Dear Families
Happy 2025!
We hope you have had a great Christmas and a safe and restful New Year.
We are looking forward to welcoming students back tomorrow to the start of our new term at XP Gateshead.
There is a lot of information in this update, it being the start of a new term. Please read all of the following information carefully as there are important notes for all families and children.
Here’s some reminders to get a good start to term…
Punctuality
School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew. A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning so we ask that parents support their child with this.
Dress code
Please refer to our website post for full details on our dress code. Can I remind parents of the following expectations around daily dress within school and ask for your full support around this as we move in to a new term
For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:
- Hats, hoods & coats inside school
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- Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh
- Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes
- Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery
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- For example heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails
- For example sliders, flip-flops or high heels.
Daily kit list
As always, students need to bring a school bag with:
- A filled water bottle
- Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener. Please note the new additions of a glue stick and purple biro pen.
- A fully charged iPad
- Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
- Headphones
- A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
- A notebook
Last term we had some issues with individuals arriving at school without a charged iPad. Please ensure your child has a charger at home so that charging issues can be avoided this term. We do not provide replacement chargers.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G30 students (Y8) have PE on both Monday and Friday this week
- For G31 students (Y7)
- G31 Class 1 students have PE on Tuesday.
- G31 Class 2 students have PE on Wednesday
- G29 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday.
- G28 students (Y10) have PE on Thursday.
Extended Study and Clubs
There will be no extended study or school clubs running this week. After school and lunch sessions will all start again next week.
New Term – New Expeditions
A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our students. Immersion takes place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.
Staffing Changes for the New Year
As detailed last term, there is one staffing change for the Spring term. Mr Azam is going to be teaching Year 8 Class 2 as has been the case this term, and he will also now teach Year 9 Class 1. Ms Marshall will now teach Year 8 Class 1 and will continue to teach Year 9 Class 2. This will allow for more collaboration within the Maths team in school, which also includes Mrs Mosley.
For the first two weeks of this term Mr Azam will be enjoying paternity leave with his wife and beautiful new baby who was born over the Christmas break. XPG staff will be covering his sessions with high quality work set by Mr Azam.
Dates to note this term
Here’s our 2024/25 Calendar again for you to see our term dates this year.
Student-Led Conferences G31 and G30
SLCs (Student-Led Conferences) replace the conventional parents’ evenings at XP Gateshead. During an SLC, your son or daughter will share their learning with you and their crew leader. You will have an opportunity to look at work from their portfolio and ask questions about their HoWLs (Habits of Work and Learning) and AP grades (Academic Progress). They will also share their progress around pledges set last term with you during the SLC and you will be able to ask questions around these.
SLCs for G31 and G30 will take place this term in the two weeks commencing 27th January 2025. In the coming weeks you will receive an SLC invite from your son or daughter’s crew leader. It is an expectation that all families attend SLCs to fully support their child’s progress.
Passage Presentations G29
Our Y9 students will give passage presentations in March. Passage presentations are an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning and their readiness to move on to the next phase of their education. G29 students will provide evidence to an audience of family, their Crew Leader and an XPG invited guest to demonstrate that they are ready to start their GCSE journey.
In the coming weeks you will hear more about passage presentations from your son or daughter as they start preparing for this key passage at XPG. Passage presentations will take place during the 17th and 18th March and slots will be available throughout the days. There will be a booking system in place and shared with families in coming weeks.
We will be able to share more information about these important rites of passage, as well as the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award and our Key Stage 4 offer of GCSEs and other courses as part of an information for all families.
This information evening for all Year 9 families will take place on Wednesday 15th January at 5:30pm.
London: Victoria & Albert Museum Fieldwork for Year 8
As part of their new learning expedition Year 8 students will be carrying out important fieldwork at the V&A (The Victoria & Albert Museum in London). This is in partnership with the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead. Students will travel to London and back in a day by rail, and will work with experts at the museum to help put together artistic responses to their new guiding question. We will post more details about timings of these days soon,
- Year 8 Class 2 will travel to London on Tuesday 28th January
- Year 8 Class 1 will travel to London on Monday 3rd February
Student/Teacher-led conferences for Year 10
Students in Year 10 will for the first time take part in Student/Teacher-led conferences. These are shorter conferences than SLCs where students will sit alongside each of their subject teachers to share their progress with you on their new Key Stage 4 courses.
These are scheduled to take part on:
- Monday 10th February for Class 1
- Tuesday 11th February for Class 2
We will share a booking system with Year 10 families soon.
Staff Days
A reminder that we have two staff development days each half term;
Friday 24th and Monday 27th January. Our whole staff will be travelling to Doncaster on Thursday 23rd January for a twilight CPD session which will launch an XPTrust Teaching and Learning conference on Friday so school will end at the slightly earlier time of 1:30pm on Thursday 23rd January to allow for this.
Friday 14th and Monday 17th March.
As normal, students are not expected to be in school on these days.
Holiday dates
Please note that our dates do not always fully align to other Gateshead schools. We keep the Easter Holiday in the same place each year, so that we can run our term 2 and term 3 learning expeditions to be of the similar length each year – this would not be possible if we followed the changes to Easter each year.
Spring half term break starts Friday 21st February. We return to school on Monday 3rd March 2025.
Easter Holidays
We break up for Easter holidays Friday 28th March and return to school on Monday 14th April 2025. Please note that the bank holiday weekend of Good Friday 18th April and Easter Monday 21st April are outside of our two week break. See 2024/25 Calendar.
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
Principal
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