XP Gateshead

Dear Families

We’ve enjoyed a good first week to our final Summer half term.

It was great to hear appreciations, apologies and stands from students and staff in our community meetings last week and all agreed on with the work we needed to do going forward to ensure we hold true to our character values every day – consistently high levels of respect for others, encouraging each other to be the best we can be, positively committed to our own education and that of those around us. Community meetings are a really special place to be, hearing students hold each other to account within a safe and supportive environment is unique and our students show sensitivity and maturity beyond their years.

There’s been high quality work in and out of sessions as usual. We’ve had great work in sessions as usual this week as well as in G31 and G30 SLCs, work alongside experts in Science in G31 and G30 PE, G31 Geography fieldwork along the River Tyne, G28 mock results and information evenings for our G29 families. 

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G29 Pathways Drop In Evening

Thank you to all families who came along to our drop in evening last week. This was an opportunity to meet staff and students to ask questions about our Key Stage 4 pathways.  Can all G29 families please complete this form to let us know your thoughts, and if you have any remaining questions. This is not a final choice for your child at this stage, this will be confirmed through your child’s Crew Leader.

Punctuality

A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning and this happens in Crew each morning. Students must be on site for 8:25am for the call to Crew and be ready to start sessions at 8:30am. Crew is inextricably linked to our Narrative for Success and these routines and practices in Crew ensure that students are safe and are set up to succeed at the start of every day at school. Poor punctuality affects a student for the rest of the day and as you will agree, good punctuality is needed in all future jobs. It is vital that we are building the habit of excellent punctuality now. We ask all parents to support this and this half term Katy Horne our Safeguarding and Attendance Lead is working with Crew Leaders to support any key students and families who are struggling with punctuality.

Staffing Update

Over this half-term we will have some of our new staff joining us for induction in readiness for the new term. We are now fully staffed in terms of teaching and have one more round of recruitment for Learning Coach positions which is ongoing.

• Mrs Caroline Carter will be joining us as a teacher of ARTS
• Miss Charlotte Fielding will be joining us as a teacher of SPANISH
• Miss Amy Rawcliffe and Mr Gary Watson will be joining us as teachers of HUMAN
• Miss Bennett and Mr Macdonald will be joining us as LEARNING COACHES

G28 Student Led Conferences

Today you will be sent an email with a summary of the mock papers that students sat, along with a link to ask questions of your child and their Crew Leader in advance of their SLC. Crew leaders will be sending out invites to SLCs through Google Calendar.

G28 Work Placements

We will also continue the drive to support students in ensuring that they are ready and organised for their work placements. Students should now be inputting details of their placements into the placementt app. There are students in each crew trained to support peers if they need help on this.

Inevitably, there are some placements for students that have not been able to be organised where we had hoped that this would be possible.

If there are any families from organisations or with contacts in any sectors of employment that could support Year 10 students with a placement in the week of Monday 30th June, please do get in contact with Mr Said on [email protected] .

This week

G31 Geography Fieldwork – Class 2, Monday 9th June

On Monday Year7 class 2 will be heading out of school to carry out Geography fieldwork and investigations in our local river environment Newcastle and Gateshead Quayside. Please see last week’s post for full details of timings, kit required including a packed lunch.

G28 History Fieldwork – Victoria Tunnels, Ouseburn 

This week our Year 10 students will be going to the Victoria Tunnels at Ouseburn to conduct fieldwork for their ‘History All Around Us’ Local Site Study module for their History GCSE. This module encourages students to work as historians to investigate a site of significance in their area which has seen significant change in its use over time. 

• Class 2 will conduct the fieldwork on Monday 9th June

• Class 1  will conduct the same fieldwork on Wednesday 11th June.

Students will be travelling by metro to Newcastle but also walking the above ground route before touring the tunnels. For this reason, students must be wearing appropriate footwear. Students should be appropriately dressed for our changeable spring weather, optimistically a hat and suncream but the forecast is showing a chance of rain so a raincoat will be required.

On both fieldworks, students will be back in time for lunch so there is no need to bring a packed lunch (unless this is the norm for them).

We will be leaving school at 8:30am so students must arrive by 8:15am at the latest to allow registration and be ready to leave the site promptly at 8:30am.

The tunnels are tall enough that students will be able to stand at their full height, and there is space for students to be able to pass each other if necessary. See this link for more details.

XP Trust Festival of Arts – Dance sessions on Tuesdays

As you know, each year we have a festival of arts at which students from across the Trust are able to contribute with creative performances. Again this year we will be taking a group of students to Doncaster to contribute to the festival. To help our dancers to prepare for this, each Tuesday over the coming weeks an expert from Phoenix Dance Theatre will be working with the group. This will happen during the school day on Tuesday; those students that are part of the dance group will need an appropriate change of clothes as per regular PE sessions.

This year we will take just over 30 students to perform in bands, to dance and sing as part of the festival.

PE sessions this week

Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.

• G31 (Year 7) students
  • Class 1 have PE on Tuesday
  • Class 2 have PE on Friday
• All of G30 (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday
• All of G29 (Year 9) and G28 (Year 10) have PE on Thursday.

Extended Study and after school clubs

After school clubs and extended study will run 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

Dear Families

We hope you and your children have had a great break and look forward to welcoming students back for the final half-term of this academic year with lots to look forward to! This half-term we will welcome our Year 6 G32 students into school for the first time supported by student leaders from G31, G29 will be making important decisions on their pathways into Key Stage 4, G28 will be taking part in their work placements and students of Spanish will have speaking exams to prepare for – for all students we have a Sports Day on our next Crew Day too!

Our usual reminders for a good start back…

Attendance

Can I remind all families about the importance of students attending school everyday. School attendance is vital to the life chances of young people and being in school improves health, wellbeing and socialisation throughout life. Put simply if pupils are not at school then they are not learning and quickly fall behind in all areas of their development. Term time holidays are not authorised at XP Gateshead. Let’s all work hard together to ensure school attendance is high – students, parents/carers, Crew Leaders and XPG inclusion team.

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 into our final Summer half term and warmer weather.

For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:

• Hats, hoods & coats inside school

• Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh

• Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes

• Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery

• For example heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails

• Impractical footwear:

• For example sliders, flip-flops or high heels.

Daily kit list

As always, all students need to be fully equipped for school and bring a school bag with:

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener

• 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 – see the note about music for G30 below.
• A healthy snack for break (no sweets, fizzy drinks or energy drinks or nut products)
• A notebook

This week

G30 Music Composition – Electronic Dance Music

Starting tomorrow G30 will be using what they have learned about Indian Classical Music to create fusion Bhangra dance tracks using their iPads and school Macbooks. All students must have their headphones for these sessions – these are part of their regular day to day kit.

G31 Ecology Experts

Tomorrow we have experts working with a group of G31 leaders to take samples from our school pond, which was a product of G30’s work in the same expedition next year.

Digital Leaders – Clickview staff training Monday 2nd June

Our digital leaders are working with Martyn Soulsby from Clickview, an Edtech company that specialises in providing educational video content to schools to support learning. Our digital leaders will work with Martyn in the afternoon to plan a CPD session which will then be delivered to staff after school from 3.30pm.

G29 Pathways Drop In Evening – Tuesday 3rd June

On Tuesday at 5pm, we are hosting a drop-in event in school for families that would like to talk to Key Stage 4 course leaders, to support them and their child to make decisions about the subjects that will be studied in year 10. Please see Mr Said’s post here for more details.

G28 Mock Results – Wednesday 4th June

On Wednesday afternoon this week, G28 will receive the results from their mock examinations. Crew Leaders will be with students when they receive their results to provide support and guidance, and help students to consider how best to communicate their next steps based on these results as part of their upcoming Student-Led Conferences.

PE sessions this week

• G31 Class 1 have PE on Monday
• G31 Class 2 have PE on Wednesday
• G30 Class 1 have PE on Tuesday
• G30 Class 2 have PE on Friday
• All of G29 and G28 have PE on Thursday.

Extended Study and after school clubs

Due to the ongoing SLCs for G30 and G31, and our first week back from the break there are no after school clubs or extended study this week. They will return next week, w/c 9th June.

Looking Ahead to Next Week

G28 Student Led Conferences

From the w/c 9th June G28 families will be invited into school by Crew Leaders for G28’s next SLCs with a focus on mock results, readiness for Year 11 and work placements.

Dance sessions in school

Each Tuesday from 10th June, students that are dancing as part of the XP Trust Arts Festival in July will have a weekly session during the school day with an expert to choreograph and rehearse a routine which will be performed at the festival. All students that are taking part in the festival were given permission slips at the end of last term, including musicians and dancers. Please can you make sure that these are returned to school as soon as possible.

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