Dear Families

Open Evening

On Tuesday we held our Open Evening and welcomed over 350 people to our school. As you know, on evenings like this our students take centre stage and as always, they shine.

Families attended 4 sessions – XPG Mythbusting, Beautiful work, Character and Academic Success. Every session, apart from the Mythbusting one, was a showcase ran by students who shared the work done at XPG and answered questions from their audience.

Exit ticket feedback was really positive and our students definitely communicated our culture well with very few questions left unanswered. The confidence shown by our young people and their ability to articulate what we do and why we do it is stunning and we are extremely proud and grateful to all students who were involved. A thank you to families too who supported this event.

Personal Development at XPG

We also received some feedback this week from an external review of personal development at XPG. Areas of personal development include: developing responsible, respectful and active citizens; promoting equality of opportunity; promoting an inclusive environment; developing pupils’ character; giving pupils the qualities they need to flourish in society.

The feedback was positive and included the following

“Crew and the Expedition curriculum, as well as routines such as Common Mission, Community Meetings, Field Work all serve to ensure that students know what they are learning in order to shape their character, and work towards being positive members of society.”

“The interlinked approach to personal development means students can talk about how and why they learn as they do, how it will help them in the future, and why it is important.”

“Students can articulate themselves very well, and confidently. This is the case within Crew, in lessons, at social times, and when interacting with adults – even when they do not know the adult.”

“The school ensures that statutory regulations around RSHE are implemented and thanks to the repeated and lived-out protocols, as well as the consistency of the approach to the different elements of the school day, the students are knowledgeable of the RSHE curriculum and are able to speak sensitively about certain matters.”

“Students show each other and adults respect at all times. This is evident in learning and Crew, as well as at social times.”

An area for continued development is our careers programme – how we support students in their next steps, from GCSE and further education choices, making them aware of the diverse future pathways available to them and what they need to do to achieve their goals. Our work continues this year, look out for our website updates.

G30 What do the communities of NE England owe to the miners? 

The character of our G30 students continues to impress us. It is hard to believe that our year 7 students have only been with us for 6 weeks when you see them in and outside of classrooms, look at their high quality work and hear them speak about their progress. The experts who work alongside G30 have continued to praise their hard work, craftsmanship and quality and the respect they exhibit towards each other and staff who work with them. 

As part of their expedition, our Year 7 students have interviewed  songwriting expert Joe Solo, a folk musician, in preparation for their work in taking stories of the mining community and immortalising them in song.

They also carried out fieldwork at the location of the former Whitburn Colliery and Marsden Village near to Souter Lighthouse in South Tyneside working as geologists and archeologists.

G29 – What does it mean to be Human?

High quality work has continued in art this week with students capturing the most expressive object in the known universe – the human face. Students have been developing their skills in monoprinting.

In STEAM sessions, after carrying out heart dissections earlier in the week, students have been learning about the human reproductive system and normalising discussion of our reproductive organs. Students have been fantastic at showing kindness and understanding to each other and discussing such important learning maturely. 

G28 – How can structures help us to explain the world around us?

This week students have been digging further into their anchor text Lord of the Flies, which examines what happens to a group of children when the adults are not their to provide structure. In addition they have also started to create isometric drawings and using CAD software to create digital designs of their Lego moulds in order to create plaster casts of brutalist-inspired structures.

Our week ahead 

PE sessions this week

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

All G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.

All G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Tuesday this week.

All G28 students (Year 9) have PE on Friday this week.

Extended Study and taster sessions for clubs

As usual, we offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday. Please ask your son/daughter about extended study and support them in their organisation. Where students continue to struggle to get organised or need additional support we will direct them to attend Extended Study sessions after school on Mondays and Thursday with Mrs Mosley and Mr Said.

All Extended Study tasks are posted on Google Classroom. Year 7 parents should receive an invite to receive weekly Google Classroom updates this week.

The schedule for setting extended study with deadlines can be found here. More information on our rationale for Extended Study can be found here.

Extra -Curricular Clubs

Students have signed up for some taster sessions for clubs this week and next. We offer clubs at lunchtimes and after school and students will be able to try some sessions to help with decisions on weekly clubs they will attend after the holidays.

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.  There is more in us than we know #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

I start with a repeat of last week’s starting sentence: it was another very busy and productive week, even with four days due to our second staff day on Monday. We really do work hard here to produce beautiful work with our staff and students always striving to be the best versions of themselves.

If it’s good enough for our students…

This week has seen the first of our staff days for this term. We have two 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. On Friday 22nd September we focused on our teaching and learning model at XPG and on Monday 25th September we carried out some Outdoor Education work which focused on crew development including crew reads, crew initiatives and outdoor safety. This work sets us in good stead for future student learning opportunities and Year 9 DofE challenges.

Visitors in school …

We have had several visitors in school this week meeting our students and looking closely at the work they do. As adults, we always step back and let our students take the floor when visitors come and our students always talk openly and honestly about their school and work here at XP Gateshead. 

Verbal feedback from Ron Berger’s visit and our external school review last week has been really positive praising our strong school culture and the quality of our work. We will share more detailed feedback when reports come our way. 

Our Local Governors Committee (LGC) meeting …

On Thursday we had our first LGC meeting of the year. Our LGC is set up to provide support and challenge to XPG  leadership around the three dimensions of XP:

Our LGC focus on our school improvement priorities and regularly visit school to validate, support and challenge our work. We have a very strong LGC group as you can see below

Andrea Mead	Chair	Headteacher , Specialist provision
Jane Sutton	Governor/Parent	Primary Link Advisor, Gateshead LEA
James Renwick	Governor/Parent	Y6 primary teacher
Elizabeth Shipley	Governor/Parent	Senior Clinical Psychologist
Phil Latham	Governor	CEO Endeavour Academies
Julie Mosley	Principal	XP Gateshead
Steph Oliver	Staff/Governor	Leader at Norton School, XP Trust

In our first meeting we looked at last year’s review, this year’s school improvement priorities and the work we plan to undertake. LGC visits are scheduled across the year to check on our progress around these priorities.

Our week ahead 

G30 Fieldwork – Whitburn and Marsden

As part of their  G30 expedition “From the Ground Up’, our Year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork at the location of the former Whitburn Colliery and Marsden Village near to Souter Lighthouse in South Tyneside.

• G30 Class 2 will be going on Tuesday 3rd October
• G30 Class 1 will be going on Wednesday 4th October

Please see the website post for full kit details and times of the day.

Open Evening Tuesday 3rd October

On Tuesday we will open our doors to prospective families that are considering XP Gateshead as a destination school for their children in the next academic year (from September 2024). Our students will host sessions across the evening around our 3D approach, sharing their responses to key questions:

• Beautiful work – How do we create beautiful work and why is this so important?
• Academic success  – How do we lead our own learning to ensure that we are successful?
• Character – How do we grow our characters at our school?

As always, it will be their voice and work that is centre stage. Unfortunately we are not able to have all students with us for the night (all would happily volunteer) due to space but we have a great group of ambassadors who have stepped up to work with us for the evening. Thank you to their families who have supported too with late collection from school.

PE sessions this week

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

• G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
• G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
• G28 (Year 9) Class 1 students have PE on Thursday this week.
• G28 (Year 9) Class 2 students have PE on Friday this week.

Extended Study

We will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday. 

We will be sharing our after school club offer with students later this week and taster sessions for clubs will start in the final two weeks of this half term.

 

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.  There is more in us than we know #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

This last week has been a very busy and productive one again, even with four days due to the staff day on Friday.

On Thursday we welcomed the North East Creativity Collaboratives Network into school. Part of the conference agenda included an ambassador tour from our students, who were able to articulate how creativity is central to our rigorous 3-dimensional curriculum focussing on Beautiful Work, Character Growth and Academic Success.

In preparing for this visit it has reminded us of just what a special place our school is, and the breadth and depth of experiences that our students get in service to their mission of ensuring that they and their Crew are successful.

G30 – What do the communities of NE England owe to the miners?

Just this week we have had G30 preparing to interview Joe Solo, a folk musician and our songwriting expert in preparation for our students taking stories of members of the mining community and immortalising them in song.

Year 7 have also visited Beamish to carry out fieldwork which focussed on the working conditions of mines in the 19th and early 20th century. This fieldwork included demonstrations of what caused the tragedy at Felling pit (literally underneath our school) in 1812, as well as carrying out an investigation into the death of a young miner and going down the drift mine for a visceral understanding of what it feels like to spend your day under the ground.

Students will share their music and wider learning from this expedition with you in a presentation of learning at St Mary’s Church in Heworth at the Year 7 Presentation of Learning on the evening of Monday 18th December.

G29 – What does it mean to be Human?

G29 have this week been grappling with challenging text, including their anchor text ‘The Body’ by Bill Bryson to help them to make connections between the structure and function of the lungs and the evolutionary path of humans, the smart ape. In Human students welcomed Reverend Lucy into school to ask her about her views on the sanctity of human life. Reverend Lucy was very impressed with the level of questions from Year 8, commenting that they were “University-level questions”. In arts students have been continuing to learn to capture the most expressive object in the known universe – the human face. The connections students make between these disciplines will come together in a speech, excerpts from which you will be able to hear at the Year 8 Presentation of Learning on Tuesday 19th December.

G28 – How can structures help us to explain the world around us?

This week G28 visited the Byker Wall to learn from experts in the Byker Community Trust and Ryder Architecture about the influence that physical structures and our social environment can have on the way that we live our lives. Students toured the community, sketched the building in preparation for their own sculpture design and paid particular attention to a building that had been suffering from decline and anti-social behaviour, but after renovation and reconfiguration is now an award winning part of the Byker community.

In the coming weeks students will start to make more connections between structures of habitations, structures of government and structures of the physical world – down to the atom, to help them to answer their guiding question.

Year 9 will share their learning in a Presentation of Learning on the evening of Thursday 14th December.

Our week ahead 

Ron Berger – EL Education

This week we are honoured to welcome Ron Berger from EL Education to our school. Ron Berger is the Senior Advisor for Teaching & Learning at EL Education in America. Ron is a well-known educator nationally and internationally and will talk to our students about a commitment to quality, character and citizenship.

More than this though Ron is a friend of XP; in fact without Ron there would be no XP. Ron has been with EL Education in the US since the very beginning and was gracious enough to guide us in setting up XP in Doncaster. When we talk about Outward Bound and Kurt Hahn being the start of our story at XP, Ron is the person who helped us to fill in the gaps when the idea of XP was first developed by Andy Sprakes and Gwyn ap Harri – for that we will be forever grateful.

Some of our staff have been lucky enough to listen to Ron talk before. Our students are in for a treat, as Ron brings with him more than the stories of his experience as an educator over the last 25 years, but also a portfolio of beautiful work from students across the EL community – work of quality, work of character and work of active citizenship. We can’t wait!

External School Review on Thursday

Building on the really positive external review that we had in the Summer Term, we have asked for another review to look specifically at Personal Development of our students and also to look in more depth at more subjects. We will update you with feedback from this review but we know that our students and staff will do us proud. Here is a reminder of some of the wonderful comments from the previous review.

‘Staff are committed and relentless in their pursuit for culture to be right’

‘Crew is an effective system for ensuring that primarily students are known very well to adults, and that students exist in a safe place to talk with confidence about many issues’ 

‘The curriculum model, is being implemented successfully, thanks to experienced leaders, as well as collaboration with other experienced leaders across the trust, which is positive’

‘Interpersonal skills are being well developed – students are skilled at listening to others, being respectful and sensitive, as well as in offering advice, critiquing others, and in offering their own opinions and thinking’

PE sessions this week

Due to our staff day tomorrow, there is no PE for G30 students (Year 7) this week

G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.

G28 Class 1 students have PE on Thursday this week.

G28 Class 2 students have PE on Friday this week.

Extended Study

We will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday. 

On staff days like tomorrow, 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 26th 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.  There is more in us than we know #WeAreCrew.

Julie Mosley

Dear Families

We have continued to be impressed with our students this week and the HOWLs (habits of work and learning) they exhibit in sessions – and specific praise for G30 who have made such a fantastic start in the way that they are forming and strengthening great habits of work and learning in class.

Guiding Questions

This week immersion came to the end for all  year groups and after lots of wondering and suggestions, students in G28, G29 and G30 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.

G30

Our G30 students’ first expedition is called ‘From the Ground Up’ and our students will be studying the guiding question ‘What do the communities of North East England owe to the miners?’. Case studies will involve the Industrial Revolution, Pit Disasters including Felling 1812, the growth and decline of local collieries and the 1984 Miners; Strike. Their final product will be a collection of folk songs which honour the stories of members of the mining community in the North East – students will interview these experts and put their stories to music, as well as a permanent display in St Mary’s Church in Heworth to honour those that lost their lives beneath our school in an explosion at Felling Colliery in 1812. The presentation of learning for this expedition will take place at St Mary’s Church on the evening of Monday 18th December.

G29

Our G29 students are now well underway with their new expedition, Being Human. The guiding question for this expedition is ‘What does it mean to be Human?’.

There are three case studies for this expedition each with their own question: What is a human?; What can we learn from how we see differences between humans?; How do humans and humanity grow and develop?

The final product for this expedition will be an artwork installation in the QE hospital which promotes organ donation, as well as speeches in answer to the guiding question. These will be shared with you in a presentation of learning for this which will take place in school on the evening of Tuesday 19th December – more details on this soon.

G28

G28 students’ expedition is called ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and has the guiding question ‘How are structures important in helping us to shape our world?’. 

Case studies for this expedition will examine the structure of government, the structure of habitations and the structures of the physical world down to the level of the atom.

The final product for this expedition will be a sculpture inspired by brutalist architecture which will be curated in the community, with a dedication to all citizens of our local community in recognition of the challenges they faced, and the support given to one another during the COVID pandemic.

Northern Stage – Cultural fieldwork

On Thursday our G28 students  visited the Northern Stage Theatre to see the critically acclaimed theatre performance of ‘ I, Daniel Blake’. This was a very powerful and moving experience for staff and students alike as the play explored the realities of life for people living in our area and how systems that are supposed to support people can in fact let them down. 

I was delighted to receive an email from a member of the audience on Friday morning which read:

Yesterday I attended a performance of I, Daniel Blake at the Northern Stage in Newcastle.  Sitting in front of me were two rows of pupils from your school aged 13-15!

I just wanted to compliment all of the young people – they were beautifully behaved and thoroughly engaged in the performance.  A number of them were moved to tears and their friends and teaching staff were just so supportive and caring in their attitude towards each other – it really was lovely to see.

Young people so often get a bad press these days, so I just wanted to take the opportunity to Buck the trend and share with you what a delight I thought your young people were and total respect to your school for choosing this performance for them the themes of which I’m sure may have resonated for some, given the current cost of living crisis.

A beautiful and important email, as we say to our students at XPG – we are judged by the quality of our work and the quality of our characters. 

The provisional date for G28’s presentation of learning is the evening of Thursday 14th December – more details to follow.

Our week ahead 

G28 students (Year 9) – Byker Wall Fieldwork, Monday 18th September

As part of their  G28 expedition “Another Brick in the Wall’, our students will be taking part in a  Human and Art fieldwork to Byker Wall on Monday 18th September. 

See our website post for full details.

G29 students (Year 8) 

On Wednesday, our students will work with their first expert for their ‘Being Human’ expedition. Reverend Lucy will give her view on what the Bible tells us about the sanctity of human life – students will discuss their GQ with a range of experts during the expedition to help them to develop their own answer which will be part of their speech. Engagement with experts is  an important part of our model. Teachers bring experts from the community into the classroom to collaborate with students, teach them skills from their field, and critique their work to professional standards.

G28 students (Year 7) – Beamish Museum, Thursday 21st September

As part of G30’s first expedition ‘From the Ground Up’, students will be taking part in important fieldwork at Beamish Museum in County Durham on Thursday this week. This is their first fieldwork and we will stress the importance of being ambassadors for our school. For more details please see Mrs Ross’ post here.

PE sessions this week

Please can parents make sure that their child has a PE kit (see website post). 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.

• G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
• G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
• G28 students (Year 9) have PE on Tuesday this week.

There is a change to PE for our G28 students (Year 9) this week due to Fieldwork and Staff Day on Friday. G28 will have one hour of PE this week for each class.

Extended Study

We will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day this week Monday-Thursday.  These are study sessions where students can get support with their extended study. Students do not need to book into these sessions, but must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm.

Working with our local Crime Prevention Team

On Thursday, Northumbria Crime Prevention Unit are running a workshop for our Year 9 students around keeping safe online. 

As part of our PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) and RSE (relationships education, relationship and sex education) programme we will work closely with local experts to ensure our students get the best advice on how to keep themselves safe.

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 22nd September – Staff Development Day 
• Monday 25th 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 26th 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

Dear Families

We welcomed all of our students into school last week and we are delighted by how they have all settled into 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 XPGateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others.

We are still getting used to our new bigger site and enjoying new spaces – our new classroom and crew spaces, theatre and larger social spaces. We are really pleased with how well our students are using these spaces and the maturity they show whilst moving around the site.

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 will be revealed to students this week.

G30’s first week back in school

G30 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. 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 G30 students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely. All student iPads have now been delivered and we will be able to ensure that all students are online this week.

Our week ahead 

G30 students (Year 7) 

Students will continue with their immersion this week, thinking about what their guiding question can be having already held coal and considered its importance to the industrial revolution, as well as studying maps to consider how our landscape has changed since the 18th century.

PE sessions take place on Mondays for our Year 7 students so students need a full PE kit on this day.

G29 students (Year 8) 

Our year 8 students have had much deliberation on what their new expedition guiding question could be. This last week they have been learning about Peter Scott-Morgan, a man who defied biology by making more of his body digital after a diagnosis of motor neuron disease. They have been making connections between this, their anchor text – ‘The Curious incident..’ and a gallery walk which focussed on the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.

All will be revealed on Monday morning when there is a G29 expedition launch session. 

There has been a change to the timetable for this week for PE:

• Class 1 have their PE session on Wednesday so will need their PE kit.
• Class 2 have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit

G28 students (Year 9) 

After last week’s immersion, which included building structures; 3D modelling; and atomic weapons our year 9 students will discover their new guiding question on Monday.

There is more fieldwork for G28 on Thursday as part of their new learning expedition. We have organised a cultural visit to Northern Stage to see the critically acclaimed ‘I, Daniel Blake’. We are delighted to be able to offer this to our students as tickets are difficult to get hold of. Students will have a slightly early lunch and leave site at 12:30pm to travel by metro to the theatre for the afternoon performance. Students should be back to school by 5pm. Please see the recent post for more details. 

G28 PE sessions take place on Thursday and Friday

• Class 1 have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit.
• Class 2 have their PE session on Friday so will need their PE kit.

Making the right start

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 

For the next two weeks we will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day apart from Friday when we finish at 3:15pm. These are study sessions where students can get support with their extended study.

Students do not need to book into these sessions, but must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm.

We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme at 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

Dear Families

What a first week back we have had! This week is fundamental to us in an XP School, it’s where we build and tend to Crew which is the foundation of our school and our pastoral structures…

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

G30

Our G30 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. They were compassionate, courageous, respectful and showed integrity in equal measure across the week. 

G29

Our G29 students returned to school strong and spent their first week considering the question ‘How can we support each other to lead the learning of our new Year 7 Crew?’. Y8 Crew Leaders have been blown away by the quality of student work and the depth of thinking. 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 in Gateshead and Newcastle which had been fully planned by each Crew. Their conduct on fieldwork was exceptional.

G28

Our Pioneering  G28 students led the way in school this week and returned stronger than ever. They worked as a Crew 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. It was a fantastic day out in Northumberland with over 8 km walked and smiles all round!

We could not have had a stronger start to our school year and can’t wait to welcome all students tomorrow. 

Our week ahead 

G30 students (Year 7) 

Students will be working in their Crews on Monday and Tuesday reflecting on their Outward Bound experience and thinking about what Crew looks like in the classroom and around our school.

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. 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.

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

G29 students (Year 8) 

Students will begin a week-long immersion for their new learning expedition this week. 

They will have their first PE session on Tuesday so will need their PE kit.

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

G28 students (Year 9) 

Students will begin immersion for their new learning expedition this week. As part of immersion, students will be taking part in local fieldwork on Tuesday when they will visit Gateshead High Street to conduct an environmental survey. Please see this post for more details.

G28 PE sessions take place on Thursday and Friday

• Class 1 will have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit.
• Class 2 will have their PE session on Friday so 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. 

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. This includes all other  ‘powered transporters’ too such as hoverboards and electric unicycles.

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 and G29 from Monday, G30 from Tuesday) and headphones (ideally not expensive ones, for example here)
• A notebook
• A reading book

We also suggest that students 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 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.

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. 

Lunches

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.

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.

We now have our own XP Gateshead ParentPay account. All G28 and G29 students were given a letter last week detailing how to set up/link your ParentPay account so that you can continue paying for school lunches. All credit/debts will be carried across from the old account at the start of the new academic year.

G30 students will be sent home with a letter on Monday detailing how to set up your ParentPay account so that you can pay for school lunches. 

If you do have any issues or do not receive the letter from your child please email the [email protected] for support.

It is Week 2 this week.

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 to G28 and G29 parents who have been sharing their XPG knowledge and expertise with our new G30 parents. Together, we are definitely stronger.

#WeAreCrew

#WeAreXPGateshead

Julie Mosley

Principal

Later start on the first morning of term for G28 and G29

G28/G29 students will start at 10.45am on Tuesday 29th August.

They can arrive in school from 10.30am on Tuesday.

We are now using the entrance at the east side of the school. The car park is for staff only, so you should use the street to park but please be considerate of our neighbours when parking.

Staff will be at the student gate to greet students.

Regular Kit and dress code

Students will need regular kit on and regular dress code for Tuesday.

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

New ParentPay system

Due to our continued expansion, we have now set up our own XP Gateshead ParentPay account after sharing the account with our Doncaster schools for the last few years.

All students will be sent home with a letter on Tuesday detailing how to set up/link your ParentPay account so that you can continue paying for school lunches.

All credit/debts will be carried across from the old account at the start of the new academic year.

If you do have any issues or do not receive the letter from your child please email the [email protected] for support.

New building and first week back

Students will be given an orientation for the new parts of the building on their first day back in school on Tuesday morning.

The first week back in school for G28 and G29 focusses on the importance of Crew and each cohort has a different guiding question for the week with purposeful activities which help them to answer their guiding question for the week. As such there is no PE this coming week, but there is physical activity for both groups as you will see below.

Regular timetabled lessons will start for G28 and G29 in the week commencing Monday 4th September. As you know, we are reviewing our classes and changes will be made to the make up 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 whilst we get used to using the new building during regular hours.

Fieldwork next week

G28 – Fieldwork on Thursday 31st August

As part of their first week back in school, Year 9 students will be carrying out a hike in Northumberland around ‘The Sill’ area taking them past Sycamore Gap.

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’. You child will be able to give you more details on how they plan to contribute towards this picnic.

Students will leave by coach during the regular school day and will return back to school for around 4.00pm. We will keep you updated on the school website of our expected arrival time.

G28 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

G29 – Fieldwork on Friday 1st September

As part of their first week back in school, Year 8 students will be planning and carrying out fieldwork in the NewcastleGateshead area on Friday 1st September. Students will be using this fieldwork to answer the question linked to theme of student leadership for the week:

“How can we find out what is on our doorstep to enrich future learning expeditions for all future students?”

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’. You child will be able to give you more details on how they plan to contribute towards this picnic.

G29 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

Crew Leaders

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

G29 Crew Attenborough: Miss Blain

G29 Crew King: Señorita Quested

G29 Crew Nightingale: Miss Marshall

G29 Crew Watson: Miss Power

G28 Crew Angelou: Mr Mead

G28 Crew Frank: Miss Jones

G28 Crew Parks: Mr Devitt

G28 Crew Stanton: Miss Tatters

Dear Families

Here we are at the end of another academic year and what a year it has been! Our students have continued to work hard producing beautiful work and developing their character. 

Here are a couple of quotes from our external school review which took place in June, which illustrate the quality of our work:

‘Staff are committed and relentless in their pursuit for culture to be right’

‘Crew is an effective system for ensuring that primarily students are known very well to adults, and that students exist in a safe place to talk with confidence about many issues’ 

‘The curriculum model, is being implemented successfully, thanks to experienced leaders, as well as collaboration with other experienced leaders across the trust, which is positive’

‘Interpersonal skills are being well developed – students are skilled at listening to others, being respectful and sensitive, as well as in offering advice, critiquing others, and in offering their own opinions and thinking’

We have enjoyed two fantastic Celebrations of Learning with you this week in which we have showcased the work of our students from across the year and it has been wonderful to see your smiles and hear your praise for this work.

It is the staff team at XP Gateshead who enable all of this greatness and I want to celebrate their hard work and efforts. We have an incredibly passionate, professional and skilful team of staff here who exemplify our character values on a daily basis. It is a privilege to work alongside them.

As you know, Mark Lovatt leaves us as Co Principal, taking a wider role across XP Trust. He will continue to support our work at XPG next year as we grow. 

XP Trust would like to extend our special thanks to Mark Lovatt who, having been the founding Principal at XP Gateshead, now moves into the Trust to work on developing XP instructional practice and developing leadership. Mark’s work has been highly significant showing that the XP model can be rolled out and work in other parts of the country and he should be proud of the work he has accomplished in the past three years.

Looking Ahead:

Tuesday 29th August – Term starts for all students. 

There will be a staggered start time for different year groups on Tuesday and we will communicate these details to you prior to the start of the new term. Our website, as always, will be our main channel of communication so please make sure that you have subscribed to this so are alerted when updates are posted.

All that remains is for me to thank you all for your ongoing support this year, thank you for being  ‘Crew’. When we work together, in service to each other and with integrity we achieve extraordinary things. 

I hope you and your families have a great summer.

Julie Mosley

Principal

Dear Families

Welcome to our final week of the Summer term. As always, it has been a week filled with hard work from students and staff here at XPG.

If it’s good enough for our students…

Our teachers’ Educator Led Conferences (ELC’s) have taken place this week. This is where adults present their learning to an audience of their peers,  sharing their work and success from the year. The high quality work and thinking shared, the integrity and honest reflection from staff and the level of professionalism displayed was simply stunning and a testament to the great staff crew we have at XPG. 

The leadership team also presented their work to colleagues from Trust this week in the Annual School Review (ASR). The review is an opportunity to understand and celebrate how well we have done this year and identify our development priorities for the coming year. 

Personalised research projects

On Thursday G28 students who have studied a personalised research project in their Common Mission time presented their work to the rest of their year. Archie presented on complex ideas in cosmology including: spinning black holes and time dilation, Dyson spheres with a focus on how increasing understanding of the universe may make future technological leaps that support the evolution of human intelligence. Holly and Katie presented on criminology and the motivations behind some of history’s most notorious criminals. Bella presented on the difficulties in diagnosing child mental health problems, with a focus on resources available and attitudes in today’s society. All three presentations dealt with complex issues and were presented professionally and sensitively. All four presenters also fielded questions from their audience with accuracy and integrity. A great piece of work – we look forward to more presentations this week from our Year 7s and Charlie in Year 8.

More migrant experts interviewed…

Our Year 8 students interviewed more experts to hear their stories about moving to the UK. This will form part of the celebration of learning for Year 8 later this week on Thursday.

Crew Day Sports

On Friday we enjoyed our final Crew Day of the year. Like always, this day was about building crew but this time, the theme was sport. Students were challenged to design crew mascots which represented their crew, compete in a Sports Quiz then represent their crew in a variety of physical activities: handball, dodgeball, rounders, athletics. 

The day finished with awards in a full school community meeting were much anticipated crew totals were announced. Crew Attenborough won the trophy for G29 and for G28, we had a tie with Crew Angelou and Crew Frank.

It was a fantastic day, enjoyed by students and staff alike and the chance to remind ourselves of the importance of crew. Like we say, ‘If we get Crew right, we get everything right’. Huge thanks and congratulations goes to Mr Devitt for coordinating our first Crew Sports Day and to Mr Currie, Miss O’Grady our XP Doncaster colleagues who supported us with the planning and delivery of the event.

This week

PE sessions

PE sessions will take place on Tuesday for Year 8 and Wednesday for Year 7 students this week. Please make sure that your child has a full PE kit.

Extended Study and clubs

Our usual extended study and clubs will not run this week due to our two Celebrations of learning. We will run an extended study session on Monday only.

G29 Celebration of learning at Seven Stories in Newcastle, Tuesday 18th July at 6pm

Please see the website post for full details on this event. We expect that families ensure that someone is there to support their child at this event and also ask that students dress formally. Our XP polo shirts are suitable for occasions like this.

Students will remain in school on Tuesday and we will transport students from school to Seven Stories. We would recommend that they bring a healthy packed tea or snack to eat after school. Students will return home with their families after the event.

G28’s Celebration of Learning at XP Gateshead, Thursday 20th July at 6pm

As above, please see the website post for full details on this event. We expect that families ensure that someone is there to support their child at this event and also ask that students dress formally. Students will remain in school on Thursday. We would recommend that they bring a healthy packed tea or snack to eat after school.

End of year reflections from students, Crew leaders and updated snapshots

Towards the end of this week, parents will receive a final progress update and review of the year from their child and Crew leader.

Friday 21st July – Last day of term

As always at the end of term, our students finish at 1:30pm. This allows for a full de-gunge of the school before the Summer break. This one is especially important as we will need to move some of our resources to new spaces in August with our expansion to larger parts of the building. 

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

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Families

We had a very successful week last week, managing two successful G30 transition days alongside G28 and G29 fieldwork days. We also enjoyed time with parents and carers  on our final twilight MHFA® course and on Thursday, our new Y7 Crew Leaders met with their new parent crew. 

G30 students worked with us on Monday and Tuesday to explore the guiding question ‘What will it take for me to be the best version of myself at XP Gateshead?’. They spent time in smaller Crews exploring our character values and making new friends then sampled sessions with us – Human, PE, Arts, Steam sessions in Science and Maths and Spanish. 

We were delighted with how well our new students settled into their new school and how well our G28 and G29 students supported their transition days. We are really looking forward to August when we welcome all three year groups together.

G28 undertook fieldwork on Monday  in Gateshead and Newcastle linked to their current expedition “Is migration worth the risk”. They spent time ‘looking at sustainable energy solutions in Gateshead, and also evidence of the migrations and conquests that have happened within our region since the times of the Romans. 

On Tuesday, our G29 students travelled to North Yorkshire to complete geography fieldwork connected to their current guiding question: “How does water shape our world?” . Students worked at a river site testing a hypothesis on the observable differences in the river as it runs its course. 

This week

Assessments

Our students continue to complete  assessments in sessions this week. This follows extended study revision tasks and preparation in sessions.

PE sessions

There are timetable changes this week which means some changes to PE sessions. Please note the following and make sure that your child has full PE kit:

• Monday PE sessions for Y8 Class 1
• Tuesday PE sessions for Y8 Class 2
• Wednesday PE sessions for both Y7 classes

Extended Study and clubs

Extended Study and clubs are running after school this week. 

G28 working with experts

On Monday, as part of their expedition Should I Stay Or Should I Go, with the guiding question: ‘Is migration worth the risk?’ our G28 students will be interviewing people who have made the choice to migrate to and from our country this week. The Interviews will be part of their final product for this expedition which will be a feature length film to honour their stories which will be screened in the new academic year.

Mental Health First Aid Training for our new staff 

Once again, our new staff are completing a two day MHFA course. When completed, this will mean that all of our team will be fully qualified as MHFA. The MHFA courses we have run for both staff and parents enable us to recognise mental ill health and help find the support required for our young people. We are grateful to the expertise of Jane Nyberg for making this possible along with the support of Sophie Pegg.

Crew Day, Friday 14th July

On Friday our students will spend the whole day working with their Crew and Crew Leader. The focus for their final crew day is getting active as well as developing their team work, crew identity and wellbeing. For both Year 7 and Year 8 the school day will start and finish at the usual time. Students will need to be in their sports kit for the full day.

Looking Ahead:

Tuesday 18th July at 6pm

G29’s Celebration of Learning at Seven Stories in Newcastle. .

Thursday 20th July at 6pm

G28’s Celebration of Learning at XP Gateshead. 

See website post for more details of both of these events.

Friday 21st July – Last day of term

This is a 1:30pm finish for students to allow for degunge of the school before the Summer break.

 

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

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal