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A reminder that our information evening starts at 5.30pm this evening.
Students do not need to come to this event but are welcome.
If arriving by car please use the staff car park to avoid parking in front of our neighbours and then use the visitor entrance when you get onto the school site.
G30 are currently learning about nutrition and digestion through a lens of food poverty as part of their expedition with the guiding question ‘Is survival sufficient?‘
Tomorrow all students are going to learn how to make a tomato sauce using low-cost ingredients, a basic staple from which they can make many other dishes.
We are providing ingredients for tomorrow but there are some important things to note.
For their session in the kitchen:
If students want to take the food that they cook home, they will need to bring a plastic or Tupperware style container that can be securely closed.
Recently Arlo and Daniel competed at a National Cross Country competition in Essex.
Daniel finished 11th overall in his Under-15 category and Arlo finished 3rd in his category. Great work boys!
“If I were to make a list of the best schools in the world, XP would be on that list.”
Ron Berger, Senior Advisor, Expeditionary Learning USA.
If you are a teacher looking for a model of schooling that dares to break the mould, then this might just be for you. There is now the opportunity of a lifetime to teach at the newest of our extraordinary schools, XP Gateshead. Our rigorous 3-D approach develops activism, leadership and equity in our students by creating beautiful products, which develop character and ensure our children achieve academic success.
We are now recruiting for our fourth year of opening. Each year we put together new teams to help to deliver our expeditionary curriculum. For our next round of recruitment we are particularly interested in teachers of Maths, English, Humanities, Design Technology, Engineering, 3D Arts and Creative Media. We welcome applicants from all stages of their teaching careers from ECT to SLT to begin a world-class 5-week induction with us in June 2024.
Our students know that they are important, because their work is important. Students work at XP Gateshead has a direct and positive impact on our community. We teach through cross-curricular ‘learning expeditions’ where students use their knowledge to address big questions like ‘What does it mean to be human?’, ‘Is survival sufficient?’, ‘How can we continue to make progress on public health?’.
We believe a person is judged by their character and the quality of work they produce. Our school focuses continuously on these two crucial areas of development. Our children express who they are by personalising their work, and are given time to produce beautiful and meaningful work by following a process of multiple drafts and critique, working towards creating products which are indistinguishable from professionals. Every day, our children develop their habits of work and learning by working hard, getting smart and being kind, and reflecting on our character values.
If you would like any further information please contact us by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 0191 481 4360.
Application forms can be downloaded online from the XP Trust website from the ‘Recruitment Process’ section.
All application forms should be returned directly to XP Trust [email protected] before Wednesday 21 February @ 5pm
Interviews are scheduled to take place on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th February.
You can find more info about joining our Crew (including the Application form) here.
Dylan has made extensive adaptations to the code that we have been working with in Computing. His sprite even gets annoyed if users say that they support Sunderland, perish the thought! Great work Dylan.
It has been great to see so many of you in person this week attending your child’s Student-Led Conference (SLC). Our students have shown real courage this week presenting their learning, especially G30 students where this has been their first time presenting a SLC. Exit ticket feedback from parents and carers has been full of praise and this will be shared with students as part of their SLC debrief where they will reflect on this experience against the rubric and set themselves targets for their next SLC.
Our G28 and G29 students enjoyed a NHS careers performance this week which gave them a real insight into possible careers from our region’s and the UK’s number one employer. Students really enjoyed the performance and found out more about the 350 possible careers and pathways available. More info on NHS careers can be found here.
As part of our curriculum, in year 9 all students complete a DofE Bronze Award. Our G28 students started their DofE work last term in the volunteering and skills section.
We will be meeting G28 parents this Thursday 8th February to give more details about the DofE qualification and its four sections (Volunteering, Physical, Skills, and Expedition).
This week is National Apprenticeship Week – a week aimed at raising awareness of work-based qualifications available from the age of 16. Apprenticeships are work-based qualifications available to your children from the age of 16.
There is a useful guide to apprenticeships for families from last year’s event which can be found here. General information for families can be found here on the government website.
SLCs continue this week. These are key events for our students so please ensure you attend your appointment. This week we have had several appointments cancelled which have impacted on staff time and students who have been ready to present their SLC. Wherever possible please can we ask that cancellations or changes are made only in exceptional circumstances.
This event will take place on the evening of Thursday 8th February at 5.30pm in school.
In line with our dress code, we expect students to arrive at PE lessons with a change of kit which is appropriate for the activity and all accessories removed. This includes sports trainers with non slip soles e.g. running shoes/astro turf (not plimsolls or baseball boots).
We will only be running after school extended study this week due to SLCs.
On Thursday we will welcome Rav Singh, the founder of ‘A little History of the Sikhs’, to XP Gateshead. Rav will be working with our Year 7 students on their current HUMAN expedition exploring the guiding question: ‘Why do we need to honour all those who made sacrifices during WWI?’ and helping them to understand the experience of Sikhi soldiers.
On Friday, our students will work with Trish Wright, a Food Technology expert and friend of XPG, on their STEAM expedition which has the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’. Students will be working in our new Food Technology room getting skilled up in three basic cooking recipes which are the basis for many cost-effective family meals. There is not a need for families to provide ingredients for this. During half-term we will be encouraging students to try out recipes from Jack Munroe’s Bootstrap Cookbook, cooking at home with you. More information on this next week.
On Wednesday 14th February school nurses will be in school to administer Meningitis ACWY, alongside the Td/IPV booster immunisations to G28 students that have permission. A letter regarding this was emailed to all G28 parents in December. If you have not yet given permission, please see the attached letter with information and a link to the consent form.
On Tuesday 13th and Thursday 15th February, Northumbria Crime Prevention team will run a session about online safety for our G29/G30 students. This will cover some key messages about how to keep safe online, in and outside of school which will include safe use of age-appropriate social media sites.
On Thursday 15th February, we are delighted that, once again, our Year 7 students will visit the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha. The Gurdwara is a Sikhi temple in the centre of Newcastle and our students will find out more about Sikhi and how temples operate as part of their expedition ‘Do your bit’ which includes a focus on the experience of Sikhi soldiers. More detailed arrangements will come in a separate website post later this week.
We come to the end of a six week half term on Friday 16th February and as always, we will finish at 1:30pm for our usual de-gunge. We return to school on Monday 26th February 2024. Here’s our 2023/24 Calendar again for you to see term dates this year.
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
At the end of last year, we asked students in C29 to reflect on the learning that took place outside the classroom and how this has helped them to build Crew.
Look at this collection of recent work which is now on display in the corridors of Carcroft School. Be sure to stop and admire students beautiful work from across phases and Expeditions!
Beautiful Work from Harris @ XP Gateshead
Animal Habitat Research @ Norton Infants
Y6 Athletics Champs! @ Green Top
E28 Crew Ardern DofE Charity Work @ XP
Crew Malala Achievements @ XP East
Recycle Walk @ Carcroft School
Setting Description Artwork @ Norton Juniors
Find out more here and apply to #JoinOurCrew
We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.
It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
Harris has successfully passed the JLC (Junior Lawyers Club) Bronze Award, demonstrating high levels of presentation skills.
In fact his presentation on a proposed law which further protects the ‘right to strike’ was so accomplished that he has been awarded with a distinction level.
Harris will now be working towards taking the JLC Silver Award to demonstrate advocacy and critical thinking skills! Great work Harris.
This week SLCs start for G30 and G29 students. This is an important moment for your children to share their progress with you.
We have talked with students a lot about culture this week. Our G29 students attended a performance of Macbeth at York – the conduct of our students was exemplary from beginning to end of the visit. Class 1 in particular have been praised for their work in class this week following the performance and the battle scene from the opening of the play is really coming together. Many of the peer appreciations in our community meeting this week were in praise of students’ efforts in Drama sessions.
G28 students have made a strong start to the academic year, our community meeting this week was full of appreciations for working hard and for students that are changing behaviours in a positive way – it is wonderful that this is noticed by students.
We also had a strong community meeting with Year 7. G30 students showed great courage in making stands for our character traits and our culture. As families of G30 will know, and have seen from their first Presentation of Learning, our Year 7 have made such a brilliant start to their time at XP Gateshead. One of the strengths of our school model and of Crew is that students have a genuine voice in their school. Students this week made stands for our culture because they care, and because we sweat the small stuff.
Before looking at the week ahead, we just wanted to share some feedback from a Local Governing Committee visit this last week from Jane Sutton, who was looking at how inclusive our practices are – in particular how we support students with SEND.
This was a very positive visit, and has given us some important pointers on how we can further strengthen our offer. In particular our skilled learning coaches were praised for their knowledge and skills in the classroom.
However this feedback from conversations with our children is particularly impressive and indicates just how well students can articulate what our school is about.
“I was… impressed and inspired by the students I spoke to. They were eloquent and confident to speak about the personal challenges they face due to their
additional needs and how these challenges are addressed by all the staff in school. They spoke about the strong relationships they were able to build with staff and that they felt they could talk to trusted adults. The support being provided for these students is clearly having a positive impact on their confidence and self-belief and they feel their needs are being met. They are proud of their achievements and credit the staff and school for this.
They spoke positively about the number of extended learning opportunities they were given such as fieldwork, clubs, common mission, theatre visits, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, Leader of your own learning activities and Crew activities.
They told me how they felt Crew was a great support to them. One student explained how she had delivered a presentation to her crew about her ASD/ADHD and the positive response she had to this.
She felt that this now enabled her to open up to her peers more which helped her.”
Our Year 7 climate leaders – Isaac, Elina, Freya, Molly, Lizzie and James – are working with Tyne and Wear Museums on a six week-long project to design some digital curation connected to decarbonisation and fossil fuels. They are meeting with curators from TWM each week on tuesday afternoons this term.
A team from Performance in Education are working with G28 and G29 this week on Thursday afternoon during the school day to give them an insight into careers in the NHS. The NHS is one of the world’s largest employers, and is the number one employer in our region and the UK. More info on NHS careers can be found here.
We continue to work with our colleagues in Trust to develop our practice. This week we will have a focus on PE, Assessment Information and Wellbeing.
If you have not already done so, please make sure that you have booked an SLC slot, you should have received an email from our office@ email address. Please contact us if you have not received this.
A reminder that passage presentations will take place during the day on Monday 11th March, and Tuesday 12th March. You will be given an opportunity to book a slot in a similar way as you have done for SLCs.
This event will take place on the evening of Thursday 8th February at 5.30pm.
Julie Mosley
Principal
