Weekly update for parents – W/C Monday 18th July 2022

By Mark Lovatt17th July 2022

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.

Quantum sunlight experiment could shed light on stellar astrophysics – Physics World

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

G28 Presentation of Learning – UPDATE AND APOLOGY

By Mark Lovatt14th July 2022

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.

Beautiful Work from G28 Students – Miners’ Gala

By Martin Said12th July 2022

We could not be more proud of our G28 volunteers that helped promote our book at the Miners’ Gala this weekend.

Students spoke with confidence to members of public about their work, why it is important to continue to tell the stories of our cultural heritage and clocked up some pretty decent sales figures too.

Members of the public were blown away by how articulate our students were and there were very emotional moments as students spoke to members of the mining community specifically.

First class work from Ethan, Mason, Beth, Daniel, Daniel, Charlie, Elyse, Isla, Katie, Maddie, Betsy, Daria and Jessica!

Weekly update for parents – W/C Monday 11th July 2022

By Mark Lovatt10th July 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to our penultimate week of term. This week students will be completing ecology work in our local green corridor at Windy Nook. They will also be working on answering the guiding question “What is our relationship with the natural world?” which is from our current expedition – What a Wonderful World. In addition students will be working on their presentation of learning which will take place on the evening of 19th July at 5.30pm.

This week:

  • Monday Visitor from the states –  We have a visitor from the States, Chris Dolgos. Chris is a teacher in an Expeditionary learning (EL) school in Little Rock. We look forward to meeting him and giving him an Ambassador tour of our school.
  • Tuesday ecology fieldwork – Windy Nook. Students will be working in the field as ecologists with an expert from the ‘Friends of Windy Nook Nature Reserve’. We will be out of school for two hours, so all students will have lunch as normal .Please make sure that your child has:
    • Suitable footwear
    • Water
    • Sunscreen
    • A cap or hat.
  • PE will be on Wednesday  this week. Please note that PE will be on Wednesday this week and students should bring their PE kit on this day.
  • Warm weather – Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school and also a cap or hat if they suffer from sunstroke, and/or sunscreen if they burn easily. This is to cover outside breaks and lunchtimes although PE lessons are also increasingly outside. 
  • Parental Feedback – Thankyou to all our parents who have already completed our parental feedback questionnaire – If you have not already done so you can find the link here clicking here. We would really love to know what you think about our school (what we do well and what we could do better) and in particular would like to get feedback on our student SLCs.

Upcoming Events:

A reminder there is a G28 parents’ calendar here.

  • Summer Science exam – students will sit a summer science assessment which will cover all of the science they have learned from September. This will take place on Monday 18th July. We have set extended study which supports revision for this assessment over the course of the next couple of weeks. Students have a “learning” map on google classroom to support and help structure their revision.
  • All of our staff will complete Day 2 of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training on 18th July. Mr Lovatt and Mr Said will be working with students on this day and along with their summer science exam students will be working on their presentation of learning (PoL) and also their final product from our current expedition.
  • The Presentation of Learning for our current learning expedition will take place on the evening of Tue 19th July at XP Gateshead. We will be sending more details in this coming week.

COVID updates 

We continue to ask parents to be vigilant, especially with the current rise in cases, and to test students if they or other family members of the family have symptoms. With your support we will continue to test students in school if they present with symptoms during the school day. We will also continue to keep windows open and to ensure our building is as ventilated as possible.

We do still have a limited supply of testing kits, so if you are in need and find it difficult to obtain tests, please do speak to your son or daughter’s Crew Leader.

As we have previously mentioned, we will make a decision on whether our final Presentation of Learning can be an in person event in as timely manner as possible. We will get back to you on that this week.

No Nuts in packed lunches please

We have students with severe allergies to nuts. Please ensure that no nuts or nut products are contained in packed lunches. Thank you in advance for your support with this.

As usual if there are any queries please do get in contact with your child’s Crew Leader.

 Many thanks

Mark Lovatt

Principal

G28 Presentation of Learning – Tue 19th July

By Mark Lovatt6th July 2022

Good evening G28 parents,

As you know our final presentation of learning for the expedition is on the evening of Tue 19th July and we can confirm it will start at 5.30pm.

Students will stay in school between 3.15pm and the start of the event at 5,30pm so you may wish to provide some healthy snacks for them. We expect the event to be finished by 7.00pm.

We do hope to be able to host our families and have a presentation of learning in our school with our families for the first time. We are looking at the current trend in terms of COVID. We will always prioritise the safety of our community and it may be that we need to make this a virtual event again and broadcast through Youtube.

We will make a decision on whether this is an in person event in as timely a manner as we can.

Following the presentation of learning, in whatever form that takes, you will have your child’s final end of year assessment information snapshot shared with you with a report from your child’s Crew Leader on Wednesday 20th July.

G28 Weekly update for parents – W/C Monday 4th July 2022

By Mark Lovatt3rd July 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

What a fantastic week we had last week – we met all of our new students during transition days and also their parents at our information evening for new parents. We are pleased that this went so well and look forward to getting to know our new students and their parents better after the summer holidays. We have invited new parents to join the parents facebook group and it would be great if our existing parents can lend a hand with any queries etc.

Last week also saw the publication and launch of our students’ book – From the Ground Up. This was researched, written and illustrated by G28 students. It was great to see all of our very proud parents at the book launch which was at Seven Stories on the Ouseburn. Seven Stories is the national centre for children books and they have agreed to sell and promote our book. A fantastic achievement for all of our students and to commemorate this event we will be  providing each student with their own personal copy of the book that they have written.

This week students will be continuing with their expedition – What A Wonderful World (WAWW) and will be speaking to Sophie Common, an expert in rewilding and conservation. Sophie trained to be a vet at the Royal Veterinary College in London, she has a Masters degree in wild animal health, and currently works as a wildlife vet in the disease risk analysis and health surveillance team at the Zoological society in London. She has taken a lead on several rewilding projects including the introduction of red kites and badgers across the UK. Sophie is our “expert” for our current expedition.

This week:

  • MHFA training for staff –  cohort two of our staff will be undergoing day 1 of their Mental Health First Aid  (MHFA) training aimed at providing support for young people. This will culminate on 18th July where all of our staff will receive their MHFA certificates.
  • PE will be on Friday this week. Please note that PE will be on Friday this week and  students should bring their PE kit on this day.
  • Warm weather – As the weather is starting to get quite warm. (Summer is coming !) Please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school and also a cap or hat if they suffer from sunstroke, and/or sunscreen if they burn easily. This is to cover outside breaks and lunchtimes although PE lessons are also increasingly outside. We will issue kit lists for any field work.
  • Parental Feedback – If you have not already done so then please remember to complete our parents feedback form by clicking here. We would really love to know what you think about our school (what we do well and what we could do better) and in particular would like to get feedback on our student SLCs.
  • Annual School Review – our School led Conference (SLC) will take place this Friday (8th July) and the executive team from XP Trust will be visiting XP Gateshead to receive a presentation about what we think we have done well and what we think we need to develop over the course of next year. They will be presented with evidence by school leaders and will take the opportunity to discuss with us our new targets for next year.
  • 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 will be working alongside Mrs Mosley and Mr Lovatt over the next couple of weeks to get to know their new crews really well.

Upcoming Events:

A reminder there is a G28 parents’ calendar here.

  • Miners Gala – A reminder to those families that have discussed bringing your children along that Mr Said has sent an email with the opportunity for you to indicate what time of day would work best for you.
  • Summer exams – students will sit summer tests/exams on the 18th July and we will be setting extended study which supports revision for these exams over the course of the next couple of weeks
  • The Presentation of Learning for our current learning expedition will take place on the evening of Tue 19th July at XP Gateshead. We will be sending more details in this coming week.

COVID testing 

We decided to remove the requirement to test students each Sunday evening given the low level in cases at the time and additional staffing that we now have available. This is in line with Government guidelines. However we would ask parents to continue to be vigilant, especially with the current rise in cases, and to test students if they or other family members of the family have symptoms. With your support we will continue to test students in school if they present with symptoms during the school day. We will also continue to keep windows open and to ensure our building is as ventilated as possible.

We do still have a limited supply of testing kits, so if you are in need and find it difficult to obtain tests, please do speak to your son or daughter’s Crew Leader.

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.

Extended Study this week

As we are coming up to our Summer end of term exams we will mainly be setting revision for extended study this week and next. Summer exams will take place in the last week of term.

As usual if there are any queries please do get in contact with your child’s Crew Leader.

Many thanks

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Branded clothing is now back in stock!

By Martin Said30th June 2022

You can access our school club shop with FBT by clicking here.

Our full dress code can be found here.

A reminder that we recommend the polo shirts, and that must be dressed modestly and appropriately every day.

PE kit is explained in our dress code. The branded PE kit in the club shop is entirely optional.

G29 (New Year 7) Parents – Join our Parents’ Facebook Group

By Martin Said30th June 2022

Welcome to parents of G29!

G is for Gateshead

29 is 2029, the in which students will go to University if that is what they choose to do.

Facebook's Vanilla New Logo Is About Business, Not Design | WIRED

We would love it if all parents of our new G29 cohort could sign up to join our Parents’ Facebook group. This is a space where parents communicate with each other. We know our existing parents will be so helpful and welcoming to you, our newest members of our XP Gateshead community.

To join the Facebook Group please click on this link and answer the questions for approval

#WeAreCrew

#WeAreXPGateshead