As you know Year 7 students are carrying out a day of fundraising at Gateshead International Stadium linked to their studies from the last learning expedition “Staying Alive”. Students read a text excerpted from worldvision.org about two children whose lives were profoundly different, due to their access to clean water.
Working together in Crews, our students will aim to carry 5 litre bottles of water around as many laps of the 400m track as they can.
The funds raised will be put towards twinning our school toilets with a set that have been installed in an area of need, transforming a community.
Students will start school at the regular time. We will be leaving school by coach and returning during the school day so students will finish at the regular time of 3.15pm.
Each Crew is planning a Crew picnic. Crew leaders will be careful to monitor the contents of picnics where food allergies are an issue. Your child should be able to tell you what they have planned to contribute to the picnic.
The weather forecast at the moment is mild but with a chance of showers.
Students will bring home their sponsorship forms today.
Students will need:
Their regular kit for the day including their water bottle.
Suncream
Comfortable trainer style shoes for walking distance on the running track.
Appropriate clothing for the weather, including a waterproof top.
Anything they are planning to bring for the picnic.
Welcome back! We hope you have enjoyed your Easter break and we are looking forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow for the start of a new term at XP Gateshead.
Our usual reminders for a good start back…
Punctuality
School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew.
Daily kit list
As always, students need to bring a school bag with:
A filled water bottle
Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
A fully charged iPad
Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
Headphones
A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
A notebook
Dress code
As always, we ask students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly. See link here to details on dress code from our website.
This week
New Term – New Expeditions
A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our students. As always, immersion takes place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.
G29 Fieldwork
As part of their immersion, students in Year 7 will be taking part in an afternoon of fieldwork in our local nature reserve at Windy Nook. Students will eat lunch in school as normal on these days. There are no special requirements for this apart from sensible clothing suitable for the weather. Fieldwork will take place on Wednesday afternoon for Class 1 and Thursday afternoon for Class 2.
PE sessions
There is a slight change to PE this week for Year 7 Class 1. As usual Y8 students will need a PE kit for Tuesday, Y7 Class 2 students will need a PE kit on Wednesday and Y7 Class 1 will need a PE kit on Thursday.
Crew Day – Friday
On Friday our students will spend the whole day working with their crew and Crew Leader. The focus for these days will be charitable work as well as developing their team work, crew identity and wellbeing. For both Year 7 and Year 8 students will start and finish the school day at the usual time, and are planning Crew picnics. Each student is asked to bring something for the picnic, so your children should be able to inform you of the plan for their Crew and what they have suggested that they bring.
G29 Toilet Twinning – Walk for water
Linked to their work on ‘Staying Alive’ students are carrying out a day of fundraising to twin our toilets. Toilet twinning is a charity that installs toilets, clean water supplies and hygiene kits in areas in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The challenge for our students will take place at Gateshead International Stadium, using the running track. We will transport students to and from the stadium.
As well as raising funds, the challenge is intended to bring home how difficult it is for some children in the world where they do not have access to clean water near to where they live. During their expedition last term students have read about two children whose daily lives were very different simply because of how far they had to go to get water to survive.
Working together in Crews, our students will aim to carry 5 litre bottles of water around as many laps of the 400m track as they can. Students will seek sponsorship based on how far they can carry water collectively as a Crew. Sponsor sheets will be given to students tomorrow. For every £60 raised a toilet or clean water tap can be installed in an area of need, transforming the lives of those in that community. If we can raise £240 as a community, then we can twin our toilets with a whole toilet block!
Extended Study and Clubs
Clubs will all run this week along with extended study sessions every day except Friday. As usual, if a student attends an after school club or extended study session they must attend the full sessions until 4:30pm.
Looking Ahead:
Strike Action
As you may be aware, the NEU teachers union ballotted andagreed two further days of strike action this term on Thursday 27th April and Tuesday 2nd May 2023. As a leadership team, we will do our best to minimise disruption to child’s education and we will update you in due course.
As usual, if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.
Here are some more stunning narratives from Morgan and Lyra in G29. Morgan has written his from the perspective of a fallen solider and Lyra from the daughter who loses her father to the war. Great work Lyra and Morgan!
All of us at XP Gateshead would like to wish a ‘Happy Vaisakhi’ to our Sikh friends at Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha and would like to give special thanks to their support in our Year 7 learning expedition “Do your bit”.
We hope all of our families have the enjoyed the break having had a wonderful Easter too, and look forward to another exciting term at XPG. Here are Trudi and Maddie from Crew Nightingale doing some beautiful work and delivering the eggs from their Easter drive to Gateshead food bank on the final day of last term. Thanks to you all for your support in helping families in need.
Finally, Fallyn from G29 Crew Attenborough has also been doing some beautiful work in the community during the Easter break too.Fallyn volunteered at the Johnnie Johnson Housing Association Community at Blenheim Court close to our school. Fallyn’s family and all of us at XPG are very proud of Fallyn. The residents and staff said she was amazing – of course. Great work Fallyn!
As you know, being crew is what we are all about at XP. Whilst this means having each other’s back, it also means celebrating each other’s successes.
Hallie was so impressed by her shoulder partner’s creative writing that she told me I need to put it on the website so that everyone can read it. Emily is a very talented writer but she was also able to improve her writing either further through the kind, specific and helpful critique that she received from her shoulder partner too. That is what we love to see from our students, and I have to agree with Hallie, it is excellent!
See if you can guess the persona of Emily’s writing (HINT: it fits with the Easter theme…)
I shivered in the cold, dead of the night.
They have stopped now. All of them. Fools. Why scream and shout if you aren’t going to achieve anything at all. Mother says they’re stupid but Father is always saying that he wishes he was a human so that he could fight in a blazing war like this.
I can hear them. Gunshots, screams and the dreadful pain in these men’s voices pains me. In the day, fighting their hearts and blood out just to make a man happy. I hate it. And the smell! That awful decaying smell of rotting bodies that keep multiplying day by day seeps through the walls of our burrow.
I’m trying to get to sleep but I can hear mother and father scattering for things in the other room. Silently I crawl out of bed and make my way to the tunnel. I’m on my way downstairs, when suddenly there’s a big bang and I fly up into the air. The ground beneath me slips as I scramble to find a footing. There’s shouting and I can hear mother and father gathering my siblings. They say name by name until they come to mine. But no name falls from their mouths. I’m falling deeper and deeper with my hope following me. I’m scared. Scared enough to run ten miles away. I give up.
Black. All I can see is black. I don’t know what to do and I keep wondering if my family is alright; the children, Mother, Father. What has happened to them? Blood gathers on my fur. I decide to try and see if I can get out of this black hole and so I bat my feet against something sharp. It seems to work as there’s a rumble and the warm sun wafts against my ears. This is comforting in some way but mostly irritating.
I can hear men shouting. I look around. There’s a man lying on the ground with blood spilling out of his leg. I cautiously walk over to him. His eyes are open and he seems alive.
“Hilfe, Hilfe..” he mutters softly.
Father says that if I were to ever see a man wounded I would tell him but father isn’t here so I try to help the man. He has a rock digging into his leg. It’s heavy and hard to move but I can just manage to push it out of the way. Suddenly he bolts upright and looks around frantically. He looks down at me. I can see that he is young and has bright blue eyes that shine with the sun. All of a sudden he picks me up. He tries to stand but stumbles and drops me.
I can tell he’s frantic so I sit with him. Father says we make humans feel nice. I’ve never known why but I don’t care. It makes me feel good to be able to help the man so I don’t leave his side.
Dusk attacks, and he’s still lying on the ground. Suddenly he picks himself up and is upright on his feet. He picks me up, making sure he is gentle, and walks away from the rubble. I suppose this is like saying goodbye.
Here we are at the end of another fantastic term. What a term it has been! I am sure that you will all agree that our students have continued to rise to the challenge.
Over the last week we have enjoyed two amazing PoLs which took place at two amazing venues in our region:
Year 7 students presented their ‘Do Your Bit’ expedition at the Kings Hall, Newcastle University. We were all so proud of the courage and confidence our students displayed sharing their learning to an audience of over 200.
Year 8 students presented their ‘What is Power?’ expedition at Caedmon Hall which is part of Gateshead Central Library. We were all blown away by the quality and depth of their understanding – performances of Macbeth intertwined with insights into the meaning of the word power in society and the scientific definition of the word power. Our students’ Banksy inspired artwork also took centre stage with every student creating an image about an aspect of social justice they feel strongly about.
Can I thank you all for your attendance and support at PoLs. The work our students do is beautiful and important work. I think Oliver in Y8 summed it up wonderfully on behalf of our students last night when he said
“We are learning that we are powerful and we can make a difference”
They really are and they really can!
As usual if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.
We look forward to seeing you after the holiday on Monday 17th April at the usual time where we will be starting on our next exciting expeditionary adventures.
Have a great holiday and thank you so much for your continued support.
Happy Easter from all the staff crew at XP Gateshead.
On Friday 21st April we will have our next Crew Day.
G29 Crew Day
Linked to their work on ‘Staying Alive’ students are carrying out a day of fundraising to twin our toilets. Toilet twinning is a charity that installs toilets, clean water supplies and hygiene kits in areas in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The challenge for our students will take place at Gateshead International Stadium, using the running track. We will transport students to and from the stadium.
Working together in Crews, our students will aim to carry 5 litre bottles of water around as many laps of the 400m track as they can. Students will seek sponsorship based on how far they can carry water collectively as a Crew.
As well as raising funds, the challenge is intended to bring home how difficult it is for some children in the world where they do not have access to clean water near to where they live. During their expedition this term students have read about two children whose daily lives were very different simply because of how far they had to go to get water to survive.
G28 Crew Day
As you know, students in Year 8 Crews have now chosen the charities that they will be associated with for the rest of their time at XP.
Each Crew has a slightly different plan for the day, some of which involves walking for some Crews. Your child’s Crew Leader will share more details with you when we return to school after the break.
Crew picnics
For both Year 7 and Year 8 students will start and finish the school day at the usual time, and are planning Crew picnics. Each student is asked to bring something for the picnic, so your children should be able to inform you of the plan for their Crew and what they have suggested that they bring.
