Beautiful work from Oliver

By Martin Said25th April 2022

A reminder that students have been trying out the recipes ahead of us putting together food boxes with food for a whole week’s worth of Jack Munroe’s recipes. These food boxes will be donated to families through our partners Edberts House.

Students have access to the a spreadsheet through Google Classroom with details of what they said that they could donate.

This is part of our STEAM learning expedition, Staying Alive.

Here is Oliver with his marmite mac and cheese. Normally Oliver does not like marmite but he loved this. Here we are at XPG, changing one life at a time. Great work Oliver!

Beautiful work from Finley

By Martin Said24th April 2022

Over the Easter Break Finley cooked tea for everyone in his house. His Mam said it was delicious – he has even agreed to cook at least once a week for his family from now on!

Finley finished it off with amazing Chocolate Guinness Brownies. We have noticed that he does look particularly pleased with those. Great work Finley!

G28 Weekly Update – w/c 25th April 2022

By Mark Lovatt24th April 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to another exciting week at XP Gateshead

It is a bumper update this week.

New expedition

This week we will be revealing our very exciting next expedition which students will be working on up to the end of the Summer term.

Staying Alive

We will also be delivering our food/recipe boxes to Edberts House in Gateshead – you will remember that this is our “Final Product” from our last expedition which concluded before the Easter break. We have asked for students’ food donations to be in school with their Crew Leader by Wednesday morning at the latest please. 

In Google Classroom students have access to a spreadsheet where they have each indicated which ingredient/s they think that they can donate. Please have a conversation with your child about this. If there are any problems in sourcing the ingredients, please do ask you child to talk to their Crew Leader.

Edberts House | OurGateshead

At XP Gateshead students are community activists and we use what we have learned to make a positive difference in our communities. In this case students have used what they learned about nutrition to put together food boxes and recipes which will feed two families for a week. We are proud to support the work of Edberts House which does so much for families in our community.

From the Ground Up

We have not forgotten that students have also used what they learned in their first expedition to publish their local history book on our mining heritage. We will be launching our students’ book this term and will provide further information in due course. We are proud that every student at XP Gateshead will be a published author before they break up for the summer holiday.

Guitar Lessons start this week

Students that signed up to guitar lessons will start these this week on Monday. This will be added as an item for payment in ParentPay for those students. Students have a timetable shared with them where they can check their times each week. As soon as we have further information on other instruments, Mr Said will let students and families know.

Local Governance Committee meeting

We will also be holding our Local Governance council meeting and will be hearing back from Andrea Mead (chair of LGC) as she takes us through her report looking at “Developing Crew” and also from James Renwick who will be reporting back on his visit which had a focus on “inclusive teaching”.

New Staff: Learning Coaches and Crew Leaders

In addition we will be holding interviews this week for two new members of staff who will take the role of Learning Coaches/Crew Leaders next year. Successful appointments will mean we are fully staffed for next year and all new members of staff will join us on June 6th to begin their induction.

Welcoming our next cohort of students and their parents

We will be beginning our transition arrangements for welcoming 50 new students this term and we are all very excited to meet our next cohort of students and their parents. Mrs Mosley will be taking a lead on this and further information will be appearing on our website in the coming weeks

COVID Updates

Guidance for isolation following a positive test

Any student who has a positive Covid-19 test result should try to stay at home and avoid contact with people for 3 days. There is no longer a requirement for students to test negative on the day when they return to school, however if they still feel unwell then they should not return to school.

Lateral Flow Testing

Please complete a Lateral Flow Test with your child on Sunday evening, and again on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning and complete our website with the results before sending your child to school.

Covid infections are still high in the community and given the size of our setting this really helps us to keep everyone safe and for our school to remain open.

We really do appreciate your support. If you require any extra LFT kits please let us know. 

Mitigations in school

Now that the government has decided to remove the wearing of face coverings as one of the mitigation measures in schools, we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

We will continue to keep doors and windows open for ventilation so students are advised to bring multiple layers to school to keep warm. This is how we look after each other – #wearecrew

As usual if you have any questions please contact crew leaders in the first instance.

Kind regards

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Beautiful work from Daria

By Martin Said24th April 2022

Daria has also been cooking some of the recipes from Jack Munroe’s ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap‘.

Here is her pizza bread from start to finish and it looks absolutely yummy.

Great work Daria!

 

Beautiful work from Corbyn

By Martin Said22nd April 2022

A reminder that students are trying out the recipes ahead of us putting together food boxes with food for a whole week’s worth of Jack Munroe’s recipes. These food boxes will be donated to families through our partners Edberts House.

Students have access to the a spreadsheet through Google Classroom with details of what they said that they could donate.

This is part of our STEAM learning expedition, Staying Alive.

Here is Corbyn with his spaghetti bolognese. He looks delighted with the outcome and his family have assured me it was delicious, and it definitely looks fantastic too!

Beautiful Work from Tyler

By Martin Said21st April 2022

Tyler has also been cooking some of the recipes from Jack Munroe’s ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap‘.

Here is his sausagne, which looks absolutely delicious – some lovely arty ‘in the oven shots’ here too and Tyler making absolutely sure that he is following the recipe.

Great work Tyler!

G28 Parents – Staying Alive: Final Product Food Boxes

By Martin Said20th April 2022

As you know, students have been using the Jack Munroe book ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’ to plan and try out recipes.

Students have now collated all of their plans and we have put together the ingredients for a week’s worth of food using recipes from the book. Students have done such a great job on sharing their plans and making adjustments to ensure that there is a balance of healthy, tasty food across the box of food for the week.

Once put together, the two food boxes will be being donated to Edberts House, who will pass them on to two families in need; this is such important work that the students have done to have a positive impact on their community.

We are now asking for small donations for the non-perishable items to go into these food boxes. It would be fantastic to have all of the items needed by Monday of next week – 25th April.

In Google Classroom students have access to a spreadsheet where they have each indicated which ingredient/s they think that they can donate. Please have a conversation with your child about this. If there are any problems in sourcing the ingredients, please do ask you child to talk to their Crew Leader.

We will provide the additional perishable items so there is no need to provide anything beyond what your child has said they think they can contribute.

Please ask your child to give their donation to their Crew Leader and they will add to our food boxes. All donations will be gratefully received and put into the food boxes alongside the week’s worth of recipes from the book. Of course, most importantly, the food will go to families that need it the most. This is what we do at XP, our curriculum and your children’s work impacts positively on our community.

We are so proud of your children for their compassion and the work that they have done on these boxes, and of course, thanks to you for your continued support.

G28 Parents – Important Update for school iPads

By Martin Said20th April 2022

Good evening

Today we gave all students that have purchased an iPad through the contribution scheme a screen protector for their iPad. It is important that these are fitted according to the instructions.

The cases that came as part of the scheme offer a very good level of protection, however if dropped at a certain angle the screen can still crack as has happened with one iPad unfortunately. Whilst the iPads are insured as part of the contribution scheme, it is our duty to ensure we take all steps to avoid claims if possible.

Please do help your children to fit the screen protector properly so that they are as well-protected as possible.

Thanks for your cooperation.

G28 Welcome Back Parents/Guardians – Summer Term

By Mark Lovatt18th April 2022

Dear All,

I hope you have all had a restful and safe Easter break and I would like to take the opportunity to welcome you all back to what will be an exciting new Summer term at XP Gateshead.

We are expecting students at the normal time tomorrow and look forward to welcoming them back after the holiday.

Expeditions

Students will be completing their final product from the “Staying Alive” expedition this week and we will start on Tuesday morning with students sharing the recipes they have been cooking from the Jack Munroe recipe book. Students will be using what they have learned about nutrition during this expedition to put together food boxes. Our food boxes will contain ingredients and recipes to feed a family of four for a whole week. We hope to be able to deliver our food/recipe boxes to Edberts House in Gateshead next week.

We will also be  starting our major new Summer term expedition and students will begin immersion this week. I wonder if anyone will be able to guess what it is about!

PE sessions this week

As mentioned above, this coming week we are starting a new learning expedition which will combine HUMAN and STEAM. This has meant that we have changed the timetable slightly for the coming week.

For this week, Class 2 will have PE on Tuesday 19th April as normal. However Class 1 will have PE on Wednesday 20th April this week.

In the week commencing Monday 25th April, both classes will return to PE on Tuesday.

Covid Testing

Covid infections are still high in the community so as normal we would ask you to ensure that your child has taken an LFT test and entered the result on our website as normal. LFT tests are available on request so if you have run out your son/daughter can ask their crew leader for more. We appreciate your support in helping to keep our community safe and our school open.

As usual if you have any questions/queries please ask your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Principal