XP Gateshead

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to another exciting week at XP Gateshead

It is a bumper update this week.

New expedition

This week we will be revealing our very exciting next expedition which students will be working on up to the end of the Summer term.

Staying Alive

We will also be delivering our food/recipe boxes to Edberts House in Gateshead – you will remember that this is our “Final Product” from our last expedition which concluded before the Easter break. We have asked for students’ food donations to be in school with their Crew Leader by Wednesday morning at the latest please. 

In Google Classroom students have access to a spreadsheet where they have each indicated which ingredient/s they think that they can donate. Please have a conversation with your child about this. If there are any problems in sourcing the ingredients, please do ask you child to talk to their Crew Leader.

At XP Gateshead students are community activists and we use what we have learned to make a positive difference in our communities. In this case students have used what they learned about nutrition to put together food boxes and recipes which will feed two families for a week. We are proud to support the work of Edberts House which does so much for families in our community.

From the Ground Up

We have not forgotten that students have also used what they learned in their first expedition to publish their local history book on our mining heritage. We will be launching our students’ book this term and will provide further information in due course. We are proud that every student at XP Gateshead will be a published author before they break up for the summer holiday.

Guitar Lessons start this week

Students that signed up to guitar lessons will start these this week on Monday. This will be added as an item for payment in ParentPay for those students. Students have a timetable shared with them where they can check their times each week. As soon as we have further information on other instruments, Mr Said will let students and families know.

Local Governance Committee meeting

We will also be holding our Local Governance council meeting and will be hearing back from Andrea Mead (chair of LGC) as she takes us through her report looking at “Developing Crew” and also from James Renwick who will be reporting back on his visit which had a focus on “inclusive teaching”.

New Staff: Learning Coaches and Crew Leaders

In addition we will be holding interviews this week for two new members of staff who will take the role of Learning Coaches/Crew Leaders next year. Successful appointments will mean we are fully staffed for next year and all new members of staff will join us on June 6th to begin their induction.

Welcoming our next cohort of students and their parents

We will be beginning our transition arrangements for welcoming 50 new students this term and we are all very excited to meet our next cohort of students and their parents. Mrs Mosley will be taking a lead on this and further information will be appearing on our website in the coming weeks

COVID Updates

Guidance for isolation following a positive test

Any student who has a positive Covid-19 test result should try to stay at home and avoid contact with people for 3 days. There is no longer a requirement for students to test negative on the day when they return to school, however if they still feel unwell then they should not return to school.

Lateral Flow Testing

Please complete a Lateral Flow Test with your child on Sunday evening, and again on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning and complete our website with the results before sending your child to school.

Covid infections are still high in the community and given the size of our setting this really helps us to keep everyone safe and for our school to remain open.

We really do appreciate your support. If you require any extra LFT kits please let us know. 

Mitigations in school

Now that the government has decided to remove the wearing of face coverings as one of the mitigation measures in schools, we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

We will continue to keep doors and windows open for ventilation so students are advised to bring multiple layers to school to keep warm. This is how we look after each other – #wearecrew

As usual if you have any questions please contact crew leaders in the first instance.

Kind regards

Mark Lovatt

Principal