Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to the start of another phenomenal week at XP Gateshead – It’s a busy and exciting week ahead for our students.

Staffing Update

Simon Walters, our new member of staff, will be starting on Tuesday and will begin work in classes getting to know students and supporting their learning in the first instance. Simon is based at XP Gateshead and in due course will also be spending some time with colleagues in Doncaster, learning more about his new role as Educational Welfare Coordinator. We can’t wait to begin working with our newest member of our staff crew. 

Expeditions

There are a lot of exciting things happening expedition wise this week. We are hoping to confirm that Marek Blonski, our nutrition expert, will be working with students on Monday afternoon as part of our – Staying Alive expedition. The Durham Light Infantry “museum” will be working with students on Tuesday as part of our “Do your Bit`” expedition and students will be taking part in fieldwork on Friday with our visiting “expert” on commonwealth war graves as part of the same expedition.

Digital Leaders

Congratulations to our Digital leaders who will be travelling to Doncaster on Monday (early start 8am !) to take part in training with students from across the Trust as they prepare for their new role. Mr Said has already sent out details of this trip in a separate post. Students will need a packed lunch.

Trust visits

On Tuesday we will be joined by the Trust “Comms” team who will be curating students’ work, helping us to prepare final products, and putting up new displays of “beautiful” student work around the building. A big thanks to the team in advance for the hard work they will be doing on this – we are excited to see more of our students work on our walls.

Extended Study and after school clubs

Extended Study and after school clubs will be running as normal this week:

MONDAY: Sports / Extended Study

TUESDAY: Extended Study

WEDNESDAY: Extended Study

THURSDAY: Sports / Extended Study / Minecraft

Lateral Flow Testing

Until further notice – Please continue to support us with lateral flow testing each Sunday and Wednesday evening and make sure you enter results into our website on each of these occasions.

This is especially important now that the government has decided to remove “masks” as one of the mitigation measures in schools although we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

COVID infections are still very high in the community. If you require any extra LFT testing kits please let us know. 

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  – We are Crew.

Calendar dates

Our calendar can be found here.

As usual if you have any questions please get in touch with your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome back to the start of a new half term leading us up to the Easter break.

Staffing Update

I am delighted to report that before the half term break we successfully appointed three new members of staff in readiness for next academic year: a SEND coordinator, Maths/STEAM teacher, and a HUMAN teacher. Along with a Science/STEAM teacher we have already appointed, this means we are fully staffed from a teaching point of view for next year. We are looking forward to working with our new colleagues and they will start their staff induction with us in June. 

In addition, Simon Walters, our new Emotional Welfare Officer, will start his new role on March 1st.

In the coming weeks we will begin our recruitment of Learning Coaches for next academic year too.

Extended Study and after school clubs

Extended Study and after school clubs will be running as normal this week.

• MONDAY: Sports / Extended Study
• TUESDAY: Extended Study
• WEDNESDAY: Extended Study
• THURSDAY: Sports / Extended Study / Minecraft

 

Visit to Sikh Temple – Monday 21st February

Students have a fantastic start to our new term with a fieldwork visit to a local Gurdwara in Newcastle. Information on what students need for this visit has already been posted by Ms Tatters in an earlier post. This is part of an expedition entitled – “Do Your Bit” with a focus on the sacrifice made by ALL during the first World War.

Note that this is tomorrow morning, Monday 21st February. Further details have been provided by Ms Tatters,  expedition lead, in an earlier post. Please make sure that you have read this and are aware of arrangements for lunch.

Lateral Flow Testing

Until further notice – Please continue to support us with lateral flow testing your each Sunday and Wednesday evening and that you make sure you enter results into our website on each of these occasions

This is especially important now that the government has decided to remove “masks” as one of the mitigation measures in schools although we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

COVID infections are still very high in the community. If you require any extra LF testing kits please let us know. 

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  – We are Crew.

Digital Leaders

Students will find out who has been successful in their application to become a digital leader on Monday. Excitingly, these students will also have an opportunity to visit our Doncaster secondary schools very soon to meet with their peers and learn more about their role.

Calendar dates

Our calendar can be found here.

As usual if you have any questions please get in touch with your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

 

Best wishes

 

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians

What an incredible two weeks of Students Led Conferences (SLCs) – I think you will agree that students have handled their first SLCs brilliantly and have reflected on their work and progress with integrity. It has also been fantastic to see parents face to face and to finally meet in school! A big thank you to all of our parents for supporting our first SLCs. We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.

This coming week students will begin the first case study in their science expedition, Staying Alive with the guiding question, ‘Is Survival Sufficient?’ They will be studying digestion, nutrition, heat transfer, and separating mixtures amongst other things as we look at the food we need to survive, the importance of staying warm, and the importance of access to clean water. Underpinning our expedition will be a theme of social justice as we work with experts on nutrition and local organisations concerned with food poverty. Our final product will be a food box which will contain all the ingredients needed (plus recipes) to feed a family of four for a week. The recipes will be based on the food books by Jack Munroe who wrote ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’ and ‘The Tin Can Cook’.

They will also be continuing with their HUMAN expedition, Do Your Bit, learning about the Sikhi faith and the involvement of Indian soldiers in World War I, ready for a fieldwork to a Gurdhwara following the February break – see below.

We will also be interviewing this week for teachers of Humanities and Maths and also for a SENDCo. Successful candidates will join us next year. 

Extended Study and after school clubs

Extended Study and after school clubs will be running as normal this week.

Half Term and early finish Friday

Please be aware that it is half term w/c 14th February and so as normal students will finish at 1.30pm this Friday (11th February) to allow staff to replenish resources and to degunge rooms and teaching spaces ready for after the half term holiday. Students will return to school at the normal time on Monday 21st February. 

Visit to Sikh Temple – Monday 21st February

Note that on the morning of Monday 21st February students will be visiting a Sikh Temple as part of their expedition “Do Your Bit” – further details will be provided in due course by Ms Tatters, the expedition lead. 

Lateral Flow Testing

Please continue to support us with lateral flow testing your each Sunday and Wednesday evening and that you make sure you enter results into our website on each of these occasions

This is especially important now that the government has decided to remove “masks” as one of the mitigation measures in schools although we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

COVID infections are still very high in the community. If you require any extra LFT testing kits please let us know. 

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  – We are Crew.

Calendar dates

Our basic calendar can be found here, or the Google Calendar with additional important dates such as SLCs can be found here.

 

As usual if you have any questions please get in touch with your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

 

Best wishes

 

Mark Lovatt

Principal