Dear Families

This last week has been a very busy and productive one again, even with four days due to the staff day on Friday.

On Thursday we welcomed the North East Creativity Collaboratives Network into school. Part of the conference agenda included an ambassador tour from our students, who were able to articulate how creativity is central to our rigorous 3-dimensional curriculum focussing on Beautiful Work, Character Growth and Academic Success.

In preparing for this visit it has reminded us of just what a special place our school is, and the breadth and depth of experiences that our students get in service to their mission of ensuring that they and their Crew are successful.

G30 – What do the communities of NE England owe to the miners?

Just this week we have had G30 preparing to interview Joe Solo, a folk musician and our songwriting expert in preparation for our students taking stories of members of the mining community and immortalising them in song.

Year 7 have also visited Beamish to carry out fieldwork which focussed on the working conditions of mines in the 19th and early 20th century. This fieldwork included demonstrations of what caused the tragedy at Felling pit (literally underneath our school) in 1812, as well as carrying out an investigation into the death of a young miner and going down the drift mine for a visceral understanding of what it feels like to spend your day under the ground.

Students will share their music and wider learning from this expedition with you in a presentation of learning at St Mary’s Church in Heworth at the Year 7 Presentation of Learning on the evening of Monday 18th December.

G29 – What does it mean to be Human?

G29 have this week been grappling with challenging text, including their anchor text ‘The Body’ by Bill Bryson to help them to make connections between the structure and function of the lungs and the evolutionary path of humans, the smart ape. In Human students welcomed Reverend Lucy into school to ask her about her views on the sanctity of human life. Reverend Lucy was very impressed with the level of questions from Year 8, commenting that they were “University-level questions”. In arts students have been continuing to learn to capture the most expressive object in the known universe – the human face. The connections students make between these disciplines will come together in a speech, excerpts from which you will be able to hear at the Year 8 Presentation of Learning on Tuesday 19th December.

G28 – How can structures help us to explain the world around us?

This week G28 visited the Byker Wall to learn from experts in the Byker Community Trust and Ryder Architecture about the influence that physical structures and our social environment can have on the way that we live our lives. Students toured the community, sketched the building in preparation for their own sculpture design and paid particular attention to a building that had been suffering from decline and anti-social behaviour, but after renovation and reconfiguration is now an award winning part of the Byker community.

In the coming weeks students will start to make more connections between structures of habitations, structures of government and structures of the physical world – down to the atom, to help them to answer their guiding question.

Year 9 will share their learning in a Presentation of Learning on the evening of Thursday 14th December.

Our week ahead 

Ron Berger – EL Education

This week we are honoured to welcome Ron Berger from EL Education to our school. Ron Berger is the Senior Advisor for Teaching & Learning at EL Education in America. Ron is a well-known educator nationally and internationally and will talk to our students about a commitment to quality, character and citizenship.

More than this though Ron is a friend of XP; in fact without Ron there would be no XP. Ron has been with EL Education in the US since the very beginning and was gracious enough to guide us in setting up XP in Doncaster. When we talk about Outward Bound and Kurt Hahn being the start of our story at XP, Ron is the person who helped us to fill in the gaps when the idea of XP was first developed by Andy Sprakes and Gwyn ap Harri – for that we will be forever grateful.

Some of our staff have been lucky enough to listen to Ron talk before. Our students are in for a treat, as Ron brings with him more than the stories of his experience as an educator over the last 25 years, but also a portfolio of beautiful work from students across the EL community – work of quality, work of character and work of active citizenship. We can’t wait!

External School Review on Thursday

Building on the really positive external review that we had in the Summer Term, we have asked for another review to look specifically at Personal Development of our students and also to look in more depth at more subjects. We will update you with feedback from this review but we know that our students and staff will do us proud. Here is a reminder of some of the wonderful comments from the previous review.

‘Staff are committed and relentless in their pursuit for culture to be right’

‘Crew is an effective system for ensuring that primarily students are known very well to adults, and that students exist in a safe place to talk with confidence about many issues’ 

‘The curriculum model, is being implemented successfully, thanks to experienced leaders, as well as collaboration with other experienced leaders across the trust, which is positive’

‘Interpersonal skills are being well developed – students are skilled at listening to others, being respectful and sensitive, as well as in offering advice, critiquing others, and in offering their own opinions and thinking’

PE sessions this week

Due to our staff day tomorrow, there is no PE for G30 students (Year 7) this week

G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.

G28 Class 1 students have PE on Thursday this week.

G28 Class 2 students have PE on Friday this week.

Extended Study

We will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday. 

On staff days like tomorrow, 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 26th 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.  There is more in us than we know #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

We have continued to be impressed with our students this week and the HOWLs (habits of work and learning) they exhibit in sessions – and specific praise for G30 who have made such a fantastic start in the way that they are forming and strengthening great habits of work and learning in class.

G30 students determining important events to add to a timeline of The Industrial Revolution

Guiding Questions

This week immersion came to the end for all  year groups and after lots of wondering and suggestions, students in G28, G29 and G30 enjoyed the big reveal to find out their expedition guiding questions.

GQs (guiding questions) are a crucial part of the anatomy of an expedition.

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.

G30

Our G30 students’ first expedition is called ‘From the Ground Up’ and our students will be studying the guiding question ‘What do the communities of North East England owe to the miners?’. Case studies will involve the Industrial Revolution, Pit Disasters including Felling 1812, the growth and decline of local collieries and the 1984 Miners; Strike. Their final product will be a collection of folk songs which honour the stories of members of the mining community in the North East – students will interview these experts and put their stories to music, as well as a permanent display in St Mary’s Church in Heworth to honour those that lost their lives beneath our school in an explosion at Felling Colliery in 1812. The presentation of learning for this expedition will take place at St Mary’s Church on the evening of Monday 18th December.

G29

Our G29 students are now well underway with their new expedition, Being Human. The guiding question for this expedition is ‘What does it mean to be Human?’.

There are three case studies for this expedition each with their own question: What is a human?; What can we learn from how we see differences between humans?; How do humans and humanity grow and develop?

This week G29 students investigated the respiratory organ system with a dissection of the lungs.

The final product for this expedition will be an artwork installation in the QE hospital which promotes organ donation, as well as speeches in answer to the guiding question. These will be shared with you in a presentation of learning for this which will take place in school on the evening of Tuesday 19th December – more details on this soon.

G28

G28 students’ expedition is called ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and has the guiding question ‘How are structures important in helping us to shape our world?’. 

Case studies for this expedition will examine the structure of government, the structure of habitations and the structures of the physical world down to the level of the atom.

The final product for this expedition will be a sculpture inspired by brutalist architecture which will be curated in the community, with a dedication to all citizens of our local community in recognition of the challenges they faced, and the support given to one another during the COVID pandemic.

Northern Stage – Cultural fieldwork

On Thursday our G28 students  visited the Northern Stage Theatre to see the critically acclaimed theatre performance of ‘ I, Daniel Blake’. This was a very powerful and moving experience for staff and students alike as the play explored the realities of life for people living in our area and how systems that are supposed to support people can in fact let them down. 

I was delighted to receive an email from a member of the audience on Friday morning which read:

Yesterday I attended a performance of I, Daniel Blake at the Northern Stage in Newcastle.  Sitting in front of me were two rows of pupils from your school aged 13-15!

I just wanted to compliment all of the young people – they were beautifully behaved and thoroughly engaged in the performance.  A number of them were moved to tears and their friends and teaching staff were just so supportive and caring in their attitude towards each other – it really was lovely to see.

Young people so often get a bad press these days, so I just wanted to take the opportunity to Buck the trend and share with you what a delight I thought your young people were and total respect to your school for choosing this performance for them the themes of which I’m sure may have resonated for some, given the current cost of living crisis.

A beautiful and important email, as we say to our students at XPG – we are judged by the quality of our work and the quality of our characters. 

The provisional date for G28’s presentation of learning is the evening of Thursday 14th December – more details to follow.

Our week ahead 

G28 students (Year 9) – Byker Wall Fieldwork, Monday 18th September

As part of their  G28 expedition “Another Brick in the Wall’, our students will be taking part in a  Human and Art fieldwork to Byker Wall on Monday 18th September. 

See our website post for full details.

G29 students (Year 8) 

On Wednesday, our students will work with their first expert for their ‘Being Human’ expedition. Reverend Lucy will give her view on what the Bible tells us about the sanctity of human life – students will discuss their GQ with a range of experts during the expedition to help them to develop their own answer which will be part of their speech. Engagement with experts is  an important part of our model. Teachers bring experts from the community into the classroom to collaborate with students, teach them skills from their field, and critique their work to professional standards.

G28 students (Year 7) – Beamish Museum, Thursday 21st September

As part of G30’s first expedition ‘From the Ground Up’, students will be taking part in important fieldwork at Beamish Museum in County Durham on Thursday this week. This is their first fieldwork and we will stress the importance of being ambassadors for our school. For more details please see Mrs Ross’ post here.

PE sessions this week

Please can parents make sure that their child has a PE kit (see website post). 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.

• G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
• G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
• G28 students (Year 9) have PE on Tuesday this week.

There is a change to PE for our G28 students (Year 9) this week due to Fieldwork and Staff Day on Friday. G28 will have one hour of PE this week for each class.

Extended Study

We will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday.  These are study sessions where students can get support with their extended study. Students do not need to book into these sessions, but must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm.

Working with our local Crime Prevention Team

On Thursday, Northumbria Crime Prevention Unit are running a workshop for our Year 9 students around keeping safe online. 

As part of our PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) and RSE (relationships education, relationship and sex education) programme we will work closely with local experts to ensure our students get the best advice on how to keep themselves safe.

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 sees the first of our staff days where students are not expected to be in school.

• Friday 22nd September – Staff Development Day 
• Monday 25th 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 26th 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 into school last week and we are delighted by how they have all settled into 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 XPGateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others.

We are still getting used to our new bigger site and enjoying new spaces – our new classroom and crew spaces, theatre and larger social spaces. We are really pleased with how well our students are using these spaces and the maturity they show whilst moving around the 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 will be revealed to students this week.

G30’s first week back in school

G30 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. 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 G30 students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely. All student iPads have now been delivered and we will be able to ensure that all students are online this week.

Our week ahead 

G30 students (Year 7) 

Students will continue with their immersion this week, thinking about what their guiding question can be having already held coal and considered its importance to the industrial revolution, as well as studying maps to consider how our landscape has changed since the 18th century.

PE sessions take place on Mondays for our Year 7 students so students need a full PE kit on this day.

G29 students (Year 8) 

Our year 8 students have had much deliberation on what their new expedition guiding question could be. This last week they have been learning about Peter Scott-Morgan, a man who defied biology by making more of his body digital after a diagnosis of motor neuron disease. They have been making connections between this, their anchor text – ‘The Curious incident..’ and a gallery walk which focussed on the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.

All will be revealed on Monday morning when there is a G29 expedition launch session. 

There has been a change to the timetable for this week for PE:

• Class 1 have their PE session on Wednesday so will need their PE kit.
• Class 2 have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit

G28 students (Year 9) 

After last week’s immersion, which included building structures; 3D modelling; and atomic weapons our year 9 students will discover their new guiding question on Monday.

There is more fieldwork for G28 on Thursday as part of their new learning expedition. We have organised a cultural visit to Northern Stage to see the critically acclaimed ‘I, Daniel Blake’. We are delighted to be able to offer this to our students as tickets are difficult to get hold of. Students will have a slightly early lunch and leave site at 12:30pm to travel by metro to the theatre for the afternoon performance. Students should be back to school by 5pm. Please see the recent post for more details. 

G28 PE sessions take place on Thursday and Friday

• Class 1 have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit.
• Class 2 have their PE session on Friday so will need their PE kit.

Making the right start

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 

For the next two weeks we will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day apart from Friday when we finish at 3:15pm. These are study sessions where students can get support with their extended study.

Students do not need to book into these sessions, but must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm.

We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme at 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