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

Dear Parents/Carers

We’ve had a great first week back and our students have quickly got back into ‘work mode’ after their Christmas break. Thank you for the part you played in this – our students were fully equipped, on time and ready to go.

SLC Preparation and focus on HoWLs

A big focus for students this term is acting on the pledges they made after their first information snapshots and getting prepared for their Student-Led Conference. G29 students have spent time in Crew this week looking at what a quality SLC looks like and how they work towards this. Leading a 20 minute SLC is a big challenge and our students will be working to get their portfolios and scripts ready supporting each other in Crew and beyond. Our Year 8 students who have experienced SLCs have already offered their time to support Year 7 students with this work. You will be receiving an SLC invitation email from your child and find out how to book your SLC slot this week.

Immersion for new expeditions

Last week our students were immersed in their new expeditions for this term and were working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are.

In STEAM, G29 students have been reading a text called Station 11, set in a post-apocalyptic world where daily life is dangerous and challenging. Even so, there are still people travelling in caravans performing Shakespeare. They have also been investigating a range of apparently different stimulus materials including Marcus Rashford’s campaign for free school meals during the pandemic, inter-community and intra-community behaviours in primates and access to potable water in low economic status countries.

In HUMAN, G29 students have been exploring the historical British Empire, analysing the poem Salt by Trinidadian poet Anthony Joseph about the call to arms across the Empire in WWI. They have also been taking part in a gallery walk with images from 1914-1918 as well as family artefacts brought in by Mrs Downson from over a hundred years ago.

G28 students have been studying a modern prose, abridged version of Macbeth as an introduction to the plot and characters. They have also been studying how natural hazards can become disasters and had to attempt to develop an area of land prior to a natural hazard to protect as much life and infrastructure as possible. They have also been studying chemical changes, paying particular attention to the characteristics of the products in comparison to the reactants, and observing the reaction closely. Across G28 they have agreed that this is the most difficult they have found it to agree on the connections between the disciplines and how they could cohere to become and guiding question and expedition. Some students are very close in their predictions though!

The immersion activities above are a launch for our new expeditions, which aim to develop curiosity and build background knowledge about the content to be studied during the expeditions.

The big reveals will take place tomorrow; students will learn their guiding questions along with the big picture of their expeditions including the case studies, final products and crew reads which will support the expedition.

This coming week:

Pledges

Students will continue to collect evidence in sessions around their pledges they made after reflecting upon their snapshots last term. It would be great if you could talk to your child about their pledges and the progress they are making towards these.

Reading

As you know, as part of our reading strategy at XPG, we expect all students to read between 20 and 30 minutes every day. We do use some time in Crew at the start of the day for reading but students do need to be reading their AR (Accelerated Reader) book as part of their daily extended study too. Please encourage your child to read on a daily basis: talk to them about their current AR book and how they are progressing with it. Contact Crew Leaders if there are any issues or further support needed.

New ‘Crew Reads’ will be launched over the next two weeks. In the past students have read books that connect to their expeditions such as ‘Show us who you are’ last term in G28 which helped students to consider neurodiversity when thinking about what makes us human, and in G29 students read ‘Seedfolks’ – set in a community garden in Cleveland, Ohio – which showed how people from different walks of life can come together to form a community when they have a common goal or mission – just as the Dulais Miners in Wales and London’s lesbian and gay community did during the 1984 Miners’ Strike.

Our new Crew Reads  will be read and enjoyed by Crew during ‘Tranquil Tuesday’ morning sessions and will likewise support the new expeditions’ themes and build our students’ background knowledge and vocabulary. 

PE sessions

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

Dress code reminder

At XP we do not have a school uniform however we do have a dress code which asks students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly. See the link here for details on dress code from our website.

There is always going to be ambiguity with a dress code rather than a specific uniform,  so we do list items which we do not think it appropriate or recommend that students wear which included:

• Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes
• Valuable, sentimental or impractical jewellery
• False nails
• Revealing clothing, i.e. crop tops, transparent leggings

I’ve included these items in particular here as we have had to give a few students reminders of appropriate dress this week.  I am sure that, as parents and carers, you will support us when we say that school clothing should be warm, comfortable and safe. If you have any questions about this please speak to your child’s Crew Leader.

Dates for your diary

Staff Days

A reminder that we have two staff development days this half term; Friday 20th and Monday 23rd January. 

Term Dates 2022/23

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

XP Gateshead

Dear Parents/Carers

Happy 2023! We hope you have had a great Christmas and a safe and restful New Year. We are looking forward to welcoming students back tomorrow to the start of our new term at XP Gateshead.

Getting a good start…

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. A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning so we ask that parents support their child with this.

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

PE sessions

There are timetable changes for PE this week as there is no PE on the first day back.

• G28 students (Y8) will need their PE kit for Wednesday this week.
• G29 students (Y7) will need PE kit on Thursday this week.

Extended Study and Clubs

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

New Term – New Expeditions

A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our students. Immersion takes place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring. 

Curriculum Updates 

There are some curriculum changes which continue to give our students a breadth and depth of experience at key stage 3. 

G29 are studying two new expeditions. As part of their studies for their new HUMAN and ARTS expedition, G28 will be continuing with drama with a new text and also studying computer science to help them to organise and analyse data from an expert.

G29 also have a new STEAM expedition which will include some food technology and a really great final product that will have an impact on our local community.

G28 are studying one new expedition that combines HUMAN, STEAM and ARTS. This will include some really challenging drama and music, both of which will be instrumental to their final product and presentation of learning.

Student-Led Conferences

SLCs (Student-Led Conferences) replace the conventional parents’ evenings at XP Gateshead. During an SLC, your son or daughter will share their learning with you and their crew leader. You will have an opportunity to look at work from their portfolio and ask questions about their HoWLs (Habits of Work and Learning) and AP grades (Academic Progress) .

These SLCs will take place this term in the two weeks commencing 24th January. In the coming weeks you will receive an SLC invite from your son or daughter’s crew leader.  

Over the coming weeks students will be working hard on their pledges and HOWLs in sessions. They will share their progress with you during the SLC and you will be able to ask questions around these. 

Staff Days

A reminder that we have two staff development days this half term; Friday 20th and Monday 23rd January. 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/Guardians

What a fantastic week we had last week as our G28 students presented their learning to an audience of their parents and talked about their work in more detail sharing connections they made between different subjects in their expedition “Being Human”. Students were attempting to answer the age-old question – ‘What does it mean to be human?’ and I have to say I was blown away by the quality of their presentations and their work. Thank you to all of our parents for attending and helping to make this such a special evening.

Feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive and some praises from parents who attended G28 POL were as follows:

“Impressed at the deep level of understanding, compassion, and appreciation.”; “praise the confidence of pupils”;  “impressed by student confidence and the way they presented their knowledge – shows real listening and progress in school”; “the confidence of all the students is astounding – it takes real courage to talk to an audience”; and “the depth of knowledge and thinking is wonderful”

This week

G29 PoL (Presentation of Learning) – Monday 12th December – live streaming event

This coming week we are equally excited about G29’s very first presentation of learning which will be live streamed on Monday evening. This is the culmination of G29’s very first expedition – From the ground Up and students will be answering the guiding Question – ‘What do communities of North East England owe to the miners?’ Our students have been working very hard on preparing for this and we are all excited to see the results.

You can join the live stream by clicking on this link on Monday Evening at 5.30pm.

Clubs and extended study

Please note that there will be no after school clubs or extended study on Monday 12th December because of the G29 PoL however clubs and extended study will be running as normal throughout the rest of the week

PE this week

We apologise for the short notice, but there has been a change that means we need to move PE sessions for this week.

Year 8 this week will be tomorrow: Monday.

Year 7 will have their PE sessions on Tuesday this week.

Early finish this Friday 16th December

Just a reminder to parents that students will be finishing early this Friday. They will be registered after lunch in crew rooms and then will leave school at 1.30pm. This is to allow staff to “de-gunge” and prepare for the start of next term.

Return to School on Tuesday 3rd January

students will be returning to school on Tuesday 3rd January at the normal time and we look forward to seeing our students again in January and starting some new expeditions.

Thank you

Thank you to all our parents and guardians for your ongoing support and trust. We are delighted with the progress your children are making in terms of their beautiful work, character growth and academic success – and know that we will continue to go from strength to strength in the new year. From all at XP Gateshead please have a Happy Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. 

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Co-principal

Dear Parents/Carers

It is a bumper update this week with lots of information on:

• Our ongoing and exciting work in school
• Upcoming presentations of learning
• Reverse advent – student activism at Christmas

We are moving towards some really important and exciting times in our diary with Presentations of Learning for both G28 and G29 in the next two weeks.

Our students are working hard on their final products and preparing their responses to the guiding questions that they have been exploring all term. We cannot wait for them to share their beautiful work with you and know that as always they will impress with their compassion in supporting each other in the coming weeks, and the courage they will show when presenting their learning to the community. 

Our G29 students had a great fieldwork visit on Tuesday to meet interview members of the Northumberland mining community. This was the first time our year 7 students had carried out oral history interviews and they did a fantastic job. Experts were delighted that young people were so interested in their stories and moved that our students would go on to tell their stories in their final product – a book which will be published in the New Year. Particular praise was given to Peyton, Fallyn and Harry M for their enthusiasm, questions and sensitivity to their experts.

Some of our students enjoyed additional fieldwork at Woodhorn Colliery and the community around Burradon to carry out primary research on the pits in these communities. Connor, Nathan, Ryan, Braydon and Joe were all fantastically engaged and now have lots more information to include in their histories of these pits. A big appreciation was given to Braydon too, who had taken lots of photographs and shared these with his group on return to school to make sure that everyone was well-prepared to start writing.

And so, back in school, Year 7 have been writing up their interviews and these will form part of our final book alongside with histories of local pits. The quality of listening and note taking has really paid off and supported the drafting of their work for their book.

On Thursday, G28 had the privilege of spending time with the inspirational Luke Wigman ,who shared his response to our guiding question ‘What does it mean to be Human?’ Luke is a former RAF military serviceman and was part of an elite special operations unit until an injury during a tour of duty changed his life forever. After being medically discharged, Luke went on to become an international sportsman whose plaudits include:

• North Pole Marathon- Runner-Up- 2014.
• London Invictus Games – 1500m gold medalist – 2014
• Sports Personality of the Year Awards- Winner of the Helen Rollason Award- 2014
• Pride of Britain Awards- Special Recognition Award for GB Invictus Team- 2014

Luke was particularly impressed by the depth of our students’ questions and discussed with them how the simple things in life are often taken for granted and how he views the gift of our humanity, and how adversity can be a fuel that drives us on to fulfil our dreams.

Our clubs have continued to run this term. We are really pleased with the number of our students who have made a regular commitment to extended study or an after school club.

Student activism in the run up to Christmas:Charity initiatives

We are carrying out reverse advent in both Year 7 and Year 8 across all Crews, but a special appreciation to Crew KDO and Crew Frank (MRS) for coordinating our work. Any donations for these charities will be gratefully received, but it is by no means an expectation.

Year 7 Reverse Advent – Led by Crew KDO

Tomorrow sees the launch of Year 7’s ‘Reverse Advent’ collection on behalf of Gateshead Foodbank. This will run until Monday 12th December and is being organised by Crew KDO. Year 7 students will be able to access the full food bank list after tomorrow’s launch but everyday items on the list include tinned foods, dried pasta/rice/noodles, pasta sauces, UHT milk and biscuits. Gateshead Foodbank are also accepting donations for their Christmas Hampers, which include foods like tinned ham, shortbread, luxury biscuits, savoury crackers, tubs of sweets and selection boxes. Any donation really helps. Thank you in advance, Crew KDO.

Year 8 Reverse Advent – Led by Crew Frank (MRS)

Sr Josepha, an expert from our current expedition does a lot to support Bethany City Church in Sunderland and the St Vincent de Paul Society in Newcastle with their advent appeals. These appeals ensure that children and the elderly who would be unlikely to receive gifts this Christmas do indeed get one. As a thank you for the kindness of giving her time to support the learning of our students, our Year 8 crews will be putting together at least one shoebox full of small gifts that will make a huge difference to someone struggling this Christmas.

The types of families and people who benefit are those who are seeking asylum due to war or persecution in their own country, those who have had to flee domestic abuse and elderly people who are alone with no families this Christmas. So as well as receiving a small sweet treat from a crew Christmas advent we are asking our year 8 students to give something and give their time this advent in so that they work together as a crew and be activists this festive season. Crews may have already decided the age group for their shoebox/shoeboxes. Students should start to bring in things for their shoebox this week and early next week where they are able to.

This week:

G28 YEAR 8 Presentation of Learning – What does it mean to be Human?

On Thursday 8th December at 5:30pm, our Year 8 students will share their expedition work with parents and carers. This will be the first in-person PoL to take place in our school and we ask families to arrive from 5.20pm. We expect to be finished by 7pm.

Where possible if you could limit the number of adults attending to two, this would be much appreciated.

As was discussed at our very first meetings with families at the end of Year 6, it is an expectation that all students have at least one family member attend every presentation of learning.

YEAR 8 Parents: Please confirm your attendance by completing this Google Form.

G29 get ready for their Presentation of Learning

This week students will be preparing for their very first presentation of learning which will be live steamed via Youtube in our final week: Monday 12th December at 5.30pm. The link to join the stream will be shared in next week’s family update.

We discussed in our community meeting this week how brilliant we know your children will be and how students will need to show lots of compassion in supporting each other to show craftsmanship and quality in completing their work to the best of their ability, and to show the courage to present to the community.

During these coming weeks, students will share moments together that will become stories that they will tell each other for the rest of their time with us because there is more in them than they know. 

As usual, thanks for your ongoing support. Please contact your child’s Crew Leader with any questions or issues. 

Have a great week

Julie Mosley