where being a good person is highly valued.”

Andy Sprakes

Chief Academic Officer, XP Trust

Dear parents,

We have recently received our new prices from our current catering providers, Gateshead Council Schools Catering Service.

Due to rising food and labour costs, they have increased the lunch meal price across all schools.

Even with our school subsidising costs, we will still need to increase the cost per meal for parents to from £3.00 to £3.10 . The new meal price of £3.10 will be in place in the Summer Term when we return after our Easter break. We have amended Parentpay so charges will reflect this from Monday 13th April. 

We will continue to work with Schools Catering to try and keep costs down, whilst ensuring a high quality meal will be provided to each of our students. We will do everything we can to keep the price of school meals affordable for all families.

 

Tomorrow, G31 will be conducting fieldwork to explore the suffrage movement through a local lens.

We will be travelling via metro to the Discovery Museum, leaving school at 9am. Students must be wearing appropriate footwear (no crocs), have a jacket and a packed lunch.

After lunch, we will be doing a Deeds, Not Words walking tour that will take students from Haymarket metro to Central Station, exploring the key locations from the ‘Battle of Newcastle’.

We will then travel back to school via metro from Central station, arriving back at school by 3:15.

All students will need to walk back up to school from the metro and we will dismiss them from school.

 

             

On Friday morning (20th March), G32 will have the opportunity to work in person with Elizabeth Smith from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). She will deliver a presentation on how to interpret war graves and the information that can be gained from them.

Following this, Elizabeth will accompany students, along with staff, to St Mary’s Church to investigate the Commonwealth war graves and apply their learning in a practical context.

This represents a valuable and authentic learning experience. We are very grateful to the CWGC for supporting our students as they explore the guiding question for their current Human expedition: ‘Why should we honour all those who sacrificed during WW1?’

Students should wear comfortable footwear suitable for walking (no Crocs) and bring a waterproof coat in case of inclement weather.