Please can all families make sure that your child has their screen protector that was provided with their iPad in place. There are some instances where students have peeled these off and it leaves the screen more prone to damage.
Without a screen protector, there can be times when a charge is added to the repair of the screen through the insurance scheme.
Crew Leaders will be checking this in Crew time tomorrow, but we’d appreciate your support in checking at home and replacing them if needed.
Crew Frank
We have put out a notice to students this morning to garner interest in being part of a student voice group from schools across the borough.
The Young People Engagement event ‘What does pride mean?’ will take place on Monday 4th March 2024 at Gateshead Civic Centre. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate activism and leadership for our students.
Up to 10 children can attend for each school.
If your child is interested please ask them to talk to their Crew Leader.
It has been a busy week as usual at XP Gateshead this week with students working on SLCs, recording final product speeches from last term to go alongside the artwork for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, learning about colour mixing by painting carrier pigeons and much much more.
We have been really pleased with how our students have stepped up. During Friday’s community meetings with G29 and G30, it was great to hear students appreciating others for their courage, craftsmanship and quality. As you know, our expectations are high here at XPG, but as we regularly say
“There is more in us than we know if we could be made to see it, for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.”
― Kurt Hahn
G30
Our year 7 students have had the privilege of working with experts in each of their expeditions this week.
On Thursday we welcomed Rav Singh, the founder of ‘A little history of the Sikhs’ to XPG. Rav worked with our students on their current HUMAN expedition exploring the guiding question: ‘Why do we need to honour all those who made sacrifices during WWI?’, helping students to understand the experience of Sikhi soldiers.
On Friday, our students worked in our new Food Technology room with expert Trish Wright learning how to make a tomato sauce, a basic staple from which many other dishes can be made. This supports their current work in STEAM around nutrition and work towards answering their guiding question: ‘Is survival sufficient?’. I hope families managed to get a taste of their delicious pasta and pizza dishes, or even better, have enjoyed a family meal this weekend prepared by our new experts.
A huge appreciation goes out to Trish and Rav for the work they have done with our students this week.
G29
Our Year 8 students are studying Macbeth as part of their current expedition with the guiding question: ‘What is power?’. Student are working to create an abridged performance of the play in drama sessions developing their physical, vocal, characterisation and directorial skills. This week they worked with an expert actress, writer and director Christina Berriman Dawson. We know from the work that Christina did with our G28’s last year the impact that this will have on the quality of G29’s Macbeth performance.
G28
Thank you to G28 parents who joined us for Thursday’s information evening. For those of you who couldn’t make it, the slides are here.
As we said during the information evening, we are working to finalise our KS4 curriculum offer. We welcome any questions or wonders from parents on this Google Form. We will respond to questions individually, and where there are common questions we will add these to our website under the frequently asked questions section.
Work on passage preparation is underway for Year 9 students. Having considered metaphors for their time at XPG, students are currently reflecting on their progress as writers and mathematicians using evidence from their portfolios across Year 7 and Year 8.
Please use this Google Form to indicate your preference for a time slot for your child’s passage presentation.
Some lovely feedback this week from two places. Firstly we received a card from one of our neighbours with thanks for the hamper that was gifted to them by our students at Christmas.
Secondly, Mrs Downes has been using G28’s ‘What is Power?’ postcards with Primary Age children as writing stimuli to great effect!
In line with our dress code, we expect students to arrive at PE lessons with a change of kit which is appropriate for the activity and all accessories removed. This includes sports trainers with non slip soles e.g. running shoes/astro turf (not plimsolls).
We will be running all after school clubs and extended study this week now that SLCs have been completed by the majority of students.
On Tuesday 13th and Thursday 15th February, Northumbria Crime Prevention team will run an online safety session for our G29/G30 students. This will cover some key messages about how to keep safe online, in and outside of school which will include safe use of age-appropriate social media sites.
On Wednesday 14th February school nurses will be in school to administer Meningitis ACWY, alongside the Td/IPV booster immunisations to G28 students that have permission. A letter regarding this was emailed to all G28 parents in December. If you have not yet given permission, please see the attached letter with information and a link to the consent form.
On Thursday 15th February our Year 7 students will visit the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha in Newcastle to find out more about Sikhi and how temples operate as part of their expedition ‘Do your bit’. Please see the website post for more detailed arrangements.
We come to the end of a six week half term on Friday 16th February and as always, we will finish at 1:30pm for our usual end of half-term degunge.
We return to school on Monday 26th February 2024.
We will be able to confirm times for G30 and G29 at the end of this week.
As usual if you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance. Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley
Have you seen this awesome Instagram page, created to showcase the beautiful work from the 150 (and counting!) artists at XP Gateshead? You can see everything they’ve done and follow them here.
Here are some examples recent work they’ve produced…
This week, beautiful work from LKS2’s last Expedition ‘Coming to Doncaster – Why then, why now?’ has been curated outside the school! Be sure to stop and take a look at their work on migration, Roman history and sharing stories!
In Autumn 2023, Green Top School’s UKS2 children undertook a learning expedition called Earth Emergency. The guiding question was: How can we help our planet survive? Their beautiful artwork is on display on a shopfront on Fieldside in Thorne.
Beautiful work from Arlo and Daniel @ XP Gateshead
Exploring and Embedding Goldilocks and the three bears @ Norton Infants
Safer Internet Day @ Green Top
Crew RPU/ABT getting SLC ready @ XP
Crew Rashford sharing the love @ XP East
Fun in the snow @ Carcroft School
Ponder, Persevere, Practice but never Procrastinate @ Norton Juniors
The next 65 seconds could change your life…
If you are a teacher looking for a model of schooling that dares to break the mould, then this might just be for you. There is now the opportunity of a lifetime to teach at the newest of our extraordinary schools, XP Gateshead.
Find out more and apply here to #JoinOurCrew
We now have a new dedicated news email so that you can send your stories, updates or ideas about potential news articles directly to us in Comms.
It might be something you or your students have achieved, a charity you’re supporting or anything at all that deserves a wider audience.
Write to us at [email protected] – we want to hear about it, write about it and celebrate it!
As part of our current expedition ‘Do your bit’ with the guiding question:
‘Why do we need to honour all those who sacrificed in WWI?’
We are carrying out religion and worldviews fieldwork at the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha in Newcastle on Thursday 15th February. This fieldwork will consolidate the studying the students have been doing about the involvement of the many Sikh soldiers who fought bravely for the empire during WW1.
Following the extremely informative presentation and Q & A session with the experts, Rav Singh and Jaswinder Singh, our students are going on to explore the beliefs and practices of Sikhi and this fieldwork will provide the students with firsthand experiences and insights into the Sikh religious traditions.
Students should arrive for school as usual before 8.25am.
We will be travelling to the Gurdwara by metro from Heworth, leaving school at 9:15am and returning by 3:15pm.
As a mark of respect, and as is the case in many different religious buildings, students will need to cover their heads when in the Gurdwara – if they have their own bandana to do this they can use that, otherwise they will be provided with one (which has been freshly laundered) on arrival at the Gurdwara. Hats and hoods are not an appropriate or acceptable head covering inside the Gurdwara. Students will also need to remove their shoes but leave on their socks whilst in the Gurdwara. Students need to be dressed modestly which in terms of going into the Gurdwara means shoulders and knees covered so no shorts or vest tops to be worn please.
One of the practices we will have learned about in the Sikh faith is Sewa which is selfless service or volunteering for the betterment of others and the community without expecting anything in return. Our students will be contributing to ‘Langar’ whilst there, helping to prepare the meal that will be eaten at lunchtime. Students will also be responsible for serving the lunch and clearing away. Sewa is activism which emphasises the importance of compassion, empathy and the selflessness needed in order to promote a caring community which aligns perfectly with our character values here at XP.
The lunch that the students will help to prepare and then will be served to eat will be a vegetarian dhal and flatbread. If students would prefer to bring a packed lunch it MUST not contain any meat, fish or eggs. Lunch will be provided for students eligible for FSM if they request this.
We are looking forward to students being able to find out more about Sikhi and how the Gurdwara holds immense significance in the Sikh faith and community.
A reminder that our information evening starts at 5.30pm this evening.
Students do not need to come to this event but are welcome.
If arriving by car please use the staff car park to avoid parking in front of our neighbours and then use the visitor entrance when you get onto the school site.
G30 are currently learning about nutrition and digestion through a lens of food poverty as part of their expedition with the guiding question ‘Is survival sufficient?‘
Tomorrow all students are going to learn how to make a tomato sauce using low-cost ingredients, a basic staple from which they can make many other dishes.
We are providing ingredients for tomorrow but there are some important things to note.
For their session in the kitchen:
If students want to take the food that they cook home, they will need to bring a plastic or Tupperware style container that can be securely closed.
Recently Arlo and Daniel competed at a National Cross Country competition in Essex.
Daniel finished 11th overall in his Under-15 category and Arlo finished 3rd in his category. Great work boys!
“If I were to make a list of the best schools in the world, XP would be on that list.”
Ron Berger, Senior Advisor, Expeditionary Learning USA.
If you are a teacher looking for a model of schooling that dares to break the mould, then this might just be for you. There is now the opportunity of a lifetime to teach at the newest of our extraordinary schools, XP Gateshead. Our rigorous 3-D approach develops activism, leadership and equity in our students by creating beautiful products, which develop character and ensure our children achieve academic success.
We are now recruiting for our fourth year of opening. Each year we put together new teams to help to deliver our expeditionary curriculum. For our next round of recruitment we are particularly interested in teachers of Maths, English, Humanities, Design Technology, Engineering, 3D Arts and Creative Media. We welcome applicants from all stages of their teaching careers from ECT to SLT to begin a world-class 5-week induction with us in June 2024.
Our students know that they are important, because their work is important. Students work at XP Gateshead has a direct and positive impact on our community. We teach through cross-curricular ‘learning expeditions’ where students use their knowledge to address big questions like ‘What does it mean to be human?’, ‘Is survival sufficient?’, ‘How can we continue to make progress on public health?’.
We believe a person is judged by their character and the quality of work they produce. Our school focuses continuously on these two crucial areas of development. Our children express who they are by personalising their work, and are given time to produce beautiful and meaningful work by following a process of multiple drafts and critique, working towards creating products which are indistinguishable from professionals. Every day, our children develop their habits of work and learning by working hard, getting smart and being kind, and reflecting on our character values.
If you would like any further information please contact us by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 0191 481 4360.
Application forms can be downloaded online from the XP Trust website from the ‘Recruitment Process’ section.
All application forms should be returned directly to XP Trust [email protected] before Wednesday 21 February @ 5pm
Interviews are scheduled to take place on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th February.
You can find more info about joining our Crew (including the Application form) here.
