Dear Families
Last week was another busy week for us at XP Gateshead. On Monday students were given the opportunity to listen to our remembrance broadcast on Memory Lane Radio. If you have not yet done so, please take some to listen to this wonderful piece of work from G29.
G30 – What do the communities of NE England owe to the miners?
This week G30 students have interviewed more experts from the mining community: Alan Cummings, MP Ian Lavery, Jean Spence & Norman Strike, each with different perspectives on the turbulent times of the 1984 Miners’ Strike and our guiding question.
Students will continue to work with these interviews to turn them into folksong next week with our expert composer Joe Solo who will be working alongside the students to hone their work ready for their Presentation of Learning on the evening of Monday 18th December at St Mary’s Church in Heworth.
G29 – What does it mean to be human?
This week, students have begun to turn more of their attention towards their final product and how we can promote organ donation through our artwork and responses to the guiding question. Andrew Lowes, consultant in anaesthetics and intensive care and clinical lead in organ donation for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital talked to our students about the importance of organ donation and therefore how important their work will be in saving lives in the future. We were also thankful to have Prahalad Nadella in school to talk to students about how Hindu teachings and beliefs contribute to his view on what it means to be human. You will be able to see a temporary installation of the artwork and hear our students; speeches in response to the guiding question at their Presentation of Learning on the evening of Tuesday 19th December at XP Gateshead.
G28 – How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?
As well as their ongoing work to prepare for and host their SLCs, G28 students have been continuing in their studies of the structure of the atom, including reactivity, isotopes and radiation. Another area of study has been structures in government and society, with students making connections to our anchor text Lord of the Flies. On Friday students spent time preparing for a visit from Alice Wiseman – Director of Public Health for Gateshead who will talk to students about the structures that gave rise to the local response to the pandemic as well as the potential for careers in health. On the subject of careers, G29 students will also have some workshops with SOS connected to our school Climate Action Plan. The workshops this week will focus on Green Careers, an important and growing sector in the Local and National Labour Market.
G28 will be presenting their learning on the evening of Thursday 14th December. We should be able to confirm the venue for this event this week, once some final details have been arranged.
Climate Action Plan Launch
Congratulations to our Climate Action Plan Student Leaders from Year 7: Isaac, Elina, Molly, Freya & James; from Year 8: Reuben S; from Year 9: Hannah, Charlie, Harris & Evan.
This group of students will be taking feedback from all students across the year to help develop a plan for how our school can be more sustainable.
Our week ahead
Flu immunisations on Monday
Tomorrow morning nurses will be in school to administer flu vaccinations across all year groups for those students that have been given permission. These should be completed by lunchtime.
G28 Student Led Conferences
For the second week, our Year 9 students will be presenting their SLC to families.
Experts in school this week
As mentioned above G28 have Alice Wiseman in school tomorrow morning for their expedition. G28 also have their Careers workshops on Thursday.
On Tuesday, G29 will have experts on organ donation in school, some of whom have direct experience of the life changing impact of donation.
Staff Day on Friday this week and Monday of next week
We have a staff day this coming Friday. The focus for these staff days are forward planning, especially our exciting new learning expeditions for term 2 from January. Students are not expected to be in school on Friday and can work on their accelerated reader programme and any extended study – details of which are on Google Classroom.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- All G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
- All G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
- For G28 students (Year 9)
- G28 Class 1 students have PE on Thursday this week.
- G28 Class 2 students would normally have PE on Friday this week but are not in school. We will look to rebalance this in a future week.
Extended Study and Clubs
Like last week, there are some changes to our clubs this week due to SLCs.
This mostly impacts on Thursday’s after school offer; there will be no Nature Club, Geography Club or Multi Sports due to G28 Crew Leaders taking part in SLCs.
Our new dance, multi sports and robotics clubs after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays continue.
If your child attends a sports club, they will need a full PE kit. For dance sessions, students can wear leggings, loose T-shirts and must be in socks or bare feet rather than trainers.
Remember, if a student attends an after school club or extended study session they must attend the full sessions until 4:30pm.
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].
Julie Mosley
Principal, XP Gateshead
