Dear Families

We’ve all been working hard this past week and our students have been focussed on their SLC preparation ready for upcoming conferences. You should now have booked an SLC slot. Please contact [email protected] if you have not had information on booking an SLC slot or are having any difficulties. 

Fieldwork and Year 7 Expedition – Hold back the river

Year 7 showed great character in their fieldwork this week. On Tuesday Bailey felt unwell on the coach and then pushed through for the rest of the day. On Wednesday all staff that accompanied the fieldwork came back full of praise for the way that Class 2 dealt with the problems with the coach. Most importantly, many of our students saw water voles which are an indicator of the health of the ecosystem, and all students have collected important data which will help the scientists at Durham Wildlife Trust to protect these wonderful creatures.

Year 7 have also started work on their 3D artwork which will be layered seascapes inspired by photographs of our local coastline, which students visited in previous fieldwork to Roker and Seaburn. Connected to their work on rivers, students are about to look at cases of flooding and will write informative articles which will be great practice for their final articles on conservation of oysters and water voles – all part of answering their guiding question: “How does water shape our world?”

Year 8 Expedition – Should I stay or should I go

Connected to their studies of migration and the guiding question “Is Migration Worth the Risk?”, this week a group of our student leaders for this expedition visited the Comfrey Project in Gateshead. Students learned about the work that the project does with people seeking asylum and refugees living in the north east. The organisation uses horticulture-based activities to help people to feel connected to and feel part of the local community – and will be an important partner in the remainder of this expedition.

Dress Code

Student voice is very important to us at XP Gateshead. Students have asked questions of our dress code in a community meeting, and have communicated that they would like more clarity and a voice in ensuring our dress code is as fair as is possible. Crews have each named a person that will join a working group on our dress code. Conversations will start this week. Of course we will keep you updated as parents before any changes are made to the guidance in our dress code.

This week

G29 Knife Crime Awareness Session

After a successful session with our Y8 students. John Ord from Northumbria Police Violence Reduction Unit will run a session for our Y7 students on the dangers of knife crime on Tuesday.

PE sessions

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

Extended Study and after school clubs 

There are no Extended Study or after school clubs running this week and next week due to SLCs. 

Staff Development Day – Friday 23rd June

We have a staff day this week where we will spend time on expedition planning. We will be looking at our first Autumn expeditions for G28, G29 and G30 and working together to plan assessments, case studies and fieldwork. As always, students are not expected to attend school.

Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA®) courses

On staff day, we welcome a group of parent learners on site for the first of our 3 MHFA courses. We have been delighted at the level of interest in this course, with 28 parents signed up. We are offering 3 separate face to face sessions – Friday 23rd June am, Monday 26th June pm and a twilight session on Monday 3rd July twilight. 

Moving forward, we would like to offer a learning opportunity each half term for parents and carers around pertinent concerns linked to teenagers. We are looking to bring in expertise from wider support agencies in Gateshead to make sure we are accessing all of the support on offer in our community.

Looking Ahead:

Staff Development Day – Monday 26th June

This will be our final staff development day of this academic year. Students are not expected to be in school on this day.

Strike Action

As you may be aware from news announcements this weekend, the NEU teachers union have balloted and agreed strike action on Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th July 2023. We will do our best to minimise disruption and will update you in due course.

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

It has been a busy first week back as usual and we have all quickly got back into working hard after the half term break. Our focus this term is ‘culture, culture, culture’ – making sure that we continue to build strong foundations which will support us as we grow and welcome new staff, students and families into our crew. The culture to ensure we build our character values, beautiful work and academic success.

Student-Led Conferences

Our students are working hard now preparing for their Student-Led Conferences which start next week.

You should now have booked an SLC slot. Please contact [email protected] if you have not had information on booking an SLC slot or are having any difficulties. 

To help your child prepare for their SLC, in their email to you they asked that you complete this short Google Form. This gives you the opportunity to ask any questions about your child’s progress which they will then address as part of their conference. This form should have been completed last week. If you have not already done so, please complete the form now so your child can be well prepared for their SLC.

G30 Transition

Last week we met our new G30 families for an In-Person Information Evening. It was great to meet parents and carers and welcome them to our school and go through key messages for a great start in August. Thank you already to our G28/29 crew who have been supporting our new parents with any questions they have on the facebook page ‘Parents of XP Gateshead’. You know exactly how it feels at this stage and the many things to consider around the transition from primary to secondary. We really appreciate your support and the reassurance you can give, especially around the importance and positive impact of the Outward Bound experience.

I’d like to give a shout out to  Jess B, Leon, Macie, Betsy, Will, Holly S and Lily for their stewardship on Wednesday. They stayed behind after extended study to help us set up for the evening, moving chairs and tables. Their compassion was much appreciated by myself, Ms Donlan, Miss Diamond and Mr Said.

G28 Expedition – “Is migration worth the risk?”

Students have this last week started to explore migration during the Tudor period and have learned from the work of Dr Miranda Kaufmann about people that came to England from Africa, including a musician – John Blanke –  in the court of Henry VIII. As well as reading more on their anchor text ‘Of Mice and Men’, they have also been learning more about climate change. This will connect to their studies on migration as students learn more about how climate and the need for more sustainable energy generation can be a push or pull factor which impacts on migration. We have some fieldwork connected to this planned – more information on this soon.

G29 Expedition – “How does water shape our world?”

Students have been learning about river processes in preparation for upcoming fieldwork where they will test a hypothesis about the differences that they would expect to see in a river at various points in its course. This fieldwork will be on July 4th – more information on this soon. They have also been continuing to learn about humans’ relationship with, and impact on ecosystems. This last week we were visited by experts from Durham Wildlife Trust who helped students prepare for their upcoming fieldwork this week. Students are learning about water voles as a river species that is an indicator of the health of the ecosystem. They will be out in the field this week alongside experts, collecting scientific data which will be used to determine next steps in protecting this important species. More details below.

Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA®) courses

Thank you to all parents/carers who have signed up to  attend a half day Youth Mental Health Aware training course (MHFA®). 28 parents have signed up for this course and we are able to offer 3 separate face to face sessions – Friday 23rd June am, Monday 26th June pm and Monday 3rd July twilight. Each course will run for 3.5 hours (including breaks) and has a maximum of 12 spaces. This week, we will email the parents who have signed up for the course with full details.

This week

G29 Fieldwork 13th and 14th June

On Tuesday 13th June (G29 class 1) and Wednesday 14th June (G29 class 2) students will undertake a day of Fieldwork at Killhope Lead Mine museum collecting scientific data to support Durham Wildlife Trust water vole project . This will help students to study the distribution of an important, yet declining species and see the impact of habitat quality has on their population. Please see Mr Mead’s post for full details on timings and required kit for the day.

Please discuss this fieldwork with your children and remind them of our expectations to show our character traits and habits of work and learning both inside and out of school. We are developing a good working relationship with the wildlife trust and want this to continue.

PE sessions

PE sessions will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week – however there are some changes due to the fieldwork. Please note the following and make sure that your child has full PE kit:

Tuesday PE sessions for Y7 Class 2 and Y8 Class 2

Wednesday PE sessions for Y7 Class 1 and Y8 Class 1

Extended Study and clubs

Extended Study and clubs are running after school this week. 

Looking Ahead:

There are no Extended Study or after school clubs running next week due to SLCs.

Staff Development Days – Friday 23rd June and Monday 26th June 2023.  Students are not expected to be in school on this day.

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