Dear Families

It has been another busy week 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 and the structures in place which mean our students are safe, are known, feel seen and valued.

Central to this is the nature and design of our curriculum, which is rooted in Crew, and learning through rigorous and challenging cross-curricular Learning Expeditions. As you know our 3-Dimensional curriculum has a relentless focus on beautiful work, character growth and academic success. We have seen that when children are supported and challenged to go beyond their comfort zones, to produce beautiful work beyond which they thought possible, then in turn they grow and become stronger in character. This sets them on a pathway to achieve well and enjoy academic success. In other words “There is more in us than we know…”

It is worth stating that all three dimensions of our model are of equal importance.  When choosing our school, the choice for families is for the whole of our curriculum, and not just one aspect. Our culture is built upon this curriculum and, at XPG, we ‘sweat the small stuff’ to make sure that our culture is strong – when mistakes are made (and they will be), students put them right and we support them to do this.

Staff CPD this week

Being the best version of yourself, doesn’t just apply to our students. As a staff we regularly take opportunities to continue our learning. Continued professional development (CPD) happens during collaborative planning time, our meetings using our internal expertise along with external experts. Last week gives an insight into the ongoing CPD that happens at XPG

Expert session on eating disorders

Last week we were lucky to have a session with Dr Fiona Trewe, a Principal Clinical Psychologist working in Leeds Community Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder Service. Fiona shared the work she does with families and young people living with eating disorders and how schools can have better conversations, support and education around healthy eating.

Training for our DofE team

In Year 9 all of our students complete the bronze award DofE so this year staff and students have been completing training required to achieve this. On Tuesday our DofE team (Mr Devitt, Miss Marshall, Miss Jones and Miss Tatters) successfully completed a day of XP Trust campcraft training. Next week this team will complete their Countryside Leader Award which means our staff are fully trained and ready to take G28 on their DofE expedition – the work is now about getting our students ready for this! Mr Devitt is leading this work making sure students have the skills and confidence needed. For more details see recent website post.

Gateshead training for schools around behaviour and communication 

Miss Blain and Mr Walters attended an afternoon of training at Gateshead Lifelong Learning Centre@Kingsmeadow last week on behaviour as a form of communication. As always, this training will be shared with wider teams.

Food menu development with Gateshead 

On Tuesday, 15 of our students from years 7 to 9 worked with catering leads from Gateshead giving their feedback on our current menu and insight into lunch menus for next year, including tasting some new dishes. This was a great experience for our students, not only having a voice on school lunches but working alongside experts, seeing how this is part of the planning process.

Update on permanent site for XPG

As you know, discussions on a permanent home for XP Gateshead have been ongoing between the Local Authority (LA) and the Department for Education (DfE). Decisions have now been made that our current site will be our permanent site and heads of terms and agreements are currently being worked through. Full feasibility studies will be carried out on the building so that plans can be put in place for future work. 

I’m sure, like us, you will be pleased with this decision. 

Current expeditions

Year 7 and Year 8 have now had their new guiding questions revealed.

G30  – “How does water shape our world?”

Students have this week started work on learning targets for their new expedition. They will look at the importance of water for life as well as physical processes around coasts and rivers with multiple pieces of fieldwork looking at human settlements around rivers, and also carrying out important conservation work for water-based species. More information here.

G29  – “Is migration worth the risk?”

Year 8 have also been introduced to their new learning expedition. Studies will include in depth analysis of push and pull factors that cause people to move, and study of the connection between the climate emergency and future patterns of migration. Again more information can be found here

G28  – “How can we continue to make progress on public health?”

It has been a busy week for G28. As well as starting research for their briefs as part of planning for our Public Health Conference, students carried out fieldwork which looked at the environmental evidence of deprivation and different parts of Gateshead, in order to support the arguments that they will make in the conference. G28 families, if you have not yet signed up for the conference, please do so here.

Connected to this fieldwork, and in support of their DofE expedition, students received training on map reading earlier in the week. G28 families will receive a letter via email today, and in print tomorrow with further information on the kit needed for their DofE expeditions.

This week

G31 Transition – Family meetings

Transition has started for our new G31 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.

Sessions from Northumbria Police Violence Reduction Unit

John Ord returns to XP Gateshead on Wednesday to run sessions with our students as part of our safeguarding work. He will run a session on Malicious Communication and the law around this with Year 9 students and a session for our Y7 students on knife crime awareness.

PE sessions this week

There are some changes to PE sessions for G30 this week due to staff DofE training.  Please ensure that your child has their  full PE kit for sessions.

• G30 students (Y7) have PE on Tuesday this week
• G29 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
• For G28 students (Y9) 
  • G28 Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week
  • G28 Class 2 have PE on Friday 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.

Julie Mosley

Principal

Dear Families

It has been a good start back to school and most students have settled back with us quickly and, as always, have impressed us with their HoWLs, character values and their engagement in learning. 

G30 Staying Alive

As part of rounding off last term’s expedition for Year 7, students had an expert session with Alice Roberts who is carrying out a PhD which aims to explore opportunities to improve the food and drink environment in UK secondary schools. Students will soon be gathering the ingredients needed for the food boxes which will be donated to families in need through our partners Edberts House.

G29 and G30 Immersion

This week has been immersion week for our Y7 and Y8 students marking the start of our new Summer expeditions. Both G29 and G30 students have been puzzling over what their new guiding questions will be after 5 days of immersion this week. 

G29 have been looking at a wide range of stimulus materials on the theme of people on the move including the poem Home by Warsan Shire, a briefing from a minister from the Pacific island of Tuvalu which addresses rising sea levels and the context that has led to the ongoing civil war in Syria. Their guiding question will be revealed this week.

G30 have spent the week looking at literature, in particular poetry associated with rivers and developing their knowledge of the water cycle. Mrs Ross has been particularly impressed with the connections that Year 7 have been making back to previous our expedition in term 1 which looked at the nature of the ground beneath our feet.

G30 had the reveal on Friday afternoon and now know that their guiding question for STEAM, HUMAN and ARTS this term is “How does water shape our world?”. Students will carry out three case studies focusing on how water is essential for life, how water shapes the world around rivers and also around coasts. There will be some great fieldwork this term too, more information on that to come.

G28 Expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’ 

Students are coming towards the end of this expedition, and are looking at the story of public health in the modern period and making connections between this and the pathology of non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

As we have posted previously, we have asked all Year 9 families to sign up for the student-led Public Health Conference which is taking place in school on the afternoon of Friday 10th May.

You can sign up by clicking here. Please check your emails for more details on timings of the event etc.

Work on the grounds of the school site

Connor and Kenzie in G29 have been supporting Mr Walters to develop an area of the site which will be used for outdoor learning sessions. G28 will have some campcraft sessions soon as part of their DofE and G29 will soon be introduced to some elements of campcraft as part of an upcoming Crew Day. Thanks to Kenzie, Connor (and Mr Walters) for their hard work on preparing the ground here.

We need your support

Monitoring online activity 

There are some students who have taken longer to settle the week and we have invested a significant amount of staff time this week picking up issues around friendships which have played out online outside of school. This is definitely not what we expect or want to spend time on and we ask for your support, as parents and carers, to monitor your child’s online communications outside of school hours. 

As you know, character growth is a key component of our 3-Dimensional curriculum at XP Gateshead and we all (students, staff and families)  have a responsibility to support the development of our character values of courage, craftsmanship and quality, respect, integrity and compassion.

I understand the challenges that being a parent or carer of a teenager brings and how difficult this can be, especially around social media and finding the right balance between privacy, monitoring and trust. This term we will look to run some online safety sessions for families involving experts from the wider community. More information to follow.

Stewardship

Last week we drew attention to some of the areas around dress code where we most frequently challenge students. This week we would like to also ask for your support around chewing gum. Whilst it is not endemic in school, we have recently spoken in community meetings about chewing gum under tables and how this should not be something that our cleaners have to attend to.

We have made it very clear to all students that chewing gum is not to be brought into school as this is the most effective way to ensure it does not end up under tables. Where children are found to have brought chewing gum into school this we will arrange for them to do some stewardship work in school over a number of days. This reflects an important principle of our school and our restorative practices. Where mistakes are made in any regard, it is vital that these mistakes are put right. Doing acts of service in terms of stewardship helps students to understand the work that our staff and cleaners do in ensuring that we have a clean and hygienic environment for learning.

This week

G28 Geography fieldwork – Wednesday 24th April

G28 students will be completing important fieldwork to help them answer the geography enquiry question: “Why are there differences in life expectancy in Gateshead?” This will support the students creating a final report investigating health inequalities in Gateshead which will be shown at their presentation of learning.

Students will be in crews walking from Felling to Gateshead collecting primary data to answer their fieldwork question. Please see the website post for full details and the kit list required.

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) have PE on Wednesday this week.
• For G28 students (Y9) 
  • G28 Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week
  • G28 Class 2 have PE on Friday this week.

Extended Study and Clubs

Extended study and after school clubs will be running from Tuesday 23rd April onwards as we have some important whole-staff training taking place on Monday after school. 

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