Dear Families
I start with a repeat of last week’s starting sentence: it was another very busy and productive week, even with four days due to our second staff day on Monday. We really do work hard here to produce beautiful work with our staff and students always striving to be the best versions of themselves.
If it’s good enough for our students…
This week has seen the first of our staff days for this term. We have two 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. On Friday 22nd September we focused on our teaching and learning model at XPG and on Monday 25th September we carried out some Outdoor Education work which focused on crew development including crew reads, crew initiatives and outdoor safety. This work sets us in good stead for future student learning opportunities and Year 9 DofE challenges.
Visitors in school …
We have had several visitors in school this week meeting our students and looking closely at the work they do. As adults, we always step back and let our students take the floor when visitors come and our students always talk openly and honestly about their school and work here at XP Gateshead.
Verbal feedback from Ron Berger’s visit and our external school review last week has been really positive praising our strong school culture and the quality of our work. We will share more detailed feedback when reports come our way.
Our Local Governors Committee (LGC) meeting …
On Thursday we had our first LGC meeting of the year. Our LGC is set up to provide support and challenge to XPG leadership around the three dimensions of XP:
Our LGC focus on our school improvement priorities and regularly visit school to validate, support and challenge our work. We have a very strong LGC group as you can see below
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Andrea Mead
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Chair |
Headteacher , Specialist provision |
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Jane Sutton
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Governor/Parent |
Primary Link Advisor, Gateshead LEA
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James Renwick
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Governor/Parent |
Y6 primary teacher
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Elizabeth Shipley
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Governor/Parent |
Senior Clinical Psychologist
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Phil Latham
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Governor |
CEO Endeavour Academies
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Julie Mosley
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Principal |
XP Gateshead
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| Steph Oliver |
Staff/Governor
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Leader at Norton School, XP Trust
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In our first meeting we looked at last year’s review, this year’s school improvement priorities and the work we plan to undertake. LGC visits are scheduled across the year to check on our progress around these priorities.
Our week ahead
G30 Fieldwork – Whitburn and Marsden
As part of their G30 expedition “From the Ground Up’, our Year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork at the location of the former Whitburn Colliery and Marsden Village near to Souter Lighthouse in South Tyneside.
- G30 Class 2 will be going on Tuesday 3rd October
- G30 Class 1 will be going on Wednesday 4th October
Please see the website post for full kit details and times of the day.
Open Evening Tuesday 3rd October
On Tuesday we will open our doors to prospective families that are considering XP Gateshead as a destination school for their children in the next academic year (from September 2024). Our students will host sessions across the evening around our 3D approach, sharing their responses to key questions:
- Beautiful work – How do we create beautiful work and why is this so important?
- Academic success – How do we lead our own learning to ensure that we are successful?
- Character – How do we grow our characters at our school?
As always, it will be their voice and work that is centre stage. Unfortunately we are not able to have all students with us for the night (all would happily volunteer) due to space but we have a great group of ambassadors who have stepped up to work with us for the evening. Thank you to their families who have supported too with late collection from school.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
- G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
- G28 (Year 9) Class 1 students have PE on Thursday this week.
- G28 (Year 9) 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.
We will be sharing our after school club offer with students later this week and taster sessions for clubs will start in the final two weeks of this half term.
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
