XP Gateshead

Dear Parents/Carers

It’s been another busy and exciting week at XPG. Our students have been working hard both in and outside of sessions as we continue to build our community and strengthen our character values of courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality, integrity and, above all, compassion.

This week immersion came to the end for both year groups and after lots of wondering and suggestions, students in G28 and G29 enjoyed the big reveal to find out their expedition guiding questions.

Our G28 students are now well underway with their new expedition, Being Human. The guiding question for this expedition is ‘What does it mean to be Human?’

Our G29 students found out about their first expedition on Thursday. The expedition is called ‘From the Ground Up’ and our students will be studying the guiding question ‘What do the communities of North East England owe to the miners?’

Our staff were also working hard this week and, as well as their usual planning and teaching, they successfully completed their Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) qualification. We are really proud now that as a staff, we have 12 members of our team fully qualified as MHFA. The course enables staff  to recognise mental ill health and help find the support required. 

We care deeply about our students safety and wellbeing at XP Gateshead and this includes families too! As a group of schools in XP Trust, we have created a website XP Cares: Wellbeing Hub. We hope that this is a useful site for both students, parents and carers and a ‘one stop shop’ for your wellbeing needs, making it as easy as possible to find the support available to you. 

This week: 

Monday 19th September – Bank Holiday

Back to school – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 

Please note that PE sessions will resume this week:

G28 students (Y8) will need a PE kit for Tuesday 20th September.

G29 students (Y7) will need a PE kit on Wednesday 19th September. 

Friday 23rd September – Staff Development Day

Students are not expected to be in school.

Extended Study 

Extended study sessions started well this week. Sessions will run until 4:30pm every day except Friday when all students leave the site at 3:15pm. Like all of our after school provision, students who attend extended study must attend full sessions until 4:30pm. Please contact your son/daughter’s Crew Leader if there is an issue with this.

Our extended study timetable is as follows:

Initially G29 students will be set more Times Table Rockstars, with less Hegarty Maths Memri set to account for this.

For full details of our rationale for extended study, please click here.

Clubs

Please note that because of the shortened three day week, we have decided not to start our extra-curricular clubs (lunchtime and after school) this week. Clubs will start on Tuesday 27th September and we will be publishing a full schedule next week. 

Reminders

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
• A fully charged iPad 
• Headphones – ideally not expensive ones
• A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
• A notebook

Looking forward, dates for your diary: 

Monday 26th September – Staff Development Day.

Students are not expected to be in school.

XPG Open Evenings for prospective students, 12th and 13th October. 

We will be asking for student involvement in these evenings – they are our ambassadors and our best advertisements! More details will follow as we get closer to the events.  

Thank you as always for your ongoing support. 

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

Another great week for us at XPG as we brought all of our students together in school this week. We are building a great community, with staff and students going the extra mile this week to make sure everyone was settled, felt supported and cared for in our school. Our shared responsibility of ‘getting each other to the top of the mountain’ has really been apparent in the compassion shown by all.

Our G29 students spent the first part of last week working with their Crews getting familiar with routines and considering what Crew looks like in school. We launched our first Crew Read ‘Seedfolks’ with them which will support with their understanding around what makes a successful community and iPads were distributed along with initial Google training which will continue this term to ensure our students make best use of the collaborative technology we have. On Thursday G29 started immersion into their new learning expedition and enjoyed a great day of fieldwork at the National Coal Museum on Friday.

This week G29 students will continue their immersion which builds curiosity and background knowledge in readiness for the first case studies. Year 7 students will find out the guiding question to their new expedition later this week.

Our G28 students demonstrated great leadership skills last week and really supported us in settling in our new Y7 students. We couldn’t have been more proud of them. 

G28 have been fully immersed in their new learning expedition last week and will find out the guiding question for the expedition tomorrow. There has been some brilliant thinking around what this could be in sessions so we look forward to the big unveil tomorrow!

Our week ahead 

Extended Study

From Monday 12th, we will offer extended study sessions until 4:30pm. 

Sessions will run every day except Friday when all students leave the site at 3:15pm. Teachers will start to set extended study this week and sessions after school allow space and time for students to complete extended study with the support of peers and staff on hand.

Please note that our extra-curricular clubs (lunchtime and after school) will not start until next week. More details will follow on this.

Mental Health Training

As part of our commitment in providing the best support for our young people, all of our staff will complete Day 2 of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training this week. Following this we will have 11 fully trained MHFA staff in school, this will be a real achievement and acknowledges the importance we place on our Narrative for Success at XP Trust.

PE this week

As part of Mr Devitt’s ongoing professional development he is out of school this week. As such there are no PE sessions this week. PE sessions will return in the week beginning 19th September.

Reminders

Immunisation letters

All consent forms need to be completed and returned to Crew Leaders by tomorrow. 

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
• A fully charged iPad 
• Headphones – ideally not expensive ones
• A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)

It would be great if students could also bring in a notebook and a reading book. This won’t become essential kit yet to allow time for students to gather these.

Looking forward, dates for your diary

Monday 19th September – Bank Holiday

Friday 23rd September and Monday 26th September – Staff Training Days

Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

XP Gateshead would like to pass on our condolences and pay our respects to the Queen’s family on the sad news of her passing. She was a remarkable woman who performed her duties with grace and dignity. Queen Elizabeth brought a sense of constancy through a changing times and the world is a lesser place without her. 

Thank you for your service Ma’am.

Dear Parents/Carers

What a first week back we have had!

Our G29 students had a fantastic week at Ullswater finding out what crew means. I hope they returned to you parents full of tales of their outward bound adventures. It was incredible to see them make new friends, begin to form strong bonds with their crew and crew leaders, and rise to the challenges set. We could not have been more impressed by our new year 7 students. They were compassionate, courageous, respectful and showed integrity in equal measure across the week. To listen to their presentations on ‘What does it mean to be Crew?’ in our final community meeting on Friday at the summit of Hallin Fell was something really special.

Our G28 students returned to school stronger than ever and spent a fantastic first week considering the question ‘How can we support each other to lead the learning of our new Year 7 Crew?’. Crew Leaders have been blown away by the quality of student work and the depth of thinking. There is no doubt that our pioneering Y8 students will work with us to ensure that our new students are welcomed into XPGateshead and are quickly part of our school community. The week ended with a great day of fieldwork in Gateshead and Newcastle which was planned fully by our students with their crews.

We could not have had a stronger start to our school year and can’t wait to welcome all students tomorrow.

Our week ahead 

G29 students (Year 7) 

Students will be working in their Crews on Monday and Tuesday reflecting on their Outward Bound experience and thinking about what Crew looks like in the Classroom. 

They will find out their new classes on Wednesday and will have their first PE session on Wednesday (so will need their PE kit).

Immersion for their new learning expedition will start on Thursday and they will carry out fieldwork on Friday at the National Coal Museum in Wakefield (a packed lunch will be required on Friday.)

We will hand out iPads to G29 students on Monday. These will come  with instructions on how to set these up on the school management system which is a fairly straightforward process. Students will need to set these up at home on Monday evening. It is really important that the screen protector is applied as soon as you take the iPad out of the box.

G28 students (Year 8)

Students will begin a week-long immersion for their new learning expedition this week. 

They will have their first PE session on Friday so will need their PE kit.

Start times and kit list

All students need to be in school for an 8.30am start so they must arrive by 8.25am at the latest. There will be staff in school supervising so students can arrive from 8.00 am.

We will finish formal sessions at 3.15pm and there will be no extended study or activities after school this week. There are staff available if any student needs to stay later than 3:15pm, please contact your child’s crew leader or school office [email protected]  if this is required. Students must leave school by 3.30pm on Friday.

As always, students need to bring a school bag with the following kit :

• A filled water bottle
• Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
• A fully charged iPad 
• Headphones – ideally not expensive ones, for example here

We also suggest that students bring a healthy snack for break time – no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks please as we do not allow these in school. Please note there are to be no nut products in snacks or packed lunches – this is especially important as we have students in this cohort who are highly allergic to nut products.

Lunches

On Monday, we will be sending out letters regarding ParentPay for our new students. 

Students can choose to bring in a healthy packed lunch (no nut products, confectionary, fizzy or energy drinks) or have a school meal with us. We think that our meals are very good value at £2.50 per day. Our school dinners are very popular with our students, thanks to our wonderful cook Suzanne. Students make a daily food choice in crew each morning and we have a three week menu.

If your child receives a free school meal, we will provide lunch. Please contact the school office if you have any questions around school meals.

We are really looking forward to welcoming all of our students back tomorrow. 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 for your ongoing support and a special thanks to G28 parents who have been sharing their XPG knowledge and expertise with our new G29 parents. Together we are definitely stronger #WeAreCrew.

Best wishes

Julie Mosley

Co-Principal