Dear Families

Welcome back, we hope you have enjoyed the Easter Bank Holiday break. 

We had a good start back to school last week and the vast majority of students have settled back with us quickly and, as always, have impressed us with their HoWLs, character values and their engagement in learning during last week’s immersion.

G28’s PoL – Are we really free to choose?

It was wonderful to see so many families last week for G28’s public debate at Newcastle Sixth Form College. Our students had a fantastic day on campus, getting a chance to use the great facilities on site and find out what’s available to them for post 16 study at the college.

It was great to see debating teams challenge each other around some key topics on democracy, feminism, genetics, social media, the right to protest and the persecution of minorities in Nazi Germany. The confidence shown by our students and their speaking skills conveying the deep understanding of content covered in this expedition was stunning. 

G28’s Work Experience – w/c 30th June 2025

The slides that Mr Said spoke to during the PoL evening can be found by clicking here. Students will be introduced to the Placementt app in upcoming Crew sessions.

G31’s PoL – Why is it important to honour all those who sacrificed in WWI?

Like many of you I thoroughly enjoyed watching the pre-recorded G31 PoL last Thursday which was broadcast on Youtube. For those who haven’t seen it, watch the presentation online by clicking on this link.

A huge congratulations goes to all of our Year 7 students for their craftsmanship and quality in this work and special mention to our Digital Leaders who recorded this work.

   

New Term – New Expeditions for G31 and G30

Our Year 7 and Year 8 students were working hard in immersion last week, making connections between their studies in lessons, building background knowledge and developing curiosity.

Year 7 were studying freshwater species and their adaptations in STEAM, and in HUMAN were investigating how the power of water has been represented in literature and its symbolism in religion. In ARTS students were carrying out observational drawing of water settings using the grid method.

In HUMAN Year 8 have been looking at how migrants and refugees stories have been represented, and have looked at first-hand accounts of both refuge and migration. In STEAM, students have also been studying the island nation of Tuvalu and their pleas for richer nations to take more urgent action to tackle climate change.  In ARTS students have looked at objects with sentimental value and building skills in using oil pastels to represent these objects.

This week their new guiding questions will be revealed along with the challenges and new learning this term’s expeditions will bring.

G29 Expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’ 

G29 continued to work hard on their current expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’’. Our students continued to look at public health over time and investigate health inequalities in Gateshead today, looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation.  Preparations have now started in earnest for the Public Health Conference which this year is on the theme of tobacco and smoking.

G29’s Presentation of Learning will be a Public Health Conference, hosted by our students in school on Friday 10th May, 2pm.

We appreciate this is an earlier than normal start, however this has been carefully considered and will allow us to make use of professionals as part of the process. 

We need your support

Monitoring online activity 

There are a minority of students who took longer to settle last week and we have invested a significant amount of staff time 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. Here are some useful links to support conversations with your teenager:

https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/

https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents

This week

G28 Mock exams – Fine Art, Tuesday 22nd April

This week marks the start of our mock exams with Fine Art students completing a practical mock exam in Art during the whole day on Tuesday. The mock exam for Photography students will take place in the final half-term. 

The main mock exam session takes place between Monday 28th April and Thursday 8th May:

Students should continue the revision for their upcoming mocks. Staff have put together this revision website as a guide for families which has a wealth of information to help you to support your child right the way through to the final assessments in Year 11 next year.

You can access this any time by going to the XP Gateshead website and clicking on Parents – GCSE Revision on the menus.

G31 Fieldwork – Wednesday 23rd April

This fieldwork will take place in the Windy Nook Nature reserve on Wednesday morning – students will be back in school for the normal lunch time. The forecast is set to be dry and cool. Students will need to be prepared with:

• Regular full kit – including a water bottle
• Appropriate clothing for the weather including a coat
• Comfortable walking shoes or trainers

PE sessions this week

Due to the shortened four day week, our PE sessions this week are shown below. Please ensure that your child has their  full PE kit.

• G31 students (Y7) have PE on Thursday this week
• G30 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week
• G29 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday this week

Extended Study and Clubs

Extended study and after school clubs will be running 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

Dear Families

Welcome back, we hope you have enjoyed your Easter break.  We are really looking forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow for the start of our Summer term at XP Gateshead.

Passage feedback from G29 families 

We would also like to gather feedback from G29 families following last term’s Passage Presentations so would appreciate your time in completing the following form.

You can give us your feedback by clicking here.

Our usual reminders for a good start back…

Attendance

Over the Easter break you may have seen the news article which listed XP Gateshead in the 15 best state secondary schools for attendance in the North East. This was based on attendance figures for the full academic year 2023/24. 

You can read the article by clicking here.

We were really pleased to see our school named in this list but we still have work to do and continue to work hard XPG around attendance this year as it is vital to the life chances of our young people and their success. 

We will continue to look closely at attendance and the ways we celebrate attendance and support those students and families who need to improve their attendance. We expect every  student to be in school and want every young person to hit our 97%+ attendance target. 

Attendance is an area we all work hard on together – students, parents/carers, Crew Leaders and our inclusion team. We appreciate your full support with this.  

If, for any reason, your child is unable to attend school you must contact the school office before 8:25 am by telephone. This is a safeguarding procedure which has to happen on every day of absence.

Punctuality

School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew. A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning so we ask that parents support their child with this.

Dress code 

Please refer to our website post for full details on our dress code. Can I remind parents of the following expectations around daily dress within school and ask for your full support around this as we move in to a new Summer term and the weather is becoming warmer.

For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:

• Hats, hoods & coats inside school

• • Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh

• Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes

• Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery

• • • For example heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails

• Impractical footwear:

• For example sliders, flip-flops or high heels.

Daily kit list

As always, all students need to be fully equipped for school and bring a school bag with:

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
• A fully charged iPad 
• Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
• Headphones 
• A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
• A notebook

This week

New Term – New Expeditions for G31, G30 and G28

A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our Y7, Y8 and Y10 students. Immersion will take place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.

G31, G29 and G28 Presentations of Learning to come

G31 Year 7 HUMAN – Why is it important to honour all those who sacrificed in WWI?

The recorded PoL for this exhibition will be broadcast on Youtube this Thursday 17th April at 6pm to allow families to watch with their children at home.

You will be able to watch the presentation online as a family by clicking on this link on Thursday.

The final product for this exhibition is a radio podcast and we are delighted that yet again, year 7’s work will be part of the Remembrance programming on the radio in November. More details to follow. 

G28 – Are we really free to choose?

A reminder that students need to bring back their HUMAN books that were being used for revision over the break.

G28’s PoL will take the form of a debate on Wednesday 16th April at Newcastle Sixth Form College at 4:30pm. 

Alongside the Presentation of Learning which is in the form of a debate, we will also be sharing important information with parents regarding work experience at this event as well as taking the opportunity to celebrate and award our students’ DofE success too. 

Students will be using the campus earlier as part of the preparation for the PoL and also as part of their continued preparation for Post-16.

G29 Expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’ 

G29’s bumper 16-week long new expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’’ continues this term. Our students continue to look at public health over time and investigate health inequalities in Gateshead today, looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation.  

G29’s Presentation of Learning will be a Public Health Conference, hosted by our students in school on Friday 10th May, 2pm.

This will be another step up for our students, hosting a conference , delivering keynote speeches with an audience including families and more. We appreciate this is an earlier than normal start, however this has been carefully considered and will allow us to make use of professionals as part of the process and end the week and expedition with a bang!

PE sessions this week

There will be changes to PE this week as unfortunately Mr Devitt has broken his ankle this weekend. We will put a plan in place and communicate that with families tomorrow. There is no PE tomorrow.

Extended Study and Clubs

As is usually the case at the start of a new term there will be no extended study or after school clubs running this week. After school sessions will all start again next week.

Easter Bank Holiday Weekend

Students will finish school at 3:15pm on Thursday 17th April and return to school on Tuesday 22nd April at the normal time. 

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