Dear Parents/Guardians

What a fantastic week we had last week – we met all of our new students during transition days and also their parents at our information evening for new parents. We are pleased that this went so well and look forward to getting to know our new students and their parents better after the summer holidays. We have invited new parents to join the parents facebook group and it would be great if our existing parents can lend a hand with any queries etc.

Last week also saw the publication and launch of our students’ book – From the Ground Up. This was researched, written and illustrated by G28 students. It was great to see all of our very proud parents at the book launch which was at Seven Stories on the Ouseburn. Seven Stories is the national centre for children books and they have agreed to sell and promote our book. A fantastic achievement for all of our students and to commemorate this event we will be  providing each student with their own personal copy of the book that they have written.

This week students will be continuing with their expedition – What A Wonderful World (WAWW) and will be speaking to Sophie Common, an expert in rewilding and conservation. Sophie trained to be a vet at the Royal Veterinary College in London, she has a Masters degree in wild animal health, and currently works as a wildlife vet in the disease risk analysis and health surveillance team at the Zoological society in London. She has taken a lead on several rewilding projects including the introduction of red kites and badgers across the UK. Sophie is our “expert” for our current expedition.

This week:

• MHFA training for staff –  cohort two of our staff will be undergoing day 1 of their Mental Health First Aid  (MHFA) training aimed at providing support for young people. This will culminate on 18th July where all of our staff will receive their MHFA certificates.
• PE will be on Friday this week. Please note that PE will be on Friday this week and  students should bring their PE kit on this day.
• Warm weather – As the weather is starting to get quite warm. (Summer is coming !) Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school and also a cap or hat if they suffer from sunstroke, and/or sunscreen if they burn easily. This is to cover outside breaks and lunchtimes although PE lessons are also increasingly outside. We will issue kit lists for any field work.
• Parental Feedback – If you have not already done so then please remember to complete our parents feedback form by clicking here. We would really love to know what you think about our school (what we do well and what we could do better) and in particular would like to get feedback on our student SLCs.
• Annual School Review – our School led Conference (SLC) will take place this Friday (8th July) and the executive team from XP Trust will be visiting XP Gateshead to receive a presentation about what we think we have done well and what we think we need to develop over the course of next year. They will be presented with evidence by school leaders and will take the opportunity to discuss with us our new targets for next year.
• Crew leader changes – Mrs Ross will be taking over from Mrs Mosley as crew leader next year and Mr Mead will be taking over from Mr Lovatt as crew leader next year. Both Mrs Ross and Mr Mead will be working alongside Mrs Mosley and Mr Lovatt over the next couple of weeks to get to know their new crews really well.

Upcoming Events:

A reminder there is a G28 parents’ calendar here.

• Miners Gala – A reminder to those families that have discussed bringing your children along that Mr Said has sent an email with the opportunity for you to indicate what time of day would work best for you.
• Summer exams – students will sit summer tests/exams on the 18th July and we will be setting extended study which supports revision for these exams over the course of the next couple of weeks
• The Presentation of Learning for our current learning expedition will take place on the evening of Tue 19th July at XP Gateshead. We will be sending more details in this coming week.

COVID testing 

We decided to remove the requirement to test students each Sunday evening given the low level in cases at the time and additional staffing that we now have available. This is in line with Government guidelines. However we would ask parents to continue to be vigilant, especially with the current rise in cases, and to test students if they or other family members of the family have symptoms. With your support we will continue to test students in school if they present with symptoms during the school day. We will also continue to keep windows open and to ensure our building is as ventilated as possible.

We do still have a limited supply of testing kits, so if you are in need and find it difficult to obtain tests, please do speak to your son or daughter’s Crew Leader.

No Nuts in packed lunches please

We have students in our new cohort with a severe allergy to nuts and so we need to ask that no nuts or nut products be used in packed lunches from this point onwards. Thank you in advance for your support with this.

Extended Study this week

As we are coming up to our Summer end of term exams we will mainly be setting revision for extended study this week and next. Summer exams will take place in the last week of term.

As usual if there are any queries please do get in contact with your child’s Crew Leader.

Many thanks

Mark Lovatt

Principal