Congratulations to Mia in Year 8, who has successfully auditioned to be part of the ensemble of dancers in Dick Whittington this Christmas in South Shields.
Well done Mia.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Category : Front Page News
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Please complete this Google Form to let us know if you would like to purchase any more copies of G30’s wonderful folk music CD.
A reminder that the live stream of G28’s PoL will take place on Youtube from 6pm this evening.
You can join by clicking on this link.
What a wonderful first year it’s been for our current Year 7 students! Outward bound activities, working alongside experts, carrying out fieldwork, student-led conferences, and presentations of learning—it’s been a year jam-packed with fantastic learning experiences culminating in beautiful work and the development of their character.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended G30’s Celebration of Learning last night. It was absolutely fantastic to see our youngest students shine and beam with pride as they shared their impressive end products from their first three expeditions this year.
Additionally, the hosted gallery walk showcasing their learning from the current and final expedition of the academic year was a testament to their courage, integrity, and real craftsmanship and quality. This event provided insight into the rigour of our academic curriculum and highlighted the development of the students’ Habits of Work and Learning (HoWLs): Work Hard, Get Smart, and Be Kind. This was further evidenced by the positive feedback and the new learning summarised on the exit tickets completed by family members.
For anyone who didn’t manage to purchase the CD of songs last night, they are still available for £5.00. Students can buy them with cash from Mrs. Dobson at reception, or families can contact reception and pay via iPay.
Presentations of learning this week
G28 Presentation of Learning
The event for G28 will be streamed live on YouTube from 6pm on Thursday evening. Here is the link to join.
G29 Celebration of Learning
We are looking forward to seeing all G29 families this Wednesday at 4.30pm as part of their expedition with the guiding question “Is migration worth the risk?”.
Please could G29 families that have not yet done so, complete this form to let us know how many adults are attending and if there are any dietary requirements we need to be aware of.
G30 Presentation of Learning
As you may have seen, we have a limited first print of CDs of students’ music from their first learning expedition. Please bring £5 with you if you would like to purchase a copy.
The event for G30 families starts tomorrow at 4.30 pm.
Dear Families
Welcome to our final weekly update of this academic year. It is another exciting week for us at XPG with our final presentations of learning for each expedition and we will share updates from these events with you over the next week.
There was great work achieved as always last week and our students continued to work hard, get smart and be kind even as end of term tiredness kicked in. Seeing students work together supporting each other to be their best versions, leaning in on crew and culture was a real strength. Here are a some of the highlights from our week:
Crew Day – XPG Sports Day
We enjoyed our final Crew Day of the year last week with a sport and physical challenge to the day. Our Sports Day involved a range of activities with healthy competition within each cohort between Crews and the quality of work across all crews and rounds was stunning – designing crew mascots for a given country, recreating famous sporting images, crew rounders, dodgeball and athletics.
G28 students completed one last major physical exertion carrying out a walk for water. Students were supported throughout the day by ambassadors of the Charity Time to Help. They even brought their mascot the water drop! They also gave students the opportunity to visit Kenya by the power of VR to see a village where their well’s had an impact.
Excitement was high as winners were announced in our whole school community meeting in the afternoon. The winners were:
G30 – Crew Einstein
G29 – Crew Watson
G28 – Crew Parks walked the greatest distance in the walk for water
Thanks so much to all families that have donated to the appeal.
Freya is now a published artist!
As you may have seen, our Year 7 student, Freya and her family travelled down to the Royal Academy of Arts to see her artwork curated in the gallery. Well done Freya!
Working with the Comfrey Project
A group of Year 8 students carried out some volunteering work with our partners at the Comfrey Project in Bensham last week, volunteering in their garden.
“The Comfrey Project provides a safe, welcoming place for people who have fled conflict and persecution to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, develop new skills and put down roots in their new community.
Their approach is based on the use of horticulture-based activities including gardening, bee-keeping, cooking, crafts and construction, to improve people’s lives.”
XPT Festival of Arts
On Friday Mr Said travelled to Doncaster with Miss Wall our visiting dance teacher and our choir, rock band and dancers. The groups have been working on performances over the last term and put on a fantastic show, performing twice. The afternoon performance was to our primary school students and staff, and then the evening performance was to families from across the schools in Doncaster. Just as we finished our first set the heavens began to open, and as our rock band took to the stage for their second performance the area in front of the stage was quite quiet given the rain. However by the time our rock band had finished they had pulled the crowd back in, and they stayed for our choir and dancers. So many colleagues came to find us to say how impressed they were with our children, and how thankful they were that we had been able to be part of the festival. Well done to all of our performers who have put in a massive amount of effort, not least their long shift on Friday! Beautiful work. A special thanks to Lauren for her support with our Dancers across the whole year too.
This week
G30 Celebration of Learning, Tuesday 16th July 4:30-6:00pm
This event will take place in school and will include a hosted gallery walk where students will discuss their learning from across this last term around the guiding question “How does water shape our world?”. Students will also present important updates on their final products from across the year, including their radio broadcast with excerpts of their Creative Writing from term 2 and their folk songs from term 1. More details in Mrs Ross’ post here.
We are delighted to announce that we have copies of the CD with Year 7 students’ music available for families to purchase. We have a limited initial print of 50 copies available, although more will be printed soon. If you wish to purchase your child’s music on CD, then please bring £5 to the event on Tuesday evening.
Due to the limited initial print, it will be limited to one copy per family. When the second print run is done, you will be able to purchase more copies in the new academic year for other family members. This really is a fantastic product, and every penny raised will go back into funding your child’s exciting learning expeditions next year.
G29 Presentation of Learning, Wednesday 17th July 4:30-6:00pm
This event will also take place in school. Students have been working in the kitchen to prepare food so that we can eat an afternoon tea influenced by dishes from across the world, together with our migrant guests. Students will also perform a poem set to their artwork. Following the interval, we will screen the film made by our G28 students which includes the stories of some of our migrant experts. We are really looking forward to hosting you in school – more details in Miss tatters’ post here.
G28 Presentation of Learning, Thursday 18th July 6.00pm
The final presentation of learning for G28 will be a live stream on Youtube, which includes excerpts of poetry and captures their learning from across this term on their expedition: Hold back the river. We will post details of the link to follow to join the stream later in the week.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
- G29 students (Y8)
- 8-1 have PE on Tuesday this week
- 8-2 have PE on Thursday this week
- G28 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday this week
No Extended Study and Clubs
Due to the Presentations of Learning this week we are not running clubs or extended study this week.
Summer Holidays
We break up for Summer holidays this Friday 19th July and return to school on Tuesday 27th August. Please remember that, as always, our students finish at 1:30pm on Friday to allow staff to de-gunge and replenish rooms and teaching spaces ready for the new academic year.
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley
Freya is now a published artist! Her work was chosen to be curated at the Royal Academy of Arts for their Young Artist Summer Show.
Freya’s pigeon will be viewed by thousands of people over the coming years. We believe he is called Mr Pigeon! Fantastic work Freya, what an achievement.
Absolutely stunning work and a great achievement Freya! Well done.
We have departed Doncaster. Students have done a fantastic job of representing their school. We will post videos and photographs over the weekend. Brilliant performances all round!
A special appreciation to Mrs Wall – our dance teacher who has travelled with us and supported our dancers over this last term in preparing for the performance.
Our estimated time of arrival back in Gateshead is around 7.30pm.
Congratulations to G28 who have completed their Walk4Water today! Together they managed to walk an impressive 142.6km!
Crew Parks walked the furthest with 37.4km followed closely by Crew Stanton with 36.8km and Crew Frank and Angelou drew with 34.2km each!
Students were supported throughout the day by ambassadors of the Charity Time to Help. They even brought their mascot the water drop! They also gave students the opportunity to visit Kenya by the power of VR to see a village where their well’s had an impact.
For each £2700 raised for the charity, a toilet block can be installed in a rural area of Africa. We realise G28 parents have supported crew charities a lot throughout year 9, please only give what you can. Anything we raise will be helpful in contributing towards installing important sanitation in a place of need.
On average, women and girls in developing countries walk 6 kilometres (approximately 3.5 miles) a day, carrying 20 litres (about 42 pounds/20 kgs) of water. It is common for this journey to take more than 15 hours a week in some areas. We want to build empathy in our students for people who don’t have access to clean water, and help them to understand the hardship that some people face just to be able to drink, clean and cook every day.
We hope you will support by clicking on this link to donate!
A video of Crew Frank on their final lap!
We have an opportunity for a small group of Yeaer 8 students to work with our partners at the Comfrey Project in Bensham tomorrow, volunteering in their garden.
“The Comfrey Project provides a safe, welcoming place for people who have fled conflict and persecution to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, develop new skills and put down roots in their new community.
Their approach is based on the use of horticulture-based activities including gardening, bee-keeping, cooking, crafts and construction, to improve people’s lives.”
Tomorrow students would work in the garden and meet some of the users of the service. This will meet two important aims: to continue to build our relationship with the team at The Comfrey Project, and since some of the users of the project will be visiting our celebration of learning next week – it will give them a chance to meet some friendly spaces from our students body.
We will be travelling to the Comfrey Project by Metro and then on foot, during the regular school day.
For students to attend they will need;
- A packed lunch
- Clothes and footwear that can get dirty
- A waterproof coat (showers are forecast for the earlier part of the morning)
The students attending from G29 are:
Imogen B, Connor H, Kenzie O’N, Georgia P, Eleanor P, Winnie R, Scarlett S, Grace W
These students have been selected based on our gardening club, work on our outdoor spaces and skills shown in the recent Crew Day. Some of the students that we would have hoped to have been given this opportunity are already involved in the festival of arts in Doncaster tomorrow.