XP Gateshead

Good evening

We hope you have all had a fantastic break over the summer.

It is now just one week until our adventure together at the Howtown Outward Bound Centre on Ullswater.

A reminder that the kit list and information about medication can be found by clicking here.

Important details for Tuesday 30th August

• All students must bring a £10 cash deposit to school with them. We will collect this as soon as they arrive. Crews’ deposits are pooled as each Crew has joint responsibility for their specialist kit for the week. Deposits are returned at the end of the week once all specialist equipment has been checked back in.
• Students must arrive at school between 8.00am and 8.25am and will leave parents at the main gate to go to their first Crew session (our coach will be leaving mid-morning).
• Students will need a packed lunch for the very first day. We will eat lunch at the centre as soon as we arrive. Following this, all meals are provided.
  • Please make sure there are no nut products in the packed lunch
  • Please put the packed lunch in a box or bag separate from your child’s main luggage so that they have easy access to it on arrival.
• Students can bring mobile phones with them, but these will be handed to their Crew Leader on Tuesday morning. They will have an opportunity to call you on Tuesday – likely around teatime and then again on Thursday afternoon when they return to the centre from their expedition – however reception at the centre is patchy so we cannot guarantee a call. Students will not be able to call you on Wednesday as they will be away from the centre on an overnight expedition. Please be assured that no news is good news! We will do our best to keep our Twitter stream updated with photographs during the week.
• Snacks, drinks and sweets for the coach or for throughout the week are not permitted and are not required.
• Students can bring a small amount of money in addition to their deposit if they wish – no more than £10. There is a tuck shop on site where students can get treats or Outward Bound branded kit such as pencils or beanie hats if they choose. This is usually opened on the final Thursday evening.

Happy Friday – here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust this week, for the last time this Academic Year!

Thank you for joining us for another great year of beautiful work and stories from across the XP Trust – we hope you have a wonderful summer!

We’ll see you in September!

To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit xptrust.org/stories
#WeAreCrew

As part of their work on their expedition: What a Wonderful World, students have put together a website. To access the website: click here.

This website does two things:

Our local priority species

The website contains important scientific information about some of our regions protected species. Students have worked hard to product beautiful poetic and scientific writing and artwork on each of these species.

“We want to inform people of the danger all of these beautiful species are in because of us. Here at XPG we have been learning all about these species which are all on the red or priority list and are endangered and we feel like it is important to raise awareness to our community about these species.”

Exploring our green corridor

The website also contains a geocaching route which you can follow to explore some of the beautiful green spaces around our school.

“We enjoyed our time in our green corridor so much that we have put together a set of clues and geocaches for families in our community to follow and explore our green corridor too. This is because we want you to develop a love of nature. If more people spend more time in nature, then we think you’ll be more likely to want to look after nature just like we do, and improve our relationship with the natural world.”

There are six geocaches in the area around our school and the Windy Nook Green Corridor. The route starts at our school gate. Hunt for and then scan the QR code at our gate and follow the clues, taking the greenest route possible!

To access the geocaching route, click here.

Our PoL (Presentation of Learning) will be streamed from Youtube this evening at 6pm. Students are looking forward to being able to watch their PoL with you at home. It would be great to give other children of other families feedback through the comments whilst the video is live too.

Click here to access our presentation of learning

A reminder that students in our new Year 7 have a kit list for their Outward Bound adventure which begins on Tuesday 30th August. Students need to be arrive at school between 8.00am and 8.25am. The coach will depart later that morning.

Student must bring  £10 deposit with them on the morning which will be handed back to them at the end of their adventure if there is no loss or damage to equipment.

Any medication for students must be in the original box, clearly labelled with your child’s name and details of regularity of administration and dose. This includes:

• Inhalers
• Epipens
• Travel sickness pills
• Painkillers
• Antihistamines

Please get in contact with [email protected] if your child will be bringing medication and we can provide you with a self-administration or permission to administer form.

Specialist equipment such as walking boots and waterproofs will be provided by the centre. The kit list for students is listed below. Please ensure that your child has all of these items.

If you are having problems sourcing these please get in touch with our office via [email protected] . Older clothes are far better for the week as they will get wet and or muddy.

• 2 bin bags –  to store wet and dirty clothes
• 1 pair of trainers for getting wet – these trainers will definitely get wet so it is important that you have a second pair.
• Another pair of trainers to stay dry for day to day wear – these are likely to get muddy so preferably not new.
• 3 sweatshirts, jumpers, hoodies or fleeces – Fleeces are ideal as they dry quickly but any of the other items are a good substitute. You should include at least one warmer fleece for your expedition.
• 3 pairs of trousers – Lightweight trousers (not denim) such as walking trousers, leggings or tracksuit bottoms.
• 3 T-shirts – Aim for tops that cover shoulders from the sun.
• 1 long-sleeved base layer/top 
• 1 pair of shorts – Not denim
• 1 pair of nightwear/pyjamas
• 1 set of casual clothes for around the centre
• 7 sets of underwear including socks – This is a minimum number. Trainer socks aren’t recommended as they may cause blisters.
• At least 2 pairs of thick walking socks
• Sunhat, sunglasses, suncream – don’t bring expensive sunglasses, suncream needs to be at least factor 30.
• 1 set of warm hat and gloves
• At least 1 towel – Quick drying microfibre towels are great. You will need a towel for showering and on activities, so bring at least one.
• Watch with alarm if possible
• 1 set of swimwear plus t-shirt and shorts for use in water
• Toiletries – including soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, blister kit, plasters, insect repellent, lip salve, hand sanitiser, wet wipes, talcum powder (for your feet), etc.
• 1 pair of flip slops or sandals – optional

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to our final week of term before the Summer holidays. Just a reminder that pupils will finish school at 1.30pm this Thursday and will return to school after the Summer holiday on Tuesday 30th August at the usual time and be in school by 8.30am.

This week students will complete their work from their final expedition of the year, What a Wonderful World,  and will produce a Presentation of Learning (POL) which will be streamed from our website at 6 pm on Thursday evening. Just the right time to get our suppers and settle down on the sofa to watch in the comfort of our own homes. Students will also be completing their final “snapshots” of the year and reflecting on their progress and these along with crew leader comments will be sent to parents on Wednesday 20th July.

This week:

Warm Weather warning

As people will be aware the MET office has issued an amber warm weather warning for Monday and Tuesday of this week for our region.

Please ensure your child has:

• a water bottle filled for the day
• sunscreen applied before school and additional sunscreen with them for during the day
• appropriate and modest clothing to keep cool – looser fitting and light colours where possible
• a hat

We will be refilling water bottles during the day and where appropriate ensuring all of our windows and doors are open to ensure a flow of air through the building. Where possible we will be using classrooms in areas that are in relatively cool parts of our building There will be no PE this week.

• Students will be finishing at 1.30pm on Thursday. There will be a final community meeting before lunch where students will receive a personal copy of the book they wrote – From the Ground Up. This is to mark the occasion of their first published book at XPG and we also hope to organise a “mass” signing. Students will have lunch as normal and then will finally register in crew before leaving at 1.30pm to start their summer holidays.
• Crew leader changes – Mrs Ross will be taking over from Mrs Mosley as crew leader next year and Mr Mead will be taking over from Mr Lovatt as crew leader next year. Both Mrs Ross and Mr Mead have been working alongside Mrs Mosley and Mr Lovatt over the past few weeks to get to know their new crews really well.
• No nuts in packed lunches – Please remember after the Summer holiday that there are to be NO NUTS in packed lunches please. We have students in our new cohort with a severe allergy to nuts and so we need to ask that no nuts or nut products be used in packed lunches from this point onwards. Thank you in advance for your support with this.
• Co-headship – As you know from next year Julie Mosley will be co head with me at XP Gateshead. This will allow us to continue to build upon the fantastic start we have made here at XPG and our strong culture whilst getting the refurbishment of our permanent school site ready for August 2023. We will let parents know at the beginning of term exactly how our co headship will work and the roles and responsibilities we will each manage. We will be continuing to work closely together, as we have this year, to ensure the welfare and progress of all of our students and you will still see us both at the school gate.

Upcoming Events:

A reminder there is a G28 parents’ calendar here.

• • WAWW Presentation of Learning (POL) from What a Wonderful world will be streamed from our website at 6pm on Thursday 21st August
  • Return to school after the holidays is at the normal time on Tuesday 30th August

• G28 students will be working on a mini expedition for the week whilst their G29 peers are in Ullswater.

Finally…

May I finally take this opportunity to thank our parents  and governors for their continued support throughout the year. What a year it has been and I think we can all be proud of the Academic progress of our students as well as the beautiful work they have created. The work our students have completed this year has indeed been “beautiful”. Who could forget the astonishing Presentation of Learning which took place in the Herschel building in Newcastle University in front of an audience of over one hundred people. Nor can we forget the work of our students in their expedition, “Staying Alive”, and the impact they had on our own community through the food and recipe boxes they put together and donated to Edberts House. The highlight of our year though has got to be the launch of our first book – From the Ground Up which our students researched, wrote, and illustrated. This tells the stories of our miners and the communities in the North East in which they lived. It is through the stories we tell that we keep our heritage alive. Our book was launched at Seven Stories, the National Centre for children’s books. None of this could have been achieved without your support and the job you do as parents and guardians. 

Thank you and have a great summer holiday.

Mark Lovatt

Principal

XP Gateshead

Happy Friday – here’s a selection of beautiful work from across the XP Trust this week!

To read about other stories from across the XP Trust, visit http://xptrust.org/stories

UPDATE: Due to another COVID-related issue we now need to move the screening of our final Presentation of Learning to 6pm on Thursday 21st July.

Please accept our apologies, you will still receive the end of year snapshot and final comments from your child’s crew leader on Wednesday of next week.

As we have mentioned previously we have been monitoring the level of COVID in the community closely in the run up to our end of term presentation of learning.

This week we have had more staff absence due to COVID than we have previously experienced and we are concerned about the amount of space we have in school to be able to welcome all families safely, especially when testing is no longer commonplace and levels in the community are high.

As such we come to the decision that to host a large public event in our school would pose a level of risk to the safety of our community that is too high at this point in time.

The final presentation will now be screened online via our Youtube channel. This will be pre-recorded so students will be able to watch at home with you, which we know will be a lovely way to end the year and celebrate this final expedition, the beautiful work our students have created, their character growth and continued academic success.

To ensure that this work is, as always, high quality we will need to edit the footage back together. We look forward to watching along with you and of course supportive comments in the comments stream in Youtube are always welcome.

We are very sorry not to be able to have all of our parents in school to celebrate the end of a fantastic school year, and we look forward to more events with you in school in the new academic year as soon as we can.

Thanks as always for your continued support.