Dear Families

We have continued to be impressed with our students this week and the HOWLs (habits of work and learning) they are exhibiting in sessions. It has been great to see the fantastic start G31 have made and hear the praise from the team who work with our new cohort. 

On Friday it was wonderful to hear students’ appreciations, apologies and stands during our online Key Stage 3 (G31, G30, G29) Community Meeting at the end of the day.  The language our students use around our character values and HOWLs shows a real depth of understanding and commitment to character development. These are not just words on a wall at XPG.

Great North Run Junior

Congratulations to all of our students that ran, or supported the Great North Run last week. A big well done to Mrs Diamond, Señorita Quested and Miss Tatters for completing the big run on Sunday last week too.

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Guiding Questions

At the start of this last week immersion came to the end for all  year groups. After lots of wondering and suggestions, students in G31 enjoyed the big reveal to find out their expedition guiding questions.

GQs (guiding questions) are a crucial part of the anatomy of an expedition.

GQs influence, shape and act as a reference point for student learning. GQs provoke thinking and deepen learning throughout the 12 week expedition and allow students to be engaged in authentic and purposeful work which makes connections between different subject areas and disciplines. During the course of a learning expedition, our children experience a range of case studies, with challenging texts which deepen their understanding and help them to develop an answer to the rich GQ for the expedition.

Presentations of Learning

At XP we make our work public. One of the most important ways we do this is through Presentations of Learning (PoLs). PoLs usually take place towards the end of expeditions and they are used as an opportunity for students to showcase their learning from their most current learning expedition. PoLs enable students to grow their character and further embed their learning through presenting their work in front of a range of authentic audiences and in a variety of contexts. In addition, students develop oracy skills by presenting to different audiences and in different contexts which builds confidence and further allows students to grow their character whilst developing key skills.

This terms’ Guiding Questions and Presentation of Learning dates are:

G31 – “How can stories influence and shape communities?” The presentation of learning for this event will be held on the evening of  Monday 16th December at St Mary’s Church in Heworth. Please keep this evening free in your diaries. We will confirm a start time as soon as we can, but typically Presentations of Learning begin around 4.30pm to 5.00pm and last for around 60-90 minutes.

G30 – “What does it mean to be Human?” G30’s presentation of learning will be held on Wednesday 18th December in school.

G29 – “How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?” G29 have an exciting presentation of learning on the Newcastle University campus at the Farrell Centre on Thursday 12th December.

G28 – Study two expeditions this term with GQ’s  “How did bonding help the Vikings forge a strong legacy?” and “Why could ‘A Christmas Carol’ be thought of as the ultimate Christmas story?” The combined presentation of learning for these expeditions will be held in school on Thursday 19th December in school.

Our week ahead 

PE sessions this week

Please can parents make sure that their child has a PE kit  for PE sessions. We expect students to change into their appropriate PE kit, and not wear the same clothes they wear in school. Similarly, students must change out of PE kit afterwards, into their normal school clothes. For safety, jewellery must be removed and hair must be tied back.

• G31 students (Year 7) – Class 1 PE sessions take place on Tuesday, Class 2 PE sessions take place on Wednesday.
• G30 students (Year 8) have PE on Monday.
• G29 students (Year 9) have PE on Thursday.
• G28 students (Year 10) have PE on Thursday.

Extended Study 

Teachers have started to set extended study and students have begun to build their extended study timetable. In a typical week, for Years 7-9 there is around 45-60 mins set  per night. Each subject area sets the extended study and it is due on the same day each week, so that students can organise their time and get into good habits around additional study outside of sessions.

There is a step up in expectations at GCSE in Year 10 and beyond. All GCSE-level courses now have examinations as their main form of assessment. There is a lot of content that students need to internalise and it is just not possible for students to do this in Year 11 in the run up to their examinations. As such, students are expected to spend more time on their extended study in comparison to Years 7-9. This means that there should be no need to rely on cramming in Year 11 and students should be in good habits around working outside of sessions in readiness for the revision needed to be successful.. We will publish the regular schedule for the setting of and the deadlines for extended study for Year 10 later this week.

After school extended study sessions will start this week.

We offer extended study sessions from 3:15pm – 4:30pm Monday – Thursday.  Students attending these sessions must stay for the full session until the end at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand. Extended study is optional for most students but for some who struggle to complete and miss deadlines, extended study may be directed.

We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme by the end of September.

Staff Development Days

We have staff days each term at XP so that our teachers can collaborate across the Trust to create and deliver the high quality curriculum that our students study. These are shown in blue on our calendar.

This week and next sees the first of our staff days where students are not expected to be in school.

• Friday 20th September – Staff Development Day 
• Monday 23rd September – Staff Development Day 

On staff days our students do not attend school and there is no expectation that they complete work beyond their regularly set extended study (homework). Students will find this work on Google classroom.

Students are expected back to school on Tuesday 24th September by 8:25am at the latest.

As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.  Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Principal

Dear Families

We welcomed all of our students and staff into school last week so, for the first time, four year groups were all together. We are delighted by how our new G31 students have all settled into school and how students in other year groups have welcomed our new cohort, settled into their new classes and sessions and daily life of school. A Kurt Hahn quote that has continued to resonate with us over these last weeks is

“We are crew not passengers, strengthened by acts of consequential service to others”

We build our culture of crew at XP Gateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others. This happens in crew, in classrooms, during social times and at the start and end of the day

Students are settling into their new classes, working with new learning partners and getting used to new spaces. Unfortunately, we are still without a theatre space so are unable to have whole school community meetings in person at the moment. We’ve been pleased with how adaptable and mature our students have been especially during lunchtimes as we get used to another 50 students on site. Our older students in G28 and G29 enjoyed their first PE sessions last Thursday with Mr Devitt and Mrs Cadenas. Mrs Cadenas is an experienced PE teacher, personal coach and works with many schools and youth groups running sessions in dance, fitness, etc. She joins our staff crew on a part-time  basis and will work with our older students in PE.

Last week saw the start of  immersion for all new learning expeditions. Immersion is an opportunity for students to dip their toe into the content of the learning expeditions, to build background knowledge and generate curiosity about the guiding question for the expedition. Guiding questions are revealed to students at the end of each immersion. 

G31

G31 started their week in Crews unpacking what they learned at Ullswater about ‘What it means to be Crew’ and considering how that is applied back at school with an additional question: “What will my learning be like at my new school?”

All Crews took time to curate their Outward Bound fieldwork and the individual journeys they had all taken along with the character traits they had demonstrated. They then spent time agreeing their crew norms and what they would look like, sound like and feel like in classrooms. 

All G31 students have now set up their iPads and completed initial Google training as part of their induction to school.  Students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely.

A fully charged iPad is now expected as part of daily kit for G31 students, as well as headphones. We advise against buying expensive headphones. It is worth noting that the newer iPads that G31 have do not have a regular 5mm headphone socket, so it may require purchasing an adapter such as the one linked here, to allow use of any existing headphones that you have.

There is additional guidance for families here on setting up apple accounts to download additional apps, and also on how to set sensible boundaries at home using screen time functions and parental controls on your home Wifi router.

G30

G30 have completed their immersion which included study of the human body through the emotional true story of Peter the human cyborg and also Bill Bryson’s text “The Body: A guide for inhabitants”. In a bumper week, they have been introduced to the text “Noughts and Crosses” by Malorie Blackman, studied various creation stories and considered what makes effective speeches. All of this has come to a focal point with their guiding question, revealed next week.

G29

G29 have started their new expedition by learning about the geography and history of Russia around the turn of the 20th century. Connected to this, and to build further background knowledge they have also been studying the atomic bombs that were dropped at the end of WWII, and have seen further evidence of the power of the atom by learning about the impact of the Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union. They have also used Ken Loach’s film “I, Daniel Blake” to develop questions and curiosity about how societal and governmental structures can impact on the way that we live our lives. At the end of the week students had a session with an expert from our partners at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle, who introduced them to their brief for a final product which will be influenced by their learning about physical and societal structures. Connected to their new guiding question “How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?”students will work on a design brief to produce a maquette of a new sculpture for Gateshead.

G28

G28 have also found out their guiding question “How did bonding help the Vikings forge a strong legacy?” for an expedition which will encompass content from their GCSE studies in History, English and Science. Students spent the week testing materials for their strength and have also been recalling their prior learning about Vikings, and tackling misconceptions about the nature of Viking society.

This expedition will also make connections to their English Literature texts, where this week students have been deepening their knowledge of the context of Dickensian Britain, which will all support in working on the guiding question “Why could ‘A Christmas Carol’ be thought of as the ultimate Christmas story?”

Our week ahead 

G31 students (Year 7) 

Students will continue with their immersion this week, thinking about what their guiding question could be, having considered the influences of the Romans and the Vikings on Medieval England and also the importance of coal as part of the Industrial Revolution. 

This week students will carry out fieldwork focused on a historical enquiry into Anglo-Saxon and monastic life in the Northeast. The fieldwork will take place at St Bede’s Monastery, and Jarrow Hall Museum and Anglo Saxon farm and settlement in Jarrow. 

Year 7 Class 2 Students will carry out this fieldwork on Monday 9th September with Year 7 Class 1 completing it on Tuesday 10th. Please see the website post from Mrs Ross which details the kit needed, packed lunch requirements and timings for the day. 

PE sessions take place on Wednesday for both Year 7 classes this week so students need a full PE kit to change into on this day.

G30 students (Year 8) 

G30 students will begin formal studies of the learning targets for their new expedition. This week they will begin reading “Noughts and crosses” in earnest, and move from creation stories to teaching and beliefs about the afterlife in Abrahamic faiths. Students will also start looking at ventilation and the lungs as part of wider learning about the respiratory system.

PE sessions take place on Monday for both Year 8 classes so students need a full PE kit on this day.

G29 students (Year 9) 

Students will consolidate their learning from the film “I, Daniel Blake” by carrying out virtual fieldwork to the Byker Wall, the setting of the film. They will also start reading their anchor text “Lord of the flies”, a classic text which gives an insight into what could happen when conventional structures for children are removed. Connected to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl, students will also peer inside the structure of the atom to begin to be able to answer questions about the chemical and nuclear stores of energy therein.

PE sessions take place on Thursday for both Year 9 classes so students need a full PE kit on this day.

G28 students (Year 10) 

G28 students will start to look at VIkings in Scandinavia and their trade relationships within their society and with other parts of the world. They will also build on their learning about the atom from Key Stage 3, and develop more refined mental models for chemical bonding of ionic and covalent molecules. 

PE sessions take place on Thursday for both Year 10 classes so students need a full PE kit on this day. Students have one timetabled PE session in Year 10 and we will be encouraging all students to join an after school sports club or fitness activity as part of their continued wellbeing.

Meeting our expectations

Dress code

As you know at XP, we believe that:

• Children need to learn to express themselves responsibly.
• Children are not all the same, so they should not be forced to look the same.
• Families would rather spend their money on clothes that their children can wear inside and outside school.

We do not have a school uniform however we do have a dress code and we ask our students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly.

For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:

• Hats, hoods & coats inside school
• Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh
• Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes
• Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery (eg. heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails)
• Impractical footwear (eg. sliders, flip-flops or high heels)

Please see our website post on dress code so you are aware of our expectations and can fully support these.

Punctuality

Can I remind all families that students need to be in school for an 8.30am start to sessions. They must arrive by 8.25am at the latest. There will be staff in school supervising so students can arrive from 8.00 am. The vast majority of our students had perfect punctuality last week but not all of them. Please support us with our high expectation around punctuality to school.

Extended Study 

Teachers will start to set extended study this week and students will begin to build their extended study timetable.

After school extended study sessions will start next week and students attending these sessions must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand.

We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme by the end of September.

As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.  Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Principal

Dear Families

What a first week back we have had! As I said last week, our first week back is fundamental to us in terms of tending to and building crew as well as setting the scene for students of their year to come.  

We really believe that, ‘If we get Crew right, we get everything right’ and I think of the many photographs took last week, this one embodies the meaning of crew:

Year 7 (G31) first week back

Our G31 students have had a fantastic week at Ullswater finding out what crew means. I hope they returned to you full of tales of their outward bound adventures and new friendships. Across the week, students began to form strong bonds with their crew and crew leaders, supporting each other to rise to every challenge set. We could not have been more impressed by our new year 7 students. The level of challenge meant that all Crews had to support and challenge each other to do more than they thought possible. They were compassionate, courageous, respectful and showed integrity in equal measure across the week. 

We will post a further update with more images from the week.

Year 8 (G30) first week back

Our G30 students returned to school strong and spent their first week considering the question ‘How can we lead and support the learning of our new friends in G31?. Y8 Crew Leaders have been blown away by the quality of student work, depth of thinking, collaboration and leadership shown by G30 this week. There is no doubt that Y8 students will work with us to ensure that our new students are welcomed into XPGateshead and are quickly part of our school community. 

The week ended with a fantastic day of fieldwork planned by Year 8 ready for our new Year 7 expeditions to come. This work is a fantastic example of student leadership with students co-constructing learning with their peers and adults in school. The G31 teaching team are delighted with the fieldwork planning and the resources that have been made which are indistinguishable from that of adults. G30 conduct on fieldwork was exceptional too. Please see the website update for more details.

Year 9 (G29) first week back

Our  G29 students had a strong return to school, working in Crews to answer the guiding question ‘How do we form great habits to tackle initiatives as a Crew with increasing agency, independence and resilience?’ They displayed greater maturity and had a clear sense of purpose as they were challenged to rethink how they best work as crews and the norms they use, strategically planned crew charity events for this year and prepared for fieldwork reconnecting with the Outdoors. This fieldwork was also an introduction to the types of challenges that they will face as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award this academic year

Thursday’s hike in Northumberland around Wylam tested students’ new knowledge and map skills as they navigated together as a Crew. Students travelled by metro and train to get to Wylam (train travel a first for  XPG!) and carried out a 6km hike without a moan and smiles all round. Student conduct on fieldwork was exceptional.

Year 10 (G28) first week back

Our G28 students worked together in Crews last week on their guiding question: ‘How can we ensure that our future selves will thank us for the next two years?’ They really stepped up to the challenge, considering how they will support and challenge each other to be successful over the next two years of GCSE. The week also provided lots of opportunities to continue their thinking about careers and pathways, beyond Key Stage 4 to Post-16. 

Our students had a great morning with the Learning and Skills team at Gateshead Local Authority who put together a carousel of careers sessions led by experts and employers on pathways available and what employers and education providers are looking for in candidates.

Our students also worked on a first CV based on their ambitions, strengths and skills to date, and on Friday they had a mock interview with an external professional who gave  them feedback on how they presented themselves, articulated their ambitions and responded to questions asked during the interview. Again, we raised the bar on our expectations and our students stepped up!

Our week ahead 

Change of Classes

Unlike many other secondary schools, we do not group our children based on their ability into sets or streams. However like most schools, we do change the make-up of our classes and move students between classes at the start of an academic year. In Year 10, this has been done to accommodate the pathways that students have chosen for Key Stage 4. 

For Years 8 and 9, we have done a wholesale adjustment of classes, as we did at the start of last academic year. There are many factors that we consider when making changes to the classes, and of course we get to know our students better and better each year. The aim is still, and will always be to make classes as heterogeneous as possible with a representative mix of genders, attainment,  backgrounds etc. We appreciate that change can cause some level of anxiety or even upset for some students, and we will work to ensure that this is minimised with an orderly and purposeful start to the year in our new academic classes with new learning expeditions.

G31 students (Year 7) 

Students will be working in their Crews on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning reflecting on their Outward Bound experience and thinking about what Crew looks like in the classroom and around our school, and how learning will work at their new school – especially learning through expeditions.

They will get tours of the school on Monday and our new spaces as well as an introduction to PE (students do not need their PE kits this week). 

We will hand out iPads to G30 students on Monday at the end of the day. These will come  with instructions on how to set these up on the school management system which is a fairly straightforward process. Students will need to set these up at home on Monday evening ready for a first training session on Tuesday. It is really important that the screen protector is applied as soon as you take the iPad out of the box, without this any insurance claims will not be valid.

We will post a separate update for families explaining how to set up the iPads on our website on Monday.

On Wednesday, students will find out their new classes and Immersion for their new learning expedition will start.

G30 students (Year 8) 

After a morning in Crew on Monday, students will begin a week-long immersion for their new learning expedition this week. 

They will have their first PE session on Monday and the second on Tuesday so will need PE kit on both days please.

On Monday, students will find out their new classes and their seating plans.

G29 students (Year 9) 

After morning Crew sessions, students will begin immersion for their new learning expedition this week. 

G29 PE sessions take place on Thursday so students will need their PE kit.

On Monday, students will find out their new classes and their seating plans.

G28 students (Year 10) 

After morning Crew sessions, students will begin immersion for their new learning expeditions this week. 

G28 PE sessions take place on Thursday so students will need their PE kit. 

On Monday, students will find out their new classes and their seating plans.

Making the right start

All students need to be in school for an 8.30am start so they must arrive by 8.25am at the latest. There will be staff in school supervising so students can arrive from 8.00 am.

We will finish formal sessions at 3.15pm and there will be no extended study or activities after school this week. 

Kit List

As always, students need to bring a school bag with the following kit :

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
• A fully charged iPad (G28, G29, G30 from Monday, G30 from Tuesday) and headphones (ideally not expensive ones, for example here)
• A notebook
• A reading book

Students also need to bring a healthy snack for break time – no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks please as we do not allow these in school. Please note there are to be no nut products in snacks or packed lunches – this is especially important as we have students in this cohort who are highly allergic to nut products. 

Mobile phones should be switched off and in school bags each morning. Students should not be using mobile phones during the day without permission from a member of staff. If you need to contact your son or daughter please do so via the school office at [email protected] or on 0191 4814360. 

Safe arrivals and exit from site

Cars and parking outside of school

The start of a new academic year is always busier at pick up and drop off, with new Year 7 students getting used to making their way to and from a new school, and all students finishing at 3.15pm until extended study and clubs are up and running.

Please can you ensure that you consider our neighbours when parking and do not block any pathways or drives onto their properties. Of even more importance is the safety of our students when crossing the road outside of school. Please leave space by the barriers outside of the main gates, as we have staff here who can ensure that children are crossing the road safely. With a clear road here we will more easily be able to see any approaching traffic.

Cycling to school

We are really pleased to see so many of our students cycling or scooting to school. Can I remind parents that if  students are to bring bikes or scooters to school then they must have a bike lock. In terms of safety, students should also have a bike helmet. Please check that your child’s bike is in good condition frequently.

Please note that electric scooters (e–scooters) are not allowed in school or as a means of getting to school. This includes all other  ‘powered transporters’ too such as hoverboards and electric unicycles.

Lunches

We are a no nut school. This is very important as we do have children with severe allergies.

Students can choose to bring in a healthy packed lunch (no nut products, confectionary, fizzy or energy drinks) or have a school meal with us. 

Our school dinners are very popular with our students, thanks to our wonderful kitchen crew. Students make a daily food choice in crew each morning and we have a three week menu. Here’s this year’s menu – this week we start on week 1.

If your child receives a free school meal, we will provide lunch. Please contact the school office at [email protected] if you have any questions around school meals or paying for meals via ParentPay.

We are really looking forward to welcoming all of our students back tomorrow. As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].

Thank you for your ongoing support and a special thanks again to those parents who have been supporting our new G31 parents with their XPG knowledge and expertise. 

Julie Mosley

Principal

Dear Families

Welcome back!

Next week we return to school for our first week back which is fundamental to us as an XP School. We will spend time introducing or reaffirming the importance of Crew which is the foundation of our culture at XPG, and take the time to build and tend to positive relationships in Crew through shared experiences and challenges. 

 ‘If we get Crew right, we get everything right’.

The activities in the first week back are carefully planned and bespoke to each year group. 

We will be running a staggered start to school for students on Tuesday to ensure a smooth start back. Our theatre space continues to be out of use whilst ongoing repair work is underway so we are unable to collectively meet more than one year at a time.

• G31 (Year 7) students will start at normal time, 8:25am and can arrive from 8am on Tuesday.
• G30 (Year 8) students will start at 10:45am on Tuesday.
• G29 (Year 9) students will start at 11:15am on Tuesday.
• G28 (Year 10) students will start at 11:45am on Tuesday.

IMPORTANT: Due to the staggered start school lunches for G30/G29/G28 students need to be pre ordered for Tuesday, please complete your choice on the google form here. 

First week back guiding questions and fieldwork next week 

Each cohort has a different guiding question for the week with purposeful activities which help them to answer this question. As such there is no PE this coming week, but there is physical activity for all year groups as you will see below.

G31 (Year 7) students – Outward Bound Expedition

G31 students head off to Howtown, Ullswater for their Outward Bound Expedition and their guiding question for the week which is:

“What does it mean to be crew?”

Importantly, students will need a packed lunch and a £10 deposit with them when they arrive at school on Tuesday. See the detailed website post which has full information on travel, kit, medical requirements, communication and return time back to school.

G30 (Year 8) students – Fieldwork on Friday 30th August

As part of their first week back in school, Year 8 students will be planning fieldwork in our local area which will involve them retrieving and consolidating their learning from Year 7 expeditions as well as evaluating the effectiveness of new fieldwork activities for supporting the learning of our new cohort. To do this the students will carry out their planned fieldwork on Friday 30th August. Students will be using this fieldwork to answer the question linked to theme of student leadership for the week:

“How can we lead and support the learning of our new friends in G31?”

Students will complete the fieldwork during the school day and will be back in school for around 3.30pm.

Each Crew will put together a ‘Crew picnic’. Your child will be able to give you more details on how they plan to contribute towards this picnic.

G30 students should also be prepared for the weather conditions, so they must have their regular kit and in addition:

• Waterproof jacket
• Appropriate clothing for the weather
• Suitable footwear for a day’s walking in urban area
• Water bottle
• Suncream
• A cap or hat

G29 (Year 9) students – Fieldwork on Thursday 29th August

As part of their first week back in school, Year 9 students will be carrying out a hike in Northumberland around Wylam on Thursday during the school day. As this is a hike, a consent form will go home to students on Tuesday.

Students will be learning how to navigate together as a Crew and will be planning a Crew picnic. This serves as an introduction to the types of challenges that they will face as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award this academic year, and also connects the guiding question for the week which is:

“How do we form great habits to tackle initiatives as a Crew with increasing agency, independence and resilience?”

Each Crew will put together a ‘Crew picnic’. Your child will be able to give you more details on how they plan to contribute towards this picnic.

Students will be travelling by metro and train during the regular school day and will return back to school for around 3:30pm. We will keep you updated on the school website of our expected arrival time.

G29 students will need the following kit for the day. The current forecast is showers and sunny intervals.

• Waterproof jacket
• Appropriate clothing for the weather
• Hiking boots or footwear that is suitable for a rural hike.
• Water bottle
• Suncream
• A cap or hat

G28 (Year 10) students – Fieldwork on Wednesday 28th and Expert sessions on Friday 30th August

Students will be working together in Crews on their guiding question:

‘How can we ensure that our future selves will thank us for the next two years?’

There are two foci for the week. The first of which is focussing on the step up to Key Stage 4 and how they need to adapt their Crew norms to ensure that they are supporting and challenging each other to be successful.

Secondly students will continue their thinking about careers and pathways, beyond Key Stage 4 to Post-16. As part of the week students will travel to Gateshead Careers Centre to hear from experts and employers about what pathways are available to them and what employers and education providers are looking for in candidates.

For the fieldwork on Wednesday we will be travelling to Gateshead Careers Centre by foot and metro, so students will need:

• Their regular school kit including a water bottle and fully charged iPad
• Comfortable walking shoes or trainers
• Clothing that is suitable for the weather – the forecast is currently sunny with showery spells.

During the week, students will also put together a CV based on their ambitions, strengths and skills to date, and on Friday they will have a mock interview with a professional who will give them feedback on how they present themselves, how they articulate their ambitions and reflect on themselves and how they respond to  questions. Students should wear more formal dress on Friday for their mock interviews.

Regular Kit and dress code for this week

Students will need their regular kit  and be in regular dress code for the start of school this week on Tuesday, just as in any other week. See our website post for a reminder on our dress code expectations.

A reminder that for day to day kit we expect students a school bag with the following:

• A water bottle
• A fully charged iPad
• Headphones – ideally not expensive ones, for example here
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
• Notebook

School Lunches 

Students can choose to bring in a healthy packed lunch (no confectionery, fizzy or energy drinks) or have a school meal with us. Please note there must be no nut products in snacks or packed lunches – this is especially important as we have students in this cohort who are highly allergic to nut products.

Our school dinners are very popular with our students, thanks to our wonderful kitchen crew. Students make a daily food choice in crew each morning and we have a three week menu. Here’s this year’s menu – we start on week 3 this wek.

If your child receives a free school meal, we will provide lunch. Please contact the school office if you have any questions around school meals.

As mentioned above, please pre-order lunch for Tuesday 27th August here.  

Staffing Update and Crew Leaders

Kati Donlan accepted a new job at the start of the school holidays so, due to notice periods, will not return to XPG in the new term. I’m sure that you will join me in thanking Kati for all of her high quality work at XP Gateshead as a Learning Coach and a Crew Leader. She has had a huge impact on staff, students and families with the work she has done supporting young people to access all areas of our curriculum. 

We have three new Learning Coaches/Crew Leaders joining our team this term – Nicky Evans, Nelly Mosley, and Charlie Parry. As you know we also have Mohammed Azam and Hannah Simpson joining our teaching team too this year, both of whom have been working with us since June.

A reminder that our Crew Leaders for this academic year are:

G31 (Year 7) – Mr Azam, Mrs Diamond, Miss Jamison, Mr Parry / Mr Said

 

G30 Crew Earhart: Mrs Evans / Miss Mosley

G30 Crew Kahlo: Ms Macphail

G30 Crew Darling: Mrs Ross

G30 Crew Einstein: Miss Simpson

 

G29 Crew Attenborough: Miss Blain

G29 Crew Watson: Mrs Horne / Mrs Downes

G29 Crew King: Señorita Quested

G29 Crew Nightingale: Miss Marshall

 

G28 Crew Parks: Mr Devitt

G28 Crew Frank: Miss Jones

G28 Crew Angelou: Mr Mead

G28 Crew Stanton: Miss Tatters

Regular timetabled sessions

Regular timetabled lessons will start for G28, G29 and G30 in the week commencing Monday 2nd September. As you know, we are reviewing our classes and changes will be made to the makeup of both class 1 and class 2 in both cohorts.

There will be no clubs or extended study for the first two weeks of term.

We are really looking forward to welcoming all of our students back on Tuesday. As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].

Thank you for your ongoing support and a special thanks to G28, G29 and G30 parents who have been sharing their XPG knowledge and expertise with our new G31 parents. Together we are definitely stronger #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Principal

Dear Families

Welcome to our final weekly update of this academic year. It is another exciting week for us at XPG with our final presentations of learning for each expedition and we will share updates from these events with you over the next week.

There was great work achieved as always last week and our students continued to work hard, get smart and be kind even as end of term tiredness kicked in. Seeing students work together supporting each other to be their best versions, leaning in on crew and culture was a real strength. Here are a some of the highlights from our week:

Crew Day – XPG Sports Day

We enjoyed our final Crew Day of the year last week with a sport and physical challenge to the day. Our Sports Day involved a range of activities with healthy competition within each cohort between Crews and the quality of work across all crews and rounds was stunning – designing crew mascots for a given country, recreating famous sporting images, crew rounders, dodgeball and athletics.

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G28 students completed one last major physical exertion carrying out a walk for water. Students were supported throughout the day by ambassadors of the Charity Time to Help. They even brought their mascot the water drop! They also gave students the opportunity to visit Kenya by the power of VR to see a village where their well’s had an impact.

Excitement was high as winners were announced in our whole school community meeting in the afternoon. The winners were:

G30 – Crew Einstein

G29 – Crew Watson

G28 – Crew Parks walked the greatest distance in the walk for water

Thanks so much to all families that have donated to the appeal.

Freya is now a published artist!

As you may have seen, our Year 7 student, Freya and her family travelled down to the Royal Academy of Arts to see her artwork curated in the gallery. Well done Freya!

Working with the Comfrey Project

A group of Year 8 students carried out some volunteering work with our partners at the Comfrey Project in Bensham last week, volunteering in their garden. 

“The Comfrey Project provides a safe, welcoming place for people who have fled conflict and persecution to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, develop new skills and put down roots in their new community.

Their approach is based on the use of horticulture-based activities including gardening, bee-keeping, cooking, crafts and construction, to improve people’s lives.”

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XPT Festival of Arts 

On Friday Mr Said travelled to Doncaster with Miss Wall our visiting dance teacher and our choir, rock band and dancers. The groups have been working on performances over the last term and put on a fantastic show, performing twice. The afternoon performance was to our primary school students and staff, and then the evening performance was to families from across the schools in Doncaster. Just as we finished our first set the heavens began to open, and as our rock band took to the stage for their second performance the area in front of the stage was quite quiet given the rain. However by the time our rock band had finished they had pulled the crowd back in, and they stayed for our choir and dancers. So many colleagues came to find us to say how impressed they were with our children, and how thankful they were that we had been able to be part of the festival. Well done to all of our performers who have put in a massive amount of effort, not least their long shift on Friday! Beautiful work. A special thanks to Lauren for her support with our Dancers across the whole year too.

This week

G30 Celebration of Learning, Tuesday 16th July 4:30-6:00pm

This event will take place in school and will include a hosted gallery walk where students will discuss their learning from across this last term around the guiding question “How does water shape our world?”. Students will also present important updates on their final products from across the year, including their radio broadcast with excerpts of their Creative Writing from term 2 and their folk songs from term 1. More details in Mrs Ross’ post here.

We are delighted to announce that we have copies of the CD with Year 7 students’ music available for families to purchase. We have a limited initial print of 50 copies available, although more will be printed soon. If you wish to purchase your child’s music on CD, then please bring £5 to the event on Tuesday evening.

Due to the limited initial print, it will be limited to one copy per family. When the second print run is done, you will be able to purchase more copies in the new academic year for other family members. This really is a fantastic product, and every penny raised will go back into funding your child’s exciting learning expeditions next year.

G29 Presentation of Learning, Wednesday 17th July 4:30-6:00pm

This event will also take place in school. Students have been working in the kitchen to prepare food so that we can eat an afternoon tea influenced by dishes from across the world, together with our migrant guests. Students will also perform a poem set to their artwork. Following the interval, we will screen the film made by our G28 students which includes the stories of some of our migrant experts. We are really looking forward to hosting you in school – more details in Miss tatters’ post here.

G28 Presentation of Learning, Thursday 18th July 6.00pm

The final presentation of learning for G28 will be a live stream on Youtube, which includes excerpts of poetry and captures their learning from across this term on their expedition: Hold back the river. We will post details of the link to follow to join the stream later in the week.

PE sessions this week

Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.

• G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
• G29 students (Y8) 
  • 8-1 have PE on Tuesday this week
  • 8-2 have PE on Thursday this week
• G28 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday this week 

No Extended Study and Clubs

Due to the Presentations of Learning this week we are not running clubs or extended study this week.

Summer Holidays

We break up for Summer holidays this Friday 19th July and return to school on Tuesday 27th August. Please remember that, as always, our students finish at 1:30pm on Friday to allow staff to de-gunge and replenish rooms and teaching spaces ready for the new academic year.

As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

We achieved so much last week with Transition Days, Fieldwork, Experts working in school, Educator Led Conferences and our DofE bronze final expedition. Community meetings on Friday were a real joy, both in school with G30, G29 and out in the field with G28. To hear staff and students talk with genuine care for each other, our culture and the school we are building together is unique. As you know we are a small staff at XPG (19 in total including several part time staff) and the quality curriculum and extra-curricular activities that we offer our students to support and challenge them to produce beautiful work, grow in character and see academic success is down to the hard work and commitment of our staff. Crew is as important to staff as it is to students and I feel grateful and privileged to be part of such a great staff crew. Huge thanks go out to all staff this week for their continued care and support of every student at XPG.

G31 Transition Days

We finally got to meet our new cohort of students last week and G31 got to know each other on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week. Transition Days were a huge success and it was great to see new friendships form, confidence grow and smiles on the faces of our new students. G31 enjoyed two full days in school which included crew along with sessions in Spanish, PE, Art, Human, Science and Maths. At the end of each day it was great to circle up for community meetings with all 50 students and hear their appreciations to each other and their answers to the guiding question we had set for transition days ‘What will it take for me to be the best version of myself at XP Gateshead?’

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The work of student leaders across transition days was exceptional from supporting sessions and end of day community circle  to running clubs at break and lunch time. The vast array of student-led social time sessions is a testament to our students and the warm welcome they gave to our new year group – board games, mindful arts, rounders, basketball, dance, book club, choir, music, robotics, arts and crafts, football.

G30 Fieldwork working with Durham University Biosciences Department

On Thursday, G30 enjoyed an amazing day at Durham University to further study aquatic food chains as part of their current expedition, “How does water shape our world?” Our students worked alongside scientists in the lab using microscopes to look at a variety of species and then also identified species  from the nearby pond. One of the many highlights of the day for G30 students was observing a leech give birth, a moment Caleb and others will never forget and one many of us will never be lucky enough to see!

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For Year 7, this was their first visit to a University Campus (with more to come) which was a really important moment for our students. As you know, university-readiness is part of our mission at XP Gateshead, to ensure that our students are on a path to university if that is what they choose for their future. Special thanks to Miss Jamison who organised this fieldwork opportunity for our students.

G29 Crew King and Crew Watson working in the kitchen 

As part of the preparation for their presentation of learning on 17th July, Crew King and Crew Watson worked in the kitchen last  week to prepare dishes from around the world for the event.

Crew King prepared samosas and spring rolls and Crew Watson prepared Lamington’s from Australian and Nigerian meat pies. Mrs Tatters, our expert who supported students was again blown away by the quality of work shown, some of which was of “shop-bought standard”.

This week, more Crews in G29 will take to the kitchen to prepare their dishes for the Celebration of Learning event where our students will be hosting and catering an evening to celebrate their learning through their expedition ‘Is Migration Worth the Risk?’. This celebration of learning will be held at XP Gateshead School on 17th July 2024. More information to come.

G29 Expert – Eira Hegarty

On Friday our G29 students met Eira Hegarty, a final year medical student who has spent time volunteering for Refugee Community Kitchen in Calais. This was a great opportunity for our students to get first-hand information about the scale and level of challenge around what is a very complex and emotive issue of our time. As always, our students were prepared with great questions. The session was really insightful and important to students’ current expedition, and will further help students to determine for themselves ‘Is Migration Worth the Risk?’.

G28 Assessed Duke of Edinburgh Expedition 

On Friday our G28 Pioneers embarked on their final assessed Duke of Edinburgh expedition. As you know, DofE (like our Year 7 Ullswater Outward Bound experience) is an important aspect of our curriculum in challenging students to develop their character and push them beyond their comfort zone and I’m delighted to say that G28 smashed it! 

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Students covered a huge distance of over 20 km across country, whilst being supervised remotely. All students that took part have now successfully completed the assessed expedition section of their award, and all that remains before they can be signed off to be awarded bronze is to complete the de-gunge in school tomorrow morning.

There were many highlights from across the two days. Seeing students support each other and battle through pain and the challenge of such distance with a significant amount of kit on their back reminds us of how important the Duke of Edinburgh scheme is – not just in terms of the accreditation of the bronze award but most importantly in showing students that there is more in them than they know, and that tackling challenges as a Crew is always more successful. We had a beautiful community meeting on Friday evening where the midges were able to listen to wonderful praises for character – our students really do notice each other’s brilliance.

Thank you to all staff who have supported our G28 students to successfully complete their bronze DofE qualification and the time they have invested in this (inside and outside of school hours) – Miss Tatters, Miss Jones, Miss Marshall, Mr Walters, Mr Mead, Mr Said, Mrs Dobson. A special thanks and congratulations to Mr Devitt for his leadership of our first DofE at XP Gateshead.

Educator Led Conferences

Think Student Led Conferences and then think SLCs for adults and that’s an Educator Led Conference (ELC). As you know, at XPG ‘if its good enough for our students, it’s good enough for the adults’. This starts with induction and an outward bound experience for staff looking at the importance of crew and then each year, every member of staff shares their learning to an audience of their peers as part of our professional engagement process. So far we have enjoyed ELCs from Mr Said, Miss Jamison, Mrs Donlan, Mrs Diamond, Mr Mead, Miss Jones, Mrs Ross and we are really looking forward to this week’s ELCs which include our new staff, Miss Simpson and Mr Azam who move towards the end of their induction.

This week

PE sessions this week

Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.

• G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
• G29 students (Y8) 
  • 8-1 have PE on Tuesday this week
  • 8-2 have PE on Wednesday this week
• G28 students (Y9) have PE on Friday this week 

Crew day – XPG Sports Day, Thursday 11th July

This week we have our final Crew Day of the year. As is always the case, this day will be about building crew but this time, the theme is sport and physical challenge.

Sports Day will involve a range of activities with healthy competition within each cohort between Crews. Students should come dressed in PE kit for the day. A reminder of PE kit can found by clicking here.

As part of their day G28 students will build on their excellence from DofE last week and do one last major physical exertion this year – because there is more in them than they know. As well as their sporting activities in the afternoon, the morning will be spent carrying out a walk for water, sharing the load between their Crew to complete 6km as a Crew

Our partners for this challenge are the Comfrey Project in Gateshead, who have supported us with our migration expedition in Year 8 for the last couple of years – the funds raised through the website timetohelp.org.uk will be passed to the organisation Walk for Water.

For each £2700 raised for the charity, a toilet block can be installed in a rural area of Africa. We realise G28 parents have supported crew charities a lot throughout year 9, please only give what you can. Anything we raise will be helpful in contributing towards installing important sanitation in a place of need.

On average, women and girls in developing countries walk 6 kilometres (approximately 3.5 miles) a day, carrying 20 litres (about 42 pounds/20 kgs) of water. It is common for this journey to take more than 15 hours a week in some areas. We want to build empathy in our students for people who don’t have access to clean water, and help them to understand the hardship that some people face just to be able to drink, clean and cook every day.

We hope you will support by clicking on this link to donate!

G31 Transition – Meet the Crew Leader, Tuesday 9th July 5pm

Our ‘Meet the Crew Leader’ will be hosted in school. This is an important opportunity for families to meet their child’s Crew Leader and begin forming the strong relationship that will be needed to support and challenge your child to become the best version of themselves. This event is for adults from families only, you should not bring your child to this event.

This event will start at 5pm on Tuesday evening and is expected to last for around 45 minutes.

XP Trust Festival of Culture and Arts

Our choir, dancers and rock school students will be travelling down to Doncaster on Friday to be part of the inaugural festival. They will be performing in a line up that includes performers from across all of our schools in the trust. Our students will perform twice throughout the day, once for an audience of our primary school children, and again later in the day for a wider audience of families and our older children from the secondary schools on Doncaster.

This is the first festival of its kind in the trust, and in future years we intend to expand the scale of the festival to include performances that will take place on our school site.

Good luck to our performers this week!

Extended Study and Clubs

Extended study and after school clubs will not be running this week due to staff Educator Led Conferences and Transition event ‘Meet your Crew Leader’. 

Extended study and after school clubs will not be running next week due to Presentations of Learning. 

Dress code

As you know, our dress code asks students and staff to:

Please dress appropriately and modestly.

I ask for your support again around dress code, especially in the warmer weather where a minority of students are not getting it right in terms of modesty and wearing clothes that are revealing.  While we understand that students prefer to wear shorts in the nicer weather of the Summer Term, it is important that these remain modest and not reveal the upper thigh. Shorts for both girls and boys should reach at least mid-thigh without having to be constantly pulled down. Additionally, cropped tops and vest tops that reveal the chest or midriff are not appropriate for school.

Thank you as always for your ongoing support. 

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

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

Sometimes, when you look back on the week past it is hard to believe that so much can be achieved in a week and this is definitely the case for last week when we only had four days with our students!

We get the chance to see your children and their greatness every day and see how hard they are working to produce beautiful work, grow their character and be successful academically. We also get the chance to see and hear them challenging and supporting each other to be better and, like staff here, our students ‘sweat the small stuff’ and have high expectations of themselves and their peers.  This is not the norm in schools and I feel really proud of our school where staff and students work together building this culture, doing this as crew and not passengers.

G28 Fieldwork 

As part of their current expedition, ‘Hold Back the River’ our Year 9 students had an amazing fieldwork experience at the coast this week, studying the river at Seaton Burn and the Seaton Sluice coastline.  The fieldwork incorporated geography standards around map reading, fieldwork skills including data collection and analysis and also physical geography standards about river processes, giving students an opportunity to test a hypothesis about the long profile of a river, and the changes from the middle to the lower course. In addition students spent time on a solo, using their surroundings to help prepare them for writing standards in English language associated with poetry and connected to the literature pieces that they have been studying. Finally, they also spent time observing the dune ecosystems at Seaton Sluice, building on learning about biotic and factors and variation in biology, to look at the adaptations, abundance and distribution of species that thrive in the dunes.

G30 Fieldwork

Our Year 7 students carried out fieldwork along the River Tyne this week as part of their current expedition and guiding question ‘How does water shape our world?’

They packed so much into one day, including using the physical model of the river catchment at Newcastle Central Library to look at how features can affect the river catchment and flow of water, using their sharp vocabulary to discuss how changes to the landscape impact on the whole system. They also walked the length of the Tyne from the quayside to Felling Shore to study human geography standards, looking at the change in land use on both sides of the river along the section sampled.

G29 workshop – Climate Adaptability

Year 8 students continue to consider their guiding question,  ‘Is Migration worth the Risk?’,  as part of their current expedition, ‘Should I stay or should I go?.’ Last week they spent time with expert Gemma Sarigu from ‘Students Owning Sustainability’. The session fit into the wider expedition, where students are seeing how changes in climate are becoming an increasingly prevalent push factor which causes people to migrate. Protecting our planet is one of our curricular seams that runs throughout expeditions, and this session was important in addressing potential feelings of ‘climate anxiety’. Much of the session was spent considering opportunities that climate change poses in terms of developing technologies, careers and bringing people together.

G30 Art Workshops

Our final workshops with Bruce Tuckey for art students leaders took place this week. This involved students creating sculptures inspired by the works on the Tyne Riverside Sculpture Park. We will post images of the final products soon.

PE collaboration with Felling Cricket Club 

This week our Year 9 students enjoyed the chance to test their cricket skills at Felling Cricket Club. We are really lucky to have such facilities on our doorstep, allowing our students to experience expert facilities and give them a platform to play cricket locally outside of school. All year groups will be using this facility in the coming weeks and months. Special thanks to Mr Devitt, Danny Norman and Macolm Norman who have supported this collaboration.

     

 

This week

Like was said on our early look ahead last week, it’s another packed week!

G31 Year 6 Transition Days – Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd July

This week we meet our new G31 students for their transition days at XP Gateshead. We are really looking forward to getting to know our G31 cohort and for them to get to know each other. Please see the website post for full details on transition. 

Please note that for all students (including Year 6 students), our school day will start at the usual time of 8:25am each day with students able to arrive from 8:00am. Each day will end at 3:15am for all students (there are no clubs or extended study running on Tuesday or Wednesday).

G29 Crews working in the kitchen – Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th July

As part of the preparation for their presentation of learning on 17th July, this week Crew King and Crew Watson will be working in the kitchen this week to prepare dishes from around the world for the event.

• Crew King – Wednesday 3rd July, 
• Crew Watson – Thursday 4th July

The ingredients will be already sourced for students. In terms of safety, long hair must be tied back, and students should wear clothes that are OK to get dirty. 

Over the next week, each of our G29 Crews will be working in the kitchen to prepare dishes for the presentation of learning event where our students will be hosting and catering an evening to celebrate their learning through their expedition ‘Is Migration Worth the Risk?’ This celebration of learning will be held at XP Gateshead School on 17th July 2024.

G28 Duke of Edinburgh Kit Check – Wednesday 3rd July, 3:30pm

Students in G28 will carry out a full kit check in school in readiness for their assessed expedition which is taking place on Friday and Saturday this week. The kit check should take no more than 1 hour and students will contact families to let you know when they will be finished if they need a lift home from school.

G30 Fieldwork – Thursday 4th July

On Thursday, G30 will be carrying out an important fieldwork at the Durham University Biosciences Department to further study aquatic food chains – both under the microscope and by looking at the variety of species caught from the nearby pond. For Year 7, this will be their first visit to a University Campus which is a really important moment for our students. As you know, university-readiness is part of our mission at XP Gateshead, to ensure that our students are on a path to university if that is what they choose for their future.

Students should arrive at the regular time and will finish school at 3.15pm as normal. They will need their regular kit for the day, a packed lunch and will need to be prepared for the weather (the current forecast is mild, sunny spells with a chance of showers). Students that normally have a free school meal will be provided with a packed lunch.

G28 Assessed Duke of Edinburgh Expedition – Friday 5th and Saturday 6th July

This week our G28 Pioneers embark on their final assessed Duke of Edinburgh expedition. As you know, DofE (like Year 7 Ullswater Outward Bound) is an important aspect of our curriculum in challenging students to develop their character and push them beyond their comfort zone. As a school we invest a great deal of time, money and staff resources into helping all students to achieve the award. We expect all of our students to complete the DofE.

Students should arrive at regular time on Friday and will be transported to their Duke of Edinburgh drop off point in Wark, Northumberland. Students will then be staying at Greencarts Campsite, next to Hadrian’s Wall, before completing day two of the expedition and being collected in Acomb, Northumberland. Students can expect to arrive back to school in the late afternoon on Saturday the 6th May.

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The forecast is mild, sunny spells and showers. The kit list reflects these possibilities, please ensure that your child is equipped for sun, rain and changes in temperature.

PE sessions this week

Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.

• G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
• G29 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week
• G28 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday this week 

Extended Study and Clubs

Extended study and after school clubs will not be running this week due to transition, DofE preparation and staff Educator Led Conferences (think SLCs for adults – what’s good for our children is good for us!). 

Punctuality

Can I remind all families about the importance of good punctuality. A calm start to each day is really important for students to settle into learning and as you know, we ask all parents and carers to support their children with this, it is part of the XP Home School Agreement that every family has signed.

We are starting to see a small minority of students arrive after 8:25am without real justification. Please note that school opens at 8:00am every morning and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew. 

Students have been given clear reminders about punctuality and I know that Crew Leaders have been in contact with families to remove barriers around punctuality. We monitor lateness closely down to precise time lost and where punctuality issues continue, students will make up lost time at the end of the week. 

Thank you as always for your ongoing support. 

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

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

We hope you have enjoyed the long and sunny weekend.  Last week we enjoyed some great work from students in and outside of school:

G29 Fieldwork

   

Students in G29 met with expert volunteers  from the Time to Help UK charity, who are supporting the Humanity Cartoon competition – a global competition using art to give voice to the stories of refugees. Students were able to talk to the experts about their own experiences of migration and analysed the many pieces of artwork to make inferences about the messages being conveyed. All of this in the wonderful surrounds of St Mary’s heritage centre.

Will, Arlo, Penny and Dakota then returned on Thursday to read the poem that is part of their final product, Home by Warsan Shire, as part of a day of performances connected to National Refugee Week.

G30 Art Workshop

We had the first of our workshops with the sculptor Bruce Tuckey for our Year 7 art leaders, who are creating sculptures in response to the riverside park of sculptures on the south bank of the Tyne. This week Bruce will be working with the remaining students in the leadership group from Year 7.

Art delivery to the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition

On Saturday, Miss Macphail travelled to London to deliver a very special piece of art to be exhibited in this year’s Summer Exhibition. 

Freya’s “Mr Pigeon” was delivered safely and will be shown in one of the most prestigious art galleries in the world. The Royal Academy is famous for showcasing new and established artists, bringing their work to a whole new audience. 

Saturday workshop ran by XPG students

Our student leaders from G29: Eliza, Nelly, Penny, Braydon, Reuben, and Harry met with migrant children at a Saturday school organised by our partners at the Comfrey Project and taught the children there how to make stop motion animation, using their learning from the creation of the final product for their current expedition.

Staff Days

On Friday and Monday, our staff have worked hard in school and with colleagues across the Trust planning next term’s expeditions.

‘At XP we build our community through activism, leadership and equity sharing our stories as we go.’

To fully realise these principles, at XP, we deliver our curriculum predominantly through cross disciplinary learning expeditions. These are standards based projects that are specifically designed to make connections between, and across, subjects to encourage deep, purposeful and memorable learning experiences for our young people. The careful planning of expeditions takes time and real craftsmanship and quality. Our staff have been considering each part of the expedition – immersions, guiding questions, case studies, work with experts, fieldwork and final products.

 

A special thanks goes out to Molly, Freya and Elina who gave up their time on Friday to update our toilet signs with an XP design by Ruby. Their work really does show that our students are crew not passengers.

At the start of the week we had a group of 15 teachers and leaders from XP Trust schools for a  day of learning at XPG. They were immersed in learning at XPG via Ambassador Tours, lesson visits and teaching and learning sessions with Mr Mead. 

Stand out moments revolved around ambassador tours which our students facilitated. The feedback about our students was simply stunning and worth sharing with you all

“The work you have done around culture is fabulous. The way the pupils articulated their educational offer was stunning”

“What an incredible day, your students blew us away. They are learning to be the most wonderful individuals who take pride in their learning and their school. The work you and your team have done at XPG is making a difference… they showed us… with their conduct and their integrity”

 

This week

Like was said on Friday, it’s a busy one!

G28 Fieldwork tomorrow

Year 9 students will be carrying out fieldwork to investigate the river Seaton Burn. Students will work together to collect data regarding the width, depth and velocity of the river. Students will also complete an activity connected to their poetry studies and will study species in the dunes at Seaton Sluice which are particular to that ecosystem. We will be travelling by coach to the venue for the day. The weather forecast is currently very warm, dry and sunny. The heat warning does not affect our region however students should be prepared for the hot and dry weather. All year 9 students will need:

• Their regular kit for the day
• Suncream and cap/hat
• A second pair of trainers, wellies or shoes that can get wet
• A large bottle of drinking water
• Ideally shorts rather than longer bottoms or leggings
  • bottoms or leggings that can be rolled up are OK
• Bug spray if required

We expect to be back to school at the normal time, traffic dependent so will post on the website if there are any delays.

Climate Action Plan and G29 workshops

Also on Tuesday, our Climate Action Plan leadership group will be working with our expert Gemma Sarigu to finalise their proposals for how the school could be more sustainable.

On Tuesday Year 8 students will also carry out a workshop with Gemma on climate adaptability, which will both feed into the action plan, and also connects to students’ learning about migration – with changes in climate becoming an increasingly prevalent push factor which causes people to migrate.

G30 Fieldwork – Wednesday 26th June

All Year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork including data collection techniques and observational skills, through practical activities and investigations in our local river environment.

This will involve travel by Metro and walking between Newcastle and Gateshead. The weather forecast is currently warm with potential showers. As such students will need:

• Comfortable walking shoes or trainers
• appropriately dress for our current changeable weather including
  • hat and suncream
  • waterproof coat
• A packed lunch. (This will be provided for students who are entitled to free school meals if they request one.)
  A backpack with a pen, pencil, rubber, and iPad. Most bags are not waterproof, so we suggest putting kit inside a plastic bag inside the rucksack.

As usual, students need to be in school for 8.25am ready for their final briefing. We expect to return to school slightly later than the normal school at around 3:45 pm. We will update the school website in the event of any delays.

G30 Art Workshops – Thursday 27th June

The final workshop for art student leaders with Bruce Tuckey will be taking place on Thursday in school this week. This week it will be: Freya, Caleb, Lexi J, Lizzie, Olivia W, Amelia, Kayden, Josh, Lexi S, Evie, George, Danny, Holly, Lily-Mae S, Isaac and James. Students will be creating sculptures so should wear clothes which you do not mind getting dirty.

PE sessions this week

Some PE sessions will not run this week due to the staff day. PE time will be paid back in coming weeks with additional sessions and Crew Day

• G29 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week
• G28 students (Y9)
  • G28 Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
  • G29 Class 2 have PE on Friday this week 
• G30 students (Y7) do not have PE this week due to the staff day today.

As you know we have another staff day on Monday next week, where we will be continuing to plan for learning expeditions in our next academic year.

It is a particularly packed week next week with fieldwork and expert sessions. We will post our usual weekly update, however for next week it is important to note:

Tuesday 25th June

Year 9 students will be carrying out fieldwork to investigate the river Seaton Burn. Students will work together to collect data regarding the width, depth and velocity of the river. Students will also complete an activity connected to their poetry studies and will study species in the dunes at Seaton Sluice which are particular to that ecosystem. We will be travelling by coach to the venue for the day. The weather forecast is currently warm, dry and sunny spells.

All year 9 students will need:

• Their regular kit for the day
• Suncream and cap/hat
• A second pair of trainers, wellies or shoes that can get wet
• A large bottle of drinking water
• Ideally shorts rather than longer bottoms or leggings
  • bottoms or leggings that can be rolled up are OK
• Bug spray if required

We expect to be back to school at the normal time, traffic dependent so will post on the website if there are any delays.

 

Also on Tuesday, our Climate Action Plan leadership group will be working with our expert Gemma Sarigu to finalise their proposals for the how the school could be more sustainable.

 

On Tuesday Year 8 students will also carry out a workshop with Gemma on climate adaptability, which will both feed into the action plan, and also connects to students’ learning about migration – with changes in climate becoming an increasingly prevalent push factor which causes people to migrate.

Wednesday 26th June

All Year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork including data collection techniques and observational skills, through practical activities and investigations in our local river environment.

This will involve travel by Metro and walking between Newcastle and Gateshead. The weather forecast is currently warm with potential showers. As such students will need:

• Comfortable walking shoes or trainers
• appropriately dress for our current changeable weather including
  • hat and suncream
  • waterproof coat
• A packed lunch. (This will be provided for students who are entitled to free school meals if they request one.)
  A backpack with a pen, pencil, rubber, and iPad. Most bags are not waterproof, so we suggest putting kit inside a plastic bag inside the rucksack.

As usual, students need to be in school for 8.25am ready for their final briefing. We expect to return to school slightly later than the normal school at around 3:45 pm. We will update the school website in the event of any delays.

Thursday 27th June

The final workshop for art student leaders with Bruce Tuckey will be taking place on Thursday in school this week. This week it will be: Freya, Caleb, Lexi J, Lizzie, Olivia W, Amelia, Kayden, Josh, Lexi S, Evie, George, Danny, Holly, Lily-Mae S, Isaac and James. Students will be creating sculptures so should wear clothes which you do not mind getting dirty.

Looking Ahead

Our Transition Days for Year 6 children are on Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd July.

Each day will start at 8.25am with students able to arrive from 8.00am.

Each day will end at 3.15pm.

We look forward to welcoming our 50 new G31 students into school.

Dear Families

We enjoyed another great week last week and as always, it is great to see students pushing themselves and each other to be successful.

End of year assessments started last week for some subjects and I have been really pleased to see our students step up to the challenge showing real maturity and focus. Assessments continue (see last week’s post for details) and extended study continues to focus on revision this week.

On Thursday, we held an online whole school community meeting for all students and looked at the learning journey students have been on this year. It’s really important to stand back and reflect on journey and it is impressive to see just how much our students have achieved this year. Our students are working on a written reflection of the year which will be shared with you alongside their Crew Leader reflections and a final snapshot at the end of term.

Student Leadership 

“At XP, we build our community through activism, leadership and equity, sharing our stories as we go…”

This week we have seen multiple examples of great student leadership at work.

Year 7 Art student leaders carried out fieldwork with artist Bruce Tuckey in preparation for creating sculptures inspired by the Riverside Sculpture Park between Gateshead and Dunston along the Tyne.

A team from our Digital Leaders have been working alongside the XP Trust Comms Crew, taking on the role of professional sound technicians to carry out the important work of recording and editing the final folk songs written and performed by G30 students as well as recording final products for all cohorts including the G30 Do Your Bit radio performance, and poetry recitals from G28 and G29.

Mr Hewitt’s feedback on the day was extremely positive and complimentary:

“Could you pass on to all the students that I worked with yesterday that they were amazing and true professionals. I have many great days at work and this was one of the best days at work I’ve had.”

Crew Stanton’s Charity work this week organising and running a Football Tournament for the whole school was a huge success and enjoyed by students, staff and families alike. The work put in by this crew was stunning – advertising, organising teams and fixtures, ticket sales, refreshments including BBQ goods. The rain didn’t dampen the spirits of our teams or the spectators! A great example of activism from our students, making the world a better place.

Our Climate Action Plan student leadership group continued their work on developing a set of proposals for how we can make our school more sustainable including actions connected to: green spaces and trees, paper waste, rewilding, energy efficiency, food and food waste and raising awareness. Leaders will present to their peers our DfE project manager at the end of the academic year. They will also run a ‘teach the teacher’ session on what they have learned about sustainability. Again huge thanks to our experts at Students Owning Sustainability, in particular Gemma Sarigu.

Our student leaders in performance have been continuing to work hard to prepare for their show in Doncaster as part of the XP Trust Festival of Arts on Friday 12th July. XP Gateshead will have representation from our dancers, choir and rock band.

This week

Assessment Fortnight for all students continues

G28 Assessment timetable

• Monday 17th June AM History / RE 1 hour
• Tuesday 18th June PM English Language 1 hour
• Wednesday 19th June AM Spanish 1 hour (Reading / Listening)
• Thursday 20th June AM Science 75 mins

G29 Assessment timetable

• Tuesday 18th June AM English Language 1 hour
• Wednesday 19th June PM History / RE 1 hour
• Thursday 20th June PM Science 75 mins

G30 Assessment timetable

• CLASS 1 & 2: Monday 17th June AM English 45 mins
• CLASS 1: Tuesday 18th June AM History 30 mins
• CLASS 2: Tuesday 18th June AM Spanish 1 hour
• CLASS 1: Wednesday 19th June AM Spanish 1 hour
• CLASS 2: Wednesday 19th June AM History 30 mins
• CLASS 1 & 2: Thursday 20th June AM Geography 1 hour
• CLASS 1 & 2: Thursday 20th June PM Science 1 hour

Maths end of year assessment will take place in the fortnight commencing 2nd July.

PE sessions this week

Some PE sessions will not run this week due to assessments. PE time will be paid back in coming weeks with additional sessions and Crew Day

• G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
• G29 students (Y8):
  • G29 Class 1 have PE on Tuesday this week.
  • G29 Class 2 do not have PE this week 
• G28 students (Y9) do not have PE this week 

G28 Pathways

Information on the pathways and courses in our offer can be found here. As was posted earlier last week, we are offering a drop-in session for families who would like more support and advice from teachers and Crew Leaders on Tuesday 18th June between 5pm and 6pm.

G29 Fieldwork – Wednesday 19th June

On Wednesday of this week all G29 students will be carrying out fieldwork at the Glasshouse in Gateshead connected to their guiding question “Is migration worth the risk?” As part of national refugee week, students will visit a hosted art exhibition led by volunteer refugees. They will explore art inspired by refugee journeys to gain greater understanding of what these people faced and the factors that caused them to migrate to the UK.

Students will leave school at 9.15am and return to school for a slightly later lunch than is usual at 12.45pm. This means that you do not need to provide a packed lunch unless your child usually has a packed lunch.

Students will travel by Metro and on foot so comfortable walking shoes or trainers will be needed, as well as being prepared for the weather. The current forecast is mild and cloudy with sunny spells.  There is little chance of rain at the moment.  Suncream is needed as students will be walking during the middle of the day.

G30 Art workshop 1 – Thursday 20th June

The first workshop for art students leaders with Bruce Tuckey will be taking place this Thursday in school this week. All 24 of the student leaders will take part over the coming weeks. This week it will be: Ethan, Adam, Elina, Molly, Parisa, Joe, Lily-Ann B. Layla E. Students will be creating sculptures so should wear clothes which you do not mind getting dirty.

Staff Day – Friday 21st June

Friday is the first of our staff days this half term, the second is on Monday 24th June. Our staff team will be planning for next year’s expeditions. Students will not be expected to be in school on Friday or Monday.

Looking Ahead 

Staff day

Monday 24th June is the second of our staff days this half term (and the last this academic year).

We are also expecting an Ofsted visit this final half-term and are really looking forward to the opportunity for our students to shine and showcase their brilliant learning, beautiful work, development of their character and academic success. We will let you know as soon as we are given the indication that we will be inspected and post an update on this website.

As part of the inspection process, Ofsted will ask for your views. It has been a privilege to listen to the things that you have told families in Year 6 about our school which has been fed back to us through our transition process. 

We are very aware of the trust that you place in us as families as a new school that is yet to be inspected. There are many stakeholders of our school including Ofsted, our governors and staff. As families you are equal partners in developing and sustaining our community so that it benefits the most important stakeholders of all: our children.

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

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley