Dear Families

Welcome to our final week of the Summer term. As always, it has been a week filled with hard work from students and staff here at XPG.

If it’s good enough for our students…

Our teachers’ Educator Led Conferences (ELC’s) have taken place this week. This is where adults present their learning to an audience of their peers,  sharing their work and success from the year. The high quality work and thinking shared, the integrity and honest reflection from staff and the level of professionalism displayed was simply stunning and a testament to the great staff crew we have at XPG. 

The leadership team also presented their work to colleagues from Trust this week in the Annual School Review (ASR). The review is an opportunity to understand and celebrate how well we have done this year and identify our development priorities for the coming year. 

Personalised research projects

On Thursday G28 students who have studied a personalised research project in their Common Mission time presented their work to the rest of their year. Archie presented on complex ideas in cosmology including: spinning black holes and time dilation, Dyson spheres with a focus on how increasing understanding of the universe may make future technological leaps that support the evolution of human intelligence. Holly and Katie presented on criminology and the motivations behind some of history’s most notorious criminals. Bella presented on the difficulties in diagnosing child mental health problems, with a focus on resources available and attitudes in today’s society. All three presentations dealt with complex issues and were presented professionally and sensitively. All four presenters also fielded questions from their audience with accuracy and integrity. A great piece of work – we look forward to more presentations this week from our Year 7s and Charlie in Year 8.

More migrant experts interviewed…

Our Year 8 students interviewed more experts to hear their stories about moving to the UK. This will form part of the celebration of learning for Year 8 later this week on Thursday.

Crew Day Sports

On Friday we enjoyed our final Crew Day of the year. Like always, this day was about building crew but this time, the theme was sport. Students were challenged to design crew mascots which represented their crew, compete in a Sports Quiz then represent their crew in a variety of physical activities: handball, dodgeball, rounders, athletics. 

The day finished with awards in a full school community meeting were much anticipated crew totals were announced. Crew Attenborough won the trophy for G29 and for G28, we had a tie with Crew Angelou and Crew Frank.

It was a fantastic day, enjoyed by students and staff alike and the chance to remind ourselves of the importance of crew. Like we say, ‘If we get Crew right, we get everything right’. Huge thanks and congratulations goes to Mr Devitt for coordinating our first Crew Sports Day and to Mr Currie, Miss O’Grady our XP Doncaster colleagues who supported us with the planning and delivery of the event.

This week

PE sessions

PE sessions will take place on Tuesday for Year 8 and Wednesday for Year 7 students this week. Please make sure that your child has a full PE kit.

Extended Study and clubs

Our usual extended study and clubs will not run this week due to our two Celebrations of learning. We will run an extended study session on Monday only.

G29 Celebration of learning at Seven Stories in Newcastle, Tuesday 18th July at 6pm

Please see the website post for full details on this event. We expect that families ensure that someone is there to support their child at this event and also ask that students dress formally. Our XP polo shirts are suitable for occasions like this.

Students will remain in school on Tuesday and we will transport students from school to Seven Stories. We would recommend that they bring a healthy packed tea or snack to eat after school. Students will return home with their families after the event.

G28’s Celebration of Learning at XP Gateshead, Thursday 20th July at 6pm

As above, please see the website post for full details on this event. We expect that families ensure that someone is there to support their child at this event and also ask that students dress formally. Students will remain in school on Thursday. We would recommend that they bring a healthy packed tea or snack to eat after school.

End of year reflections from students, Crew leaders and updated snapshots

Towards the end of this week, parents will receive a final progress update and review of the year from their child and Crew leader.

Friday 21st July – Last day of term

As always at the end of term, our students finish at 1:30pm. This allows for a full de-gunge of the school before the Summer break. This one is especially important as we will need to move some of our resources to new spaces in August with our expansion to larger parts of the building. 

As usual, if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Families

We had a very successful week last week, managing two successful G30 transition days alongside G28 and G29 fieldwork days. We also enjoyed time with parents and carers  on our final twilight MHFA® course and on Thursday, our new Y7 Crew Leaders met with their new parent crew. 

G30 students worked with us on Monday and Tuesday to explore the guiding question ‘What will it take for me to be the best version of myself at XP Gateshead?’. They spent time in smaller Crews exploring our character values and making new friends then sampled sessions with us – Human, PE, Arts, Steam sessions in Science and Maths and Spanish. 

We were delighted with how well our new students settled into their new school and how well our G28 and G29 students supported their transition days. We are really looking forward to August when we welcome all three year groups together.

G28 undertook fieldwork on Monday  in Gateshead and Newcastle linked to their current expedition “Is migration worth the risk”. They spent time ‘looking at sustainable energy solutions in Gateshead, and also evidence of the migrations and conquests that have happened within our region since the times of the Romans. 

On Tuesday, our G29 students travelled to North Yorkshire to complete geography fieldwork connected to their current guiding question: “How does water shape our world?” . Students worked at a river site testing a hypothesis on the observable differences in the river as it runs its course. 

This week

Assessments

Our students continue to complete  assessments in sessions this week. This follows extended study revision tasks and preparation in sessions.

PE sessions

There are timetable changes this week which means some changes to PE sessions. Please note the following and make sure that your child has full PE kit:

• Monday PE sessions for Y8 Class 1
• Tuesday PE sessions for Y8 Class 2
• Wednesday PE sessions for both Y7 classes

Extended Study and clubs

Extended Study and clubs are running after school this week. 

G28 working with experts

On Monday, as part of their expedition Should I Stay Or Should I Go, with the guiding question: ‘Is migration worth the risk?’ our G28 students will be interviewing people who have made the choice to migrate to and from our country this week. The Interviews will be part of their final product for this expedition which will be a feature length film to honour their stories which will be screened in the new academic year.

Mental Health First Aid Training for our new staff 

Once again, our new staff are completing a two day MHFA course. When completed, this will mean that all of our team will be fully qualified as MHFA. The MHFA courses we have run for both staff and parents enable us to recognise mental ill health and help find the support required for our young people. We are grateful to the expertise of Jane Nyberg for making this possible along with the support of Sophie Pegg.

Crew Day, Friday 14th July

On Friday our students will spend the whole day working with their Crew and Crew Leader. The focus for their final crew day is getting active as well as developing their team work, crew identity and wellbeing. For both Year 7 and Year 8 the school day will start and finish at the usual time. Students will need to be in their sports kit for the full day.

Looking Ahead:

Tuesday 18th July at 6pm

G29’s Celebration of Learning at Seven Stories in Newcastle. .

Thursday 20th July at 6pm

G28’s Celebration of Learning at XP Gateshead. 

See website post for more details of both of these events.

Friday 21st July – Last day of term

This is a 1:30pm finish for students to allow for degunge of the school before the Summer break.

As usual, if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Families

Again, it has been wonderful to see families in school this week for Student-led Conferences. We have another important week ahead as we welcome the newest members of our community into school for the first time. We have important fieldwork this week too so a very exciting week in store. More details on all of this can be found below.

A particular highlight of this week has been the culmination of our anchor text for G28 students. Connected to their guiding question “Is migration worth the risk?” students have been reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck as their anchor text. This week students created a courtroom in order to determine “Was Curly’s wife responsible for her own death?”. Students each put their case forward and then voted as a jury. Impressively some students were given the role to argue for a position against which they themselves were personally opposed. It was wonderful to see how invested students were in this process and how important the ideas of social justice and also how women have been presented in literature are to our students. Great job G28!

This week

It is such a bumper week that we have organised this week’s update around each day in the week ahead:

Monday 3rd July

TRANSITION DAY 1:

We welcome our Year 6 – G30 students to school together for the first time. G28 and G29 should arrive at the usual time. G30 students will arrive from 8.40am. It is likely to be busy in terms of traffic in front of our school at the start and end of the day, so please be conscientious when parking and ask your children to be especially careful when crossing the road.

G28 Fieldwork:

On Monday G28 students have fieldwork in Gateshead and Newcastle. Connected to their expedition on migration they are looking at sustainable energy solutions in Gateshead, and also evidence of the migrations and conquests that have happened within our region since the times of the Romans. More details including the kit needed for this fieldwork can be found here.

Extended Study:

There is an extended study after school on Monday to support students in preparing for assessments, however due to the transition days we are unable to offer clubs on Monday.

MHFA®:

Monday is the last of our MHFA® course for parents in this round. Again this is being delivered by Jane Nyberg with Miss Pegg in G3 after school.

Tuesday 4th July

TRANSITION DAY 2:

We welcome our Year 6 – G30 students to school again. G30 students will arrive from 8.40am. Again it will be busy in terms of traffic so safety is the number one consideration.

G29 Fieldwork:

On Tuesday G28 students have fieldwork in north Yorkshire. G29 students must be in school by 8am. Connected to their expedition with the GQ: “How does water shape our world?” they are testing a hypothesis on the observable differences in a river as it runs its course. More details including the kit needed for this fieldwork can be found here.

PE for G28:

PE sessions will take place on Tuesday this week for G28 as normal. Please make sure that Year 8 have full PE kit for Tuesday.

Extended Study:

There is an extended study after school on Tuesday to support students in preparing for assessments, however due to the transition days we are unable to offer clubs on Monday.

Wednesday 5th July

School is closed to students on Wednesday 5th July due to the strike action. Students should work on the revision tasks that will be set by teachers through Google Classroom in preparation for end of year assessments. There is no PE for G29 this week due to the strike action.

Thursday 6th July

On Thursday we will run a regular school day, including clubs and extended study after school.

Friday 7th July

School is closed to students on Friday 7th July due to the strike action. Students should work on the revision tasks that will be set by teachers through Google Classroom in preparation for end of year assessments.