Merry Christmas and beautiful work from Isabelle to brighten up a rainy day

By Martin Said29th December 2021

Good morning, we hope that you have all had a lovely Christmas with your families.

It being a rainy day this morning I have been looking at the geology writing that students were working on for our ‘From The Ground Up’ book.

I just wanted to highlight a really smart strategy that Isabelle has been using to ensure that here writing contains everything that it needs to.

In her prep, Isabelle has been highlighting key information in the model. Likewise, she has been indicating when she has included important information in her prose paragraph by highlighting her notes. This has led to a really solid introductory paragraph.

Smart and beautiful work Isabelle, well done!

Reverse Advent: Above All… Compassion

By Julie Mosley17th December 2021

Today was the end of our reverse advent in school. Students and families have been providing important supplies of food and household items throughout December.

This morning Emily and Macie from Crew Mosley and Lucy and Sonny from Crew Tatters were able to drop off the supplies to our local Gateshead Food Bank on the Team Valley.

The volunteers at the food bank and we would like to pass on our huge appreciation to all of the students and families that contributed. Your compassion will help spread a little more joy to families in need this Christmas.

G28 End of term message – w/e 17th December 2021

By Mark Lovatt17th December 2021

Dear Parents/Guardians

We have had a busy final week of term with our first ever Presentation of Learning – sharing the story of our expedition “From the Ground Up”, work on final products, and end of term assessments.

As usual we couldn’t be more proud of our students who have stepped up to the mark and continued to be the best versions of themselves. We have also had Christmas jumper day, enjoyed our Christmas dinner, and delivered food donations to our local food bank. We are looking forward to new and exciting expeditions in the New Year.

Return to School

We will be returning to school on Tuesday 4th January and at the moment this is expected to be a normal school day and students should be in school by 8.25 am at the latest. We are however keeping a close eye on Covid and the new Omicron variant. Myself, Martin, and Julie will be meeting over the holidays and will update our website if anything changes in regard to the start of next term. We will notify you of any changes to the start of the school term by the evening of January 2nd at the latest.

On return to school in the New Year, and in line with Government guidelines, we will be testing all students with a lateral flow test on their first day back. In addition, we would also ask you to complete a lateral flow test at home on the evening of Monday 3rd January and add the result to our spreadsheet as normal. This will help us to ensure our community is safe and our school remains open.

Thank you

All that remains for me to say is thank you for your continued support, it is a pleasure and a privilege to be involved in the education of your children and we couldn’t do it without the hard work of our parents and families.

From all at XP Gateshead please have a Happy Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Principal

XP Gateshead

Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Dinner today

By Martin Said16th December 2021

Good morning! A reminder that today we are having our Christmas lunch in school. If students want to wear a Christmas jumper today, we’ll all be getting into the Christmas spirit.

There is an optional donation on the day of up to £1 which will go to Save the Children.

G28 Parents: COVID testing this evening

By Martin Said12th December 2021

Good evening

Please remember to carry out a lateral flow on your son or daughter this evening and update on our website.

It is really helpful if you can do this in a timely manner, as when this is missed, it impacts on our crew sessions with students taken out to do testing in school.

Thanks again for your continued support in keeping our school running smoothly and safely.

G28 Weekly Update – w/c 13th December 2021

By Mark Lovatt10th December 2021

Dear Parent/Guardian

Welcome to our final week of term and students have been working hard to get their Presentations Of Learning (POLs) ready for our live performance of everything they have been studying which will be broadcast at 5.30pm this tuesday (14th December)

This week we were visited by our local MP Ian Mearns. Ian is a strong advocate for education and among many other things, sits on the education select committee in the Houses of parliament. Ian was taken for a tour of the school by two of our student ambassadors. He commented on the calm atmosphere, high levels of student engagement, and on how well our student ambassadors could talk about “crew” and what this means to them. A big thank you from all at XP Gateshead for taking the time to visit us Ian and we hope to see you again soon.

The week ahead …

Presentation Of Learning (PoL) Tuesday 14th December

A reminder that all students are taking part in our Presentation of Learning for our Learning Expedition: From the Ground Up.

All students will need to stay in school until 7pm on Tuesday 14th December when the event ends.

We will be rehearsing throughout the afternoon, however we will build in a break before the event starts at 5.30pm. During this time, students can eat a healthy snack if they choose to, so we would advise that students bring in additional food for the evening on Tuesday.

This is a formal event, so the expectation is that students will dress smartly. Students can bring a change of clothes, or come dressed smartly for the day. This is the guidance from our dress code for such events:

“On occasion it will be appropriate for students to dress more formally. This helps prepare them in advance to enter the larger arena of the professional and business world and give them the mindset of the importance of the event and its audience. We will always give advance notice for such occasions.

At such events, students may wish to wear a shirt / blouse, trousers and shoes or a formal dress. Our branded polo shirts are appropriate for these occasions too.

Although we ask students to dress smartly, this should still be modest so please refer to the guidelines for daily work within school.”

Join us at 5.30pm on Tuesday by following this link;

Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper day Thursday 16th December

We have combined both of these events which will take place on Thursday 16th December. Students who have pre ordered a lunch will be served a Christmas lunch and All students will sit together and get to pull Christmas  crackers. We are inviting all of our students to wear a festive jumper on Thursday and to make a voluntary contribution of £1 which will be going to our chosen Charity this year which is “Save the Children”. We will have a selection of Christmas jumpers available for any students who wish to borrow one for the day.

 

Notification of change of Staff

Mr Dobson has been successful in his application for a new job as an outdoor education teacher. This is Mr Dobson’s passion and while we will miss him very much, we also know it represents an opportunity to use his skills and expertise doing something he loves – we all wish him well and are grateful for the fantastic founding work he has carried out on behalf of our students and our community. In addition to my role as Principal, I will be taking over his crew as crew leader from January and can’t wait to get to know this awesome group of young people a little bit better. We will be advertising for a replacement Learning Coach in the New Year.

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 replenish resources in readiness for the start of term after the Christmas break. The new term will start on Tuesday 4th January 2022. This is a regular school day so students should arrive by 8.25am as normal.

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

On return to school in January and in line with current Government guidance ALL students will receive a lateral flow test which will be carried out in school on the morning of Tuesday 4th January. We would advise however that in addition all students complete a LFT at home on the evening before returning to school and that you complete the spreadsheet as normal. This is about keeping our community safe and our school open.

Thank you for your support this term 

Finally can I just say thank you for your continued support. You have been awesome ! We have some exciting expeditions planned for the New Year which we can’t wait for students to begin. On behalf of all at XP Gateshead can i take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a peaceful and safe New Year

We will  return on Tuesday 4th January and as this will be a normal school day students should be with us by 8.25am

Happy Christmas and New Year

 

Mark Lovatt

Principal

XP Gateshead

Fantastic HOWLs!

By Emmy Tatters9th December 2021

Product work continues in HUMAN sessions this week. I am SO impressed with the student’s work, as well as their commitment to producing something really important.

Some top quotes from today:

“I am trying to do an excellent job because this is for our final product and it is important.”, “I am really proud of my writing this lesson.” , “Maybe you could try and find a better synonym for sad?”

As well as students appreciating each other for:

“Really getting their head down”, “Giving me really kind critique”, “asking for critique and using my feedback to redraft their work”, as well as noticing that “he had a shaky start but I explained what he needed to do and he got really focused and then did some great work.”

The classroom culture that these students are nurturing is BRILLIANT.

Well done XPG!

Arrangements for Presentation of Learning on Tuesday 14th December

By Martin Said8th December 2021

Presentation of Learning Arrangements

A reminder that all students are taking part in our Presentation of Learning for our Learning Expedition: From the Ground Up.

All students will stay in school until 7pm on Tuesday 14th December when the event ends.

We will be rehearsing throughout the afternoon, but we will build in a break before the event starts at 5.30pm. During this time, students can eat a healthy snack if they choose to, so you may wish to give them some additional food for the evening.

This is a formal event, so the expectation is that students will dress smartly. Students can bring a change of clothes, or come dressed smartly for the day. This is the guidance from our dress code for such events:

“On occasion it will be appropriate for students to dress more formally. This helps prepare them in advance to enter the larger arena of the professional and business world and give them the mindset of the importance of the event and its audience. We will always give advance notice for such occasions.

At such events, students may wish to wear a shirt / blouse, trousers and shoes or a formal dress. Our branded polo shirts are appropriate for these occasions too.

Although we ask students to dress smartly, this should still be modest so please refer to the guidelines for daily work within school.”

The next week and a half

In the coming few days we will continue to focus on students working on their writing and artwork for the book that they are producing.

On Monday and Tuesday next week, we will shift gear, and spend time focussing on each students’ contribution to the presentation of learning, with lots of rehearsal and a focus on presentation skills.

After the presentation of learning students will have more time to return to their work for our book, and will also be carrying out important assessments too, which students have been preparing for through our ongoing extended study and retrieval practice.

Christmas Meal & Jumper Day – Thursday 16th December

By Martin Said7th December 2021

On Thursday 16th December, we are having our Christmas Lunch in school. On the same day we will be inviting students to come into school in a Christmas jumper if they wish.

There will be an optional donation on the day of up to £1 which will go to Save the Children.

We have some spare jumpers too if students want to wear one but do not have one at home, we don’t want anyone to go out and spend money for the day. Please get your son or daughter to talk to their crew leader if they want to wear a jumper but do not have one.

In addition each crew has made their own arrangements for a Secret Santa of up to £3. Please speak to your son or daughter about this, and if they need any support they should speak to their Crew Leader.

We do have a dress code, and not a uniform, so provided dress is appropriate and modest, students can wear Christmas themed clothes in December if they wish anyway. No humbug here!