We had the most wonderful day with your children yesterday in school. The community meeting at the end of the day was full of students appreciating each other for showing great character and producing beautiful work.
Student yesterday learned their guiding question for their two days:
“What will it take to become the best version of myself at XP Gateshead?”
Here are a selection of photographs from the day. We look forward to even better day today!
We are looking forward to welcoming students in school tomorrow for their transition days this week.
For year 6 students, each day will start at 8.25am with students able to arrive from 8.00am.
Each day will end at 3.15pm.
Students can have a school lunch or a packed lunch. If you have not already done so, please can you complete this Google form to let us know of your child’s dinner choices for each day.
At break and lunchtime, we will have activities led by our existing student leaders.
A reminder that for their daily kit, students should bring basic kit which includes a pen, pencil, eraser, ruler and pencil sharpener in a pencil case. Students should have a water bottle and a bag for resources. We recognise that you may not already have all of this equipment yet. It is important that this is in place for August when children start with us fully.
Some students choose to come in their primary school uniform or PE kit, however this is not necessary. Students need to dress modestly and appropriately for a day of learning in school. More details of our dress code can be found here.
Students will be introduced to PE at XP on Tuesday, so we recommend trainers and clothing appropriate for sports on Tuesday so that a change of clothes is not needed.
(When students start with us fully in the Autumn Term we will talk to them about bringing a change of clothes for their first PE sessions).
Our guiding question for the two days will be:
“What will it take for me to be the best version of myself at XP?”
On Tuesday students will experience Crew, STEAM Science, Art and Design and Spanish.
We will end the day with a Community Meeting where students will make appreciations to each other connected to our character traits of courage, respect, integrity, craftsmanship & quality, and above all compassion. Our student leaders will support and model this process – as they will have been supporting in their sessions throughout the day.
On Wednesday students will have another Crew, Humanities and STEAM Maths and PE.
Again we will finish the day with a Community Meeting to celebrate the beautiful work and character of our newest students over the two days.
Our ‘Meet the Crew Leader’ will be hosted in school. This is an important opportunity for families to meet their child’s Crew Leader and being forming the strong relationship that will be needed to support and challenge your child to become the best version of themselves. This event is for adults from families only, you should not bring your child to this event.
This event will start at 5pm on Tuesday evening next week and is expected to last for around 45 minutes.
If you have not already done so, please complete the participant form for Ullswater. More details on how to do this can be found here.
We are so excited to welcome G32 into school this week, and meeting you all again in the week after.
Good Morning
All secondary students at XP are expected to bring in a school-managed iPad every day, giving them access to Google Docs, iMovie, GarageBand and Adobe Creative Cloud apps alongside many other school purchased apps.
To enable this, we run a great value Parental Contribution Scheme which offers all our parents affordable options to provide the latest iPad with a keyboard case and trackpad, screen protector and pencil plus AppleCare. The total cost for this in 2025/26 is £455, and parents can spread this cost over up to 36 months, or less than £3 per week.
To order your child’s ipad, please click on the Order Form below:
Any parents needing financial support can let us know on the order form so we can look at different options together.
The extended warranty is covered by Apple for the first two years. You handle your own claims through Apple Support on the App Store. Further information can be found at AppleCare Products – iPad – Apple (UK)
We supply an initial glass screen protector, then any replacement screen protectors required will need to be purchased by you. Apple charges £25 for a broken screen.
Loss or theft of the iPad should be covered by your personal home insurance.
The total retail cost of these items bought separately would be £595.00.
Through our purchase scheme the cost to you is £455.00.
If you require financial support with this, please highlight this on the form when placing your order and we will get in touch with you.
If your child will be in Year 10, the maximum option you can choose will be the 24 month option. If your child will be in Year 11, the maximum option you can choose will be the 12 month option.
The balance will be applied to your ParentPay account for you to manage your own payments.
This will be closely monitored by the school in line with XP Trust Credit Control Policy to ensure payments are on track, depending on the payment option you selected.
We encourage you to ensure timely payments to avoid any disruptions in your child’s access to the device.
If your circumstances change, and you can no longer afford to contribute the agreed payment option please contact us, and we will work with you on a revised payment plan.
At the end of your child’s time in school the device can be kept by the family if the balance has been paid in full.
To order your child’s ipad, please click on the Order Form below:
Our new Year 7 students’ Outward Bound adventure begins on Tuesday 26th August 2025. Students need to be arrive at school between 8.00am and 8.25am. The coach will depart later that morning.
We need all parents to complete a Participant Information Form by following the link below. The form must be submitted by Monday, July 3rd, 2023.
Students must bring a £10 deposit with them on the morning which will be handed back to them at the end of their adventure if there is no loss or damage to equipment. This is an important part of the process for the week, and teaches the students about join responsibility as a Crew.
Any medication for students must be in the original box, clearly labelled with your child’s name and details of regularity of administration and dose. This includes:
Please get in contact with [email protected] if your child will be bringing medication and we can provide you with a self-administration or permission to administer form.
Specialist equipment such as walking boots, tents, sleeping bags, hiking rucksacks and waterproofs will be provided by the centre.
The kit list for students is listed below. Please ensure that your child has all of these items.
If you are having problems sourcing these please get in touch with our office via [email protected] . Older clothes are far better for the week as they will get wet and or muddy.
Thanks to all of those families that attended. We are visiting Primary Schools to meet your children over the coming weeks. In the meantime:
A reminder that we are holding an In-Person Information Evening at our school next week on Thursday 22nd May at 6pm.
It is important that all of our Year 6 families attend as we will give important information about the Outward Bound course that takes place for all students at the start of Year 7 as well as our iPad scheme.
In addition, we will address some of the misconceptions about our school so that families are completely clear on what we are: ‘A mainstream school with a relentless focus on beautiful work, character growth and academic success’, and also what we are not.
There will be an opportunity for you to ask us questions too of course.
Due to the size of our temporary accommodation, we ask where possible that a maximum of two people from each family attend this event. Children do not need to attend on the evening.
We are delighted to be able to announce the calendar of transition events that we have planned to welcome your children and your family into our community at XP Gateshead.
More details on each of these events will follow in due course, but here is an overview of the activities so that you can plan ahead and discuss this with your child.
In the coming weeks we will send you details of how to book an online family meeting. Meetings will be in the fortnight commencing 28th April. These take place via Google Meet during the evening and are with a senior leader in the school. The meetings are a first chance for us to meet you and your child, to find out about them and discuss our expectations as a school. Your meeting will last up to 30 minutes. We will send details of how to book an appointment to you on 24th March.
We aim to visit every child in their Primary School in the summer term. This is done by members of our transition team and means that as well as seeing your child in an educational setting, they get to know another friendly face before they come to us.
We will be holding an In-Person Information Evening at our school on 22nd May at 6pm.
It is vital that all families attend as we will give important information about the Outward Bound course that takes place for all students at the start of Year 7 as well as our iPad scheme. In addition, we will address some of the misconceptions about our school so that families are completely clear on what we are: ‘A mainstream school with a relentless focus on beautiful work, character growth and academic success’, and also what we are not. There will be an opportunity for you to ask us questions too of course.
Your children will join us in school on Tuesday 1st July and Wednesday 2nd July. Again more details of these days will follow in due course. Like a regular school day, students can arrive in school from 8:00am but need to be present by 8:25am. Our school day finishes at 3:15pm.
Your child will follow a typical day at XPG on both days which include some crew sessions, expedition sessions and a community meeting.
Following the transition days, on Tuesday 8th July we will invite parents and carers into school in the evening to meet your child’s new Crew Leader. We expect all families to attend this event. We are proud of the strong relationships that we form with families at XP Gateshead and this is an important opportunity for you to begin to build that relationship with the person that will be the key adult for your child when they start with us. As well as our cross-curricular learning expeditions, our pastoral structure Crew is what sets us apart from other schools.
We start school earlier than other schools in the local authority to allow for the Outward Bound experience. Our first day of term for year 7 is Tuesday 26th August 2025. More info on our term dates can be found by clicking here.
We are really excited to get to know our newest students and their families over the coming months.
Welcome to our community and crew at XP Gateshead!
A warm welcome to all of the Year 6 families that have been lucky enough to be offered a place at XP Gateshead for your child to join Year 7 in August 2025.
There is not a need to contact us at this point in time, but please do check your emails as we will soon send you information about our enrolment process including some forms for you to complete online.
You will no doubt have lots of questions, but rest assured, all of these will be answered over the coming months of transition. At XP Gateshead we spend a lot of time getting to know our students and families prior to starting with us and we have a range of transition activities planned to allow this to happen. Our wider transition programme will include:
We will publish a timeline of these events soon.
Our website xpgateshead.org contains a wealth of information and should be a start in answering your questions, in particular the frequently asked questions section is useful for new parents. Please do also look at our calendars so that you can see our term dates and staff days for the next academic year and beyond.
It is really important that you subscribe to our website by entering your email contact in the section on our front page as this will update you with an email every time we post some new information.
This is what the box to subscribe looks like:
It can be found on the right hand page of our website homepage on a laptop or computer, and at the very bottom of the screen if you are viewing the website your phone or a tablet.
Families can be added to our private Facebook group for families of XP Gateshead once we have carried out the online family meetings.
Should you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact [email protected] .
Thank you again for choosing XP Gateshead, we really look forward to working with you and your child over the next five years.
Julie Mosley
Principal
XP Gateshead
Please arrive from 5.45pm this evening. You will be signed in based upon the surname of your child:
There is very limited parking available on our site so please be considerate of our neighbours if parking on the street. Please do not park in front of dropped kerbs or pathways across the verge as many of the residents are elderly and require easy access to their homes from the street.
