We ask parents/guardians for complete commitment and support for the values of XP School. These being an emphasis on:

• Developing Character
• Producing Beautiful Work
• Aspiring to Academic Success

At XP Schools, parents’ evenings are replaced with ‘Student-Led Conferences’ in which students discuss their progress with parents and their crew leader.  These take place at least twice each year. It is an expectation that all parents/guardians attend ‘Student-Led Conferences’. Students show their portfolio of work and illustrate how they are mastering academic learning targets, and developing their character through the production of beautiful.

In addition, Every learning expedition ends with a public-facing product or presentation. On average we ask for parents to come to around four presentations each year.

We also use the expertise of parents to help with our curriculum delivery, with students working alongside parent experts, or parents volunteering to join important fieldwork.

Our crews are deliberately sized with around 12-13 students per crew. This means that crew leaders are in regular contact with parents to share success, and to support and challenge where needed.

Our initial focus is to successfully set up XP Gateshead and to ensure this is providing an outstanding experience for young people in Gateshead.

Once we have established XP Gateshead, we will consider how the school could become a new ‘hub’ for XP in the North-East.

Our expectation would be for this to follow a similar path to our Doncaster hub, with primary schools whose values are aligned to XP’s joining our trust, and additional secondary schools where there is a demonstrable need for this kind of provision.

Post-16 provision is not currently part of our plans.

No. We place great importance on working with experts, carrying out purposeful fieldwork and development of character through adventurous activities such as Outward Bound and the Duke of Edinburgh Award. These are all integral parts of our curriculum and are free of charge to all parents.

Of course, if parents are able and willing to contribute financially or with their time/expertise we would welcome that, but it is by no means expected.

We will publicise when we are looking to recruit specific roles through our website. As we are building a school, we will be making appointments in every year up to 2025.

We have a rolling recruitment process, which means that if you are interested you can apply to us at any time. Details on how to apply can be found here.

At the moment we are in temporary accommodation in a block on the western side of the former Thomas Hepburn site. This was renovated prior to XP Gateshead opening is sufficient for our needs at the moment; we do have use of the sports facilities and equipment needed to do practicals in science for example.

The Department for Education and Local Authority are working together to develop suitable permanent accommodation for the school – with the preferred option being continued use of this campus in Felling.

As a free school, essentially we are a new academy. This means that we receive our funding directly from the government rather than through the local authority.

Our per pupil funding is the same as for all other maintained schools in the country.

We do work closely with the local authority and make use of their services for example in catering, cleaning and admissions.

Please leave a question in the comments for us an we will get back to you.

Click on the “leave a comment” button below here.