Lucy has produced a beautiful charcoal illustration of Mr Lovatt’s Dad’s miners’ lamp for our From the Ground Up book. We particularly like how the bands of consistent tonal values give the impression of the metallic surface on the barrel of the lamp. Great work Lucy!
Lucy has also been busy honing her line skills at home over the Christmas break, producing these wonderful sketches of Disney characters.
This week students have started the immersion for their new expedition in HUMAN. Students carried out a gallery walk to kick off the new expedition to ignite curiosity and to address some commonly held misconceptions about who exactly fought in The Great War, and who or what they were fighting for.
Over the course of this week, students will find out their new guiding question and learning targets for their exciting new learning expedition.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust are providing final catch up clinics for flu vaccinations.
They have asked you to contact their service at the earliest convenience if you would like your son or daughter to receive the flu vaccination, and they have not yet received it since September 2021.
The clinics are running on an appointment basis; therefore, details will be given to to you when you call.
Immunisation Team | South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
Tel: 0191 402 8179
Email: [email protected]
Please make sure that you have updated our website with the results of your lateral flow test on your son or daughter.
We need students to continue to test on Sunday and Wednesday evening.
If someone in your household tests positive, your son or daughter should still attend school so long as they are not showing symptoms themselves and have returned a negative result on a lateral flow. We would ask you to do daily lateral flow tests on your son or daughter in this situation.
Under the new guidance, even children that have tested positive in the last 90 days are ‘strongly encouraged’ to take part in lateral flow testing.
This week, Professor Sir Chris Whitty clarified that the lateral flow tests are particularly good at picking up when an individual is infectious, which is the reason for the new guidance. He also explained that it is the PCR tests that are more sensitive to returning a positive test from a previous infection within 90 days.
If you need more tests for your son or daughter, please ask them to talk to their Crew Leader.
Dear Parents/Guardians
Happy 2022!
We hope you have had a great Christmas and a safe and restful New Year and we look forward to welcoming students back to the start of a new term at XP Gateshead.
Students should arrive at school on Tuesday 4th January by 8.25am as normal. We would ask that students complete a Lateral Flow Test on Monday evening and enter the result on our spreadsheet as normal. We really appreciate your support with this. It has been one of the things that has helped us to keep our community safe and our school open.
In line with DFE guidance we will also be completing additional âin schoolâ testing on Tuesday morning and will inform students of arrangements when they arrive at school.
Further and In light of a recent change to guidance issued by the DFEÂ we will be asking students to wear masks when they are in the school building and this will include in classrooms. Students should bring a mask to school with them although we do have a supply of spare masks if students require them.Â
We will also be keeping classrooms and in door areas suitably ventilated so students should dress appropriately with additional layers of clothing to keep themselves warm.
It would also be helpful to us if you would check with your son/daughter that they have everything they need to get back into learning such as pens, pencils, fully charged iPad etc. Please refer to our kit checklist here as a helpful reminder.
In light of staffing changes PE will now take place weekly on a Tuesday with our first PE sessions starting on Tuesday 11th January. There will be no PE on our first day back. Additionally there will be no after school sports clubs in our first week back. The regular academic Extended Study will go ahead as usual after school until 4.30pm this week.
As parents will know Mr Dobson has been offered a new job as an outdoor education lead in another school. While we are sad to see him go we understand that this is his passion and we pass on all our good wishes in his new role. This has necessitated some staffing changes. I am delighted to say that I will be taking over as crew leader for Mr Dobsonâs crew and I am looking forward to getting to know this group of students and parents even better over the coming months. I hope to continue to be the crew leader for the rest of the academic year at least. Ms Victoria Downes will also join us in the short term to give us some additional capacity in the classroom. Ms Downes is a qualified English teacher who already knows our students well and has been volunteering with us each Thursday morning since we started. Additionally our own Mr Devitt will be leading PE in the school and teaching all of our PE sessions. In due course we will be advertising for a new member of staff who will replace Mr Dobson as a learning coach in the classroom.
Obviously the ongoing situation re COVID and the new variant Omicron is of concern and we will be following DFE guidelines and reviewing the situation as we move forward. We will always act in the best interests of our students and will ensure their safety (and that of their families) comes first. Nevertheless a new term means new expeditions and we are looking forward to an exciting term of new learning and challenges for our students. This will involve the unveiling of new expeditions and also the beginning of student portfolios which will be a place to curate the beautiful work students complete.
SLCs (Student-Led Conferences) replace the conventional parentsâ evenings at XP Gateshead. During an SLC, your son or daughter will share their learning with you and their crew leader. You will have an opportunity to look at work from their portfolio and ask questions about their AP grades (Academic Progress) and HoWLs (Habits of Work and Learning).
These SLCs will take place this term in the two weeks commencing 24th January. In around a weekâs time you will receive an invite from your son or daughterâs crew leader. Whether these events will be in school or online is currently under review. We will update you as soon as possible about further arrangements for SLCs.
As usual if you have any questions please contact your childâs crew leader in the first instance.
Weâre all very much looking forward to welcoming our students back into school this week.
Mark Lovatt
Principal
XP Gateshead
Good morning, we hope that you have all had a lovely Christmas with your families.
It being a rainy day this morning I have been looking at the geology writing that students were working on for our ‘From The Ground Up’ book.
I just wanted to highlight a really smart strategy that Isabelle has been using to ensure that here writing contains everything that it needs to.
In her prep, Isabelle has been highlighting key information in the model. Likewise, she has been indicating when she has included important information in her prose paragraph by highlighting her notes. This has led to a really solid introductory paragraph.
Smart and beautiful work Isabelle, well done!
Today was the end of our reverse advent in school. Students and families have been providing important supplies of food and household items throughout December.
This morning Emily and Macie from Crew Mosley and Lucy and Sonny from Crew Tatters were able to drop off the supplies to our local Gateshead Food Bank on the Team Valley.
The volunteers at the food bank and we would like to pass on our huge appreciation to all of the students and families that contributed. Your compassion will help spread a little more joy to families in need this Christmas.
We have had a busy final week of term with our first ever Presentation of Learning – sharing the story of our expedition âFrom the Ground Upâ, work on final products, and end of term assessments.
As usual we couldn’t be more proud of our students who have stepped up to the mark and continued to be the best versions of themselves. We have also had Christmas jumper day, enjoyed our Christmas dinner, and delivered food donations to our local food bank. We are looking forward to new and exciting expeditions in the New Year.
We will be returning to school on Tuesday 4th January and at the moment this is expected to be a normal school day and students should be in school by 8.25 am at the latest. We are however keeping a close eye on Covid and the new Omicron variant. Myself, Martin, and Julie will be meeting over the holidays and will update our website if anything changes in regard to the start of next term. We will notify you of any changes to the start of the school term by the evening of January 2nd at the latest.
On return to school in the New Year, and in line with Government guidelines, we will be testing all students with a lateral flow test on their first day back. In addition, we would also ask you to complete a lateral flow test at home on the evening of Monday 3rd January and add the result to our spreadsheet as normal. This will help us to ensure our community is safe and our school remains open.
All that remains for me to say is thank you for your continued support, it is a pleasure and a privilege to be involved in the education of your children and we couldn’t do it without the hard work of our parents and families.
From all at XP Gateshead please have a Happy Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Best wishes
Mark Lovatt
Principal
XP Gateshead
Good morning! A reminder that today we are having our Christmas lunch in school. If students want to wear a Christmas jumper today, we’ll all be getting into the Christmas spirit.
There is an optional donation on the day of up to ÂŁ1 which will go to Save the Children.
Here is the direct link to our presentation of learning for From the Ground Up, starting at 5.30pm this evening.
