Dear Parents/Carers

Even though last week was a shorter week for our students, they really packed in lots of learning. Students are challenged in every session and are expected to work hard, get smart and be kind. In every lesson I visit, students rise to this challenge and are pushing themselves and their peers to meet the high standards set. We continue to be really proud of our crew.

Here’s are just some of last week’s activities:

A group of our Year 7 students visited  our local partners Edberts House on Tuesday to find out about the work that they do in our community. This is part of their learning expedition Staying Alive with the guiding question ‘Is Survival Sufficient?’.

They shared their learning with the rest of Year 7 in Friday’s Community Meeting and were joined by Mark Harrison from Edberts House. Together they were able to remind G29 why their work on the food boxes is so important and discuss the brilliant work that is done by Edberts House.

Students in G29 continue to work hard on their scripts ready for their presentation of learning this week. As always, every student will take part in this presentation and craftsmanship and quality will be high on the agenda. I’m sure, like us, you can’t wait to see your child present their work on Friday 24th March at the King’s Hall in Newcastle University. 

We were delighted this week to receive an incredibly generous drum kit donation from the Scott Johnson Foundation. This foundation was set up in memory and honour of Scott, who tragically lost his life whilst working with Radiohead in Toronto in 2012. 

Scott’s wonderful parents, Sue and Ken Johnson travelled from Doncaster to deliver the kit then spent time with some of Y8 drummers talking music and setting up the kit. We are all extremely grateful to Ken and Sue and the Scott Johnson Foundation. We now have a drum kit which will beat for the lifetime of XP Gateshead.

This week:

Young Carers

On Monday we welcome Charlotte Osgerby from Carers Trust, Tyne and Wear. Charlotte will speak to both of our year groups about the work she does with Young Carers in Gateshead.

Final products and PoLs this week

We are now moving into our final weeks of this term and working hard on final products and getting ready for PoLs (presentation of learning). 

G28 Spanish final products are being filmed on Tuesday 21st March.

You can support your child over the next few days by getting them to practise their scripted question responses.

G29 HUMAN presentation of learning

The presentation of learning for ‘Do Your Bit’ takes place at 6pm on Friday 24th March at King’s Hall, Newcastle University.

More details will follow about how to let us know who is attending this event. However it is important to note that whilst we will transport students to the University on Friday afternoon, transport is not provided at the end of the event. We suggest using public transport to attend the event if this is possible for your family. Haymarket Metro station is just a short walk away from the University.

Like Student-Led Conferences, these events are important rites of passage for our students, and are part of a planned approach to develop character through public exhibition of learning. As is detailed in our home-school agreement, it is an expectation that at least one family member attends events like these for every child. Please speak to your child’s Crew Leader if you have any issues.

Extended Study and clubs

Our usual programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week.

PE sessions

As usual G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, G29 students (Y7) will need a PE kit on Wednesday.

Looking Ahead:

G28 presentation of learning for ‘What is Power?’ will take place on  Thursday 30th March starting at 5.30pm. The venue for the presentation of learning will be Caedmon Hall in Gateshead which is part of the Central Library. 

Last day of term Friday 31st March – Easter Holidays with return to school 17th April. Please remember that, as always, our students finish at 1:30pm to allow staff to de-gunge and replenish rooms and teaching spaces ready for the Summer Term.

 

As always if you have any queries please get in contact with your child’s Crew Leader.

 

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back after a long weekend and my apologies for the delay in this week’s update.

As a Staff Crew we have worked hard during our two staff days planning curriculum. Teams have spent time collaboratively planning new expeditions for term 3 which will start after Easter with immersion weeks for both G29 and G28. We also took the time to look at our final three weeks of this term which include assessments and Presentations of Learning for all students. We are really looking forward to our PoLs and delighted that these will be taking place in professional surroundings. 

As a reminder, 

Year 7’s (G29) presentation of learning for their current HUMAN expedition, ‘Do Your Bit’ will be on Friday 24th March at Newcastle University in the King’s Hall – a space that was used as a military hospital during WWI.

Year 8’s (G28) presentation of learning for their current expedition ‘What is Power?’ will be on Thursday 30th March starting at 5.30pm. The venue for the presentation of learning will be Caedmon Hall in Gateshead which is part of the Central Library.

This week:

G29 Staying Alive – Fieldwork to Edberts House

A group of our Year 7 students are going to our local partners Edberts House today to find out about the work that they do in our community. This is part of their learning expedition Staying Alive with the guiding question ‘Is Survival Sufficient?’.

Edberts House will help us to pass on the food boxes that students will put together to families in need. The group of students will present back to the whole of Year 7 in this week’s community meeting on Friday.

Schedule for the week

Our programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week. 

PE sessions – G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, there will be no PE sessions for G29 students (Y7) due to strike action.

NEU Strike Action – we are unable to open school for all students on both strike days so we are opening as follows:

• Wednesday 15th March – Y8 only in school
• Thursday 16th March – Y7 only in school

When students are not in school they can work independently on extended study tasks.

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 Parents/Carers

Students have worked hard this week both in and outside of sessions. It has been great to see so many students attending extended study sessions this week and I look forward to seeing more. Extended study is set in all subjects each week so after school sessions are a great way for students to work in a supportive environment alongside peers to ensure all deadlines are met. It also takes away any arguments at home if work is completed here at the end of the day!

As part of extended study, we expect all of our students to read for 20-30 minutes every day. This week Miss Tatters ‘rebooted’ Accelerated Reader with G28 and G29 after feedback from parents, staff and students. Clear expectations have been shared with students and a termly reading challenge set. 

This week’s Crew and Expedition updates give an insight into how our curriculum at XP Gateshead takes the national standards and develops these into a curriculum with social justice at its heart.

Activism is one of our design principles at XP, and you can see in the work that students are doing that we address important values such as tolerance, respect and democracy and ask our students to produce beautiful work. Through this out students are agents for positively improving themselves, their community and the wider world;

Crew

G29 Crew

Over the last few weeks, Y7 crews have been researching suitable people after whom to name their crews – people who have achieved great things and who display our character traits of courage, integrity, respect, craftsmanship and quality, and above all compassion. This week, students presented their contenders to the rest of their crew and final voting took place. 

In Friday’s community meeting new crew names were announced. 

Our G29 crews are

• Crew Watson (formerly BPO)
• Crew King (LDI)
• Crew Attenborough (SBL)
• Crew Nightingale (KDO)

So Emma Watson, Martin Luther King, Richard Attenborough and Florence Nightingale stand alongside our G28 crew’s namesakes Anne Frank, Rosa Parks,  Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Stanton. 

G28 Crew

Our Y8 crews have been looking at which charity they want to support. Students have been putting together their proposals and pitching to the rest of their crew. There has been some really sensitive discussions with lots of crew support as students have shared their personal stories around choice of charities.

Next week, G28 crews will announce their chosen charities and will start planning future awareness and fundraising events to support their charity.

Expeditions

G29 – Do your bit

This last week students in G29 have been digging deep into some of the language of official communications in Liverpool which dehumanised ethnic minorities around the time of the Race Riots of 1919. This is part of their third Case Study, which looks at the treatment of women and ethnic minorities following their important role in The Great War. Students have also started writing their creative narratives which are written from the perspective of lesser heard voices of the war. This writing will be shared in their PoL on Fri 24th March.

G29 Staying Alive

G289 Students have been looking at energy stores and transfers and are developing their understanding of the concept of energy, useful language when discussing energy and the important principle of the conservation of energy. They will connect this to their wider work in supporting local charities in this expedition by considering the impact of the cost of living crisis and fuel poverty in the UK today.

G28 What is Power?

Students in G28 have been learning about forces, an important building block in being able to explain the scientific meaning of the word power. They have also been starting to learn how to work with wood as a resistant material to build backdrops for the set for their performance of Macbeth.

Students have also been learning about the feudal system, and the power structures within Medieval society, as a precursor to the peasants’ revolt, which speaks to those without power making a stand for their rights as citizens.

This week students in G28 have also been refining designs for their digital stencil graffiti artwork, all of which highlight causes that are important to the students and give voice to those that have less power in society. These designs will be collated in a set of postcards which will be able to be purchased from the school. Students will decide this week where they would like to donate the funds raised. We had a beautiful community meeting on Friday where students discussed the potential options for where our work could make a difference.

This week:

Our usual programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week.

PE sessions

As usual G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, G29 students (Y7) will need a PE kit on Wednesday.

Staff days

A reminder that Friday 10th and Monday 13th March are our staff days this term. Students are not expected in school on these days. See link here for this year’s term dates. 

Looking Ahead:

Staff Development Day – Monday 13th March.

As normal, students are not expected to be in school on this day.

Strike Action

As you may be aware, the NEU teachers union have balloted and agreed further strike action on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March 2023. As a leadership team, we will do our best to minimise disruption to child’s  education and we will update you in due course.

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 Parents/Carers

We had a good first week back to school and our students have settled back into learning. 

A focus for the whole community this week has been respectful communication. Respect is one of our character traits and this, along with compassion, is central to how we communicate with each other. 

At XP Gateshead we have a zero-tolerance approach to sexism, racism, homophobia and sexual harassment. This behaviour is never acceptable and it will not be passed off as ‘banter’, ‘just having a laugh’ or ‘part of growing up’. 

We spent time on Friday in our community meetings discussing with students their ideas on what was and what was not respectful communication. We will combine all of this work and produce an agreed XPG student charter for how we communicate with each other respectfully. Our charter will be shared on our website when complete.

We are incredibly lucky to have a great support team here at XPG. We have an amazing cleaning team from Gateshead services who work behind the scenes from 6am every morning. Karen and Carol are a key part of our crew who show craftsmanship and quality everyday and really care about our school, staff and students. Our catering team, Suzanne and Cheryl are another two members of the crew who do an amazing job for us all on a daily basis, caring deeply about all staff and students. Look at what we enjoyed this week to celebrate Pancake Day on Tuesday and our Friday treats to get ready for the big game this weekend:

On a final note of appreciation, I’d like to thank the mystery family who sent a special delivery our way this week for the whole team. It was very much appreciated by us all!

 

This week:

NEU strike action – Tuesday 28th February.

School will be fully open on Tuesday even though some of our staff will be on strike. We respect the right for our staff to strike and we support their action. 

There will be no PE on Tuesday for Year 8.

Our usual programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week. Please check in with your son/daughter about their extended study and make sure that they are up to date with their work and meeting deadlines. Daily reading must form part of their plans and we expect all students to read their Accelerated Reader texts for 20-30 mins each day. They should be regularly quizzing on Accelerated Reader as they complete their books, please ask them about this.

 

Looking Ahead:

Staff Development Days

A reminder that we have two staff development days this half term: Friday 10th and Monday 13th March. As normal, students are not expected to be in school on these days.

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

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back! We hope you have had a restful half term break and we are looking forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow.

Our usual reminders for a good start back…

Punctuality

School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am 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. 

Daily kit list

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

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
• A fully charged iPad 
• Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
• Headphones 
• A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
• A notebook

Dress code

We ask students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly. See link here to details on dress code from our website.

PE sessions

As usual G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, G29 students (Y7) will need a PE kit on Wednesday.

Extended Study and Clubs

Clubs will all run this week along with extended study sessions every day except Friday. A reminder that if a student attends an after school club or extended study session they must attend the full sessions until 4:30pm.

Ongoing Expeditions and PoL dates for your diary

Our G29 students continue to work on their two expeditions until the end of this term.  Their STEAM expedition, ‘Staying Alive’ with the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’ and their HUMAN expedition, ‘Do Your Bit’ with the guiding question: ‘Why is it important that we honour all those that sacrificed in WWI?’.  A reminder that the presentation of learning for this will be on Friday 24th March at Newcastle University in the King’s Hall – a space that was used as a military hospital during WWI.

Our G28 students continue to work on one cross-curricular expedition this term with the guiding question and title of ‘What is Power?’. Their final presentation of learning – including an abridged performance of Macbeth – will be on Thursday 30th March at Caedmon Hall at Gateshead Central Library. More details to follow in a separate post this week.

Looking Ahead:

Strike Action

As you may be aware, the NEU teachers union have balloted and agreed a further strike action on Tuesday 28th February 2023. As leadership, we will do our best to minimise disruption to child’s  education and we will update you in due course.

Staff Development Days

We have two staff development days this half term; Friday 10th and Monday 13th March. As normal, students are not expected to be in school on these days.

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

Co-principal

Dear Parents/Carers

We have come to the end of another full and busy half term and, as always, our whole community have worked together demonstrating courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality, integrity and above all compassion.  

Our students have continued to work hard across this half term and I’m sure that after seeing your child present their Student Led Conference, you would all agree that they continue to be challenged (and supported) to strive for beautiful work.  Thank you all again for your support in SLCs, it is vital that our students share their progress regularly as ‘Leaders of their own Learning’.

It has been a busy final week and here are a couple of highlights:

Our G29 students visited the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha on Thursday to find out more about Sikhi and how temples operate as part of their expedition ‘Do your bit’ which includes a focus on the experience of Sikh soldiers. 

As you can see, our students had an amazing experience and we are extremely grateful to Jaswinder Singh who helped to organise the cultural fieldwork so that our students could carry out ‘sewa’, an act of service. 

On Friday our G28 students worked alongside several experts as part of their ongoing expedition ‘What is Power?’. In drama they worked with Christina Berriman Dawson, an acclaimed writer, actor and director who supported students in the preparation for their performance of Macbeth on 30th March.

G28 also continued our work with Alice Roberts and colleagues from Newcastle University around nutrition.

Nature Club also hosted a badger expert who talked to students about the species and the challenges that they face in the wild.

Outside of classrooms, it has been busy with three full days of interviews. I am delighted to say that we have appointed three new teachers to our staff crew:

Rebecca Marshall who joins us as a STEAM teacher (teaching mathematics and some science), Tilda Macphail who joins us as an Arts teacher and Rebecca Jones who joins us as a HUMAN teacher.

We are delighted with our new appointments and look forward to them joining us in June to start their induction with us. 

I think that we can all agree that it’s time now for a well deserved rest!

Have a great half term break and we look forward to seeing all of our students on Monday 20th February. Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. 

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome to our final week of this half term.

It has been great to see you all at Student-Led Conferences over the last two weeks and I’m sure that we can all agree that our students have worked really hard since their return to us in January. I have really admired their courage this term along with their craftsmanship and quality and it has been lovely to talk to so many proud students and parents.

This week our G29 students started their second case study in  ‘Do Your Bit’. Having studied the outbreak of war, the second case study is called ‘The call of the Motherland’ which focuses on how the Commonwealth Countries (part of the British Empire at the time) were called upon to help the war effort and how their diverse cultures and religions impacted them on the battlefield.

To kick start the case study, students worked with experts from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Newcastle University and worked as historians to discover the global scale of the war putting skills they have learned in Computer Science to the test.

Students also engaged with an expert from ‘A Little History of the Sikhs’ who talked to the students about how Sikhi soldier’s faith impacted on them and their battlefield experiences, in advance of the cultural fieldwork to the Gurdwara this week.

G29 also worked with an expert from Newcastle University on nutrition and digestion as part of their STEAM expedition with GQ “Is survival sufficient?”.

Our G28 students continue to work hard on their current expedition ‘What is Power?’ and last week the long awaited cast list for Macbeth was announced. Students will be performing an abridged version of Macbeth as part of their Presentation of Learning. This will be on the evening of Thursday 30th March. More details on this very soon.

 

This week:

Our usual programme of Extended Study and clubs are running this week with the exception of Chess Club on Thursday lunchtime.

PE sessions

As usual G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday, G29 students (Y7) will need a PE kit on Wednesday.

Interviews for new staff

Interviews will take place across this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). We have had lots of interest in the advertisement and are really looking forward to meeting the applicants at interview this week. As always, our staff and students are involved in the interviews to ensure we get the best teachers to join XPG Crew as we continue to grow.

LGC Meeting

Our Local Governing Body (LGC) Spring meeting takes place this week on Thursday 9th February.

Half Term and 1:30pm finish on Friday 10th February

Please remember that this is our last week of this half term and as always, we finish early to allow staff to de-gunge and replenish rooms and teaching spaces ready for next half term. 

Thank you for your continued support throughout this half term and we hope everyone has a good holiday. We are looking forward to the next half term where we will continue to work hard on current expeditions and the final products and presentations of learning for these.

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

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

It has been great to see so many of you in person this week attending your child’s Student Led Conference (SLC). Our students have shown real courage this week presenting their learning, especially G29 students where this has been their first time presenting a SLC. 

The feedback from parents and carers collected on exit tickets has been full of praise:

‘My son has changed so much in his confidence. It was amazing to see his confidence, lack of nerves and how he just got on with it in what could have been a stressful time for anyone. I am super proud of him, I had a tear in my eye’ (G29 parent)

‘A really high standard of work and honest appreciation of areas to improve which is hard when the standards is consistently high’ (G28 parent)

‘We could see that she cares about her learning and that she enjoys learning through expeditions. A thoughtful presentation that she’d clearly spent a great deal of time planning’ (G29 parent)

‘More articulate and able to answer questions with authenticity but also not afraid to point out where she struggles to remember the content or context. Well prepared, good engagement and eye contact throughout. Well done!’ (G28 parent)

‘His confidence gets better every time and to present without looking at a script is brilliant!’ (G28 parent)

‘At a standard I would admire in work colleagues. Excellent! We recognise the nurture and support that has gone into getting him here.’ (G29 parent)

We will be sharing the feedback with students as part of their SLC debrief where they will reflect on this experience against the rubric and set themselves targets for their next SLC.

This week:

SLCs and Extended Study

Extended Study and clubs are not running this week to allow for SLCs to take place. School will end at 3:15pm for all students apart from those with SLCs on that evening.

Safeguarding Review

On Friday we will be joined by Trust colleagues who will work with us to complete a peer safeguarding review. Every school in the Trust has regular  safeguarding reviews to ensure we are carrying out our statutory requirements and our students are safe. We will be looking at attendance, our work with students on how they keep themselves safe, staff training and our work with families. 

As part of this review, we are asking for all families to complete a short survey. Your feedback is incredibly important to us and helps us to ensure that we continue to run an excellent school for your children.

Please complete this short Google Form and hit submit.

We look forward to the review and to any feedback we receive.

NEU strike action – Wednesday 1st February.

School will be fully open on Wednesday even though some of our staff will be on strike. XP Trust respects the right for our staff to strike and we support their action. 

There will be no PE on Wednesday for Year 7.

Looking ahead:

Growing our Staff Crew

You may be aware that we are looking to appoint new staff to our growing team. Our first adverts have gone out for teachers and we will be shortlisting applications this week for interviews during the final week of this half term. Our students will be involved in the interviews as always along with our staff.

Half Term and early finish on Friday 10th February

Please be aware that it is half term for one week from w/c 13th February and so as normal students will finish at 1.30pm on Friday 10th February to allow staff to replenish resources and to de-gunge rooms and teaching spaces ready for after the half term holiday. Students will return to school at the normal time on Monday 20th February.

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosely

Co-Principal

W/C Monday 16th January 2023

Dear Parents/Carers

Student Learning Conferences (SLCs) have continued to be a real focus for all students over the last week and there has been lots of hard work put into preparations for these. Students have been gathering their work together, organising books and portfolios, and planning how they present their learning. This work will be ongoing over the next two weeks and students will be supporting each other to ‘get to the top of the mountain’ working together both in and outside of Crew time to share their experiences and coach each other.

We are really looking forward to seeing our students shine in their SLCs and the feedback they receive from you. When you sign in for your SLC at reception, please remember to take an exit ticket for completion afterwards.

As a staff, we have enjoyed professional learning across our two staff days. Our focus has been around two key aspects of our school:

• Quality first, and inclusive, teaching
  • How do we ensure that we limit cognitive load in the way that we present materials to students?
  • How do we ensure that we maximise the impact and productivity of the first five minutes of sessions?
  • How do we ensure that we sequence ideas and lessons in a way that makes the most of what we know about how learning happens?
• Developing crew to ensure a continued strong school culture 
  • How do we foster strong relationships with all of our students?
  • How do we build and tend to Crew as we grow?
  • How can we solve problems through restoration and relationships?
  • Delivering a high quality RSHE curriculum.
  • How can we optimise Crew Reads on Tranquil Tuesdays?

This week:

Extended Study and clubs are not running this week to allow for SLCs to take place. School will end at 3:15pm for all students apart from those with SLCs on that evening.

To allow students time to prepare for their SLCs, we have reduced the amount of extended study work set again this week and next. Reading for 20-30 minutes each day is still expected.

Looking ahead:

Strike Action

As you may be aware, the NEU teachers union have balloted and agreed strike action on the following dates: Wednesday 1st and Tuesday 28th February 2023.

The NEU are striking around the following reasons:

• Recruitment and retention of staff 
• Underfunding of education by the current government
• Wage increase for staff which is below the rate of inflation

As leadership, we will do our best to minimise disruption to child’s  education and we will update you in due course.

As usual, thank you for your ongoing support. Please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader if you have any questions.

 

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

It’s been another great week of learning at XP Gateshead. Our students have continued to work hard in sessions collecting evidence around their pledges. With SLCs approaching next week, they continue to work hard in crew sessions to prepare for these with the support of staff and students around them. Thank you for your support with SLCs, booking your appointments promptly.  Can I remind G28 parents to complete the google form as soon as possible to provide questions for your son/daughter to prepare for.  

Expedition guiding questions were revealed on Monday after much curiosity and speculation from our students.

G29 Expeditions

Our G29 students have two expeditions this term:

The STEAM expedition is called ‘Staying Alive’ with the guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’. This week students have launched into the first case study, looking at nutrition and digestion against the backdrop of the current cost of living crisis. The other case studies will also have a social justice component, also looking at energy through the lens of the cost of living crisis and separating mixtures through with reference to sourcing potable water in low economically developed areas. The products for this learning expedition will be food boxes donated to Gateshead Food Bank and Edberts House, as well as work in Crew to twin our toilets. This work will further help our students to see that they are important and that their work is important, because they and their work can have a positive impact on and connect with their community and the wider world.

Their HUMAN expedition is called ‘Do Your Bit’ and has the guiding question: ‘Why is it important that we honour all those that sacrificed in WWI?’. The first case study for this learning expedition is about the causes of The Great War: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. A reminder that the presentation of learning for this will be on Friday 24th March at Newcastle University in the King’s Hall – a space that was used as a military hospital during WWI.

G28 Expedition

Our G28 students have one expedition this term. This expedition has the guiding question and title of ‘What is Power?’. In the cross-curricular expedition students will explore the concept of “imbalance” and how this often leads to changes both in a social or historical setting but also in a scientific context.

Students have started two case studies this week. The first is a study of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the power “imbalances” within this play. Students are so enthusiastic about this play, which is wonderful to see and bodes well for our Presentation of Learning. This PoL will be anchored by performances of key scenes from the play and will be in the week commencing 27th March. We will have more details as soon as we have the date, time and venue confirmed.

The second case study is looking at the power of Earth and big changes in physical geography such as earthquakes, and at a smaller scale how “imbalance” can lead to chemical and physical change as students explore chemical reactions and forces. In art we have looked at an atmospheric hazard in Hurricane Katrina, and the artwork that sprang up from those terrible events.

Throughout this expedition students will read from an anthology of texts about moments that have had the power to shape our world: suffrage, Newton’s laws, Rutherford’s discoveries about the atom, The Declaration of Human Rights and many more.

Tranquil Tuesdays – A part of our Crew Curriculum

Tranquil Tuesday is when we check in on progress in the AR (Accelerated Reader) programme. Remember that AR is about improving your child’s reading age and should not replace reading for pleasure – of course they can go hand in hand. On Tuesday we also read our Crew Read together.

For G29 our Crew Read is Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, which gives the students greater contextual knowledge about WWI and the stigma that was attached to perceived cowardice, which is also a theme in the play students are studying in Drama: White Poppies by Sue Saunders.

In G28 the Crew Read is the novel Tsunami Girl by Chie Kutsuwada. The story is told in part through manga artwork and in part through prose. Set against the tragic events of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, the protagonist Yuki learns about herself, and the power of imagination.

Wise Wednesdays – A part of our Crew Curriculum

Our Wise Wednesday sessions are part of our PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) and RSE (relationships education, relationship and sex education) programme. I know that, as a parent, it is really valuable to understand what is covered in school so that conversations at home can be better supported around more sensitive issues. 

G29’s Wise Wednesday work in Crew links to both expeditions  and students will be  looking at what they can do to both survive and thrive. Important issues around mental and physical well being will be covered this term. Look out for a more detailed website post this week which will give an overview of sessions, including advice and support for parents and carers too.

For G28 students, their Wise Wednesday work in Crew  ‘I’ve got the power’ links to expedition work and students will be considering making the right choices in relationships both on and offline. They will be discussing some important issues relevant to them at this age. Again, look out for a more detailed website post this week to give more details.

This week:

Extended Study

Preparing SLCs will be a focus for our students this week and staff will set less extended study to allow more time for students to work on this. Extended study sessions will still run as normal this week where support is available to students.

Please remember that there will be no extended study or clubs next week (w/c 23rd Jan) or the week following to allow for SLCs after school. The school day for all students (except those with SLCs on that day) will finish at 3:15pm.

Staff days

A reminder that Friday 20th and Monday 23rd January are our staff days this term. Students are not expected in school on these days.

See link here for this year’s term dates. 

As usual, thank you for your ongoing support. Please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader if you have any questions.

 

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal