G30’s Presentation of Learning for their first expedition, From The Ground Up, here at XP Gateshead was absolutely fantastic. This was the first time that our youngest students have put together a live POL as the previous 2 years has seen Year 7’s first POL being a virtual one online. G30 did themselves proud with some very clear, well presented explanations of their learning across their different subjects making links to the guiding question, ‘What do the communities of the northeast owe to the miners?’. In addition there were some beautiful performances which included a choral poem, The Ballad of the Big Hewer, and some wonderful drama scenes from the play Billy Elliot.
The ‘pièce de résistance’ was the wonderful songs that our students wrote alongside song writing experts Mr Said and Joe Solo to tell the stories of the experts they interviewed about their time during the miners’ strikes in the 1980s. These were performed brilliantly and the lyrics brought a tear to the eye of some members of the audience in the beautiful church of St Mary’s, Heworth.
Here are some of the comments from parents on the exit tickets:
“All students have shown great knowledge and confidence.”
“Amazing singing and great presentations.”
“Very inclusive, amazing hard work that has paid off.”
“All students showed courage to stand up and performances tonight showed all of the hard work and dedication students and staff have put in.”
The students and staff are delighted that the raffle on the night, with the prize donated by Ringtons, raised an amazing £125.00 for church funds as a thank you for the support Priest Lucy and the church warden have given us this term and of course for allowing us to hold our POL there.
We are so proud that we have made such strong links with the church and that some of our students’ beautiful work, in the form of creative writing about the 1812 Felling Pit disaster, is now on permanent display at St Mary’s where the poor souls who perished in the catastrophe are buried.