Dear Families

Every week before I start a weekly update, I look back on the week before reflecting on our progress, student and staff achievements, our culture and our crew. Like every week, there is a feeling of pride about the work that happens at XPG and pleasure in the work we do daily alongside our students, who, like staff, are producing beautiful work, developing character and achieving academic success. 

Students as ‘Leaders of their Own Learning’

It has been great to see so many of you in person this week attending G31 and G30 Student Led Conferences (SLC). Our students have shown real courage this week presenting their learning, especially G31 students where this has been their first time presenting a SLC. Feedback from parents and carers has been full of praise and this will feed into their SLC debrief where they will reflect on this experience against the rubric and set themselves targets for their next SLC.

Our Year 9 students continue to work on their passage preparations, ready for their Passage Presentations which will take place during the 17th and 18th March.  Crew leaders have been really impressed with the maturity and commitment G29 are showing to their work and the process of passage which is a step up from SLC’s. In a Passage Presentation students present their learning journey from Year 7 to a panel which includes their Crew Leader, a Staff Panelist, a Guest Panelist and their Parents/Carers. We will soon send out the system to book a passage presentation slot (which will take place during the days on 17th and 18th of March).

This half term term, we will be running Teacher Student Learning Conferences (TSLCs) with G28 and our students have been working hard to bring together their work in each subject area so they can sit alongside their subject teacher to present their progress to parents. 

We also had the first of our multi sports clubs ran by Will Quinn and Corbyn Mullen, and last week Holly Nesbitt ran a dance fitness session for all Year 10 girls.

Fieldwork and Experts this week 

Year 8 London Fieldwork: Victoria & Albert Museum Fieldwork for Year 8 – On Tuesday, G30 class 2 travelled to London to visit the V&A and work with artists on their DesignLab Challenge ‘High Street, My Street’. On Monday 3rd February, G30 class 1 will complete this fieldwork. We will post a full update for families with photographs of the days in the coming week. I do want to acknowledge and appreciate the work of our staff on this fieldwork, especially Ms Macphail who wrote the successful bid for our involvement in the Design Challenge. The commitment staff show on a day that starts at 6:30am and doesn’t finish until 9:30pm, is special and the reason we have the school we do. The character of our students and the strong respectful relationships staff have with them mean that we have been able to travel on public transport (metro, train and tube) with full confidence. 

Students are working on a brief set by the V&A and Design Lab Nation which asks them to reflect upon where power lies in art & design, in particular considering how larger brands have impacted on design and the high street. This connects to their wider guiding question of “What is power?” Students’ final outcomes and designs will be exhibited in the Shipley Art Gallery.

A special thanks too to arts student leaders Charlie Button, Mason Crane and Leighla Curry who accompanied and supported students on their fieldwork.

Holocaust Memorial

On Tuesday we welcomed Brenda Dinsdale, the Honorary President of the Newcastle Reform Synagogue, to XP Gateshead. Brenda’s personal connections and stories left a lasting impression on all students who attended her session, which was a poignant reminder of the resilience of those who survived and the importance of remembering such crucial moments in history. Our students as always were respectful and reflective during the sessions. See post for full details.

Year 9 Theatre Visit – On Friday G29 students went to Whitley Bay Playhouse to see 

a production of ‘Our Sam’, an opportunity offered by  Samantha’s Legacy charity. This builds on the learning that students have been doing about the risks of carrying knives, and consequences of knife crime. ‘Our Sam’, is a dramatic performance of the ripple effects of Sam’s passing on her family, friends, and community. It explores themes of grief and lost potential. As you can imagine, this was a hard hitting performance. I had the pleasure of attending this performance alongside our Year 9 and their Crew Leaders and our students’ maturity, the high level of respect they displayed and their conduct across the afternoon was stunning and commented on by several members of staff from other schools who attended and from the Samantha’s Legacy team.

The week ahead

Year 8 London Fieldwork: Victoria & Albert Museum Fieldwork for Year 8 Class 1

More details of the fieldwork can be found here. A reminder that students need to be either at Central Station by 7.30am or at XP Gateshead by 6.45am.

Experts at XPG

This week we welcome Rav Singh who runs “A little history of the Sikhs”. Rav will run a session with out students to help them to better understand the experience of soldiers from North India that served in WWI, and how their faith and connection to the British Empire impacted upon their attitudes to the war both during and after the fighting.

Teacher/Student-Led Conference and Passage Presentation Preparation for Year 9 and Year 10.

On Thursday, Year 9 and Year 10 students will be given some intensive time in their crews to carry out activities which will help them to reflect upon their progress and set appropriate goals within their subjects – the evidence of which you will see when they present to you in passage or TSLCs. The system for booking slots for each of these events will be shared soon.

PE sessions this week

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

• G30 students (Y8):
  • Class 1 have PE on Tuesday
  • Class 2 have PE on Monday.
• G31 students (Y7)
  • G31 Class 1 students have PE on Tuesday.
  • G31 Class 2 students have PE on Wednesday
• Due to the preparation for Passage and TSLCs there are no core PE sessions in Year 9 or 10 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

Principal