XP Gateshead

Dear Parent/Guardian

Just a quick note to offer a warm welcome back to you and our pupils after what I hope has been a restful and safe half term holiday.

We are looking forward to seeing all of our students again and moving forward with our expeditions. We are particularly excited that pupils will begin their fieldwork this week and will work with a renowned North East geologist exploring the geology of our coastline at Whitburn and carrying out an enquiry into the pit and pit village that were located on the cliff tops.

I am pleased to say that work on site has continued with a new external fire door in Crew Dobson’s rooms and installation of manual window opening systems to give us more control over ventilation in the building. There will be further work externally and I am expecting a bike shed for students and work to begin on additional temporary car parking and seeding of the grassed area on the other side of the tennis courts. 

COVID mitigations – Important

As parents will be aware Covid infection in the community continues to be high and we ask for your continued support in helping us to ensure we keep our provision open and safe for pupils, families and staff. We have updated guidance from Public Health Gateshead. We are proposing the following measures to limit the spread of Covid in our school.

• Limiting the visitors on site to essential only.

 

• Please continue to use Lateral Flow Tests to test pupils on Sunday and Wednesday evening and enter results into our Covid testing spreadsheet – this is absolutely essential and we really do appreciate your support in this. 

 

• We will be keeping the building well ventilated with classroom windows open during lessons etc – as the weather begins to turn colder this means students should arrive at school with warm clothing and/or coats which they will be permitted to wear in class.

 

• Please inform us if you or any family member living at home exhibits Covid symptoms.
  • If there is a confirmed case via PCR in your household, we ask that you organise a PCR test for your son or daughter as a close contact, even if they are not displaying symptoms.
  • If a member of your household tests positive, we will ask you to also conduct daily lateral flow tests on your son or daughter each morning for 10 days as a close contact, and only attend school if they test negative. 

Fieldwork arrangements

As mentioned above, all students will be going on fieldwork this week, more details of which can be found in Mr Said’s post. It is important that they are prepared for the weather as they will be outdoors for most of the day. The forecast at the moment is for light showers on Wednesday and cold temperatures on both days. Students will arrive back at school at around 4.15pm on the day that they are out on fieldwork.

ParentPay

Lunch charges for the first term have been added to parent pay and will updated on an ongoing basis from this point. Please login to your account to check the balance and make a payment using the login details provided in the letter that was sent home with your son or daughter last term.