We are very excited to have a copy of Through Their Eyes in our school library which contains the poem ‘Abuse’ by Elina in G30.
Congratulations!
We’re looking for a Temporary SEND Learning Coach (TA) at Green Top!
We are very proud to announce that 5 more talented writers have been selected for publication as part of the national Young Writers competition!
Molly, Eliza, Harry, Lyra and Bella all submitted fantastic pieces of work to the Mission Chaos competition. Congratulations to all 5, we can’t wait to get a copy for the school library.
The next writing competition challenges students to write a poem about ‘being real in a fake world’. The Beautiful Truth pushes students to write a poem that shows us who they truly are (fantastic links to G30’s current expedition…) Remember that you can seek critique from staff and students before submission, so get writing! Next time, it could be you!
See Miss Tatters in G8 if you would like more information.
Dear Families
It is a shorter update this week due to our staff days.
Today staff have been working on learning expedition and curriculum plans to ensure that our children continue to receive a great deal in terms of beautiful work, character growth and academic success.
Extended Study
Extended Study will continue to be on offer for all students after school each day except Friday. Regular setting of extended study has now commenced. You can find more on our rationale for Extended Study by clicking here. This now includes the schedule of extended study for Year 10.
Staff will finalise our rich offer of clubs this week and taster sessions for lunchtime and after school clubs will start next week.
PE sessions this week
- G31 students (Year 7) have PE on Wednesday
- G30 students (Year 8) have PE on Tuesday
- G29 students (Year 9) have PE on Thursday
- G28 students (Year 10) have PE on Thursday
Open Evening Next Week
On Tuesday next week we will be hosting Year 6 families and their children. This means that on Tuesday 1st October we will not have Extended Study provision or clubs after school as spaces will be being set up for the evening.
We will be drawing upon the brilliant start that Year 7 have made and asking for student volunteers to host and run the evening – as we do each year. This represents a great opportunity for Year 7 to demonstrate leadership and communicate what makes our school so wonderful, with support from their peers in Years 8-10.
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Thank you as always for your ongoing support. Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.
Julie Mosley
Principal
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
Sharing our Stories: 20/09/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Yorkshire Sport Foundation – Opening School Facilities at Plover
Check out this actively awesome video courtesy of Yorkshire Sport Foundation. The children and staff at Plover were superstars in explaining their positive experiences regarding the OSF funding they secured last year, to provide after school and community clubs! Plover have been lucky enough to secure some OSF funding this year too, so watch this space for Community Clubs starting in October! #LovePlover
Beautiful Curation!
We don’t just ensure our work is made public – it needs to live inside our school communities, too! More beautiful work has been curated at Plover School, celebrating their ‘Pride of Plover’ award winners and recent Expedition products!
‘If we get staff Crew right, we get everything right…’
One of our great friends and mentors, Ron Berger, once said to us that ‘staff culture can never outpace student culture.’ With this firmly at the forefront of our minds we set out last week on our bi-annual outdoor staff induction process with a group of educators from across our Trust.
We headed out into the wilderness to answer the guiding question, ‘What does it mean to be Crew?’ through a number of shared experiences and activities our Crew formed very quickly. We explored the purpose of Crew deeply and considered how we could make Crew even stronger on our return to our respective schools so that we continue to create the culture in which our students grow their character and make our community and the world a better place for everyone.
Below is an immediate reflection from one of our XP educators:
‘This experience has helped me to understand the building of community. The support that other members of our Crew showed this week has been immense. There have been some activities that have been challenging but everybody has been supportive whilst giving positive challenge so that everybody has been able to push themselves in a safe environment where everybody trusts each other and it’s lifted me and made me feel that I can achieve anything I put my mind to with the support of other people.’ – Louise
It was an honour and privilege to support and challenge our adults to reflect on the imperative we all have at XP to become and create great learners and even better human beings!
We are Crew!
Andy Sprakes and Kate ap Harri
Student Showcase for Year 6 at XP Doncaster
We’re got vacancies across XP Trust!
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
Year 5 Teacher/Leader at Carcroft School
F2 Teacher/Leader at Carcroft School
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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
Dear Families
We have continued to be impressed with our students this week and the HOWLs (habits of work and learning) they are exhibiting in sessions. It has been great to see the fantastic start G31 have made and hear the praise from the team who work with our new cohort.
On Friday it was wonderful to hear students’ appreciations, apologies and stands during our online Key Stage 3 (G31, G30, G29) Community Meeting at the end of the day. The language our students use around our character values and HOWLs shows a real depth of understanding and commitment to character development. These are not just words on a wall at XPG.
Great North Run Junior
Congratulations to all of our students that ran, or supported the Great North Run last week. A big well done to Mrs Diamond, Señorita Quested and Miss Tatters for completing the big run on Sunday last week too.
Guiding Questions
At the start of this last week immersion came to the end for all year groups. After lots of wondering and suggestions, students in G31 enjoyed the big reveal to find out their expedition guiding questions.
GQs (guiding questions) are a crucial part of the anatomy of an expedition.
GQs influence, shape and act as a reference point for student learning. GQs provoke thinking and deepen learning throughout the 12 week expedition and allow students to be engaged in authentic and purposeful work which makes connections between different subject areas and disciplines. During the course of a learning expedition, our children experience a range of case studies, with challenging texts which deepen their understanding and help them to develop an answer to the rich GQ for the expedition.
Presentations of Learning
At XP we make our work public. One of the most important ways we do this is through Presentations of Learning (PoLs). PoLs usually take place towards the end of expeditions and they are used as an opportunity for students to showcase their learning from their most current learning expedition. PoLs enable students to grow their character and further embed their learning through presenting their work in front of a range of authentic audiences and in a variety of contexts. In addition, students develop oracy skills by presenting to different audiences and in different contexts which builds confidence and further allows students to grow their character whilst developing key skills.
This terms’ Guiding Questions and Presentation of Learning dates are:
G31 – “How can stories influence and shape communities?” The presentation of learning for this event will be held on the evening of Monday 16th December at St Mary’s Church in Heworth. Please keep this evening free in your diaries. We will confirm a start time as soon as we can, but typically Presentations of Learning begin around 4.30pm to 5.00pm and last for around 60-90 minutes.
G30 – “What does it mean to be Human?” G30’s presentation of learning will be held on Wednesday 18th December in school.
G29 – “How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?” G29 have an exciting presentation of learning on the Newcastle University campus at the Farrell Centre on Thursday 12th December.
G28 – Study two expeditions this term with GQ’s “How did bonding help the Vikings forge a strong legacy?” and “Why could ‘A Christmas Carol’ be thought of as the ultimate Christmas story?” The combined presentation of learning for these expeditions will be held in school on Thursday 19th December in school.
Our week ahead
PE sessions this week
Please can parents make sure that their child has a PE kit for PE sessions. We expect students to change into their appropriate PE kit, and not wear the same clothes they wear in school. Similarly, students must change out of PE kit afterwards, into their normal school clothes. For safety, jewellery must be removed and hair must be tied back.
- G31 students (Year 7) – Class 1 PE sessions take place on Tuesday, Class 2 PE sessions take place on Wednesday.
- G30 students (Year 8) have PE on Monday.
- G29 students (Year 9) have PE on Thursday.
- G28 students (Year 10) have PE on Thursday.
Extended Study
Teachers have started to set extended study and students have begun to build their extended study timetable. In a typical week, for Years 7-9 there is around 45-60 mins set per night. Each subject area sets the extended study and it is due on the same day each week, so that students can organise their time and get into good habits around additional study outside of sessions.
There is a step up in expectations at GCSE in Year 10 and beyond. All GCSE-level courses now have examinations as their main form of assessment. There is a lot of content that students need to internalise and it is just not possible for students to do this in Year 11 in the run up to their examinations. As such, students are expected to spend more time on their extended study in comparison to Years 7-9. This means that there should be no need to rely on cramming in Year 11 and students should be in good habits around working outside of sessions in readiness for the revision needed to be successful.. We will publish the regular schedule for the setting of and the deadlines for extended study for Year 10 later this week.
After school extended study sessions will start this week.
We offer extended study sessions from 3:15pm – 4:30pm Monday – Thursday. Students attending these sessions must stay for the full session until the end at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand. Extended study is optional for most students but for some who struggle to complete and miss deadlines, extended study may be directed.
We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme by the end of September.
Staff Development Days
We have staff days each term at XP so that our teachers can collaborate across the Trust to create and deliver the high quality curriculum that our students study. These are shown in blue on our calendar.
This week and next sees the first of our staff days where students are not expected to be in school.
- Friday 20th September – Staff Development Day
- Monday 23rd September – Staff Development Day
On staff days our students do not attend school and there is no expectation that they complete work beyond their regularly set extended study (homework). Students will find this work on Google classroom.
Students are expected back to school on Tuesday 24th September by 8:25am at the latest.
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Thank you as always for your ongoing support. Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.
Julie Mosley
Principal
Sharing our Stories: 13/09/2024
Beautiful Work This Week
Race for Bears at Plover!
This week at Plover, students in EYFS completed a sponsored Bear walk as part of their new Expedition! They raised £1148 to support their local community – and dressed up as bears to perform bear related exercises and have fun during the process! Beautiful work!
Beautiful Curation at XP Gateshead
Last week, Comms installed some new wonderful displays of student work at XP Gateshead. These wall displays are culminations of recent Expeditions and Activism from the last year.
Steplab Coaching @ XP Trust
Last Monday, our staff worked closely with Steplab to start implementing their ICT platform for coaching across XP Trust. Staff spent the day looking at effective coaching and learning and how Steplab can help create a positive culture around it.
Crew JPO/JNO’s Ullswater Story
Over the coming week’s we’ll be sharing more stories of Crew from our recent Outward Bound Expedition – here’s another from Crew JPO/JNO!
Student Showcase for Year 6 at XP Doncaster
We’re got vacancies across XP Trust!
Find out more here to apply now and #JoinOurCrew
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It’s been a busy holiday for Will. Will spent a week on work experience with Esh Construction as part of a pilot employee family work experience programme. Working with a group of ten 14-17 year olds, Will showed great courage and met together for the first time that week. Will really pushed himself out of his comfort zone. To top that, Will spent the next week at a futsal camp after the efforts of the week before.
