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The NHS flu vaccination programme will commence this half-term for all students.
The following date has been planned for XP Gateshead: 26/11/2024
Could all families please complete the attached link if you have not already done so. https://www.northumbria immunisations.co.uk/Forms/Flu
The school code is: NB148617
Here is a link to a video explaining how the nasal spray works if your child has any concerns.
I hope everyone is having a nice start to their half term break.
A few weeks ago, as part of National Poetry Day, all students started to plan and write their own poem around the theme of ‘The Beautiful Truth’ in line with a national Young Writers poetry competition.
I set a deadline of 18th October for this in line with our half term break and have had 3 entries from Y8 students. The official deadline for entries is Friday 25th October and I would like to give this last call-out for any more poems that students may want to enter (there was a lovely buzz around school on National Poetry Day around this).
Please encourage your child to share their poem with Ms Tatters before Friday so I can ensure all student entries are submitted.
Thanks for your support!
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. We have continued to work hard across this first half term, welcoming new students and staff, continuing to build our culture through crew.
As you know, an Ofsted team visited us this week for our first inspection. It has been a very positive experience for us at XPG. It is a challenge for an Inspection team to get a real understanding of our school and expeditionary curriculum since we do some things differently at XPG! Our lead inspector Hannah Millett, really took the time to do this and led the inspection with integrity, care and compassion.
The verbal feedback given at the end of the inspection was stunning. The commitment, passion and care that staff, students and governors have for the work we do here at XPG has shone through. Ambition was commented on several times across the inspection – the ambition we all have (adults and children) to change lives and our communities.
A special thanks to all of those families who took the time to respond to the Ofsted parental survey. We get to see the final statistics on each question but don’t see the written comments you make so thank you to those who took the time to share their lovely comments with us too.
We should receive our draft report after the half term break and hope to get our final report published before the end of November. I really look forward to seeing this and sharing it with you all.
PoLs are used as an opportunity for students to showcase their learning from their most current learning expedition. PoLs enable students to grow their character and further embed their learning through presenting their work in front of a range of authentic audiences and in a variety of contexts. In addition, students develop oracy skills by presenting to different audiences and in different contexts which builds confidence and further allows students to grow their character whilst developing key skills.
Below are the dates for our PoLs (Presentations of Learning) next term. It is important to note that we expect for every child to have a family member there to support them.
So, it’s been an exhausting one, and 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 4th November at the normal time. It will be week 3 on the lunch menu when we return.
Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support.
.Julie Mosley
XPD hosted eight visitors from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust – an organisation established in 1884 – that is one of the top ten charities in the world . The visitors are looking at models of education, visiting XPD to see how and why we do what we do. The feedback they left about our team and students was wholly positive. They were ‘touched, impressed and inspired’. We hope to be able to welcome them again soon.
Plover Primary had an exciting and active day, thanks to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, who awarded the school a cycling workshop with triple Olympic Gold Champion and Active Travel Commissioner, Ed Clancy. This recognition was given for Plover’s dedication to promoting active travel and the high participation of their students in the Mayor’s Walk and Wheel Challenge. The Bikeability Trust, led by CEO Emily Cherry, generously donated balance bikes to the children, further supporting the school’s commitment to encouraging cycling from an early age.
Cycle North also played a key role, delivering ‘learn to ride’ workshops that taught 26 KS2 pupils how to ride a bike for the very first time. Additionally, Judith Shaw from Doncaster Council Road Safety Education kindly donated bike lights to the school. The day concluded with an inspirational whole school assembly led by Ed Clancy, where children were celebrated with Bikeability badges and snap bands for their achievements.
Find out more and apply now to #JoinOurCrew
Crew Spencer’s sit up challenge @ XP East
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to enter a pumpkin today – Crew Stanton were blown away by the creativity and craftsmanship and quality shown!
These were the shortlisted entries:
Congratulations to Olivia in Y8 for winning the XPG student entry and Riya who won the younger sibling category.
I would also like to thank the members of Crew Stanton and their parents for their contributions to the bake sale as well as to all the students who purchased sweet treats today.
Thanks to all of you, we have managed to make over £200 for Tiny Lives with this event.
Have a lovely (and spooky) half term everyone!
Crew Stanton
Good afternoon
Today we received notice that XP Gateshead will be inspected by Ofsted tomorrow and on Wednesday.
Below is a letter which includes a link that you can follow to give feedback to Ofsted on our school.
We are delighted to have the opportunity to demonstrate the great work that your children do with us, and strongly encourage as many families as possible to take the time to complete the parentview survey.
We look forward to the next two days, and thank you all for your continued support.
#wearecrew
Kind regards
Julie Mosley
A families’ guide to inspections can also be found by clicking here.
Welcome to the final week of this half term!
It is hard to believe that we have only been together for 7 weeks having achieved so much! Our students have continued to work hard to develop their beautiful work, character and academic success and they, like staff, will be ready for a well deserved rest and two week half term break when we finish this half term on Friday 18th October.
G28 students have made a great start to their GCSE courses and all staff working with this cohort have commented on their mature approach to learning, their resilience and willingness to take risks with their learning and appetite for challenge.
In Religious Studies, students have been using their collective knowledge to develop really strong answers to an exam style essay question about the story of the virgin birth in The New Testament.
GCSE Geographers have planned and carried out their first fieldwork with the enquiry question “Has regeneration had a positive impact on the Ouseburn?”
in GCSE photography students have been setting up miniature studios to start to get to grips with the powerful cameras that most of them carry with them every day, in advance of learning skills on DSLRs.
And
This week also, as a consequence of the weather, students from Level 2 Sports were able to put together a fitness warm-up for Miss Jones given that they would be indoors for the session.
All of our Y9 students complete the DofE bronze award as part of our curriculum. G29 have started working on the physical and skill sections through sessions including badminton, urban-walking and mindful arts and crafts.
G30 have had an expert session with Sister Josepha from St Anthony’s convent, who discussing how her beliefs and the teachings of her catholic faith about the afterlife have informed the way that she has lived her life and in turn her perspective on what it means to be human.
Our students were full of admiration for Sister Josepha and the great work that she has done in service to her community and to those in need around the world.
This week G30 also met Dr Andrew Lowes from the QE hospital. He was able to talk to students about the impact of G29’s work last year and the importance of organ donation. Again this year, we are delighted that our students’ artwork will be curated in our local hospital promoting such a worthy cause of organ donation.
As you know, we are a school invested in learning for staff and students alike. Like our students, we complete induction, present Educator-Led Conferences (ELC’s), and plan collaboratively to produce a high-quality curriculum.
Each week and across the whole year we offer professional development (CPD) opportunities for staff, which this term has included:
We are a very small team, which is part of a relatively small school trust. I just wanted to take this opportunity to commend our staff for their commitment to our school, evident in the way that we support each others’ development, providing capacity for each other to attend training or opportunities, providing opportunities for students through carefully crafted learning expeditions and not least the wide offer of clubs and opportunities. Our staff really are exceptional in their commitment to our children: their development and success.
This weekend students from across all years 8-10 attended the Thomas Hepburn memorial service at St Mary’s church in Heworth. Each year the NUM and Reverend Lucy coordinate a service which pays tribute to Hepburn’s commitment to working people and the trade union movement. Aside from the connections to our local history and students’ first learning expedition in year 7, we are of course keen to keep the connection to our community. As you know the school that was once on our site was named for Thomas Hepburn, and our school sits right on top of the roadways that extended from Felling Pit.
There was a particularly beautiful addition to our attendance this year, in that members of our choir were included in the service, performing one of G29’s songs “Justice Forever” which invoked a wonderful reception from the attendees – the biggest round of applause of the day!
Students laid a wreath to honour Hepburn alongside wreaths from many other dignitaries. Local MPs and former MPs were in attendance alongside local councillors and members of the education community. All were full of praise for our students’ performance and the quality of the music that G29 had written. I think we already have at least a couple of additional gigs on the back of this!
We were also very lucky to be able to accompany Bill Elliott, a local folk singer and part of the Elliott family of miners from Birtley who we hope to be able to work with further in putting together folk songs for G31 as part of their final product. All in all a wonderful way to spend a morning with wonderful young people.
On Monday Year 9 students will participate in local fieldwork visiting the site of the Owen Luder car park, using the space as inspiration for designing their own structure and collecting sounds to accompany their personal oral histories. Students will also be collecting primary data to answer the enquiry question: “Are there inequalities on Gateshead High Street?”. Students will have lunch in school and should dress appropriately for fieldwork and possible changes in weather.
Our usual offer of extended study and clubs will all run this week (see schedule here) every day except Friday. Our before-school fitness and running clubs on Tuesday and Thursday will start at the earlier time of 7.45am this week.
Insert schedule here – can it be amended to show extended study too please
Crew Stanton are hosting a pumpkin decorating competition to raise money for our crew charity Tiny Lives. Students will need to bring in their decorated pumpkins on the morning of 18th October 2024. Please see the website post for full details of competition categories, entry fee and prizes.
Don’t forget that school finishes at the earlier time of 1.30pm this Friday. This is to allow us time to “degunge” and set up for the next half term. Please make arrangements to pick up your children at the school gate for 1.30pm this Friday. As always, please be conscientious of our neighbours if parking as it is always very busy when students all leave school at the same time.
Thank you for your continued support through this half term and we hope everyone has a good holiday. We are looking forward to the next half term where we will be continuing to focus on our culture of beautiful work, character and academic success. Students will be adding work to our “beautiful” work portfolios and getting ready for student-led conferences and presentations of learning which will be an opportunity for you to see some of the work your children have been doing – more on this later.
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Julie Mosley
Have you seen these beautiful newly curated areas at Green Top – awesome spaces for students to learn and play in!
On Monday, students met a few of the Doncaster Rovers first team players and were able to have photos and get autographs from the players. Students asked questions about the life of a professional athlete and the journey that the players have been on playing for different clubs. It was great to hear the players speak about our character traits and how these character traits link to sport.
Then on Tuesday students visited Hill House school to listen to Olympic gold medal GB hockey player Sam Queck. Her experience as an athlete and the ups and downs she has faced really helped our students to understand that if you want something in life you have to work hard for it! Students were able to have a photo and ask questions to Sam at the end – they even held her gold medal.
Find out more and apply now to #JoinOurCrew
Crew Rashford getting smart-er @ XP East
Crew Stanton are hosting a pumpkin decorating competition to raise money for our crew charity Tiny Lives. You can choose to carve or paint your pumpkin.
Students will need to bring in their decorated pumpkins on the morning of 18th October 2024. There will be 2 categories, one for XPG Students and one for younger family members of XPG. It will cost £2.50 for student entries and £1.50 for younger family entries. This is to be paid when the pumpkin is brought in on the morning of 18th October.
Ideally, students will include a note with their name and crew (there must be a named XPG student or member of staff on any entries for family member categories too) but if you forget to do this we will have some post it notes and a pen so we know who to give the prize to.
Crew Stanton will vote for the 2 winners and there will be a chocolate hamper prize kindly donated by Kirsty from Flowers and Gifts.
Students MUST bring their pumpkin home after the competition so that we don’t have any rotting pumpkins left around school over the holidays!
Students can also bring money on this day as we will be selling halloween themed baked goods at break and lunch time on the same day.
