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

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

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

 

Dear Parent/Guardian

We had yet another exciting week last week with students completing fieldwork at Beamish museum where they visited a drift mine and talked to “experts” in character about the 1842 mines act which banned women and children from working underground. This was built on in lessons where students had the opportunity to interview the first of our experts in the community who talked to them virtually through the large TV screens in our classrooms. This is all part of our expedition – From the Ground Up and students will be working towards their final product (a published book of historic enquiries and interviews about local mines in the region). They will also be answering our guiding question – What do the communities of the North East owe to the miners. Throughout this expedition they have been studying standards in Science, English, History, Art and Music.

Reminder Monday 22nd is a staff day

This is a staff training day and XP Gateshead will be closed to students. During this time staff will be planning and designing our next awesome expedition which students will begin after Christmas.

Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs)

We will be discussing HOWLs again in Crew sessions over the next couple of weeks and students will be returning to the pledges they made and looking to see where they have improved in terms of Working Hard (WH), Getting Smart (GS), and Being Kind (BK). Teachers will also 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.

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 (due the staff day) 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

It’s been Maths Week here at XPG with near fever pitch excitement as our students battled it out on Time Table Rock Stars (TTRS) with students from across the country. As you may have seen we are fourth placed in the country’s secondary schools for average points scored per student, and top school in the region. This is a fantastic achievement, made all the more special by knowing that every student has contributed. Maths week culminated on Friday with the “Great Maths Bake Off”. Our students put their baking (and maths) skills to the test along with lashings of creativity to produce some maths inspired show-stoppers. Thanks so much for all of your support with our maths week.

It has also been Remembrance Week and so alongside our normal expedition lessons students have been remembering those who gave their lives for us and reflecting on the responsibility this leaves us with to live our best lives.

Teacher Days Friday 19th and Monday 22nd November

Just a reminder that school will be closed to pupils this Friday (19th) and also the following Monday (22nd). This is to allow time for staff training and also to develop resources and planning for our next expedition. We pride ourselves on the quality of our curriculum and it takes time to plan high quality expeditions and to liaise with experts and organise fieldwork etc.

Fieldwork to Beamish on Wednesday 17th November

All students will be attending fieldwork at Beamish on Wednesday 17th November.
The visit will be entirely during the school day.

Students will need:

• A packed lunch. We will provide lunches for students that qualify for free school meals.
  Clothes that will keep them warm and dry (lots of layers).
  Full kit in a plastic bag inside their school bag.

Students will interview experts about working conditions in the mine, and have an opportunity to go into the drift mine at the site.

This fieldwork is part of their studies for their expedition From the Ground Up, with the guiding question ‘What do the communities of North-East England owe to the miners?’

As a result, PE will be on Thursday afternoon this week.

Covid Testing

Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Sunday and Wednesday evening and as important, please ensure these results are entered into our website. 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.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt
Principal XP Gateshead

 

Dear Parent/Guardian

It’s been a busy first week back at XP Gateshead. Last week students carried out their first fieldwork working with experts in the North East as they found out more about the geology of our coastline and the history of our mining communities. The inclement weather on Wednesday was no barrier to our students and why would it be? These are young people who have rowed across lake Ullswater and camped out in the open in the Lake District – they have already proven their resilience and their courage. My science class presented all they had learnt to me on Friday afternoon and we will be making use of this learning in our final products and in the rest of our expedition this term.

Our students also took part in CAT tests – these are cognitive and spatial tests which help us to determine a starting point or baseline academic grade for students. The result of the CAT tests will be used to establish an initial Minimum Expected grade (ME). We will use these grades to consider the academic progress of each of our students throughout their time here and will report back to you on this in due course.

Also last week we had our first virtual visit by our Education Expert who was a trained and experienced Ofsted inspector. We have an EE visit 4 or 5 times during the first 2 years of opening as a new school. He will write a short report about each visit for the Department for Education (DFE) which in due course will be shared with me. We welcome support and advice from experts in the field and we are looking forward to getting some feedback. I am pleased to say that I am expecting this to be a very positive report for our school.

Through the week I also attended Director Led Conferences which are part of the Trust’s quality assurance procedures. This is where Heads of schools across the Trust report back to Trust Directors on Performance, Wellbeing, SEND, and Curriculum.

The week ahead

Remembrance week

We will be taking time in school to pay our respects and to remember those who have laid down their lives or been injured in defence of our freedoms and of the values we hold so high. Students will be reading relevant texts or poems in crew and Mr Dobson will be preparing resources and slides for crew on Thursday. We will also be coming together as a community to observe a minute’s silence and to think about what we owe to those who have sacrificed so much.

Maths week

It is also Maths week and Mrs Mosley can hardly contain her excitement. Throughout the week we will be hosting maths based activities and entering time table rock star competitions. We are hoping to win the XP Trust medal as we compete against other schools in our Trust.

Director Led Conferences and network meetings

As mentioned at the start, DLCs are part of XP Trusts quality assurance procedures. This week Mrs Mosely will attend the SEND DLC and I will attend the curriculum DLC. Normally we attend these by google hangout however on occasion we will join colleagues for face to face meetings in Doncaster. We are also part of instructional networks across the Trust, for example Mr Said is an instructional lead and facilitates curriculum networks across the Trust where he meets with and trains other colleagues. I will be joining Headteacher colleagues on Friday for our termly Head teachers network.

Our focus this term – Academic Progress

Our focus this term will be on expeditions and completing really high quality (Beautiful) work. We will build on the work done so far and will use the Minimum Expected grades (MEs) (established in CAT tests) to assess student work and be able to report back to you in due course on academic progress.

Covid Testing

Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Sunday and Wednesday evening and as important, please ensure these results are entered into our spreadsheet. 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.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt
Principal

Dear Parent/Guardian

Just a quick note to offer a warm welcome back to you and our pupils after what I hope has been a restful and safe half term holiday.

We are looking forward to seeing all of our students again and moving forward with our expeditions. We are particularly excited that pupils will begin their fieldwork this week and will work with a renowned North East geologist exploring the geology of our coastline at Whitburn and carrying out an enquiry into the pit and pit village that were located on the cliff tops.

I am pleased to say that work on site has continued with a new external fire door in Crew Dobson’s rooms and installation of manual window opening systems to give us more control over ventilation in the building. There will be further work externally and I am expecting a bike shed for students and work to begin on additional temporary car parking and seeding of the grassed area on the other side of the tennis courts. 

COVID mitigations – Important

As parents will be aware Covid infection in the community continues to be high and we ask for your continued support in helping us to ensure we keep our provision open and safe for pupils, families and staff. We have updated guidance from Public Health Gateshead. We are proposing the following measures to limit the spread of Covid in our school.

• Limiting the visitors on site to essential only.

 

• Please continue to use Lateral Flow Tests to test pupils on Sunday and Wednesday evening and enter results into our Covid testing spreadsheet – this is absolutely essential and we really do appreciate your support in this. 

 

• We will be keeping the building well ventilated with classroom windows open during lessons etc – as the weather begins to turn colder this means students should arrive at school with warm clothing and/or coats which they will be permitted to wear in class.

 

• Please inform us if you or any family member living at home exhibits Covid symptoms.
  • If there is a confirmed case via PCR in your household, we ask that you organise a PCR test for your son or daughter as a close contact, even if they are not displaying symptoms.
  • If a member of your household tests positive, we will ask you to also conduct daily lateral flow tests on your son or daughter each morning for 10 days as a close contact, and only attend school if they test negative. 

Fieldwork arrangements

As mentioned above, all students will be going on fieldwork this week, more details of which can be found in Mr Said’s post. It is important that they are prepared for the weather as they will be outdoors for most of the day. The forecast at the moment is for light showers on Wednesday and cold temperatures on both days. Students will arrive back at school at around 4.15pm on the day that they are out on fieldwork.

ParentPay

Lunch charges for the first term have been added to parent pay and will updated on an ongoing basis from this point. Please login to your account to check the balance and make a payment using the login details provided in the letter that was sent home with your son or daughter last term.

Dear Parent/Guardian

I hope you are well. Welcome to our weekly update for the week commencing 11th October.

Last week was a very busy week for us with our first Local Governance committee meeting, roll out of iPads for students, our virtual open evening for new and prospective parents and students and topped off by hosting a Trust executive and Heads meeting on Friday ! Our students have stepped up to the mark on all of these occasions and I thought they were particularly brilliant in our live virtual open evening transmission.

This week is our last week of term before the half term holiday where we will all have a much deserved two week break – hard to believe how quickly the time seems to have gone! Students will be continuing with their expedition work – from the ground up, and also their maths expedition looking at mathematics and numbers involved in food waste. We will also be continuing to use our iPads in lessons and will begin to set extended study tasks for students. We hope to have the issues around the appstore resolved at the start of this week. Apologies for the delay around this.

HoWLs

Students will continue to discuss their Habits of Work and Learning in academic crew this week and will make pledges as we focus on how we can be the best versions of ourselves. We are really proud of how honest and reflective our students have been during this process.

Covid testing

Please continue to give your child a lateral flow test on Sunday and Wednesday evenings and please ensure you enter the result into our online form. This is really important and not only helps to keep our community safe and our school open it also avoids wasting important time on Monday and Thursday mornings in crew when we have to chase up testing. We really appreciate your support in this.

Parentpay

We will begin adding charges to lunches taken to parent pay this week including back dating ones from previous weeks. It is worth noting that you can add credit to parent pay in advance, you do not need to wait until charges are added. If you are having any issues setting up your account please contact your daughter or son’s crew leader.

Early close this Friday

Don’t forget that we will be closing early this Friday at 1.30pm to allow us time to “degunge” and set up for the next half term. Please make arrangements to pick up your children at the school gate for 1.30pm this Friday.

After school clubs

We now have Monday – Mixed Fitness, Tuesday – French, Wednesday – Extended Study, Thursday – Minecraft & Football/Multi-sport. This week we will be starting a book club with Miss Tatters on Wednesday lunchtimes. Ms Tatters was on her way this weekend to collect the first reading club books from Waterstones in town. 

Random acts of Kindness

Finally we would like to appreciate a few students in particular: Isla, who has left appreciation cards for staff with delicious cupcakes she baked herself; Ethan who baked cookies for other students on his own birthday and Daniel also who made delicious chocolate brownies for the first lunchtime book club. We are all appreciative but have also gained weight!

Thank you for your continued support through this half term and we hope everyone has a good holiday. We are looking forward to the next half term where we will be focussing on our academic work and beginning to add work to our “beautiful” work portfolios. We are also hoping to organise a mini student-led conference before Christmas which will be an opportunity for you to see some of the work your children have been doing – more on this later.

As usual if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your children’s crew leader in the first instance.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Dear parents/guardians

Welcome to our parental update for the week commencing 4th October – we have another busy but exciting week ahead of us.

Open evening – Thursday 7th October at 6pm

This week, students have been continuing with their expeditions and also preparing for our information evening on Thursday 7th October. This will be an opportunity for students to tell prospective students and parents about their school. The event will be streamed on Youtube, you are very welcome to attend by clicking on the link that will be shared on our website next week. Every student has been involved in the production of the open evening. This has been students’ first ‘project’ and we are delighted with how they have been drafting, seeking feedback and redrafting their ideas in pursuit of beautiful work in order to make the evening as successful as possible.

Covid Testing

Thank you to all parents for continuing to test your children for Covid and for completing our online document to let us know the result. This has helped us to keep our community safe and our school open. We have issued extra Covid test kits so please continue to do this every Sunday and Wednesday evening.

Vaccinations

Vaccinations for both flu and Covid (where eligible) will take place on Tuesday 5th October for all students that have returned consent forms. We have NHS nurses on site who will administer the vaccinations.

ParentPay

You have been given details of how to set up your parentpay account in a letter which was sent home with your son or daughter this last week.

iPads in school

iPads have now been delivered. We will be distributing to students next we and will share instructions on how to set the iPads up at home. A reminder that once they have been issued, students will need to bring them to school charged every day.

HoWLs Assessment

Teachers have made an initial assessment of student Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs) in their subject areas and we will begin to discuss with students over the next couple of weeks as part of our academic crew sessions on Thursday morning. This an initial assessment and we are interested to see how these align with students own perceptions of how they are learning and the habits that they are forming. These will form the basis of a discussion between crew leader and student about strengths and area for improvement.

External work to school site

Many of you will have noticed our beautiful new XP Gateshead signs which have appeared at our school gates. There is also currently scaffolding at the main entrance and this is to allow painting of the external wall in our school colours. There is extensive work planned for over the half-term break in October which includes levelling and reseeding the grassed area next to the Tennis court. This will mean we can use this area for sports etc in the Summer term.

Early finish on Friday 15th October

This is an early notice that on Friday 15th October we will be finishing at 1.30pm for the October half term to allow staff to “de-gunge” and set up ready for students returning after the holiday. There will not be any provision for students to stay after this time so all students need to be collected or to have left the school at 1.30pm.

Degunge is an important protocol at XP Gateshead, and is linked to the principle at Outward Bound of ‘leave no trace’. This stewardship protocol helps to ensure the efficient and effective use of resources/running of the school.

Local Governance committee

The first meeting of our local governance committee will take place on Tuesday 5th October. This will be our first meeting since the school opened and I look forward to sharing our progress with governors. Governors will be supporting us in meeting our Key Performance indicators and will carry our a number of visits each term. We have already been visited by Claira Salter (Head teacher at Green top school in Doncaster and one of our governors) and by Andrea mead, the chair of our LGC. Both were incredibly impressed and will feed back on Praises, notices, and wonders in regard to their visit at the meeting.

XP Trust Heads visit our school

This week we will host head teachers from all seven XP Trust schools who will visit us on Friday 8th October. We cannot wait to show them around.

Our students as always remain a credit to you and to XP Gateshead. A visitor last week remarked that she had never come across Year 7 students who could talk so confidently and proudly about their new school.

Thank you for your ongoing support and trust and as always please get in touch with crew leaders in the first instance with any questions or concerns.

Mark Lovatt
Principal