XPG Year 6 Transition – Calendar of events 2023

By Martin Said24th April 2023

Dear Year 6 Families

We are delighted to be able to announce the calendar of transition events that we have planned to welcome your children and your family into our community at XP Gateshead.

More details on each of these events will follow in due course, but here is an overview of the activities so that you can plan ahead and discuss this with your child.

Online Family Meetings

This week we will send details of how to sign up for an online family meeting. Meetings will be in the fortnight commencing 15th May. These take place via Google Meet during the evening and are with a senior leader in the school. The meetings are a first chance for us to meet you and your child, to find out about them and discuss our expectations as a school. Your meeting will last up to 30 minutes.

Primary School Visits

We aim to visit every child in their Primary School starting from the week commencing 22nd May. This is done by members of our transition team and means that as well as seeing your child in an educational setting, they get to know another friendly face before they come to us.

In-Person Information Evening for parents/carers

We will be holding an In-Person Information Evening at our school on 7th June at 6pm.

It is important that all families attend as we will give important information about the Outward Bound course that takes place for all students at the start of Year 7 as well as our iPad scheme. In addition, we will address some of the misconceptions about our school so that families are completely clear on what we are: ‘A mainstream school with a relentless focus on beautiful work, character growth and academic success’, and also what we are not. There will be an opportunity for you to ask us questions too of course.

Due to the size of our temporary accommodation, we ask where possible that a maximum of two people from each family attend this event.

Transition Days at XP Gateshead

Your children will join us in school on Tuesday 4th July and Wednesday 5th July. Again more details of these days will follow in due course. Like a regular school day, students can arrive in school from 8:00am but need to be present by 8:25am. Our school day finishes at 3:15pm.

Your child will follow a typical day at XPG on both days which include some crew sessions, expedition sessions and a community meeting.

Meet your child’s Crew Leader

Following the transition days, on Thursday 6th July we will invite parents and carers into school in the evening to meet your child’s new Crew Leader. We expect all families to attend this event. We are proud of the strong relationships that we form with families at XP Gateshead and this is an important opportunity for you to begin to build that relationship with the person that will be the key adult for your child when they start with us. As well as our cross-curricular learning expeditions, our pastoral structure Crew is what sets us apart from other schools.

Information Gathering

A huge thanks to all of those families that have completed the Google Form to let us know about you and your child. We will also gather information from Primary Schools over the coming term so that we build a clear picture of your child and how we can support and challenge them to be the best version of themselves and see success.

 

In summary:

Beautiful work in French Arts and Crafts

By Emily Quested24th April 2023

In our lunchtime club: ‘French Arts and Crafts; the students have gone through the alphabet in French and made salt dough figurines for something that begins with each letter.

Through A to Z they created animals, items of furniture, places and things. Then, with the help of an online dictionary and Señorita/ Mademoiselle Quested they have written facts about each thing in French.

The students have painted each with acrylic and have displayed them to present their beautiful work! Très bon travail!

Crew Parks – Crew Day: Trees for cities

By Tom Devitt24th April 2023

For our first Crew Day in Year 8 following the establishment of our Crew charity, we took the morning to gain further knowledge of our charity – Trees For Cities! Our vision is to create a notice board that will inform other Crews in our School of what our charity does and raise awareness of the importance of trees in urban spaces, connecting this to what we have learned about trees in biology.

In the afternoon, we walked together to ‘The Fortress’ in Windy Nook, where we had a picnic to which each crew member had contributed. When returning to school we took a longer walk back through the nature reserve which made us appreciate how important our environment is to us, and the positive impact that trees can have in urban environments. 

As a crew, we are really eager to learn more about ‘Trees for Cities’, and we cannot wait to contribute further to our community! 

Beautiful work from G29 during fieldwork last week

By Darren Mead24th April 2023

For our immersion in G29, our science sessions took students off to Windy Nook Nature reserve. Here the students had a hugely successful day developing their fieldcraft skills for spotting wildlife.

The students’ patience was challenged whilst listening for and observing our local bird life to measure its biodiversity. They were rewarded with, amongst others, Chiffchaff and Great Tit songs as well as some great views of a hunting Kestrel. They used sweep nets to sample for the invertebrate life in the grassland to measure its biodiversity.

Amongst the species found were earwigs, leafhoppers, peacock butterflies, thrips and even the odd green dock beetle!

Students completed a litter survey to collect scientific data on the quality of the environment and finally a litter pick to act as stewards of their environment. A brilliant day – well done G29!

Year 6 Families: Online Family Meetings

By Martin Said23rd April 2023

Dear Families

We are delighted to announce that you can now book your online family transition meeting with us. We would like for your child and at least one other adult to attend the meeting. The meeting will last for 30 minutes

We are looking forward to meeting with you as a family, and finding more about your child.

During the meeting we will discuss our values and expectations through our home/school agreement.

There will also be an opportunity for you and your child to ask any questions that you might have. You can also share anything that you would like us to know about your son or daughter too.

Please complete the booking form linked below and book one slot.

Signup Genius Booking Form

Once you have booked a slot, in due course a member of our senior team will be in touch with you with details on how to join the online meeting.

Weekly update for families: W/C Monday 24th April 2023

By Julie Mosley23rd April 2023

Dear Parents/Carers

What a great first week back we have had! Our students have settled back into school quickly and, as always, have impressed us with their HoWLs, character values and their engagement in learning. 

Immersion

This week has been immersion week for all of our students marking the start of our new Summer expeditions. Both G28 and G29 students have been puzzling over what their new guiding questions will be after 4 days of immersion this week. 

As part of their new expedition G29 students have been learning about keystone species and carried out fieldwork in our local nature reserve at Windy Nook – there will be a separate post on that coming soon. They have also been learning about major rivers in the world and beginning to build background knowledge about drainage basins and key vocabulary. In Arts they have been studying the work of an artist Jason de Caires Taylor, who creates sculptures that are placed under the sea to become artificial reefs, where life can take hold. Students will find out their expedition title and guiding question this week.

Immersion for G28 has involved hearing stories from people that have been displaced in modern times, and also looked back to the great depression in the USA and the dust bowl, building background knowledge for their new anchor text ‘Of Mice and Men’. Students were particularly puzzled by the connections between this and light waves in science, and the creation of paper prints in Art. All will be revealed this week!

Crew Day

On Friday, our students and staff enjoyed a great Crew Day. Crews took time to ‘tend to’ Crew and culture as well as start their activism work with charities. 

Our G29 (Year 7) Crews completed the ‘Walk for Water’ covering a huge distance around the  Gateshead Stadium track. What was most impressive was the support and encouragement the Crews showed each other throughout the challenge. Here are just some snippets from Friday and there will be a longer post coming this next week with details of the amount raised. We have asked if sponsorship forms could come back into school by Wednesday of this week please.

In total students completed 702 laps around the track with water, that’s over 280km! What a great effort.

Our Year 8 our crews started the work with their chosen charities: 

Each crew is posting an update on our website to share the work they did on Friday and their charity plans for the future. Again. Here’s a couple of photographs from a fantastic day of hard work:

This week

PE sessions

As usual G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, G29 students (Y7) will need a PE kit on Wednesday.

NEU Strike Action, Thursday 27th April – Y8 only in school.

When students are not in school they can work independently on extended study tasks. There will be extended study after school on Thursday, but no sports due to the strike action.

XPG Term Dates 2023/24 and 2024/25

We have had several parents approach us over time to share the challenges caused when our holidays do not align to other Gateshead Schools.  We have discussed these challenges at our Spring Term LGC (Local Governing Committee) and we have investigated possibilities for term dates with the CEO of XP Trust. On Friday, I shared our proposals with all of the other XP Trust School Leaders at our Heads Network and on Monday I’d like to share these proposals with you and gather your feedback. Please look out for this post on Monday. I would like to get feedback from all of our families so everyone’s voice can be considered in our decisions around future term dates.

Looking Ahead:

Early May Bank Holiday –  Monday 1st May.

School closed for all.

NEU Strike Action, Tuesday 2nd May – Y7 only in school.

When students are not in school they can work independently on extended study tasks.

 

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

Crew Frank – The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation

By Michelle Ross23rd April 2023

Crew Frank have had a great week focusing on our chosen charity. On Tuesday 18th April, Liz Luff from the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation came in to talk to our crew about the work of our chosen charity.

Liz told us a little about how the foundation came about when Sir Bobby was battling cancer for the fifth and what would be the final time. She explained that Ruth Plumber, a Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, Newcastle University, had asked Sir Bobby if he could possibly use his contacts to help raise £500, 000 to help equip an important clinical research trials centre in Newcastle. From this request Sir Bobby, along with his wife Lady Elsie, set up the Sir Bobby Robson foundation. The response to Sir Bobby’s appeal for help was immediate and staggering and within less than two months of the Foundation being launched Professor Plummer had the £500,000 she needed. In February 2009, Sir Bobby officially opened the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre.  Liz told us that Sir Bobby was so proud that the centre carried his name and he vowed to give a year of his life to this charity in order to support very important work to save lives. Sir Bobby described it as being at the helm of his last and greatest team. His passion for The Foundation, despite being very ill himself, resulted in him spending his last 18 months doing all he could to raise funds to help others facing cancer.  He said he hoped it would become his legacy. 

Sir Bobby achieved so much in his footballing career which included playing for England himself in the late 1950s and early 60s and managing England for 8 years from 1982-1990 before successfully managing huge clubs such as PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Barcelona and then his beloved Newcastle United. He was a man who was highly respected in the footballing world and beyond and this is why so many people were so keen to support him when he set up this important foundation. To date, The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has raised over £18 million and the Centre offers patients access to early trials and potential new treatments and works closely with the Imaging Research Centre to improve diagnosis and study the effects of new drugs.

During a Crew check in on Wednesday morning we reflected on how we are now feeling about our chosen charity and the support we intend to give to it. The following are quotes from our Crew check in.

After listening to Liz when she came in to speak to us…

Emily – I feel like I know so much more about Sir Bobby and how important he was to a lot of people, not just football fans, and I am proud to be supporting the foundation.

Leon – I feel proud of us choosing this charity because of Sir Bobby being such a great person from our region.

Jayden – I feel glad that we chose this charity because it has a huge impact helping so many people and Liz talked to us about the important work they do.

Ruby – I feel inspired by Sir Bobby Robson being our role model as seeing what he achieved, despite being very ill, makes me think that we can do so much more.

Hannah – I feel intrigued to find out even more about what the foundation does as we carry on supporting it.

Harris – I feel more motivated and confident in what we are going to do because of the important work they do in finding new treatments.

Mrs Ross – I feel so inspired to help make a difference for people who are fighting cancer especially after finding out how motivated Sir Bobby was, despite his own battle, and knowing that there are people everyday who owe their lives to the work of the Sir Bobby Robson foundation.

Daniel – I feel more connected to the charity and motivated to fundraise on its behalf.

Macie – I feel much more confident and eager to support and to do our walk on Friday because I know much more about what Sir Bobby achieved and know we can achieve so much too.

Elyse – I feel motivated by the work that Sir Bobby did and the legacy he has left behind so I’m looking forward to supporting more.

Will – I feel honoured to have chosen to support this charity as we have listened to how passionate Sir Bobby was to help others and so I feel like this was a good choice.

Tyler – I felt very proud of our choice of charity to support as it started out small with a goal of raising half a million pounds to equip a cancer trials centre but has grown so big and we can be part of it continuing and growing to help even more people.

Gemma – I feel confident that we will be able to positively support the charity and proud to have chosen the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation as our crew charity.

Crew Day

Our walk together as a Crew on Friday was to raise funds for this important charity and also included some solo time and a visit to a local Buddhist temple in Hebburn.

 

Eid Mubarak and beautiful work from Harris, Daniel and Sonny

By Martin Said21st April 2023

Eid Mubarak!

Harris has just completed his fast for Ramadan and was able to enjoy sharing his crew picnic today as part of Crew Frank’s plans for the day. He received a card from his crew who are so proud of his dedication and efforts this last month.

Sonny and Daniel have also won their league this week with two games to spare! Congratulations to them both and all involved with Gateshead Stripes U13 football team.

Great work boys!

More updates from Crew Days very soon. Have a great weekend.