Dear Families

We have continued to be impressed with the vast majority of our students this week and the HOWLs (habits of work and learning) they are exhibiting in sessions. It has been great to see the fantastic start G32 have made and hear praise from the team who work with our new cohort. 

On Friday it was wonderful to hear G32 students’ appreciations, apologies and stands during their Community Meeting and I look forward to this week’s Community Meetings with our other year groups.  The language our students use around our character values and HoWLs shows a real depth of understanding and commitment to character development. These are not just words on a wall at XPG

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Guiding Questions

At the start of last week immersion came to the end for all year groups and guiding questions (GQs) have been set with all students. 

GQs influence, shape and act as a reference point for student learning. GQs provoke thinking and deepen learning throughout the 12 week expedition and allow students to be engaged in authentic and purposeful work which makes connections between different subject areas and disciplines. During the course of a learning expedition, our children experience a range of case studies, with challenging texts which deepen their understanding and help them to develop an answer to the rich GQ for the expedition.

Presentations of Learning

At XP we make our work public. One of the most important ways we do this is through Presentations of Learning (PoLs). PoLs usually take place towards the end of expeditions and they are used as an opportunity for students to showcase their learning from their most current learning expedition. PoLs enable students to grow their character and further embed their learning through presenting their work in front of a range of authentic audiences and in a variety of contexts. In addition, students develop oracy skills by presenting to different audiences and in different contexts which builds confidence and further allows students to grow their character whilst developing key skills. 

It is essential that each student has at least one family member in attendance at PoLs. Presentations of Learning are designed to help students develop character, showcase their beautiful work, and reinforce the vital partnership between family, school, and students in their academic and personal growth.

This terms’ Guiding Questions and Presentations of Learning:

G32 -“What’s the story of our community?”

The presentation of learning for this event will be held on Tuesday 16th December 2025 at St Mary’s Church in Heworth from 4.30pm until 5.45pm. Please keep this evening free in your diaries.

G31 – “What does it mean to be Human?”

G31’s presentation of learning will be held on the evening Thursday 11th December in school.

G30 – “How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?”

G30’s presentation of learning will take place on the evening of Wednesday 10th December at Newcastle University Campus including the Farrell Centre.

G29 –  “To what extent does transformation benefit society?”

The final product for this expedition is service learning, and the presentation of learning for this expedition will take place at Edberts House in our community. More details to follow.

G28 – What’s love got to do with it?

Students will be producing revision resources to Romeo and Juliet as their final product and will also perform excerpts from the play with directorial narration and analysis of each scene.

This Presentation of Learning will take place on the evening of Wednesday 17th December in school.

Our week ahead 

Breakfast Club supported by Magic Breakfast

Last week we launched our brand-new Breakfast Club, giving every student the chance to start their day in the best possible way. My thanks go to Miss Jones who has worked with Magic Breakfast and the team from Crew Frank and Crew Parks who set up every day this week offering delicious toast, bagels and crumpets to our students.  The club runs every school morning from 7.45am to 8:10am and all students are welcome to attend. We have talked to our students this week about the importance of looking after themselves and making sure they start each day in the right way. Can I remind parents that energy drinks and sweets are not allowed in school and ask for your support around this.

PE sessions this week

Please can parents make sure that their child has a PE kit  for PE sessions. We expect students to change into their appropriate PE kit, and not wear the same clothes they wear in school. Similarly, students must change out of PE kit afterwards, into their normal school clothes. For safety, jewellery must be removed and hair must be tied back.

• G32 students (Year 7) – Class 1 PE sessions take place on Monday, Class 2 PE sessions take place on Wednesday.
• G31 students (Year 8) have PE on Tuesday.
• G30 students (Year 9) have PE on Thursday.
• G29 students (Year 10) have PE on Monday.
• G28 students (Year 11) have PE on Monday.

Extended Study 

Last week teachers set extended study and students have begun to build their extended study timetable. In a typical week, for Years 7-9 there is around 45-60 mins set  per night. Each subject area sets the extended study and it is due on the same day each week, so that students can organise their time and get into good habits around additional study outside of sessions. Here is our KS3 (Years 7-9) extended study timetable:

There is a step up in expectations at GCSE in Year 10 and Year 11. All GCSE-level courses now have examinations as their main form of assessment. There is a lot of content that students need to internalise and it is just not possible for students to do this in Year 11 in the run up to their examinations. As such, students are expected to spend more time on their extended study in comparison to Years 7-9. This means that there should be no need to rely on cramming in Year 11 and students should be in good habits around working outside of sessions in readiness for the revision needed to be successful. Here is our KS4 (Years 10-11) extended study timetable:

Please see our earlier post on Extended Study at XP Gateshead which includes more details on our rationale.

After school extended study sessions will start this week.

We offer extended study sessions from 3:15pm – 4:30pm Monday – Thursday.  Students attending these sessions must stay for the full session until the end at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand. Extended study is optional for most students but for some who struggle to complete and miss deadlines, extended study may be directed.

If you have any questions about extended study or how you could best support your child, please contact their Crew Leader for support.

We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme by the end of September.

Staff Development Days

We have staff days each term at XP so that our teachers can collaborate across the Trust to create and deliver the high quality curriculum that our students study. These are shown in blue on our calendar.

This week and next see the first of our staff days where students are not expected to be in school.

• Friday 19th September – Staff Development Day 
• Monday 22nd September – Staff Development Day 

On staff days our students do not attend school and there is no expectation that they complete work beyond their regularly set extended study (homework). Students will find this work on Google classroom.

Students are expected back to school on Tuesday 23rd September by 8:25am at the latest.

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 as always for your ongoing support. Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

We welcomed all of our students and staff into school last week so for the first time, five year groups were all together. We are delighted by how our new G32 students have all settled into school and how students in other year groups have welcomed our new cohort, settled into their new classes and sessions and daily life of school. A Kurt Hahn quote that has continued to resonate with us over these last weeks is

“We are crew not passengers, strengthened by acts of consequential service to others”

We build our culture of crew at XP Gateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others. This happens in crew, in classrooms, during social times and at the start and end of the day.

Students are settling into their new classes, working with new teachers, new learning partners and getting used to new spaces. Unfortunately, we are still without a theatre space so are unable to have whole school community meetings in person at the moment. We’ve been pleased with how adaptable and mature our students have been especially during lunchtimes as we get used to another 50 students on site. 

Last week saw the start of  immersion for all new learning expeditions. Immersion is an opportunity for students to dip their toe into the content of the learning expeditions, to build background knowledge and generate curiosity about the guiding question for the expedition. Guiding questions are revealed to students at the end of each immersion. 

G32 – Year 7

G32 started their week in Crews unpacking what they learned at Ullswater about ‘What it means to be Crew’ and considering how that is applied back at school with an additional question: “What will my learning be like at my new school?”

All Crews took time to curate their Outward Bound fieldwork and the individual journeys they had all taken along with the character traits they had demonstrated. They then spent time agreeing their crew norms and what they would look like, sound like and feel like in classrooms. 

All G32 students have now set up their iPads and completed initial Google training as part of their induction to school.  Students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely.

A fully charged iPad is now expected as part of daily kit for G32 students, as well as headphones. We advise against buying expensive headphones. 

There is additional guidance for families here on setting up apple accounts to download additional apps, and also on how to set sensible boundaries at home using screen time functions and parental controls on your home Wifi router.

G31

G31 have completed their immersion which included study of the human body through the emotional true story of Peter the human cyborg and also Bill Bryson’s texts “The Body: A guide for inhabitants” and “A short history of nearly everything”. In a bumper week, they have been introduced to the text “Noughts and Crosses” by Malorie Blackman, studied various creation stories and considered what makes effective speeches. All of this has come to a focal point with their guiding question revealed to be “What does it mean to be Human?”

Students also carried out fieldwork at The Baltic gallery where they were toured the exhibits  and took part in workshops which provoked thoughts connected to their guiding question around human creativity, conflict and how art can be used as an important form of expression.

On Friday they met with excerpts from the RVI in Newcastle which will be the home for their final product: artwork which promotes organ donation in children – a much-overlooked area in the national conversation around public health.

G30

G30 started their new expedition by learning about the geography and history of Russia around the turn of the 20th century. Connected to this, and to build further background knowledge they have also been studying the atomic bombs that were dropped at the end of WWII, and have seen further evidence of the power of the atom by learning about the impact of the Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union. They have also used Ken Loach’s film “I, Daniel Blake” to develop questions and curiosity about how societal and governmental structures can impact on the way that we live our lives. 

On Thursday our G30 students participated in local fieldwork, collecting primary data to answer an enquiry question : “Are there inequalities on Gateshead High Street?”

 

G29

G29 have also found out their guiding question “To what extent does transformation benefit society??” 

As part of their immersion, students first discovered what the Vikings were not, where they looked at some of the misconceptions that people have of them. They also investigated a ‘Viking Horde’ to discover what artefacts they had, what materials they were made from and what it tells us about Viking lives. This also led to students considering how objects can tell a story which connects to their GCSE Art projects. We also did some close reading of travel writing to provide pupils with a background knowledge of Scandinavia, whilst deepening their understanding of literary devices. 

In Science immersion we began to explore the properties of metals and what makes them useful, and performed a simple extraction reaction that helped them revisit the reactivity series of metals.

In English, students have been considering conditions in workhouses such as that at Southwell to better understand the social and historical context of the novel ‘A Christmas Carol’.

G28

G28’s new expedition kicked off with a focus on History and explored Elizabeth’s famous quote ‘I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England. Better beggar woman and single than Queen and married’. Students also watched a mystery piece of Elizabeth’s famous speech at Tilbury to demonstrate what a passionate queen of England she was. 

Students have also begun to read an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet in order to create a storyboard and character map to support their reading and analysis of the original text.

Our week ahead 

G32 students (Year 7) have their first academic fieldwork this week

Year 7 students will continue with their immersion this week, continuing to develop curiosity around what their new guiding question could be.

This week students will carry out fieldwork focused on a geological and historical enquiry around the former Whitburn Colliery Pit.

Year 7 Class 1 Students will carry out this fieldwork on Wednesday 10th September with Year 7 Class 2 completing it on Thursday 11th. Please see the website post from Mr Said which details the kit needed, packed lunch requirements and timings for the day. 

Year 7 PE sessions take place on Monday for Class 1 and Wednesday for class 2 this week so students need a full PE kit to change into on these days.

G28 Into University Sessions

On Tuesday this week, a cohort of our G28 students have their next session with Into University – who provide learning experiences designed to inspire young people to consider university, especially when they are from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the wider university population.

G31 Safety in the community

In light of the tragic events that struck our community last academic year, our younger students have an important session with the Tyne & Wear Fire Service on Wednesday this week. This session will highlight some of the risks that come from anti-social behaviour. Our Year 7 students will have a similar session later in this half-term.

PE Sessions this week

• G32 Year 7
  • Class 1 have PE on Monday this week
  • Class 2 have PE on Wednesday this week
• G31 have PE on Tuesday this week
• G30 have PE on Thursday this week
• Both G29 and G28  have PE on Monday this week

Meeting our expectations

Dress code

As you know at XP, we believe that:

• Children need to learn to express themselves responsibly.
• Children are not all the same, so they should not be forced to look the same.
• Families would rather spend their money on clothes that their children can wear inside and outside school.

We do not have a school uniform however we do have a dress code and we ask our students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly.

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 (eg. heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails)
• Impractical footwear (eg. sliders, flip-flops or high heels)

Please see our website post on dress code so you are aware of our expectations and can fully support these.

Punctuality

Can I remind all families that students need to be in school for an 8.30am start to sessions. They must arrive by 8.25am at the latest. There will be staff in school supervising so students can arrive from 8.00 am. The vast majority of our students had perfect punctuality last week but not all of them. Please support us with our high expectation around punctuality to school.

Extended Study 

Teachers will start to set extended study this week and students will begin to build their extended study timetable.

After school extended study sessions will start next week and students attending these sessions must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand.

We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme by the end of September.

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 as always for your ongoing support.  Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley