Dear Parent/Guardian

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – with our Christmas tree delivered by Buster the superdog.

We have 2 weeks of term to go until the Christmas Holiday and our students continue to work hard and smash it out of the park in terms of Being Kind, Getting Smart, and Working Hard. We have had our second HoWL (Habits of Work and Learning) information snapshot and will be entering Academic Progress grades before the end of term. This information will come to parents after Christmas in readiness for our Student Led Conferences which will be in the fourth week in January.

This week we have had a full review by the Trust Executive Team who commented on how well our students could talk about their school and how happy they are to be here. Students said that there was no bullying and students were kind to each other. They also said that they felt XPG was their school and they had a voice in how their school was being run, they were listened to and staff knew them well . The executive team also commented on how engaged students were in the classroom and on the high standard of work in student books. 

It’s been a week of reviews and we have also been visited by two members of our Local Governing Committee, Andrea Mead (our Chair) and Liz Shipley, who were looking at the development of Crew within the school.

We are really happy with the feedback we have received and couldn’t be more proud of the progress we have made in only 12 weeks -Hard to believe that we are a new school that didn’t exist before the Summer holidays !

The week(s) ahead …

Presentations Of Learning (PoL) Tuesday 14th December at 5.30pm

This week students will begin to prepare for their POL where they will piece together and present all of the work completed during the course of their expedition – “From the Ground Up”. Due to COVID we regret that this will need to be a virtual event. Students will broadcast their PoL live via Youtube on the evening of the 14th December. We will post details of how you can join us to celebrate the beautiful work produced by our students.

Local Governance Committee (LGC) visit

On Thursday 9th December, Phil Latham (CEO of Endeavour Trust) and member of our LGC will visit the school to report back to us on our curriculum and expeditions. We look forward to hosting the visit and hearing what Phil has to say.

MP visit (Ian Mearns)

Ian Mearns our local MP will be visiting this week. Ian has a special interest in Education and has sat in the past on the Education Select Committee in the House of parliament. I hear he was also a chair of Governors at Thomas Hepburn (the building we are now in). We can’t wait for our students to show Ian around and tell him all about XP Gateshead.

Early closure of school on Friday 17th December

School will close to students on the last Friday of term at 1.30pm, this is so that staff can de-gunge classrooms and leave no trace in readiness for the start of term after the Christmas break.

Important dates

So that you can check upcoming dates for your diary, we have set up an ‘important dates for parents’ calendar which you can access here. We will post dates to fieldwork etc. on this calendar too. This is also linked from our xpgateshead.org homepage under the parents section of the menu.

Covid Testing

Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Sunday and Wednesday evening and it is just as important that you ensure these results are entered into our website please. This is an important part of keeping our community safe and our school open and I really appreciate your help and support in this respect.

As usual please get in touch with crew leaders in the first instance with any questions or queries or just to tell us how things are going.

Mark Lovatt

Principal

XP Gateshead

Dear Parent/Guardian

Another superb week at XPG with our fantastic students excelling as always. This week students have been interviewing more experts in the community via TV screens in their classrooms. Students prepare carefully for these interviews so they ask good questions and get the most out of these sessions. This week they spoke to Alan Cummings, Secretary of Easington NUM lodge, as part of their expedition ‘From the Ground Up’ in which they are answering the guiding question – “What do communities in the NE owe to the miners?”. This week students have also interviewed Alfie Joey. Alfie is a local radio presenter, comedian, artist, and published author. He will be talking about his latest book “The Last Coal Miner” which was informed by his experiences of growing up in a mining family.

Students will be creating and publishing a book of historical enquiries of pits in the NE as well as art work, and summaries of the interviews they have done. Students have also been learning about online bullying in Crew and how to be an “upstander” rather than a “bystander”. Staff have also been busy planning and developing our next expeditions which will begin in January. We have a busy week ahead.

The week(s) ahead…

Executive Team review – On Monday, the XP Trust executive team will join us on site at XP Gateshead as part of a review around our Key Performance Indicators (KLIs). This is an opportunity for us to receive some really good feedback on the progress we are making, on what we are doing well, and on what we can do even better. We look forward to the Trust team joining us on Monday visiting us in crew and lessons and talking to staff and students about our school.

Local Governance Board (LGB) visit – On Thursday, two of our Governors will visit our school to look at “crew” and what this means in our school. They will talk to staff and students and will spend time with Mrs Mosley. Each term Governors visit and write a short Notices and Wonders report which is discussed at our next LGC meeting.

This week’s expert – This week our students will interview Norman Strike, a former Westoe collier who kept a diary during 1984 and has since published this as a book.

Habits of Work and Learning (HoWLs)

There has been a lot of work in crew sessions last week as students returned to their HoWLs and the pledges they made looking to see where they have improved in terms of Working Hard, Getting Smart, and Being Kind. Teachers will be updating this information and making their own assessments of student HoWLs in lessons. We will be sharing this information with parents in the weeks before Christmas.

Date for your diary! From the Ground Up ‘Presentation of Learning’

In the coming weeks students will be working on preparing for their Presentations Of Learning (PoL). This is where they break down the expedition they have been working on and each student will publicly talk about an aspect of this, from the science they have covered to the art work, or from the music they have created to the English and History that have underpinned this expedition.

Our Presentation of Learning for our expedition ‘From the Ground Up’ will be on the evening of Tuesday 14th December. At the moment we are still considering whether this can be an in person event, or an online event but it looks most likely to be online. Every student will take part in the Presentation of Learning on this evening and so will be in school until around 7pm. We expect all children to have one member of their family that can attend the event, whether in person or virtually.

So that you can check dates like these, we have set up an ‘important dates for parents’ calendar which you can access here. We will post dates to fieldwork etc. on this calendar too. This is also linked from our xpgateshead.org homepage under the parents section of the menu.

Student-Led Conferences

We will be making arrangements for our first set of student led conferences (SLCs) which will take place in January. This is where students are asked to present their work to parents and their crew leader and invited to talk about what they think they have done well and where they need to improve. Students will be supported to prepare for SLCs in crew sessions when we return after Christmas.

Extended Study

We have reviewed and organised extended study and shared with students what they can expect each week and from which subject. We have published our extended study timetable on our website here so you are also aware of what your son or daughter is working on at home. In school extended study sessions will continue each day as normal, Monday to Thursday from 3.15pm to 4.30pm for any students who need a bit of extra help or support or would like to get into the habit of completing work in school before going home..

Covid Testing

Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Monday and Wednesday evening and it is just as important that you ensure these results are entered into our website please. This is an important part of keeping our community safe and our school open and I really appreciate your help and support in this respect.

As usual please get in touch with crew leaders in the first instance with any questions or queries or just to tell us how things are going.

Mark Lovatt
Principal
XP Gateshead