Welcome to our new students and families!

By Mark Lovatt1st March 2022

Many of you will have received notification today that your child will be joining our Crew in September 2022. Congratulations!

No doubt, you have lots of questions, hopefully many of which will be answered in our FAQ section of the website.

We will be contacting you in time as part of a range of transition activities once 50 families have confirmed that they accept their offer of a place at XP Gateshead.

In the meantime, below is some information about ‘From The Ground Up‘ our very first learning expedition with our current Year 7 students. This will give you a sense of how our curriculum works. We will continue to post updates on our website for our new parents, so that you can get a sense of the culture of our school and in the incredible things your children will do with us.

 

From the Ground Up

 

Here is the narrative for the expedition. This tells the story of the students’ studies, all of which led to the celebration of learning below.

 

G28 Save the dates – Presentation of Learning for ‘Do your bit’

By Emmy Tatters1st March 2022

We are currently in conversation with an exciting potential venue for our PoL (Presentation of Learning) for the current HUMAN expedition, to which we will be inviting all families in person as things .

Details of the current expedition can be found here.

The dates that our venue are looking are either Wednesday 30th March, or Thursday 31st March. We expect the event will take place between 5.30pm and 7.00pm.

At the moment we are just awaiting confirmation, but our contingency is to host the PoL at our school, again with families invited.

We will update you as soon as we have confirmation from our venue.

G28 Weekly Update – w/c 28th February 2022

By Mark Lovatt27th February 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to the start of another phenomenal week at XP Gateshead – It’s a busy and exciting week ahead for our students.

Staffing Update

Simon Walters, our new member of staff, will be starting on Tuesday and will begin work in classes getting to know students and supporting their learning in the first instance. Simon is based at XP Gateshead and in due course will also be spending some time with colleagues in Doncaster, learning more about his new role as Educational Welfare Coordinator. We can’t wait to begin working with our newest member of our staff crew. 

Expeditions

There are a lot of exciting things happening expedition wise this week. We are hoping to confirm that Marek Blonski, our nutrition expert, will be working with students on Monday afternoon as part of our – Staying Alive expedition. The Durham Light Infantry “museum” will be working with students on Tuesday as part of our “Do your Bit`” expedition and students will be taking part in fieldwork on Friday with our visiting “expert” on commonwealth war graves as part of the same expedition.

Digital Leaders

Congratulations to our Digital leaders who will be travelling to Doncaster on Monday (early start 8am !) to take part in training with students from across the Trust as they prepare for their new role. Mr Said has already sent out details of this trip in a separate post. Students will need a packed lunch.

Trust visits

On Tuesday we will be joined by the Trust “Comms” team who will be curating students’ work, helping us to prepare final products, and putting up new displays of “beautiful” student work around the building. A big thanks to the team in advance for the hard work they will be doing on this – we are excited to see more of our students work on our walls.

Extended Study and after school clubs

Extended Study and after school clubs will be running as normal this week:

MONDAY: Sports / Extended Study

TUESDAY: Extended Study

WEDNESDAY: Extended Study

THURSDAY: Sports / Extended Study / Minecraft

Lateral Flow Testing

Until further notice – Please continue to support us with lateral flow testing each Sunday and Wednesday evening and make sure you enter results into our website on each of these occasions.

This is especially important now that the government has decided to remove “masks” as one of the mitigation measures in schools although we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

COVID infections are still very high in the community. If you require any extra LFT testing kits please let us know. 

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  – We are Crew.

Calendar dates

Our calendar can be found here.

As usual if you have any questions please get in touch with your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

Best wishes

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Digital Leaders: Reminders for tomorrow

By Martin Said27th February 2022

A reminder that students travelling to Doncaster as part of the digital leaders event will need to be in school for 8am tomorrow. I will be in school from 7am so any time from then will be OK for drop off.

Students should bring full kit,  including a fully charged iPad and a packed lunch.

If any students need travel sickness tablets, if we do not already have it,  we must have signed permission that you give consent for them to self-administer,  along with the name of the medicine, dose and instructions.

For example:

“I give consent for #student name# to self-administer #medicine name# 150mg. They should take one tablet 30 minutes before travel.”

Any medicine must be in its original packaging.

I will update our arrival time back at school on our website when we are on the road for the return journey.

Many thanks

Writing in persona

By Emmy Tatters25th February 2022

Both classes have had double sessions today in HUMAN writing as a person or animal on the battlefield during WWI.

Both classes have impressed me so much with their focus, their commitment and their kindness when offering critique to each other; knowing that telling someone how their work could be better is the kindest thing we can do for each other.

I would strongly encourage you to ask your child to show you their descriptive writing that they have been working on because the students should be really proud. I also know they would welcome your feedback too to help them improve it even further before the deadline for redrafting on Monday.

Well done to the XPG Crew today!

G28 Weekly Update – w/c 21st February 2022

By Mark Lovatt20th February 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome back to the start of a new half term leading us up to the Easter break.

Staffing Update

I am delighted to report that before the half term break we successfully appointed three new members of staff in readiness for next academic year: a SEND coordinator, Maths/STEAM teacher, and a HUMAN teacher. Along with a Science/STEAM teacher we have already appointed, this means we are fully staffed from a teaching point of view for next year. We are looking forward to working with our new colleagues and they will start their staff induction with us in June. 

In addition, Simon Walters, our new Emotional Welfare Officer, will start his new role on March 1st.

In the coming weeks we will begin our recruitment of Learning Coaches for next academic year too.

Extended Study and after school clubs

Extended Study and after school clubs will be running as normal this week.

  • MONDAY: Sports / Extended Study
  • TUESDAY: Extended Study
  • WEDNESDAY: Extended Study
  • THURSDAY: Sports / Extended Study / Minecraft

 

Visit to Sikh Temple – Monday 21st February

Students have a fantastic start to our new term with a fieldwork visit to a local Gurdwara in Newcastle. Information on what students need for this visit has already been posted by Ms Tatters in an earlier post. This is part of an expedition entitled – “Do Your Bit” with a focus on the sacrifice made by ALL during the first World War.

Note that this is tomorrow morning, Monday 21st February. Further details have been provided by Ms Tatters,  expedition lead, in an earlier post. Please make sure that you have read this and are aware of arrangements for lunch.

Lateral Flow Testing

Until further notice – Please continue to support us with lateral flow testing your each Sunday and Wednesday evening and that you make sure you enter results into our website on each of these occasions

This is especially important now that the government has decided to remove “masks” as one of the mitigation measures in schools although we are happy for students (and staff) to continue wearing masks if they feel more comfortable doing so. 

COVID infections are still very high in the community. If you require any extra LF testing kits please let us know. 

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  – We are Crew.

Digital Leaders

Students will find out who has been successful in their application to become a digital leader on Monday. Excitingly, these students will also have an opportunity to visit our Doncaster secondary schools very soon to meet with their peers and learn more about their role.

Calendar dates

Our calendar can be found here.

As usual if you have any questions please get in touch with your child’s crew leader in the first instance.

 

Best wishes

 

Mark Lovatt

Principal

Gurdwara Fieldwork – Monday 21st February

By Emmy Tatters17th February 2022

We are carrying out fieldwork at the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha off Westgate Road in Newcastle on Monday morning, travelling by coach from school at 9am. Students should arrive for school as usual before 8.25am.

We will be returning to school after lunch for sessions 4 and 5 so students will finish the school day at the normal time.

We will be eating lunch at the Gurdwara, which will be a vegetarian dhal and flatbread.

If students would prefer to bring a packed lunch it must be vegetarian. Lunches will be provided for students eligible for free school meals.

Students will need to cover their heads when in the Gurdwara. If they have their own bandana then they can use this, otherwise they will be provided with one (which has been freshly laundered) on arrival at the Gurdwara.

We are looking forward to students being able to find out more about Sikhism and how temples operate as part of our expedition ‘Do your bit’ in order to answer the guiding question:

‘Why do we need to honour all those who sacrificed in WWI?’

Beautiful Work from Ethan

By Martin Said10th February 2022

Ethan used his time in Extended Study yesterday evening to get more work done on his team’s robotics kit. Not only that, he has organised the work in progress, labelling up the different elements which are nearing completion.

Great work Ethan.