Merry Christmas from XP Gateshead

By Mark Lovatt16th December 2022

Dear parents and guardian
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
What a term it’s been. We have welcomed a new year group (G29) and also several new staff to our growing “crew” at XP Gateshead. We couldn’t be more proud of the beautiful work our students have accomplished which culminated in Presentations of Learning (PoLs) last week and at the beginning of this week. I am sure you will agree that G29 were fantastic in their very first PoL and G28 stepped up to a raised challenge as they presented on their guiding question and shared their work with a live audience.
We could not do the work we do without the continued support of all of our families and the whole community. Thank you for all you do as parents and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New year. We look forward to seeing students at the usual time on Tuesday 3rd January.
Best wishes from all of us at XP Gateshead

Final update from the week

By Martin Said16th December 2022

Good afternoon.

It has been such a lovely final week of term for us here at XP Gateshead.

Year 7 – Presentation of Learning

Thank you so much to Year 7 parents for your feedback from the Year 7 PoL. We are so proud of the students and their hard work. You can watch the PoL back by clicking on this link.

Christmas Lunch

A massive appreciation to Suzanne and Cheryl in our kitchen for a beautiful spread and themed desserts too. Students gave our kitchen staff a lovely round of applause this morning – most definitely well-earned.

Year 7 Reverse Advent

Crew KDO have co-ordinated our reverse advent and dropped over 100 items at Gateshead Stadium this morning to be donated to the food bank.

Year 8 Reverse Advent

Crew MRS have co-ordinated our year 8 reverse advent and yesterday Sister Josepha came into school for our Christmas shoe boxes.

All donations from Year 7 and Year 8 have been gratefully received and will make such a difference to families this Christmas.

Year 8 presentations

Building on their work on diversity and belonging from their expedition Being Human, students in Year 8 have been working on presentations to their Crew about what makes them unique. It has been lovely to see students recognising their own strengths and reminding each other why they are admired.

Expert Speaker in Nature Club

After school yesterday we had an expert guest at Nature Club from the Marine Conservation Society. Students were fantastic in their questions and really enjoyed learning about this important work.

A final week to be proud of!

G29 Parents – An important date for your diaries

By Martin Said14th December 2022

Our next presentation of learning for Year 7 will be an in person event and will take place at the Kings Hall at Newcastle University.

We’re giving lots of advance notice for this one as the event is on a Friday evening.

Friday 24th March at 6pm. Kings Hall. Armstrong Building. Newcastle University. NE1 7RU

This is part of a planned progression for students in terms of their presentation skills and character development. We can’t reveal too much about why the PoL is being held here as that is all top secret until students their new learning expeditions in January.

Thanks so much for your support this term; we’re so proud of Year 7 following their very first PoL this week.

We can’t wait for you to be able to see them in person next time and look forward to welcoming you into school at the end of January for Year 7’s first SLCs (Student-Led Conferences).

G29 Year 7 Presentation of Learning – Tomorrow Evening 5.30pm LIVE STREAM

By Martin Said11th December 2022

Some reminders for our Year 7 students’ very first PoL (Presentation of Learning) tomorrow:

  • This is a formal occasion so students should dress smartly.
  • Students will stay in school in the evening – they may bring some healthy snacks as we will build breaks into the preparation time.
  • We expect students to be ready to be collected from school at around 7pm (the live stream will finish 15 minutes before students are ready to be collected).
  • It is an expectation that all families attend PoL events for students
    • The knowledge that there is an authentic audience for their work helps us to drive students to produce beautiful work, grow their character and realise that there is more in them than they know.

You can join the live stream by clicking on this link on Monday Evening at 5.30pm.

Parents’ Update – W/C Monday 12th December

By Mark Lovatt11th December 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

What a fantastic week we had last week as our G28 students presented their learning to an audience of their parents and talked about their work in more detail sharing connections they made between different subjects in their expedition “Being Human”. Students were attempting to answer the age-old question – ‘What does it mean to be human?’ and I have to say I was blown away by the quality of their presentations and their work. Thank you to all of our parents for attending and helping to make this such a special evening.

Feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive and some praises from parents who attended G28 POL were as follows:

“Impressed at the deep level of understanding, compassion, and appreciation.”; “praise the confidence of pupils”;  “impressed by student confidence and the way they presented their knowledge – shows real listening and progress in school”; “the confidence of all the students is astounding – it takes real courage to talk to an audience”; and “the depth of knowledge and thinking is wonderful”

This week

G29 PoL (Presentation of Learning) – Monday 12th December – live streaming event

This coming week we are equally excited about G29’s very first presentation of learning which will be live streamed on Monday evening. This is the culmination of G29’s very first expedition – From the ground Up and students will be answering the guiding Question – ‘What do communities of North East England owe to the miners?’ Our students have been working very hard on preparing for this and we are all excited to see the results.

You can join the live stream by clicking on this link on Monday Evening at 5.30pm.

Clubs and extended study

Please note that there will be no after school clubs or extended study on Monday 12th December because of the G29 PoL however clubs and extended study will be running as normal throughout the rest of the week

PE this week

We apologise for the short notice, but there has been a change that means we need to move PE sessions for this week.

Year 8 this week will be tomorrow: Monday.

Year 7 will have their PE sessions on Tuesday this week.

Early finish this Friday 16th December

Just a reminder to parents that students will be finishing early this Friday. They will be registered after lunch in crew rooms and then will leave school at 1.30pm. This is to allow staff to “de-gunge” and prepare for the start of next term.

Return to School on Tuesday 3rd January

students will be returning to school on Tuesday 3rd January at the normal time and we look forward to seeing our students again in January and starting some new expeditions.

Thank you

Thank you to all our parents and guardians for your ongoing support and trust. We are delighted with the progress your children are making in terms of their beautiful work, character growth and academic success – and know that we will continue to go from strength to strength in the new year. From all at XP Gateshead please have a Happy Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. 

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Co-principal

Beautiful work from an elf called Ben

By Martin Said7th December 2022

Ms Donlan went to see a performance at The Little Theatre with The Progressive Players this weekend and look who turned up: The Elf Who Saved Santa.

Ms Donlan was really impressed : “Ben’s performance was wonderful – he’s a natural on the stage”.

Great workshop work Ben!

Year 8 Parents – Presentation of Learning this week – GOOGLE FORM

By Martin Said4th December 2022

G28 YEAR 8 Presentation of Learning – What does it mean to be Human?

As Mrs Mosley has mentioned in her update:

For our PoL this Thursday 8th December at 5:30pm, where possible we are asking if you could limit the number of adults attending to two due to our temporary accommodation.

Families can arrive from 5.20pm and we expect to be finished by 7pm.

As was discussed at our very first meetings with families at the end of Year 6, it is an expectation that all students have at least one family member attend every presentation of learning.

YEAR 8 Parents: Please confirm your attendance by completing this Google Form.