G28 Weekly update – w/c 1st November 2021 – WELCOME BACK!

By Mark Lovatt31st October 2021

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.

G28 Extended Study – Update

By Martin Said27th October 2021

Good morning, thanks to all of the students and families that have been in contact with us to ask for guidance and support around the holiday Extended Study.

We are asking for the work set to be completed in each subject.  However we wanted to make it clear that we recognise that students and families are still getting used to the various platforms we use such as Google Classroom, TTRockstars etc and that we will bear this in mind when we return to school net week around deadlines etc.

Where students need additional support with their Extended Study, we will work with them in the first week back next week to make sure that they are able to complete the work.

From Tuesday 2nd November, and every day following (Monday-Thursday) there will be ongoing support for students with extended study from 3.30pm to 4.30pm in addition to our clubs.

We will publish more details next week of the regular weekly flow of extended study that will be set in school weeks.

G28 School meal charges up to 15th October 2021

By Martin Said20th October 2021

Charges have now been added to ParentPay for school meals up to and including the 15th October.

You will see these as a debit on your ParentPay account for “Dinner Money for XP School”.

If you have not yet set up your ParentPay account, you will need the letter that came home with your son or daughter. If you need a replacement letter, please contact me via [email protected] .

Many thanks

G28 parents: Vouchers for meals

By Martin Said19th October 2021

Families that qualify for Free School Meals should receive and email from Edenred today with a code for your £15 vouchers for this week.

A second email should arrive on Sunday with vouchers for next week.

If you think you should have received vouchers but do not receive an email today, please contact [email protected] tomorrow.

Thanks

G28 Parents – Instrumental Music Tuition

By Martin Said19th October 2021

If you think you may be interested in INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC TUITION for your son or daughter in G28 during next half-term, please complete this form.
Gateshead music service can offer tuition on almost any instrument. We part-subsidise these sessions so we need to determine the level of interest.
This is not a commitment at this stage but will help us to work out a sustainable pricing structure.

G28 Fieldwork – Whitburn and Marsden – Wed 3rd and Thu 4th November

By Martin Said19th October 2021

All G28 year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork at the location of the former Whitburn Colliery and Marsden Village near to Souter Lighthouse in South Tyneside.

G28 Class 1 will be going on Wednesday 3rd November.

G28 Class 2 will be going on Thursday 4th November.

Students will need:

  • to wear clothes that will keep them warm and dry. 
  • wellies or old trainers are needed for footwear as part of the fieldwork will involve studying the rocks in Marsden Bay which is a sandy beach.
  • a packed lunch.
  • their school bag with regular school kit list inside. Most bags are not waterproof so we suggest putting kit inside a plastic bag inside the rucksack.

A packed lunch will be provided for students that have free school meals.

Students need to be in school at the normal time of 825am on each day.

We expect to return to school at 4.15pm on each day and will update our website if there are any delays due to traffic.

G28 Extended Study for the two week break – Oct 2021

By Martin Said15th October 2021

We have set extended study for G28 students through Google Classroom. All work set is due on Monday 1st November. If students have any issues they should contact their teacher through Google Classroom.

We recognise that students have just got their iPads so much of this extended study is revision of work already done in school and is light touch at the moment.

We want the students to get into good habits around doing extended study often, so it would be best if students can space out this work and a do a little every day or two. The work that has been set should help them to see early success in these apps. The work will increase in challenge when we return to school after the break.

 

STEAM

  1. Students have been set a range of tasks in Hegarty Maths to complete. Students need to login and click on ‘my tasks’ and complete each exercise set. Students should have their notebook with them beside their iPad to do working out. If they need help, they should watch the tutorial video for the exercise by clicking ‘get help’.
  2. Students have been set revision in Hegarty Maths. They should go to ‘my tasks’ and complete MemRi tasks 3 times per week.
  3. Students should do at least 30 minutes of ttrockstars each week in the ‘garage’. This is better spaced out. For example 10 minutes every couple of days is ideal.
  4. Bucket list. Students already have a range of 10 maths challenges from their bucket list booklet to work on. These 10 challenges need to be completed. Students should bring evidence of these tasks to school (photographs on ipads or notes for example)
  5. Students have been set 2 Google Form Quizzes for science as a recap. These are on the subject of the particle model and earth structure. Students should have their notebook beside them to make notes on any errors. The point is to ‘over learn’, so students should do the tests until they are regularly scoring above 20 points.
  6. Students have ben set a video in Clickview to watch on igneous rocks as a recap. Again the point is to ‘over learn’ so students should watch again and again until they get every question correct every time.

HUMAN

  1. Coal during World War 2: Students have 3 tasks to complete. Students have a Google Doc created for them in Google Classroom. There is an optional extension task too.
  2. David Almond talking about Grandpa in Kit’s Wilderness. Students have been set a video to watch and a Google Doc has been created for them to answer questions.

SPANISH

Senorita Quested has set some fun half-term challenges for students. She would like each student to complete at least two from:

  • Look up a cooking recipe for “Spanish tortilla”, “paella” or “churros” online and try making it at home.
  • Places to visit: “Chuchos tacos” in Jesmond or Byker and “Boquerones” in Heaton, Newcastle for a taste of delicious Spanish tapas.
  • Listen to some Spanish music. Look up the artist Rosalía who puts a modern twist on Flamenco.
  • Watch the animation films “Coco” or “The Book of Life” to learn about the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico. Note down 5 things they do to celebrate the festival to share with us.
  • Watch your favourite film and add Spanish subtitles. Note any words you learn ready to share when we return. (there are loads of Spanish language videos on Clickview)
  • Learn a Spanish tongue twister. You could try Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántas planchas Pancha plancha?
  • Create some posters of inspirational Spanish quotes to put up in your bedroom/ around school. Pinterest is a great place to start!

Muchísimas gracias

See you all in two weeks!

G28 parents – Tech update

13th October 2021Martin Said

iPad OS & Safari

In iPad OS, the web browser Safari behaves just like it would on a laptop. This means that on your son or daughter’s iPad, there is no need to download the Google Apps such as classroom, gmail or docs as they can all be accessed from Safari.

 

Notifications on smartphones

It is a good idea to add your son or daughter’s school google account to their phone too. This will mean they will get notifications on their phone too when teachers email or set work through Google Classroom.

To set up the school account on a phone go to:

Settings, Accounts, Add Account, Add Google Account

Their email address to set up the Google account on their phone will be in the form:

[email protected]

Your son or daughter has those login details saved on their iPad in Google Keep. They can show you this.

 

Google Classroom

You have now been invited to Google Classroom. When you accept this invite you will receive regular emails with a summary of the work that has been set though Google Classroom. You can choose to make these daily or weekly updates.

We use Google Classroom for work in class, and for extended study. Extended Study is completed outside of class time at break, lunch, after school or at home.

 

Clickview

Your daughter or son has full and free access to a wide range of educational videos through a site we subscribe to a site called Clickview. We will set work through Clickview’s interactive videos, but during the two-week break they can explore thousands of educational videos on pretty much any topic you can imagine.