Dear Parents/Guardians
Welcome to our final week before the half-term holiday
We have been continuing with our new expedition – What a Wonderful World with the Guiding question: What is our relationship with the natural world?
This week we are all very excited about our fieldwork on Friday (23rd) where we will be exploring our local “green” corridor through a “geocaching” activity. Students will be outside for most of the day so will need:
- Comfortable shoes for walking
- Appropriate clothing for the weather, the forecast is currently fair and mild
- Sunscreen
- Hat
- Water bottle
- Regular school day kit in their school bag
We will be combining this event with crew picnics so don’t be surprised if your son/daughter has asked for a couple of extra items to be added to the shopping list this week!
Students will be leaving school at 2.15pm this Friday (see de-gunge notice)
Crew picnics
Crew picnics have been organised for Friday 23rd and take place when we go out to explore our local green corridor. These have been organised by students in their crews and your children may have already asked you about the food they have chosen to bring along as part of their crew contribution this Friday. Please contact crew leaders if this raises any questions, issues or concerns.
Student Assessment Information and SLCs – Dates for your diaries!
Last week we shared updated assessment snapshots with students, giving information around their HoWLs and academic progress.
Students are updating their pledges at the moment. We will then share these pledges and assessment information snapshots with you at the end of this week.
The next set of SLCs (Student-Led Conferences) will be taking place in the fortnight starting 13th June. In this SLC, students will show you evidence of how they are working on their pledges.
You will be able to book an appointment for your child’s SLC from this week. At this time you will also be able to ask your child questions about their assessment information snapshot. Your child will answer these questions as part of their SLC too.
As part of this process, students will be reflecting on their HoWLs every week in Crew on Thoughtful Thursdays.
Visitors from Holland
We are excited to be hosting 14 Dutch Teachers on Monday afternoon who are on an organised tour of innovative schools in the North of England. They will be joining us from 1.30pm on Monday afternoon and will hear from myself, Mr Said and a panel of students who will share and discuss their work. We will be making use of the dining room for their visit which is a large and well ventilated area and we will ensure there is minimal disruption to student learning.
Transition meetings with new families
We will be continuing 1:1 transition meetings with our new families this week and are looking forward to meeting new students and their parents. These meetings are opportunities to find out more about our new students who will be starting in September and for our families to ask questions to find out a bit more about XP Gateshead. In time, our newest families will be added to our Facebook Group so please do make them feel welcome. Our community is strong because we are crew.
New Staff appointments
We have successfully appointed to our admin position last week and welcomed Faye Dobson to our crew. Faye will be joining us on June 6th initially in a part time capacity as she learns about our systems etc and then will be full time form the start of next academic year. We are now fully staffed for next year.
AR (Accelerated Reader)
A reminder that our students should be reading their AR books for between 20 – 30 minutes each day and crew leaders will be checking on progress every Tuesday in crew. For students to be great learners, first they must be strong readers. Please encourage your children to talk to you about what they are reading and support them to read on a daily basis. We have been really impressed with the range of books students have chosen and will be looking forward to seeing how they do on their first book “quizzes”.
Lateral Flow Testing
Please make sure you complete a Lateral Flow Test with your child this Sunday evening and complete our online form as usual. We will also be asking you to complete a LFT on the Sunday (5th June) evening before your child returns after the half term holiday.
Whilst Covid infections are still falling in the community, given the size of our setting this really helps us to keep everyone safe and for our school to remain open.
If you require any extra LFT kits please let us know.
We will continue to keep doors and windows open for ventilation so students are advised to bring multiple layers to school to keep warm. This is how we look after each other – #wearecrew
Guidance for isolation following a positive test
Any student who has a positive Covid-19 test result should stay at home and avoid contact with people for 3 days. As long as they are well they may return to school following the three days. There is no longer a requirement for students to test negative on the day when they return to school.
2.15pm finish – Friday 23rd
As usual we will be finishing slightly earlier this Friday to allow for “de-gunge” and restocking of classrooms in readiness for the new term. This Friday since we are also out and about geocaching, students will leave school at 2.15pm
It has been a fantastic half-term and there is much to look forward to after the holiday including the launch of our students’ first book
Thank you for your continued support and have a great holiday. As usual if you have any questions please contact crew leaders in the first instance.
Kind regards
Mark Lovatt
Principal