Ullswater Outward Bound – For all G32 students

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.

Participant Form

Outward Bound Participant Form – Click here

Returnable Deposit

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.

Medication

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:

• Inhalers
• Epipens
• Travel sickness pills
• Painkillers
• Antihistamines

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.

Kit List

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.

• 1 large bag or suitcase to take kit on the coach
• 2 bin bags –  to store wet and dirty clothes
• 1 pair of trainers for getting wet – these trainers will definitely get wet so it is important that you have a second pair.
• A second pair of trainers to stay dry for day to day wear – these are likely to get muddy so preferably not new.
• 3 sweatshirts, jumpers, hoodies or fleeces – Fleeces are ideal as they dry quickly but any of the other items are a good substitute. You should include at least one warmer fleece for your expedition.
• 3 pairs of trousers – Lightweight trousers (not denim) such as walking trousers, leggings or tracksuit bottoms.
• 3 T-shirts – Aim for tops that cover shoulders from the sun.
• 1 long-sleeved base layer/top 
• 1 pair of shorts – Not denim
• 1 pair of nightwear/pyjamas
• 1 set of casual clothes for around the centre
• 7 sets of underwear including socks – This is a minimum number. Trainer socks aren’t recommended as they may cause blisters.
• At least 2 pairs of thick walking socks
• Sunhat, sunglasses, suncream – don’t bring expensive sunglasses, suncream needs to be at least factor 30.
• 1 set of warm hat and gloves
• At least 1 towel – Quick drying microfibre towels are great. You will need a towel for showering and on activities, so bring at least one.
• Watch with alarm if possible
• 1 set of swimwear plus t-shirt and shorts for use in water
• Toiletries – including soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, blister kit, plasters, insect repellent, lip salve, hand sanitiser, wet wipes, talcum powder (for your feet), etc.
• 1 pair of flip slops or sandals – optional

Thanks to all of those families that attended. We are visiting Primary Schools to meet your children over the coming weeks. In the meantime:

• Please ensure that you have subscribed to our website – look for the subscribe box and enter your email.
• If you are a Facebook user, you can ask to be part of the “Parents of XP Gateshead” support group.
• The Outward Bound participant and medical forms will be posted on our website later today.
• The iPad scheme sign up will be posted on our website in the coming weeks.
• The slides from last night can be found below:

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.

Dear Year 6 Families

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.

Online Family Meetings

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.

Primary School Visits

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.

In-Person Information Evening for parents/carers

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.

Transition Days at XP Gateshead

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.

Meet your child’s Crew Leader

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:

• an online meeting with you and your child as a family
• primary school visits from an XP members of staff
• transition days in the summer term in early July

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:

• If you the surname of your child begins with A-C you will be in GROUP 1
• If the surname of your child begins with D-H you will be in GROUP 2
• If the surname of your child begins with I-N you will be in GROUP 3
• If the surname of your child begins with O-Z you will be in GROUP 4

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.

Our Open Evening this week is now fully booked

Due to high demand and our limited size and space in our temporary building, we have had to limit the number of places at the event. If you have not registered to attend, please do not turn up on the evening as unfortunately we will not be able to accommodate you.

More information about our school

Our website is also a valuable source of information and will give you a real flavour of the rigour of XP and our relentless focus on academic success, character growth and beautiful work.

We put together an information website for families that were are not able to attend last year which you can find here:
https://sites.google.com/xpgateshead.org/xp-gateshead-online-open-eve/home

Frequently asked questions can be found here:
https://xpgateshead.org/category/faq/

Please take the time to read our prospectus too.

Julie Mosley

Principal

XP Gateshead

We are pleased to be able to announce more details for our Open Evening on Tuesday 1st October at 5.45pm.

This is an event for families that are considering XP Gateshead as a destination school for their children in the next academic year (from September 2025).

IMPORTANT – Signing up to the event

Please take the time to read our prospectus before signing up to the event.

As we are anticipating a very high level of interest in these evenings ,and due to our limited size and space in our current temporary building, you will need to sign up for this event to be able to attend which was indicated in the secondary admissions booklet sent to you by Gateshead Council.

We are limiting the number of places to three places per family, including your child in Year 6.

Last year there were some families that could not be accommodated on the evening as they had not booked in advance. Due to our limited space, if you have not booked in advance, you will not be able to attend on the evening.

Please do not attempt to sign up if your children are currently in Year 5 or below. All of the above will mean that we can accommodate as many Year 6 families as possible.

You can book your place at this even by clicking on this link.

Julie Mosley

Principal

XP Gateshead

Beautiful Work – Character Growth – Academic Success

We are pleased to be able to announce more details for our Open Evening on Tuesday 1st October at 5.45pm.

This is an event for families that are considering XP Gateshead as a destination school for their children in the next academic year (from September 2025).

IMPORTANT – Signing up to the event

As we are anticipating a very high level of interest in these evenings ,and due to our limited size and space in our current temporary building, you will need to sign up for this event to be able to attend which was indicated in the secondary admissions booklet sent to you by Gateshead Council.

We are limiting the number of places to three places per family, including your child in Year 6.

Last year there were some families that could not be accommodated on the evening as they had not booked in advance. We will also ask primary schools to pass on this message this week, specifically about the need to book and restrictions on how many family members can attend. Please do not attempt to sign up if your children are currently in Year 5 or below. All of the above will mean that we can accommodate as many Year 6 families as possible.

If you are interested in our school and have not already done so you can subscribe to get updates from our website by looking for this button on our homepage:

We will post an updated version of our prospectus later this week, along with the booking form for the event.

Julie Mosley

Principal

XP Gateshead

After school your child’s iPad behaves exactly like any other iPad. During the day we manage the iPads so that only certain apps are available.

In order to download apps at home that you have agreed your child can have, you will need an Apple ID. If you do not have one, you can find instructions on how to set one up here.

If you have separate Apple ID’s – for example if your child already has an apple device – you can link Apple ID’s in a family sharing group. More info on that can be found here.

Screen time and other parental controls are also available. You can find guides to these here.

For additional protection we recommend that you filter what your children can access at home using your own Wifi. Most hubs for your Wifi at home will have settings that will also restrict content. Log in to your broadband provider account and search for parental controls.