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If your child has free school meals and would like a packed lunch provided by the school on the day they are absent due to strike action, then please contact the school office by 8 am.
These will be available for collection from school reception if required, tomorrow (for year 7’s) or on Thursday (for year 8’s).
Scarlett represented XP Gateshead in the British Schools National Judo Championships at the weekend.
This is a national championship so the standard is incredibly high, and Scarlett won the bronze medal at the event which is a fantastic achievement.
Beautiful work Scarlett, or should we say 美しい作品 .
Welcome back after a long weekend and my apologies for the delay in this week’s update.
As a Staff Crew we have worked hard during our two staff days planning curriculum. Teams have spent time collaboratively planning new expeditions for term 3 which will start after Easter with immersion weeks for both G29 and G28. We also took the time to look at our final three weeks of this term which include assessments and Presentations of Learning for all students. We are really looking forward to our PoLs and delighted that these will be taking place in professional surroundings.
As a reminder,
Year 7’s (G29) presentation of learning for their current HUMAN expedition, ‘Do Your Bit’ 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.
Year 8’s (G28) presentation of learning for their current expedition ‘What is Power?’ will be on Thursday 30th March starting at 5.30pm. The venue for the presentation of learning will be Caedmon Hall in Gateshead which is part of the Central Library.
A group of our Year 7 students are going to our local partners Edberts House today to find out about the work that they do in our community. This is part of their learning expedition Staying Alive with the guiding question ‘Is Survival Sufficient?’.
Edberts House will help us to pass on the food boxes that students will put together to families in need. The group of students will present back to the whole of Year 7 in this week’s community meeting on Friday.
Our programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week.
PE sessions – G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, there will be no PE sessions for G29 students (Y7) due to strike action.
NEU Strike Action – we are unable to open school for all students on both strike days so we are opening as follows:
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
Mia has recently performed at Disneyland Paris with her dance group Happy Feet Dance.
Mia and her friends danced professionally with a polished performance. We’re so proud that Mia shone bright on that stage. Mia has danced with this group since she was just 3 years old! What a great opportunity.
Beautiful work Mia!
Here’s a selection of beautiful work from across our Trust this week!
For more stories, make sure you visit http://xptrust.org/stories #WeAreCrew
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
Due to the deterioration of the weather forecast for this afternoon, we have decided to cancel the fieldwork to Heworth Cemetery this afternoon.
Students can still choose to stay at school until 4.30pm if they choose.
As was mentioned in Mrs Mosley’s parent update, we had a World Book Day reboot last week on Accelerated Reader. Accelerated Reader is a programme used to actively hone and develop reading skills. Students are tested termly to establish their reading age and are allocated a ZPD score. This score then guides them to books that are accessible but also challenging and students complete quizzes to check their comprehension.
We reiterated our expectations around AT LEAST 20 minutes of reading per day. We listened to student voice on what some barriers were to reading and have taken steps to remove these barriers. Some students were concerned that members of their crew weren’t reading because there were no consequences. At XPG we push and challenge students to be the best version of themselves and we feel strongly that reading regularly is a part of this. It is proven that regular readers achieve greater academic success, as well as having a host of mental health and cultural benefits.
Support for reluctant readers
For this reason, we have shared a ‘stepped’ approach for students who are not making sufficient progress with their reading (as measured by quizzes passed) which will be reviewed weekly. Students will only move onto this stepped system if crew leaders have concerns that a student is not completing the expected 20 minutes a day of reading extended study.
Step 1: Crew Leader will have a 1:1 conversation with the student to set daily or weekly reading goals (most likely a certain number of pages to be read.)
Step 2: If the student does not meet this goal, crew leaders will contact parents for support and request sanctions at home. For example, no playstation until they have completed 20 minutes of reading.
Step 3: If the student continues to not make the progress we would expect, students will be directed to a reading specific extended study for the remainder a half term. Here we will try and help to build good reading habits, students will have the opportunity to read aloud to a member of staff and discuss and make predictions about what they are reading.
Because our students form habits around Getting Smart and taking responsibility for their own learning, a number of students have already identified themselves that they struggle to find the motivation to read and have been asking crew leaders to support them by setting them reading goals – what proactive, mature and responsible students we have!
Celebrating great readers!
However, the excitement came with the incentives we have introduced. Students who have either passed 4 quizzes in a term, or read 100,000 words in a term will be entered into a lottery to win a £20 voucher! There will be a G28 and a G29 winner.
Students can be in the draw numerous times and even since last week we have seen the list of eligible students grow tremendously!
A big shout out to the students who have already made the draw:
Students still have 3.5 weeks to make it into the lottery so please encourage your child to get reading and remind them to quiz!
We appreciate your support with ensuring that all students are reading regularly and if you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with your child’s crew leader.
Unfortunately due to a frozen pitch, the matches this evening have been cancelled. Students can still choose to stay in school until 4.30 pm this afternoon as usual.
Please call our office if you need to pass on a message to your child.
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
