Good evening
Please remember to carry out a lateral flow on your son or daughter this evening and update on our website.
It is really helpful if you can do this in a timely manner, as when this is missed, it impacts on our crew sessions with students taken out to do testing in school.
Thanks again for your continued support in keeping our school running smoothly and safely.
Welcome to our final week of term and students have been working hard to get their Presentations Of Learning (POLs) ready for our live performance of everything they have been studying which will be broadcast at 5.30pm this tuesday (14th December)
This week we were visited by our local MP Ian Mearns. Ian is a strong advocate for education and among many other things, sits on the education select committee in the Houses of parliament. Ian was taken for a tour of the school by two of our student ambassadors. He commented on the calm atmosphere, high levels of student engagement, and on how well our student ambassadors could talk about “crew” and what this means to them. A big thank you from all at XP Gateshead for taking the time to visit us Ian and we hope to see you again soon.
A reminder that all students are taking part in our Presentation of Learning for our Learning Expedition: From the Ground Up.
All students will need to stay in school until 7pm on Tuesday 14th December when the event ends.
We will be rehearsing throughout the afternoon, however we will build in a break before the event starts at 5.30pm. During this time, students can eat a healthy snack if they choose to, so we would advise that students bring in additional food for the evening on Tuesday.
This is a formal event, so the expectation is that students will dress smartly. Students can bring a change of clothes, or come dressed smartly for the day. This is the guidance from our dress code for such events:
“On occasion it will be appropriate for students to dress more formally. This helps prepare them in advance to enter the larger arena of the professional and business world and give them the mindset of the importance of the event and its audience. We will always give advance notice for such occasions.
At such events, students may wish to wear a shirt / blouse, trousers and shoes or a formal dress. Our branded polo shirts are appropriate for these occasions too.
Although we ask students to dress smartly, this should still be modest so please refer to the guidelines for daily work within school.”
Join us at 5.30pm on Tuesday by following this link;
We have combined both of these events which will take place on Thursday 16th December. Students who have pre ordered a lunch will be served a Christmas lunch and All students will sit together and get to pull Christmas crackers. We are inviting all of our students to wear a festive jumper on Thursday and to make a voluntary contribution of £1 which will be going to our chosen Charity this year which is “Save the Children”. We will have a selection of Christmas jumpers available for any students who wish to borrow one for the day.
Mr Dobson has been successful in his application for a new job as an outdoor education teacher. This is Mr Dobson’s passion and while we will miss him very much, we also know it represents an opportunity to use his skills and expertise doing something he loves – we all wish him well and are grateful for the fantastic founding work he has carried out on behalf of our students and our community. In addition to my role as Principal, I will be taking over his crew as crew leader from January and can’t wait to get to know this awesome group of young people a little bit better. We will be advertising for a replacement Learning Coach in the New Year.
School will close to students on the last Friday of term at 1.30pm, this is so that staff can “de-gunge” classrooms and replenish resources in readiness for the start of term after the Christmas break. The new term will start on Tuesday 4th January 2022. This is a regular school day so students should arrive by 8.25am as normal.
So that you can check upcoming dates for your diary, we have set up an ‘important dates for parents’ calendar which you can access here. We will post dates to fieldwork etc. on this calendar too. This is also linked from our xpgateshead.org homepage under the parents section of the menu.
On return to school in January and in line with current Government guidance ALL students will receive a lateral flow test which will be carried out in school on the morning of Tuesday 4th January. We would advise however that in addition all students complete a LFT at home on the evening before returning to school and that you complete the spreadsheet as normal. This is about keeping our community safe and our school open.
Finally can I just say thank you for your continued support. You have been awesome ! We have some exciting expeditions planned for the New Year which we can’t wait for students to begin. On behalf of all at XP Gateshead can i take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a peaceful and safe New Year
We will return on Tuesday 4th January and as this will be a normal school day students should be with us by 8.25am
Happy Christmas and New Year
Mark Lovatt
Principal
XP Gateshead
Product work continues in HUMAN sessions this week. I am SO impressed with the student’s work, as well as their commitment to producing something really important.
Some top quotes from today:
“I am trying to do an excellent job because this is for our final product and it is important.”, “I am really proud of my writing this lesson.” , “Maybe you could try and find a better synonym for sad?”
As well as students appreciating each other for:
“Really getting their head down”, “Giving me really kind critique”, “asking for critique and using my feedback to redraft their work”, as well as noticing that “he had a shaky start but I explained what he needed to do and he got really focused and then did some great work.”
The classroom culture that these students are nurturing is BRILLIANT.
Well done XPG!
A reminder that all students are taking part in our Presentation of Learning for our Learning Expedition: From the Ground Up.
All students will stay in school until 7pm on Tuesday 14th December when the event ends.
We will be rehearsing throughout the afternoon, but we will build in a break before the event starts at 5.30pm. During this time, students can eat a healthy snack if they choose to, so you may wish to give them some additional food for the evening.
This is a formal event, so the expectation is that students will dress smartly. Students can bring a change of clothes, or come dressed smartly for the day. This is the guidance from our dress code for such events:
“On occasion it will be appropriate for students to dress more formally. This helps prepare them in advance to enter the larger arena of the professional and business world and give them the mindset of the importance of the event and its audience. We will always give advance notice for such occasions.
At such events, students may wish to wear a shirt / blouse, trousers and shoes or a formal dress. Our branded polo shirts are appropriate for these occasions too.
Although we ask students to dress smartly, this should still be modest so please refer to the guidelines for daily work within school.”
In the coming few days we will continue to focus on students working on their writing and artwork for the book that they are producing.
On Monday and Tuesday next week, we will shift gear, and spend time focussing on each students’ contribution to the presentation of learning, with lots of rehearsal and a focus on presentation skills.
After the presentation of learning students will have more time to return to their work for our book, and will also be carrying out important assessments too, which students have been preparing for through our ongoing extended study and retrieval practice.
On Thursday 16th December, we are having our Christmas Lunch in school. On the same day we will be inviting students to come into school in a Christmas jumper if they wish.
There will be an optional donation on the day of up to £1 which will go to Save the Children.
We have some spare jumpers too if students want to wear one but do not have one at home, we don’t want anyone to go out and spend money for the day. Please get your son or daughter to talk to their crew leader if they want to wear a jumper but do not have one.
In addition each crew has made their own arrangements for a Secret Santa of up to £3. Please speak to your son or daughter about this, and if they need any support they should speak to their Crew Leader.
We do have a dress code, and not a uniform, so provided dress is appropriate and modest, students can wear Christmas themed clothes in December if they wish anyway. No humbug here!
It would be great if you could help your son or daughter to get set up in Quizlet. This is a great website that allows students to use flashcards to revise, but also lets us do live quizzing together in class to help memorise information.
This video explains how to get set up on the quizlet.com website. Your son or daughter will need your help as, due to their age, they will need your email address so that you can approve their account.
Thanks for your support.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – with our Christmas tree delivered by Buster the superdog.
We have 2 weeks of term to go until the Christmas Holiday and our students continue to work hard and smash it out of the park in terms of Being Kind, Getting Smart, and Working Hard. We have had our second HoWL (Habits of Work and Learning) information snapshot and will be entering Academic Progress grades before the end of term. This information will come to parents after Christmas in readiness for our Student Led Conferences which will be in the fourth week in January.
This week we have had a full review by the Trust Executive Team who commented on how well our students could talk about their school and how happy they are to be here. Students said that there was no bullying and students were kind to each other. They also said that they felt XPG was their school and they had a voice in how their school was being run, they were listened to and staff knew them well . The executive team also commented on how engaged students were in the classroom and on the high standard of work in student books.
It’s been a week of reviews and we have also been visited by two members of our Local Governing Committee, Andrea Mead (our Chair) and Liz Shipley, who were looking at the development of Crew within the school.
We are really happy with the feedback we have received and couldn’t be more proud of the progress we have made in only 12 weeks -Hard to believe that we are a new school that didn’t exist before the Summer holidays !
This week students will begin to prepare for their POL where they will piece together and present all of the work completed during the course of their expedition – “From the Ground Up”. Due to COVID we regret that this will need to be a virtual event. Students will broadcast their PoL live via Youtube on the evening of the 14th December. We will post details of how you can join us to celebrate the beautiful work produced by our students.
On Thursday 9th December, Phil Latham (CEO of Endeavour Trust) and member of our LGC will visit the school to report back to us on our curriculum and expeditions. We look forward to hosting the visit and hearing what Phil has to say.
Ian Mearns our local MP will be visiting this week. Ian has a special interest in Education and has sat in the past on the Education Select Committee in the House of parliament. I hear he was also a chair of Governors at Thomas Hepburn (the building we are now in). We can’t wait for our students to show Ian around and tell him all about XP Gateshead.
School will close to students on the last Friday of term at 1.30pm, this is so that staff can de-gunge classrooms and leave no trace in readiness for the start of term after the Christmas break.
So that you can check upcoming dates for your diary, we have set up an ‘important dates for parents’ calendar which you can access here. We will post dates to fieldwork etc. on this calendar too. This is also linked from our xpgateshead.org homepage under the parents section of the menu.
Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Sunday and Wednesday evening and it is just as important that you ensure these results are entered into our website please. This is an important part of keeping our community safe and our school open and I really appreciate your help and support in this respect.
As usual please get in touch with crew leaders in the first instance with any questions or queries or just to tell us how things are going.
Mark Lovatt
Principal
XP Gateshead
NHS Newcastle-Gateshead CCG’s Children, Young Persons and Families Team in Gateshead are seeking feedback from young people in Gateshead about their experiences of accessing GP services. The information that these young people will provide will help us to design a kite-mark service, so that GP Practices can demonstrate that they are “Young People Friendly”.
The following has been shared with your son or daughter in their Crew Google Classroom.
Children and young people of Gateshead: NHS Newcastle Gateshead CCG want to hear about your experiences of GP practices! The feedback you provide will help us make sure our GP services are “Young People Friendly”. Please complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3HNGHK7
Holly N’s Grandad allowed us to have this triptych of paintings in school given its close links to our current expedition and case study looking at the 1984 Miners’ Strike.
This wonderfully atmospheric painting of the Jarrow Crusade is truly beautiful work. Thanks to Holly’s Grandad for allowing us to have it in school, and a big appreciation to Holly for bringing it in to school.
Ruby has produced this fantastic painting that would be worthy of any album cover, great work Ruby!
