Dear Families

G28 Passage Presentations

Without a doubt, this week has been one of the highlights of my time at XP Gateshead with G28 stepping up to, and indeed surpassing, the high expectations and demand of Passage Presentations. 

Over the past three weeks we have seen our Year 9 students work hard to produce beautiful scripts to tell their XP journey to date with integrity and how they have developed as a learner. Students have supported and challenged each other to show real craftsmanship and quality in their writing, lifting each other to produce work better than they thought possible. The spirit of Y9 crew and compassion has underpinned all of this work and the success students have achieved.

To stand and present to an audience takes real courage and maturity, as reflected by our panellists (families and experts alike)

“I honestly don’t think half the adults I know (including myself) could write such a structured, reflective piece of work and deliver it as well as you did” (Y9 Parent)

“The process allowed our daughter to showcase her learning at a high level, the awareness of what she has achieved, reflected back and been proactive in her learning is outstanding. Learning how to present formally in front of others and speak confidently to a range of visitors/new experts has allowed our daughter to experience first hand what the world of work will be like. It’s also been an opportunity for us to show her how proud we are of her hard work, determination and genuine loving character of a young lady which we have the pleasure of being with every day.” (Y9 Parent)

“The students articulated, with integrity and maturity, their respective positions on their learning journeys to teachers, parents and, more importantly, adults they had not met before. There are adults who do not have this insight or could communicate this to strangers in this way. This process was very similar to a postgraduate progress panel” (Expert panellist)

‘It was an absolute privilege to be able to be involved in this process. The emphasis and importance that has been placed upon this process for students was almost tangible. Students had all taken this process so seriously and had clearly spent a lot of time preparing. I particularly loved the involvement of families in the process. This was also such a huge moment for them too. Embarking on their GCSE’s and the commitment to this process and their learning was just wonderful to see, which all comes back to the culture which has been created at XPG” (Expert panellist)

The words of Kurt Hahn were never more true:

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

But I think Harris, one of our Y9 students captured this with his metaphor of a hike to describe his time at XP. 

“At the start, the mountains I climbed were new but not difficult. As time went on, the mountains became steeper and higher. However, it is nothing compared to the view at the top and is completely worth the climb.

I’m not going to stop climbing mountains moving forward and I look forward to the many views that are still yet to be seen. I will take rests when I need to but I am never going backwards.”

If there are any families still to give us feedback on the passage process, please can you do so by clicking here.

G29 Crew Charities announced

Inspiring activism in our students is central to our work at XPG. 

Following this week’s Crew morning where students put together their proposals for which charity they wanted to support and pitched these to the rest of their crew, each Y8 crew announced their chosen charities on Friday in our whole school community meeting. 

So we add another 4 G29 crew charities to our list:

• Crew Watson (SJA) – The Children’s Society
• Crew Attenborough (SBL) – World Wildlife Fund
• Crew King (EQU) – Birdline UK: Parrot Rescue
• Crew Nightingale (RMA) – Water Aid

Look out for future website posts from each crew to share their work and their charity plans for the future. 

We now have 8 charities in total championed by our students including our G28 charities:

• Crew Frank (MRS) – Bobby Robson Foundation
• Crew Stanton (ETA) – Tiny Lives
• Crew Angelou (DME) – Young Minds
• Crew Parks (TDE) – Trees for Cities.

G30 Crew names announced

Over the last few weeks, Y7 crews have been researching suitable people after whom to name their crews – people who have achieved great things and who display our character traits of courage, integrity, respect, craftsmanship and quality, and above all compassion. In Crew morning this week, students presented their contenders to the rest of their crew and final voting took place. 

In Friday’s community meeting new crew names were announced

Our G30 crews are 

• Crew Darling (formerly MRS)
• Crew Kahlo (formerly TMA)
• Crew Earhart (formerly KDO)
• Crew Einstein (formerly LDI)

So Grace Darling, Frida Kahlo, Amelia Earhart and Albert Einstein stand alongside our G29 crew’s namesakes Emma Watson, Martin Luther King, Richard Attenborough, Florence Nightingale and our G28 crew’s namesakes Anne Frank, Rosa Parks,  Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Stanton. 

The week ahead

G28 Geography fieldwork – Wednesday 20th March

G28 students will be completing important fieldwork to help them answer the geography enquiry question: “Why are there differences in life expectancy in Gateshead?” This will support the students creating a final report investigating health inequalities in Gateshead which will be shown at their presentation of learning.

Students will be in crews walking from Felling to Gateshead collecting primary data to answer their fieldwork question. Please see the website post for full details and the kit list required.

G30 Fieldwork with Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Wednesday 20th March

On Wednesday afternoon G30 will continue to work with expert Elizabeth Smith, from the CWGC. They will then visit St Mary’s Church to investigate the Commonwealth war graves,  putting theory work into practice. This is an authentic and rich learning experience and we are incredibly grateful to the CWGC for offering these opportunities to us and helping our students when it comes to answering the guiding question for our current expedition in Human ‘Why should we honour all those who sacrificed during WW1?’ Please see the website post for more details.

Music performance – Thursday 21st March

The Mercians will be performing on Thursday. ‘The Leicester-based indie band 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’. 

We are also on the lookout for singers for our school choir. In July, our sister schools in Doncaster are hosting a music festival and our choir will be performing Year 7s mining songs as part of the afternoon of music and arts.

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. 

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.

Looking Ahead:

G30 Presentation of Learning – Tuesday 26th March in our school theatre at 4.30pm

G29 Presentation of Learning – Wednesday 27th March at Caedmon Hall at Gateshead Central Library at 4.30pm

Can I remind all families of the importance of attendance at PoLs. 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.

Easter break

Our  last day of term is Thursday 28th March. As always, students will leave school at the earlier time of 1:30pm to allow for full de-gunge and set up for our new Summer term. We return to school Monday 15th April. Please see our 23/24 calendar for this year’s term dates.

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