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Grace has completed a 6-week course and assessment and has now qualified as a mentor at Stepney Banks Stable. This enables her to support younger riders in the arena and guide them round during lessons. She is also now able to prep ponies for lessons and look after them after lessons. Fantastic work Grace!
Welcome to the final week of another half term. It looks like Summer is finally on its way and I hope you have enjoyed the sun this weekend.
This week has been a busy one again and our students have enjoyed some great learning experiences.
To celebrate National Numeracy Day on Wednesday, our Year 8 students undertook numeracy Crew Challenges. Miss Power had devised a great chocolate slab challenge which incorporated work covered this year on ratio, sequences and geometry. Crews were challenged with design, planning and making tasks which required high levels of cooperation and clear communication.Â
As we say,â if we get Crew right, we get everything rightâ at XP so time to challenge ourselves as a crew, develop our skills and take time to reflect on experiences is key to the ongoing success of Crew.Â
In the words of Kurt Hahn: âWe are crew, not passengers, strengthened by acts of consequential service to othersâ The culture of crew impels all members of a school community to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others.
On Wednesday our G29 students enjoyed a day of fieldwork on the NorthEast coast. They worked with the Wild Oyster Project to gather data from crates where oysters are being bred. This data will help the scientists at the research station gather evidence for the importance of oysters as a keystone species. Students will be writing articles about the importance of oysters later in their expedition. In the other part of the fieldwork students carried out a survey of two contrasting beaches to see how the topography of each beach had impacted on the way that it was used by humans.
It is also worth noting the courage shown by our Year 8 students who got HPV vaccinations in school this week. Several of our students were concerned about injections but all supported each other and we had an incredibly successful vaccination session. The immunisation team were overwhelmed with the crew of staff and students at XPG and thought our school was a real pleasure to work in. Iâd like to extend this thanks to parents too for all of your support around vaccinations.
All students will have a PE session on Monday this week. To maximise time in each PE session, we ask that G28 (Year 8) come to school dressed in their PE kit on Monday so they are ready for a sharp start to the session. They will then be able to change into fresh clothes at the end of the session. G29 (Year 7) students will change to PE kit at the start of the session and will be able to wear this until the end of the day on Monday.
On Tuesday we welcome Charlotte Osgerby from Carers Trust, Tyne and Wear. Charlotte will be available; at lunchtime to talk to our students and support our Young Carers at XPG.
On Wednesday, John Ord from Northumbria Police Violence Reduction Unit will run a session for our Y8 students on the dangers of knife crime.
One in six children aged five to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2021 (Youngminds website). As part of our commitment to supporting the wellbeing of our students, we would like to offer our parents/carers the opportunity to attend a half day Youth Mental Health Awareness training course.This course is certified by Mental Health First Aid England and would be fully funded by us (apart from session materials). Please look out for the website update coming later this week where you will be able to register your interest and preference on course dates in the Summer term.
We have enjoyed meeting many of our new students and their families this week online. Family meetings will continue this week. As part of our transition, we are ready to start our visits to feeder primary schools.Â
As usual, if you have any questions please contact your childâs crew leader in the first instance.Â
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley
Co-Principal
In January 2023, students in Year 9 studied a joint HUMAN and STEAM expedition called âYou give me feverâ where students had to answer the guiding question:
Is Science enough to save lives?
The final product was a charity drive in order to raise money for local health charities. We did lots of school events in order to raise money for the charity chosen by each school. We conducted a sponsored walk, bake sale, PJ day, sponsored silence and a bikeathon.
For our presentation of learning, we created short flip book animations that were projected in XP East. There were zones set up outside around XPD made to look like the time periods of each case study (Black Death, Cholera Outbreak, Spanish Flu & Aids). We were dressed up in period costumes and spoke to the audience about the science and history or each case study. Students also displayed their artwork and sketchbooks to showcase the skills they had acquired this term. At the end of the PoL we presented the funds raised for equipment at NHS Doncaster.
It has been wonderful to partner with Frenchgate on this important project – we can’t thank them enough for giving our Schools the opportunity to make their own pledges and display them for all to see within the Centre.
Active maths lesson @ Carcroft School
Beautiful work from Ben @ XP Gateshead
Subtracting Fractions Treasure Hunt @ Norton Juniors
Reading for pleasure @ Norton Infants
Ben spent last weekend at Live Theatre being directed by Robson Green for a television performance. It looks like we have a future star in our ranks. Great work Ben, what a fabulous experience. More information and photographs can be found here:
https://www.culturednortheast.co.uk/2023/05/14/robson-greens-weekend-workshop-at-live-theatre/
Students are expected to be back at school at around 4.15 pm this afternoon.
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The school Immunisation team will be in school G28 HPV Vaccinationstomorrow morning to give HPV vaccinations to the students for whom they have consent. These consent forms were completed when the students were in year 7.
If you want to check that you have filled in a consent form or wish to give verbal consent, then please contact the school office on 0191 4814360.
For any absent students, there will be on-going catch-up sessions at a later date.
Thanks
Crew Frank are proud to announce that the total raised from our 7.1 Mile Sponsored Walk was ÂŁ515.62. We are delighted to kick off our support for our chosen charity, The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, with such a fantastic contribution. We were super proud to be able to officially hand over a giant cheque that was designed for us by Ken Dobson of Studio Stunt Double and then printed by Adam Goodwin of Whittle Print. A huge thanks from us to both gentlemen who did this completely free of charge to support our school as we support many different charities. Unfortunately we had two of our Crew who were absent from school when Liz Luff came in to receive the cheque so missed out on seeing the cheque being handed over but we will be making sure they are in on future opportunities as we have lots of ideas for fundraising in the time ahead of us for what we feel is such an amazing charity that does fantastic work. Liz told us that Sir Bobby would be so proud to have us all on his team and would have loved the fact that we âwent the extra mileâ when completing our walk (our original goal was 6 miles) as that was something he always tried to do.
Last week was another shorter week of four days for us but as always, we covered a lot of learning at XP Gateshead.Â
After seeing their updated snapshots, our students have highlighted areas of their work they want to improve. This may be around habits of work and learning (HOWLs) – work hard, get smart or be kind or academic performance. When walking around sessions last week and talking to students, it was great to hear them talk about the improvements they wanted to make and how this could look in sessions. I look forward to seeing their efforts and work to meet pledges in all sessions over the coming weeks. Â
As parents, you will be receiving an email from your child later this week and they will share their current snapshots with you along with their reflections and pledges. They will also invite you to their last SLC (student led conference) of the year and give you further details about this.
We had a lot of visitors in school last week. We welcomed Chris Harte. Chris is Government & Academic Engagement Lead for Google Education. Chris was in the UK from Melbourne, Australia to attend the Education World Forum and of all the schools in the UK chose to visit ours. Chris was also interviewed by Y8 students for their current expedition on migration, and discussed with them his experience of migrating to Australia over 13 years ago.
We also interviewed candidates for Safeguarding and Attendance Lead this week. Visits to XPG always start with an ambassador tour from students. They introduce our school, talk about expeditions, Crew and share their work and the work of others. During interviews, a students panel always takes place as well as feedback from students after sessions if candidates have been asked to deliver a lesson or run a discussion group with our students. Our students are key stakeholders in all aspects of our work here at XPG so their voice is important.Â
I wanted to share just some of the comments and feedback we received from visitors in school over the last week or so:
âI just wanted to send an email to thank you for your time today. I really appreciated your kindness, support and encouragement. In the time I spent with you I was able to see that XP Gateshead offers students a warm, personable environment in which they are at the heart of everything you doâ
âI think your school is fantastic and the children are an absolute credit to the XPG. Would you pass on my thanks to those children involved in today’s interviews, and tell them to keep being their amazing selvesâ
âThe depth of understanding students display when talking about their learning is stunning. Of all of the schools in the world that I have visited, this is where I would want to teach.â
âThe maturity of how your students approach tasks is impressive – the quality of their questions, their listening skills and how they interpret information. It’s how they collaborate as a group, support and challenge each other’s thinking and as they told me, âshare the airâ. â
Staff, like students, are always learning at XP Gateshead and looking âup and outâ to develop their own practice and the practice of others. Bonny Power was successful this week in securing a place with the Great North Maths Hub as a Secondary Mathematics Specialist. This is a great opportunity for Bonny and XP to be involved in mathematics development at a regional and national level – congratulations Bonny!
As you know, Mr Currie will be covering PE sessions with our students whilst Mr Devitt continues his training placement in another secondary school. Sessions went well last week and students started a PE dance module.Â
All students will have a PE session on Mondays until Mr Devitt returns. To maximise time in each PE session, we ask that G28 (Year 8) come to school dressed in their PE kit on Monday so they are ready for a sharp start to the session. They will then be able to change into fresh clothes at the end of the session. G29 (Year 7) students will change to PE kit at the start of the session and will be able to wear this until the end of the day on Monday.
Mr Mead has posted an update on our website about important fieldwork for Year 7 following the expert session students had on oysters as a keystone species.
G29 Students are carrying out fieldwork on Wednesday 17th May and need to be in school at 8.10am and are expected to be back in school between 4.00pm and 4.30pm. More details can be found in Mr Mead’s post here.
Extended Study and clubs are running after school this week. On Tuesday we have hula fitness, Wednesday is our robotics club and Thursday is Nature Club and Rock School.
We look forward to meeting all of our new families over the next two weeks for their individual online meeting. This meeting will be a chance to get to know our new students and their families individually and share key information and our home school agreement.Â
Our Local Governing Body (LGC) Summer meeting takes place this week on Thursday 18th May.
Half Term and 1:30pm finish on Friday 26th May
As usual, if you have any questions please contact your childâs crew leader in the first instance.Â
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley
Co-Principal
