Dear Parents/Carers

We had a good first week back to school and our students have settled back into learning. 

A focus for the whole community this week has been respectful communication. Respect is one of our character traits and this, along with compassion, is central to how we communicate with each other. 

At XP Gateshead we have a zero-tolerance approach to sexism, racism, homophobia and sexual harassment. This behaviour is never acceptable and it will not be passed off as ‘banter’, ‘just having a laugh’ or ‘part of growing up’. 

We spent time on Friday in our community meetings discussing with students their ideas on what was and what was not respectful communication. We will combine all of this work and produce an agreed XPG student charter for how we communicate with each other respectfully. Our charter will be shared on our website when complete.

We are incredibly lucky to have a great support team here at XPG. We have an amazing cleaning team from Gateshead services who work behind the scenes from 6am every morning. Karen and Carol are a key part of our crew who show craftsmanship and quality everyday and really care about our school, staff and students. Our catering team, Suzanne and Cheryl are another two members of the crew who do an amazing job for us all on a daily basis, caring deeply about all staff and students. Look at what we enjoyed this week to celebrate Pancake Day on Tuesday and our Friday treats to get ready for the big game this weekend:

On a final note of appreciation, I’d like to thank the mystery family who sent a special delivery our way this week for the whole team. It was very much appreciated by us all!

 

This week:

NEU strike action – Tuesday 28th February.

School will be fully open on Tuesday even though some of our staff will be on strike. We respect the right for our staff to strike and we support their action. 

There will be no PE on Tuesday for Year 8.

Our usual programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week. Please check in with your son/daughter about their extended study and make sure that they are up to date with their work and meeting deadlines. Daily reading must form part of their plans and we expect all students to read their Accelerated Reader texts for 20-30 mins each day. They should be regularly quizzing on Accelerated Reader as they complete their books, please ask them about this.

 

Looking Ahead:

Staff Development Days

A reminder that we have two staff development days this half term: Friday 10th and Monday 13th March. As normal, students are not expected to be in school on these days.

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

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back! We hope you have had a restful half term break and we are looking forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow.

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

We ask students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly. See link here to details on dress code from our website.

PE sessions

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

Extended Study and Clubs

Clubs will all run this week along with extended study sessions every day except Friday. A reminder that if a student attends an after school club or extended study session they must attend the full sessions until 4:30pm.

Ongoing Expeditions and PoL dates for your diary

Our G29 students continue to work on their two expeditions until the end of this term.  Their STEAM expedition, ‘Staying Alive’ with the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’ and their HUMAN expedition, ‘Do Your Bit’ with the guiding question: ‘Why is it important that we honour all those that sacrificed in WWI?’.  A reminder that the presentation of learning for this will be on Friday 24th March at Newcastle University in the King’s Hall – a space that was used as a military hospital during WWI.

Our G28 students continue to work on one cross-curricular expedition this term with the guiding question and title of ‘What is Power?’. Their final presentation of learning – including an abridged performance of Macbeth – will be on Thursday 30th March at Caedmon Hall at Gateshead Central Library. More details to follow in a separate post this week.

Looking Ahead:

Strike Action

As you may be aware, the NEU teachers union have balloted and agreed a further strike action on Tuesday 28th February 2023. As leadership, we will do our best to minimise disruption to child’s  education and we will update you in due course.

Staff Development Days

We have two staff development days this half term; Friday 10th and Monday 13th March. As normal, students are not expected to be in school on these days.

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

Co-principal

Dear Parents/Carers

We have come to the end of another full and busy half term and, as always, our whole community have worked together demonstrating courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality, integrity and above all compassion.  

Our students have continued to work hard across this half term and I’m sure that after seeing your child present their Student Led Conference, you would all agree that they continue to be challenged (and supported) to strive for beautiful work.  Thank you all again for your support in SLCs, it is vital that our students share their progress regularly as ‘Leaders of their own Learning’.

It has been a busy final week and here are a couple of highlights:

Our G29 students visited the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha on Thursday to 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 Sikh soldiers. 

As you can see, our students had an amazing experience and we are extremely grateful to Jaswinder Singh who helped to organise the cultural fieldwork so that our students could carry out ‘sewa’, an act of service. 

On Friday our G28 students worked alongside several experts as part of their ongoing expedition ‘What is Power?’. In drama they worked with Christina Berriman Dawson, an acclaimed writer, actor and director who supported students in the preparation for their performance of Macbeth on 30th March.

G28 also continued our work with Alice Roberts and colleagues from Newcastle University around nutrition.

Nature Club also hosted a badger expert who talked to students about the species and the challenges that they face in the wild.

Outside of classrooms, it has been busy with three full days of interviews. I am delighted to say that we have appointed three new teachers to our staff crew:

Rebecca Marshall who joins us as a STEAM teacher (teaching mathematics and some science), Tilda Macphail who joins us as an Arts teacher and Rebecca Jones who joins us as a HUMAN teacher.

We are delighted with our new appointments and look forward to them joining us in June to start their induction with us. 

I think that we can all agree that it’s time now for a well deserved rest!

Have a great half term break and we look forward to seeing all of our students on Monday 20th February. Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. 

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal