Crew Stanton started the day with a check in about favourite childhood toys and games. We then played a fun crew builder called ‘fruit and veg’.
We had 2 visitors to our crew day who supported us with 2 activities in the morning.
Mason, Anya, Laisey, Sonny, Rafa, Tyler and Lily D showed craftsmanship and quality whilst working as a crew to construct a toy box that will be donated to the family room of our chosen charity Tiny Lives. Students worked carefully and safely using drills, saws and clamps. Lily D worked on designing stencils which we will create then use to decorate the box.
Archie, Oliver, Jess, Lily T, Katie and Leighla learned how to knit so that they could knit squares which would be sewn together to create a baby blanket. They also showed craftsmanship and quality, as well as resilience to develop a new skill.
In the afternoon we were joined by Mrs Downes and headed to Windy Nook nature reserve for a crew picnic. We then tried to find a geocache but unfortunately we were unsuccessful. We also selected a good location for our own geocache. We have submitted the location for approval and will plant our geocache once we have been granted permission.
The whole crew have shown great compassion and respect throughout the day and have worked brilliantly as a crew. Our knitting group have gone home with needles and wool to continue their squares and the toy box group will complete decorating in the coming weeks during crew time.
Strike Action – Thursday 27th April and Tuesday 2nd May 2023
As you are aware, the NEU teachers union have balloted and agreed further strike action on Thursday 27th April and Tuesday 2nd May. As a leadership team, we have continued to do our best to minimise disruption to your child’s education during strike action.
Our plans are as follows:
Thursday 27th April – Y8 only in school
Tuesday 2nd May – Y7 only in school
When students are not in school they can work independently on extended study tasks.
A reminder that all students in both Year 7 and Year 8 will be out of school at some point tomorrow as part of their Crew Days.
Year 8 have planned their own outdoor activities and Year 7 are at Gateshead International Stadium.
This means that students will need:
Their regular kit for the day including their water bottle.
Suncream
Comfortable trainer style shoes for walking
Appropriate clothing for the weather, including a waterproof top.
Anything they are planning to bring for the picnic.
Sponsorship forms were shared with Year 7 on Monday. We have asked if money raised could come back next week, ideally by Wednesday 26th April, but by the end of the week at the latest.
As part of the immersion for their new expedition, year 8 students will be experimenting with mark making this week in Art.
We would like students to bring in items that might make interesting marks. Please do not go out and buy anything, but if you have old items lying around that might make interesting marks, please get your child to bring these in on Thursday this week.
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.
