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What an incredible week our Year 7 had. As promised here is a slideshow of images from the week.
The guiding question for the week was “What does it mean to be Crew?” and our students learned that in spades. Across the week there were countless examples of students demonstrating courage, respect, craftsmanship & quality, integrity and above all… compassion.
All crews started with the traditional jog and dip, getting into the lake and going as deep as their crew could manage. After planning their expeditions, they carried out some evening crew-building activities and then stayed in dorms for the first night of their adventure.
On the second morning all Crews packed up and set off on their expeditions to include challenging adventurous activities such as hiking with packs containing food/tents/cooking equipment, climbing/abseiling, gorge walking, canoeing, rowing, rafting, camping in tents/yurts and more!
At the end of the week all students scaled the slopes around Halin Fell to carry out a presentation on what it means to be Crew. We are so delighted with out new students in Year 7 – they have made such a fantastic start in The Lakes and now back in school too.
Our crew charity is the WWF – World Wide Fund For Nature. The WWF is a charity fundraiser for natural habitat preservation and conservation. They also support endangered species by giving members of the public the ability to adopt and support an animal on their website – https://www.wwf.org.uk/ .
Crew Attenborough believes this is an important cause due to its ability to help preserve our natural world and not let any more species die out and disappear forever. It is of most importance that we, as people of the natural world, must help sustain and support it. We do not want to lose anymore.
The WWF does worldwide work helping preserve nature. It also helps endangered animals across the globe, such as the Snow leopard. There are only 4,000 left in the wild, along with the African wild dog which is one of the most endangered mammals on the planet. The African Wild dog is carnivorous, and it is a wild canine native to Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Adelie penguin is a popular animal to adopt as their species is declining. One of the main reasons for this decline is climate change causing the melting of their homes.
For a species to be classified as endangered there has to be a decline in population between 50 and 70 percent.
“We have the power to bring our world back to life.” – WWF
The opinion is backed by the members of the public. The WWF helps preserve habitats by restoring forests, coral reefs and more by planting trees introducing new species to the environment.
Crew Attenborough believes the WWF embodies the character traits of Compassion, Courage, Integrity, Respect and Craftsmanship and Quality. These traits are also displayed by Sir David Attenborough and we look forward to giving support to this important cause.
Throughout year 9 we will be planning events to raise money and awareness to support the WWF.
We welcomed all of our students and staff into school last week so, for the first time, four year groups were all together. We are delighted by how our new G31 students have all settled into school and how students in other year groups have welcomed our new cohort, settled into their new classes and sessions and daily life of school. A Kurt Hahn quote that has continued to resonate with us over these last weeks is
“We are crew not passengers, strengthened by acts of consequential service to others”
We build our culture of crew at XP Gateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others. This happens in crew, in classrooms, during social times and at the start and end of the day
Students are settling into their new classes, working with new learning partners and getting used to new spaces. Unfortunately, we are still without a theatre space so are unable to have whole school community meetings in person at the moment. We’ve been pleased with how adaptable and mature our students have been especially during lunchtimes as we get used to another 50 students on site. Our older students in G28 and G29 enjoyed their first PE sessions last Thursday with Mr Devitt and Mrs Cadenas. Mrs Cadenas is an experienced PE teacher, personal coach and works with many schools and youth groups running sessions in dance, fitness, etc. She joins our staff crew on a part-time basis and will work with our older students in PE.
Last week saw the start of immersion for all new learning expeditions. Immersion is an opportunity for students to dip their toe into the content of the learning expeditions, to build background knowledge and generate curiosity about the guiding question for the expedition. Guiding questions are revealed to students at the end of each immersion.
G31 started their week in Crews unpacking what they learned at Ullswater about ‘What it means to be Crew’ and considering how that is applied back at school with an additional question: “What will my learning be like at my new school?”
All Crews took time to curate their Outward Bound fieldwork and the individual journeys they had all taken along with the character traits they had demonstrated. They then spent time agreeing their crew norms and what they would look like, sound like and feel like in classrooms.
All G31 students have now set up their iPads and completed initial Google training as part of their induction to school. Students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely.
A fully charged iPad is now expected as part of daily kit for G31 students, as well as headphones. We advise against buying expensive headphones. It is worth noting that the newer iPads that G31 have do not have a regular 5mm headphone socket, so it may require purchasing an adapter such as the one linked here, to allow use of any existing headphones that you have.
There is additional guidance for families here on setting up apple accounts to download additional apps, and also on how to set sensible boundaries at home using screen time functions and parental controls on your home Wifi router.
G30 have completed their immersion which included study of the human body through the emotional true story of Peter the human cyborg and also Bill Bryson’s text “The Body: A guide for inhabitants”. In a bumper week, they have been introduced to the text “Noughts and Crosses” by Malorie Blackman, studied various creation stories and considered what makes effective speeches. All of this has come to a focal point with their guiding question, revealed next week.
G29 have started their new expedition by learning about the geography and history of Russia around the turn of the 20th century. Connected to this, and to build further background knowledge they have also been studying the atomic bombs that were dropped at the end of WWII, and have seen further evidence of the power of the atom by learning about the impact of the Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union. They have also used Ken Loach’s film “I, Daniel Blake” to develop questions and curiosity about how societal and governmental structures can impact on the way that we live our lives. At the end of the week students had a session with an expert from our partners at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle, who introduced them to their brief for a final product which will be influenced by their learning about physical and societal structures. Connected to their new guiding question “How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?”students will work on a design brief to produce a maquette of a new sculpture for Gateshead.
G28 have also found out their guiding question “How did bonding help the Vikings forge a strong legacy?” for an expedition which will encompass content from their GCSE studies in History, English and Science. Students spent the week testing materials for their strength and have also been recalling their prior learning about Vikings, and tackling misconceptions about the nature of Viking society.
This expedition will also make connections to their English Literature texts, where this week students have been deepening their knowledge of the context of Dickensian Britain, which will all support in working on the guiding question “Why could ‘A Christmas Carol’ be thought of as the ultimate Christmas story?”
Students will continue with their immersion this week, thinking about what their guiding question could be, having considered the influences of the Romans and the Vikings on Medieval England and also the importance of coal as part of the Industrial Revolution.
This week students will carry out fieldwork focused on a historical enquiry into Anglo-Saxon and monastic life in the Northeast. The fieldwork will take place at St Bede’s Monastery, and Jarrow Hall Museum and Anglo Saxon farm and settlement in Jarrow.
Year 7 Class 2 Students will carry out this fieldwork on Monday 9th September with Year 7 Class 1 completing it on Tuesday 10th. Please see the website post from Mrs Ross which details the kit needed, packed lunch requirements and timings for the day.
PE sessions take place on Wednesday for both Year 7 classes this week so students need a full PE kit to change into on this day.
G30 students will begin formal studies of the learning targets for their new expedition. This week they will begin reading “Noughts and crosses” in earnest, and move from creation stories to teaching and beliefs about the afterlife in Abrahamic faiths. Students will also start looking at ventilation and the lungs as part of wider learning about the respiratory system.
PE sessions take place on Monday for both Year 8 classes so students need a full PE kit on this day.
Students will consolidate their learning from the film “I, Daniel Blake” by carrying out virtual fieldwork to the Byker Wall, the setting of the film. They will also start reading their anchor text “Lord of the flies”, a classic text which gives an insight into what could happen when conventional structures for children are removed. Connected to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl, students will also peer inside the structure of the atom to begin to be able to answer questions about the chemical and nuclear stores of energy therein.
PE sessions take place on Thursday for both Year 9 classes so students need a full PE kit on this day.
G28 students will start to look at VIkings in Scandinavia and their trade relationships within their society and with other parts of the world. They will also build on their learning about the atom from Key Stage 3, and develop more refined mental models for chemical bonding of ionic and covalent molecules.
PE sessions take place on Thursday for both Year 10 classes so students need a full PE kit on this day. Students have one timetabled PE session in Year 10 and we will be encouraging all students to join an after school sports club or fitness activity as part of their continued wellbeing.
As you know at XP, we believe that:
We do not have a school uniform however we do have a dress code and we ask our students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly.
For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:
Please see our website post on dress code so you are aware of our expectations and can fully support these.
Can I remind all families that students need to be in school for an 8.30am start to sessions. They must arrive by 8.25am at the latest. There will be staff in school supervising so students can arrive from 8.00 am. The vast majority of our students had perfect punctuality last week but not all of them. Please support us with our high expectation around punctuality to school.
Teachers will start to set extended study this week and students will begin to build their extended study timetable.
After school extended study sessions will start next week and students attending these sessions must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand.
We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme by the end of September.
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].
Thank you as always for your ongoing support. Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.
Julie Mosley
Principal
Congratulations to Crew Stanton who successfully completed the Junior Great North Run today.
Crew Stanton students ran with Miss Tatters today to raise funds for their Crew charity Tiny Lives.
Miss Tatters and her partner and also are running the Great North Run tomorrow. Together, Miss Tatters and Crew Stanton have a communal fundraising page. If you can, they’d much appreciate any and all support on their fundraising page please!
https://ajbellgreatnorthrun2024.enthuse.com/pf/emmy-tatters
Congratulations to all of our students that took part today too, as we know there were many more. We’d love to see photographs if you have them and put them on our website.
At XP Trust we always use our first week back to establish and reaffirm our culture of Crew. This year has been another resounding success as young people across our schools have considered deeply the purpose of Crew through a range of opportunities and experiences and how Crew develops character and service so that they can help themselves, others and the wider community to be compassionate and successful.
At Carcroft we saw students engaging fully in a community meeting reflecting on their habits of work and learning and expressing what working hard, getting smart and being kind looks like every day at school. Students at Norton Infants Y5 visited local Care Homes delivering glasses cases they had made as well as treats! At Plover students were working alongside the RSPCA to capture and tell the stories of abandoned pets and, alongside drawing beautiful pictures of the animals, helping to find them homes as well as creating stunning murals in a street art style to promote the importance and legacy of Crew.
Students at Green Top took part in a fundraising Colour Run which was quite frankly spectacular whilst also creating kindness key rings that they gifted to members of the community! At XPG, Year 8 showed their qualities as leaders of their own learning by planning, organising and leading Year 7 activities including creating resources and fieldwork opportunities for their peers. Finally at XPD, students carried out acts of random kindness at the Lake side and welcomed past students who came back to school to talk about how Crew and their time at XP shaped the beautiful people they are today.
It was striking to hear a member of staff at Carcroft say, ‘I’ve been teaching for over twenty years and this is the best start back I’ve ever experienced.’ – I think that says it all!
In addition, our new Year 7’s from XP Doncaster and XP Gateshead spent their first days of secondary school building Crew together in the Lake District with Outward Bound. This is something we have been proud to do with our students for ten years now and it was inspiring to see students cultivating resilience, compassion and teamwork – especially through some very adverse weather! We are looking forward to seeing Crews grow together over the coming years…
Our Chief Academic Officer, Andy Sprakes was the keynote speaker at Spaghetti Bridge’s ‘BridgeFest’ earlier this week. He shared beautiful work and stories from our students at XP as part of their inspiring itinerary celebrating the last year. We are proud to be a part of their story and a key influence on the work that they do.
Alfie Lockey was part of the X22 cohort at XP and left two years ago to study for his A Levels at New College. His results of 3 A*s and and A, helped secure him a place at one of the oldest and renowned universities in the world – Christ Church College, Oxford. Alfie will be studying biology; a lifelong love and something that during his time at XP was actively encouraged and supported.
He created an allotment at school, had an opportunity to take part in an online conference organised by the Edge Foundation, which addressed climate change. That day Alfie spoke alongside the co-creator of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Sir Tim Smit KBE. An office at XP also became the perfect place for Alfie to experiment with growing a variety of plants for several years; bringing a touch of hot house greenery to XP!
CAO of the XP Trust, Andy Sprakes commented:
“Alfie is one of our many alumni who are already making a positive difference to the world. We’re always thrilled to hear about how our students are progressing and where they are now – they will always be part of our Crew.”
In Summer 2024, XP and XP East’s Year 8 students embarked on Learning Expedition called ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’, where they aimed to answer the guiding question: ‘Is migration worth the risk?’.
In Art, they looked at the work of artists who used imagery of birds to represent migration. Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy and used that to design flying machines. The students took his ideas and constructed their own three dimensional bird designs. They then made large scale sculptures of the birds that you can see on display, here. Before culminating in the display, the sculptures were paraded at this summer’s inaugural XP Festival of Arts & Culture.
Find out more here to apply now and #JoinOurCrew
As part of G31’s first expedition of learning students will carry out fieldwork focused on a historical enquiry into Anglo-Saxon and monastic life in the Northeast.
This will build on the immersive experiences they have gained this week in school where we have consolidated prior learning about the influences of the Romans and the Vikings into Medieval England.
This fieldwork will take place at St Bede’s Monastery, and Jarrow Hall Museum and Anglo Saxon farm and settlement in Jarrow.
Year 7 Class 2 Students will carry out this fieldwork on Monday 9th September with Year 7 Class 1 completing it on Tuesday 10th. Students will be required to be at school by no later than 8:25am as usual and we will be leaving school at 08:45. We have a later than usual finish and expect to return to school by 3:30pm.
G31 students will need to bring a backpack including:
A filled water bottle, Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener, notebook and reading book but will not need to bring their ipad.
They should wear comfortable shoes and bring a waterproof jacket and sun cream depending on the weather.
A healthy packed lunch will also be needed (this will be supplied by school, for those students who are entitled to a free school lunch, if it is required) and as always we must stress that this should not include nuts, fizzy drinks or energy drinks please.
As part of our Immersion G29, students will be watching the film I, Daniel Blake. We believe this film is important for our students as it is set within our local community and provides valuable insight into the lives of people who may live in our neighbourhoods. The film addresses several mature themes, including strong language, sex references (including references to prostitution) prescription drug use, criminal behavior, and some unintentional racism. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has rated this film as suitable for viewers aged 15 and above.
I, Daniel Blake tells the story of a 59-year-old carpenter from Newcastle named Daniel Blake. After losing his wife and suffering a heart attack, Daniel’s doctor advises him to rest and avoid working. However, the benefits system declares him ‘fit for work,’ preventing him from claiming unemployment benefits. The film follows Daniel’s challenging journey through the British benefits system as he appeals the decision. Along the way, he befriends a single mother of two who is also struggling with the system.
Class 1 will watch the film on Thursday, and Class 2 will watch it on Friday.
If you have any concerns about your child watching this film, please feel free to contact your crew leader or myself at [email protected].
Thank you for your understanding and support.
