Dear Families

Welcome back! We hope you have had a restful half term break and we look forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow.

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. 

Daily kit list

As always, students need to 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

Dress code

A reminder that we ask students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly. See link here to details on dress code from our website.

The week ahead

PE this week

• G30 (Year 7)
  • Both classes have PE on Monday this week.
• G29 (Year 8)
  • Both classes have PE on Wednesday this week.
• G28 (Year 9)
  • Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
  • Class 2 have PE on Friday this week

In line with our dress code, we expect students to arrive at PE lessons with a change of kit which is appropriate for the activity and all accessories removed. This includes sports trainers with non slip soles e.g. running shoes/astro turf (not plimsolls). 

Extended Study and Clubs

Clubs will all run this week along with extended study sessions every day except Friday. As usual, if a student attends an after school club or extended study session they must attend the full sessions until 4:30pm.

Interviews for New Staff

Interviews will take place this week (Monday and Tuesday). We have had lots of interest in our advertisements for new teachers and are really looking forward to meeting the shortlisted applicants at interviews this week. As always, our staff and students are involved in the interviews to ensure we get the best teachers to join XPG Crew as we continue to grow.

Ongoing expeditions and PoL dates for your diary

Our G30 students continue to work on their two expeditions until the end of this term.  Their STEAM expedition, ‘Staying Alive’ with the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’ and their HUMAN expedition, ‘Do Your Bit’ with the guiding question: ‘Why is it important that we honour all those that sacrificed in WWI?’.  The presentation of learning for this will be on Tuesday 26th March in our school theatre.  More details to follow in a separate post.

Our G29 students continue to work on one cross-curricular expedition this term with the guiding question and title of ‘What is Power?’. Their final presentation of learning for this expedition will be on Wednesday 27th March at Caedmon Hall at Gateshead Central Library. More details to follow in a separate post.

Looking Ahead:

Staff Development Days

A reminder that we have two staff development days this half term; Friday 8th and Monday 11th March. 

G28 Passage Presentations

The schedule for passage presentations has now been shared with families. Students will have additional prep sessions this week and next and all Crew sessions will be devoted to preparation too. Please talk to your children at home about how their preparation is going and how they are demonstrating their readiness for GCSEs in sessions too: remember there will be feedback given on quality of reflection, quality of writing, integrity of reflection and organisation of the portfolio of evidence.

Monday 11th March is a staff day. Students will be welcome to arrive at school earlier than their passage presentation slot to do final preparations, and then should return home after their presentation. If students do not have a passage presentation, there is not a need for them to be in school on Monday 11th March.

Tuesday 12th March is not a staff day, however Year 9 teachers will be involved in passage presentations throughout the day so we will not be running a regular timetable for this day for Year 9 students. Students can come into school for the regular school hours or work from home where families give permission; we will be setting additional extended study to support students in their expeditions which students can access independently. Likewise, if students have a passage presentation on this day, and families give permission, then students can go home following their presentation.

Please note that Tuesday 12th March will be a regular timetable day for all of Year 7 and Year 8.

As usual 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

We have come to the end of another full and productive half-term and, as always, our whole community have worked together demonstrating courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality, integrity and above all… compassion.

Our students have continued to work hard across this half term and I’m sure that those who have seen children present Student Led Conferences this term, would all agree that our students continue to be challenged (and supported) to strive for beautiful work.  Thank you again for your support in SLCs, it is vital that our students share their progress regularly as ‘Leaders of their own Learning’.

It has been a busy final week and here are a couple of highlights:

Our G30 students visited the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha on Thursday to find out more about Sikhi and how temples operate as part of their expedition ‘Do your bit’ which includes a focus on the experience of Sikh soldiers.

Students supported with sewa, a deliberate act of service which Sikhs believe demonstrates belief in their equality and the importance of all people. Students worked in the kitchen to prepare food for langhar which is when the temple provides food for the community, free of charge.

As Miss Jamison has posted, we have also asked if Year 7 students can try out some of the recipes from ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’ at home with you over the half-term break.

Our G30 and G29 students have also had a workshop on malicious online communications from Jon Ord, from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.

Preparation for passage presentations is well underway for our G28 students and this week they have spent crew sessions with this as their focus. Having considered metaphors for their time at XPG, students are currently reflecting on their progress as writers and mathematicians using evidence from their portfolios across Year 7 and Year 8.

Please make sure that you have signed up (Google Form) for a time slot for Passage Presentation as we are at the stage of organising our expert panel guests. We would like to get all of these times out to families this weekend.

I think that we can all agree that it’s time now for a well deserved rest! Have a great half term break and we look forward to seeing all of our students on Monday 26th February. 

Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. A special thanks for the mystery gift of creme eggs which arrived for all staff at XPG – it is very much appreciated!

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

It has been a busy week as usual at XP Gateshead this week with students working on SLCs, recording final product speeches from last term to go alongside the artwork for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, learning about colour mixing by painting carrier pigeons and much much more.

We have been really pleased with how our students have stepped up. During Friday’s community meetings with G29 and G30, it was great to hear students appreciating others for their courage, craftsmanship and quality. As you know, our expectations are high here at XPG, but as we regularly say

“There is more in us than we know if we could be made to see it, for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.”

― Kurt Hahn

G30

Our year 7 students have had the privilege of working with experts in each of their expeditions this week. 

On Thursday we welcomed Rav Singh, the founder of ‘A little history of the Sikhs’ to XPG. Rav worked with our students on their current HUMAN expedition exploring the guiding question: ‘Why do we need to honour all those who made sacrifices during WWI?’, helping students to understand the experience of Sikhi soldiers.

On Friday, our students worked in our new Food Technology room with expert Trish Wright learning how to make a tomato sauce, a basic staple from which many other dishes can be made. This supports their current work in STEAM around nutrition and work towards answering their  guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’. I hope families managed to get a taste of their delicious pasta and pizza dishes, or even better, have enjoyed a family meal this weekend prepared by our new experts.

A huge appreciation goes out to Trish and Rav for the work they have done with our students this week.

G29

Our Year 8 students are studying Macbeth as part of their current expedition with the guiding question: ‘What is power?’. Student are working to create an abridged performance of the play in drama sessions developing their physical, vocal, characterisation and directorial skills. This week they worked with an expert actress, writer and director Christina Berriman Dawson. We know from the work that Christina did with our G28’s last year the impact that this will have on the quality of G29’s Macbeth performance.

G28

Thank you to G28 parents who joined us for Thursday’s information evening. For those of you who couldn’t make it, the slides are here.

As we said during the information evening, we are working to finalise our KS4 curriculum offer. We welcome any questions or wonders from parents on this Google Form. We will respond to questions individually, and where there are common questions we will add these to our website under the frequently asked questions section.

Work on passage preparation is underway for Year 9 students. Having considered metaphors for their time at XPG, students are currently reflecting on their progress as writers and mathematicians using evidence from their portfolios across Year 7 and Year 8.

Please use this Google Form to indicate your preference for a time slot for your child’s passage presentation.

What goes around…

Some lovely feedback this week from two places. Firstly we received a card from one of our neighbours with thanks for the hamper that was gifted to them by our students at Christmas.

Secondly, Mrs Downes has been using G28’s ‘What is Power?’ postcards with Primary Age children as writing stimuli to great effect!

The week ahead

PE this week

• G30 (Year 7)
  • Both classes have PE on Monday this week.
• G29 (Year 8)
  • Both classes have PE on Wednesday this week.
• G28 (Year 9)
  • Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
  • Class 2 have PE on Friday this week

In line with our dress code, we expect students to arrive at PE lessons with a change of kit which is appropriate for the activity and all accessories removed. This includes sports trainers with non slip soles e.g. running shoes/astro turf (not plimsolls). 

Clubs and Extended Study

We will be running all after school clubs and extended study this week now that SLCs have been completed by the majority of students.

G29/G30 online safety with Northumbria Crime Prevention Team

On Tuesday 13th and Thursday 15th February, Northumbria Crime Prevention team will run an online safety session for our G29/G30 students. This will cover some key messages about how to keep safe online, in and outside of school which will include safe use of age-appropriate social media sites.

G28 Immunisations

On Wednesday 14th February school nurses will be in school to administer Meningitis ACWY, alongside the Td/IPV booster  immunisations to  G28 students that have permission. A letter regarding this was emailed to all G28 parents in December. If you have not yet given permission, please see the attached  letter with information and a link to the consent form. 

G30 Gurdwara Fieldwork 

On Thursday 15th February our Year 7 students will visit the  Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha in Newcastle to find out more about Sikhi and how temples operate as part of their expedition ‘Do your bit’. Please see the website post for more detailed arrangements.

Half term break starts Friday 16th February 

We come to the end of a six week half term on Friday 16th February and as always, we will finish at 1:30pm for our usual end of half-term degunge. 

We return to school on Monday 26th February 2024.

A reminder that dates for Presentations of Learning for the current expeditions are as follows:

• G30 – Tuesday 26th March in school
• G29 – Wednesday 27th March at Caedmon Hall above Gateshead Central Library
• G28 – Provisionally Friday 10th May in school

We will be able to confirm times for G30 and G29 at the end of this week.

As usual 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