Dear Families

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

Feedback from G29/G30 families 

We would like to gather feedback from G29 and G30 families following last term’s PoLs so would appreciate your time in completing the following questionnaires which include some school wide questions too:

If you are a G29/30 parent or carer please click here to complete the short form which should take no more than 5 minutes.

Our usual reminders for a good start back…

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 term. In simple terms we ask students to dress appropriately and modestly. We have highlighted some of the areas where students have been challenged more frequently last term around what is not appropriate/modest for school.

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 the below. Generally students do well in this regard and we can support if you are having problems sourcing these at home. iPad charge is the most frequent issue we deal with each morning. Whilst iPads are not needed for every session, they are needed daily, and without charge, this means that students are at a disadvantage.

• 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 G29 and G30

A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our Y7 and Y8 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.

G28 Expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’ 

G28’s bumper 16-week long new expedition with the guiding question: ‘How can we continue to make progress on public health?’ 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.  We will update you with the rescheduled date for Geography fieldwork soon.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: G28’s Presentation of Learning will be a ‘Cost of Living Conference’ which is scheduled to be held in school on Friday 10th May, 2pm – 4pm.

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!

The theme for the conference relating to public health is ‘Healthy Food for All?’. Students will be working with and putting forward a case for change to local experts and politicians.  More details to follow.

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

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.

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

Here we are at the end of another fantastic term at XP Gateshead and what a term it has been! 

G30 and G29 Presentations of Learning

Over the last week we have enjoyed two amazing PoLs  and our students have dazzled sharing their learning for this term and answers to their guiding questions. 

Year 7 students presented their ‘Do Your Bit’ expedition on Tuesday in our school theatre. This was the first time we have used this venue for a PoL and G30 have set the standard. The depth of knowledge, quality of writing and drama performance was stunning. We were all so proud of the courage and confidence our students displayed sharing their learning to an audience.

Year 8 students presented their ‘What is Power?’ expedition at Caedmon Hall, Gateshead Central Library on Wednesday. We were all blown away by the quality and depth of their understanding – performances of Macbeth intertwined with insights into the meaning of the word power in society, science, history, geography and art. Our students’ artwork also took centre stage with every student creating an image about an aspect of social justice they feel strongly about.

This week’s PoLs have been a real challenge for our students and they have shown real courage in terms of presenting to an audience and being part of a drama performance. It has been wonderful to see the pride in our students today reflecting on the mountain they climbed this week, especially those who thought they couldn’t (and there were many). Students are definitely starting to see that there is more in them than they know!

Can I thank you all for your attendance and support at PoLs. We will share online feedback forms with G30 parents in the coming weeks so that we can collect your exit ticket feedback from the ‘Do Your Bit’ expedition.

Lego tournament success

On Tuesday, the Lego Robotics team competed in the regional First Lego League tournament. Our students had a great day competing with other young people in the region and came back with our first trophy (it’s not silverware, it’s made of lego).

We are really proud of our team –  Harrie, Lucy, George, Elina, Evan, Dylan and James

Celebrating Reading at XPG 

Our final community meeting of the term was full of celebrations as we got this term’s Accelerated Reader roundup. This term’s lottery winners were Rafa, Penny and Molly. We also gave a special appreciation to Leo, who in this shorter term was our one word millionaire. All crews have been challenged to up their game next term, for this term our champion Crews in each cohort were Darling, King and Parks!  

I am sure that you will all agree that our students have continued to rise to the challenge – they continue to work hard, get smart and be kind on a daily basis producing beautiful work, developing their character to achieve academic success.

Thank you so much for your continued support. 

We look forward to seeing you after the holiday on Monday 15th April at the usual time where we will be starting on our next exciting expeditionary adventures.

Happy Easter from all the staff crew at XP Gateshead.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

Welcome to the final week of our Spring Term.

As always, the hard work continues here at XP Gateshead and we couldn’t be prouder of our students as they continue to strive for high standards and support those around them to do the same. Students have been working hard on termly assessments, completing their final products for expedition and getting ready for presentations of learning (PoLs). This week we look forward to seeing the culmination of G29 and G30 work in their PoLs.

Here are just some of last week’s highlights: 

On Wednesday afternoon Year 7 students continued to work with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and then put theory into practice visiting St Mary’s Church to investigate war graves with expert Elizabeth Smith. 

Our thanks to Elizabeth and the CWGC for the rich opportunities they have given our students in this Human expedition, supporting them to answer their guiding question ‘Why should we honour all those who sacrificed during WW1’. A thanks also goes to Reverend Lucy at St Mary’s Church for her ongoing support of our work.

Our Year 8 students have been working hard on their Macbeth performances as part of the ‘What is Power?’ expedition. Our students are showing real courage and stepping up to the challenge of performing in front of an audience; it was great to hear students’ appreciation for the work of each other in our Friday community meeting.  This is another important moment in developing character, especially courage and we can’t wait for families to see the students’ work on Wednesday evening this week.

On Thursday, we enjoyed a live music performance from indie band The Mercians who are currently touring UK schools to promote their music and raise awareness of mental health issues and the importance of looking after yourself, seeking help through family, friends, teachers and organisations. 

I think it is safe to say that the band have got themselves a bigger fan base at XPG! Our students loved the gig and the chance to see live music. The band stayed around after the gig so students had plenty of opportunities for photos and signature collection – I’m not sure The Mercians have ever been asked to sign a croc before?!

Crew Parks were busy on Friday afternoon carrying out service learning connected to their charity ‘Trees for Cities’. They supported the planting of 200 trees  in the grassed areas just outside our school gates as part of a project with Gateshead Council and Durham Wildlife Trust. 

As you know, the DofE is part of our curriculum at XPG and all year 9 students will complete the bronze award. In readiness for this, Tom Devitt has been working with the team of staff who work alongside our students and on Thursday and Friday last week. This team completed two days of training to achieve the ITC Level 3 Award in Outdoor First Aid qualification. Congratulations to Tom Devitt, Rebecca Marshall, Rebecca Jones and Emmy Tatters!

The week ahead

G30 Steam expedition, working with Edbert’s House

On Monday, Miss Jamieson and a group of G30 students will be working alongside the team at Edbert’s House to find out more about their service they offer the community and do some cooking for the community kitchen.  The students will then share their insights and feedback to all year 7 students as new experts in the Steam expedition,  ‘Staying Alive’ with the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’. Edberts House are our partners for this expedition. Through their work they have identified families in need that we can support with our food boxes with a week’s worth of recipes from ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’.

During the Easter break G30 students will be gathering the ingredients needed to put together for the food boxes. Where possible, we are asking for your support to each contribute a few ingredients so that together as a cohort of 50 we can put together two food boxes. More information on this from Miss Jamison later this week. 

Lego tournament

On Tuesday, we are taking a team to compete in the regional First Lego League tournament. Students involved will be travelling to Quorum Business Park by coach from school and returning during the school day, but will need a packed lunch. Look out for an email from Mr Said if your child is in the Lego team.

Energy audit and decarbonisation

On Wednesday, our Climate Action Plan leadership group will be meeting with Matt Fulford to learn about how energy audits can be carried out on buildings to assess how energy efficient they are, and what changes / investments could be made to make them more sustainable and cost effective in the long term.

In addition to this all G30 students will have a workshop with our Climate Action Plan expert Gemma Sarigu on decarbonisation which connects to their studies for ‘Staying alive’ as a more energy efficient future is one way that we know that as a nation we can tackle inequalities such as fuel poverty.

Presentations of Learning this week

G30 Presentation of Learning – Tuesday 26th March

Year 7 will be presenting their learning from their current HUMAN expedition Do Your Bit with the guiding question: “Why do we need to honour all those who made sacrifices during WWI?”

This Presentation of Learning will take place in our theatre space in school on Tuesday 26th March and will start at 4.30pm. We anticipate that we will be finished by 6pm. This is a formal occasion so students should dress appropriately for the event – our polo shirts are great for events such as these.

G29 Presentation of Learning – Wednesday 27th March

Year 8 will be presenting their learning from their current expedition “What is Power?” on Wednesday 27th March. This Presentation of Learning will take at Caedmon Hall, above Gateshead Central Library and will start at 4:30pm. We anticipate that we will be finished by 6pm. Students should dress in black, with as little branding as possible please – our polo shirts are suitable for this if students have them.

A reminder that students will stay in school until they present. If you want to provide healthy snacks or a packed tea, students will be given some time during the afternoon to get a break between rehearsals.

Presentations of learning are an integral part of our learning model for all students, they are important and planned points which allow students to showcase their beautiful work. These, like Students Led Conferences (SLCs) and Passage Presentations are key moments in the deliberate development of character for our young people and it is vital that parents, carers and families are present to support these events.

PE this week

Preparation for PoLs and a shorter week mean that we PE sessions are running for two cohorts this week (those who have had a reduced offer in previous week):

• G28 (Year 9) have PE on Wednesday this week
• G30 (Year 7) have PE on Thursday this week.

No Extended Study and Clubs

Easter Holidays

We break up for Easter holidays this Thursday 28th March and return to school on Monday 15th April. Please remember that, as always, our students finish at 1:30pm on Thursday to allow staff to de-gunge and replenish rooms and teaching spaces ready for the Summer Term.

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

Principal,

XP Gateshead