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We’re looking for an outstanding Learning Coach (Teaching Assistant and HLTA) and Crew Leader at XP Gateshead
G28 should now be back in school shortly before 15.40, there have been further delays in the tunnel unfortunately.
On Wednesday 17th July at 4.30pm, G29 students will be hosting and catering an evening to celebrate their learning through their expedition ‘Is Migration Worth the Risk?’ This celebration of learning will be held at XP Gateshead School.
It will be an opportunity to celebrate the diverse nature of our area by ‘breaking bread’ together with our experts from the Comfrey Project and other migrants in our community. Students will share their learning from the expedition including poetry recital and a screening of a film made by G28 students.
As this event is catered with afternoon tea-style food and cakes from around the world, it is important we are aware of any dietary requirements and also the numbers that will be attending.
Please use this link to let us know who will be attending and if there are any dietary requirements we need to be aware of. There is a limit of 2 people per student.
To support this, we are in need of some plates of different sizes that we can use to construct our afternoon tea stands. If you are have some at home or are able to pick some up from a charity shop that you would be willing to donate, we would much appreciate it!
Dear Families
We hope you have enjoyed the long and sunny weekend. Last week we enjoyed some great work from students in and outside of school:
G29 Fieldwork
Students in G29 met with expert volunteers from the Time to Help UK charity, who are supporting the Humanity Cartoon competition – a global competition using art to give voice to the stories of refugees. Students were able to talk to the experts about their own experiences of migration and analysed the many pieces of artwork to make inferences about the messages being conveyed. All of this in the wonderful surrounds of St Mary’s heritage centre.
Will, Arlo, Penny and Dakota then returned on Thursday to read the poem that is part of their final product, Home by Warsan Shire, as part of a day of performances connected to National Refugee Week.
G30 Art Workshop
We had the first of our workshops with the sculptor Bruce Tuckey for our Year 7 art leaders, who are creating sculptures in response to the riverside park of sculptures on the south bank of the Tyne. This week Bruce will be working with the remaining students in the leadership group from Year 7.
Art delivery to the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition
On Saturday, Miss Macphail travelled to London to deliver a very special piece of art to be exhibited in this year’s Summer Exhibition.
Freya’s “Mr Pigeon” was delivered safely and will be shown in one of the most prestigious art galleries in the world. The Royal Academy is famous for showcasing new and established artists, bringing their work to a whole new audience.
Saturday workshop ran by XPG students
Our student leaders from G29: Eliza, Nelly, Penny, Braydon, Reuben, and Harry met with migrant children at a Saturday school organised by our partners at the Comfrey Project and taught the children there how to make stop motion animation, using their learning from the creation of the final product for their current expedition.
Staff Days
On Friday and Monday, our staff have worked hard in school and with colleagues across the Trust planning next term’s expeditions.
‘At XP we build our community through activism, leadership and equity sharing our stories as we go.’
To fully realise these principles, at XP, we deliver our curriculum predominantly through cross disciplinary learning expeditions. These are standards based projects that are specifically designed to make connections between, and across, subjects to encourage deep, purposeful and memorable learning experiences for our young people. The careful planning of expeditions takes time and real craftsmanship and quality. Our staff have been considering each part of the expedition – immersions, guiding questions, case studies, work with experts, fieldwork and final products.
A special thanks goes out to Molly, Freya and Elina who gave up their time on Friday to update our toilet signs with an XP design by Ruby. Their work really does show that our students are crew not passengers.
At the start of the week we had a group of 15 teachers and leaders from XP Trust schools for a day of learning at XPG. They were immersed in learning at XPG via Ambassador Tours, lesson visits and teaching and learning sessions with Mr Mead.
Stand out moments revolved around ambassador tours which our students facilitated. The feedback about our students was simply stunning and worth sharing with you all
“The work you have done around culture is fabulous. The way the pupils articulated their educational offer was stunning”
“What an incredible day, your students blew us away. They are learning to be the most wonderful individuals who take pride in their learning and their school. The work you and your team have done at XPG is making a difference… they showed us… with their conduct and their integrity”
This week
Like was said on Friday, it’s a busy one!
G28 Fieldwork tomorrow
Year 9 students will be carrying out fieldwork to investigate the river Seaton Burn. Students will work together to collect data regarding the width, depth and velocity of the river. Students will also complete an activity connected to their poetry studies and will study species in the dunes at Seaton Sluice which are particular to that ecosystem. We will be travelling by coach to the venue for the day. The weather forecast is currently very warm, dry and sunny. The heat warning does not affect our region however students should be prepared for the hot and dry weather. All year 9 students will need:
- Their regular kit for the day
- Suncream and cap/hat
- A second pair of trainers, wellies or shoes that can get wet
- A large bottle of drinking water
- Ideally shorts rather than longer bottoms or leggings
- bottoms or leggings that can be rolled up are OK
- Bug spray if required
We expect to be back to school at the normal time, traffic dependent so will post on the website if there are any delays.
Climate Action Plan and G29 workshops
Also on Tuesday, our Climate Action Plan leadership group will be working with our expert Gemma Sarigu to finalise their proposals for how the school could be more sustainable.
On Tuesday Year 8 students will also carry out a workshop with Gemma on climate adaptability, which will both feed into the action plan, and also connects to students’ learning about migration – with changes in climate becoming an increasingly prevalent push factor which causes people to migrate.
G30 Fieldwork – Wednesday 26th June
All Year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork including data collection techniques and observational skills, through practical activities and investigations in our local river environment.
This will involve travel by Metro and walking between Newcastle and Gateshead. The weather forecast is currently warm with potential showers. As such students will need:
- Comfortable walking shoes or trainers
- appropriately dress for our current changeable weather including
- hat and suncream
- waterproof coat
- A packed lunch. (This will be provided for students who are entitled to free school meals if they request one.)
A backpack with a pen, pencil, rubber, and iPad. Most bags are not waterproof, so we suggest putting kit inside a plastic bag inside the rucksack.
As usual, students need to be in school for 8.25am ready for their final briefing. We expect to return to school slightly later than the normal school at around 3:45 pm. We will update the school website in the event of any delays.
G30 Art Workshops – Thursday 27th June
The final workshop for art student leaders with Bruce Tuckey will be taking place on Thursday in school this week. This week it will be: Freya, Caleb, Lexi J, Lizzie, Olivia W, Amelia, Kayden, Josh, Lexi S, Evie, George, Danny, Holly, Lily-Mae S, Isaac and James. Students will be creating sculptures so should wear clothes which you do not mind getting dirty.
PE sessions this week
Some PE sessions will not run this week due to the staff day. PE time will be paid back in coming weeks with additional sessions and Crew Day
- G29 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week
- G28 students (Y9)
- G28 Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
- G29 Class 2 have PE on Friday this week
- G30 students (Y7) do not have PE this week due to the staff day today.
Exciting news! We have four pairs of tickets available for:
England Women V New Zealand
One Day International on Wednesday 26th June.
Respond to the Cricket tickets request google form to apply for your FREE tickets! We have asked you to let us know why you are interested in the tickets, as we can only offer to four students.
You must be accompanied by an adult and be able to get to and from the Riverside Cricket Ground in Chester-le-Street.
As you know we have another staff day on Monday next week, where we will be continuing to plan for learning expeditions in our next academic year.
It is a particularly packed week next week with fieldwork and expert sessions. We will post our usual weekly update, however for next week it is important to note:
Tuesday 25th June
Year 9 students will be carrying out fieldwork to investigate the river Seaton Burn. Students will work together to collect data regarding the width, depth and velocity of the river. Students will also complete an activity connected to their poetry studies and will study species in the dunes at Seaton Sluice which are particular to that ecosystem. We will be travelling by coach to the venue for the day. The weather forecast is currently warm, dry and sunny spells.
All year 9 students will need:
- Their regular kit for the day
- Suncream and cap/hat
- A second pair of trainers, wellies or shoes that can get wet
- A large bottle of drinking water
- Ideally shorts rather than longer bottoms or leggings
- bottoms or leggings that can be rolled up are OK
- Bug spray if required
We expect to be back to school at the normal time, traffic dependent so will post on the website if there are any delays.
Also on Tuesday, our Climate Action Plan leadership group will be working with our expert Gemma Sarigu to finalise their proposals for the how the school could be more sustainable.
On Tuesday Year 8 students will also carry out a workshop with Gemma on climate adaptability, which will both feed into the action plan, and also connects to students’ learning about migration – with changes in climate becoming an increasingly prevalent push factor which causes people to migrate.
Wednesday 26th June
All Year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork including data collection techniques and observational skills, through practical activities and investigations in our local river environment.
This will involve travel by Metro and walking between Newcastle and Gateshead. The weather forecast is currently warm with potential showers. As such students will need:
- Comfortable walking shoes or trainers
- appropriately dress for our current changeable weather including
- hat and suncream
- waterproof coat
- A packed lunch. (This will be provided for students who are entitled to free school meals if they request one.)
A backpack with a pen, pencil, rubber, and iPad. Most bags are not waterproof, so we suggest putting kit inside a plastic bag inside the rucksack.
As usual, students need to be in school for 8.25am ready for their final briefing. We expect to return to school slightly later than the normal school at around 3:45 pm. We will update the school website in the event of any delays.
Thursday 27th June
The final workshop for art student leaders with Bruce Tuckey will be taking place on Thursday in school this week. This week it will be: Freya, Caleb, Lexi J, Lizzie, Olivia W, Amelia, Kayden, Josh, Lexi S, Evie, George, Danny, Holly, Lily-Mae S, Isaac and James. Students will be creating sculptures so should wear clothes which you do not mind getting dirty.
Looking Ahead
Our Transition Days for Year 6 children are on Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd July.
Each day will start at 8.25am with students able to arrive from 8.00am.
Each day will end at 3.15pm.
We look forward to welcoming our 50 new G31 students into school.
Sharing our Stories: 21/06/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Park Smart, Walk More, Stay Safe!
Plover School is excited to join the “Walk and Wheel Challenge” by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. This fun initiative gets kids walking, cycling, and wheeling to school, making travel safer and healthier.
But that’s not all! The students are also tackling a big issue – problematic parking around the school. They’ve made a video asking everyone to park considerately so driveways aren’t blocked and crossing the road stays safe.
Spread the word, watch their video, and look out for their signs around the area to support their efforts.
A Message from C29
‘This week, our school hosted the Conversation Club, shedding light on the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers. One major expense is transportation, but we realised that having a bike could eliminate this cost and provide free, reliable transport.
In response, we are organising a bike drive, inviting the community to donate any old bikes, which will be invaluable to those in need. You can drop off your bike donations at XP Doncaster, and we will ensure they are distributed by the Conversation Club to refugees and asylum seekers, helping to ease their daily struggles. Your support and generosity are greatly appreciated.’
We’re got vacancies across XP Trust!
We’re looking for:
Learning Coaches at Carcroft School
An EYFS/KS1 Specialist SEND Teacher at Carcroft School
A Teacher at Norton Junior School
Top of the Blogs
Conversations with the Conversation Club @ XP School
Share your stories with us!
Winnie and Scarlett completed the Great North Swim open water challenge in lake Windermere.
As well as swimming in England’s largest lake at 10.5 miles long and at its deepest point is 219 feet. The girls got to listen to inspiring speakers about the health benefits of swimming outdoors include everything from enhancing your happiness to boosting your immune system.
At his recent presentation for Felling Magpies, nNot only did Connor walk away with a merit trophy he also won ‘Most Man of the Match awards’, ‘Players’ player’ and the ‘Keith Rankin award’.
The Keith Rankin award is the highest level of achievement within the club, named after one of the leading founders at Felling Magpies and players are nominated by managers across the club. What an achievment!
As you know a school-managed iPad is part of the standard kit required of students in secondary schools across XP Trust. We have brokered a successful Parental Contribution Scheme to enable this for all our children for the last 4 years and continue to do this again for 2023/24.
The iPad scheme for September 2024 includes:
- An iPad 10th Generation
- A logitech keyboard and trackpad
- AppleCare + for two years
- Jamf – (device management and security)
- A glass screen protector
We will have a bank of Apple Pencils for use in Art and Design sessions. You are welcome to purchase an apple pencil of your own, should you wish, and we would recommend either:
- Apple Pencil – Touch sensitive
- Skriva – Not touch sensitive but does shade on the angle of the nib.
The extended warranty is covered by Apple for the first two years. You handle your own claims through an app. Further information can be found here:
https://www.apple.com/uk/support/products/ipad/
There is a claim excess for broken screens at £39, we will supply a glass screen protector free of charge. This will be checked regularly by Crew Leaders as part of our kit checks.
You can get support and make warranty claims here: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-support/id1130498044
Loss or theft of the iPad needs to be covered by your personal home insurance.
Cost of the scheme
The total retail cost of these items bought separately would be £598. Through our new purchase scheme the cost to you is £451.
This balance will be applied to your Parent Pay account and you can manage your own payments. Here are a few options.
- £12.53 per month for 36 months (£2.89 a week)
- £18.79 per month for 24 months (£4.44 a week)
- Pay the balance at any time within three years at comfortable amounts for your circumstances.
- Speak with our school office if you need financial support with this.
At the end of your child’s time in school the device can be kept by the family if the balance has been paid in full.
To order your child’s ipad, please complete this Google Form.