As part of Remembrance Evan has been doing some research into members of his family that have served in the armed forces for our country. Evan’s research and written work was extensive and very sensitively written.
In addition, he has written a fabulous review of a recent Public Service Broadcasting gig. Wonderful work here Evan, well done!
This week we have begun working on our first ever XPG Product! The students have all been set individual tasks to complete with their own deadlines. They hold themselves and others accountable with a public tracker and they are all committed to ensuring that their work is of the highest quality in order to honour the miners in our area.
In today’s session, both classes reflected on and appreciated the hard work of each other, nominating others in the class for demonstrating our 3 HOWLs: Work Hard, Get Smart, Be Kind.
An apology to Class 2 that I don’t have a picture of your nominations, but be sure to share with your parents the nominations you received – you should be proud of yourselves!
Dear Parent/Guardian
Another superb week at XPG with our fantastic students excelling as always. This week students have been interviewing more experts in the community via TV screens in their classrooms. Students prepare carefully for these interviews so they ask good questions and get the most out of these sessions. This week they spoke to Alan Cummings, Secretary of Easington NUM lodge, as part of their expedition âFrom the Ground Up’ in which they are answering the guiding question – âWhat do communities in the NE owe to the miners?â. This week students have also interviewed Alfie Joey. Alfie is a local radio presenter, comedian, artist, and published author. He will be talking about his latest book âThe Last Coal Minerâ which was informed by his experiences of growing up in a mining family.
Students will be creating and publishing a book of historical enquiries of pits in the NE as well as art work, and summaries of the interviews they have done. Students have also been learning about online bullying in Crew and how to be an âupstanderâ rather than a âbystanderâ. Staff have also been busy planning and developing our next expeditions which will begin in January. We have a busy week ahead.
Executive Team review – On Monday, the XP Trust executive team will join us on site at XP Gateshead as part of a review around our Key Performance Indicators (KLIs). This is an opportunity for us to receive some really good feedback on the progress we are making, on what we are doing well, and on what we can do even better. We look forward to the Trust team joining us on Monday visiting us in crew and lessons and talking to staff and students about our school.
Local Governance Board (LGB) visit – On Thursday, two of our Governors will visit our school to look at âcrewâ and what this means in our school. They will talk to staff and students and will spend time with Mrs Mosley. Each term Governors visit and write a short Notices and Wonders report which is discussed at our next LGC meeting.
This week’s expert – This week our students will interview Norman Strike, a former Westoe collier who kept a diary during 1984 and has since published this as a book.
There has been a lot of work in crew sessions last week as students returned to their HoWLs and the pledges they made looking to see where they have improved in terms of Working Hard, Getting Smart, and Being Kind. Teachers will be updating this information and making their own assessments of student HoWLs in lessons. We will be sharing this information with parents in the weeks before Christmas.
In the coming weeks students will be working on preparing for their Presentations Of Learning (PoL). This is where they break down the expedition they have been working on and each student will publicly talk about an aspect of this, from the science they have covered to the art work, or from the music they have created to the English and History that have underpinned this expedition.
Our Presentation of Learning for our expedition âFrom the Ground Upâ will be on the evening of Tuesday 14th December. At the moment we are still considering whether this can be an in person event, or an online event but it looks most likely to be online. Every student will take part in the Presentation of Learning on this evening and so will be in school until around 7pm. We expect all children to have one member of their family that can attend the event, whether in person or virtually.
So that you can check dates like these, we have set up an âimportant dates for parentsâ 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.
We will be making arrangements for our first set of student led conferences (SLCs) which will take place in January. This is where students are asked to present their work to parents and their crew leader and invited to talk about what they think they have done well and where they need to improve. Students will be supported to prepare for SLCs in crew sessions when we return after Christmas.
We have reviewed and organised extended study and shared with students what they can expect each week and from which subject. We have published our extended study timetable on our website here so you are also aware of what your son or daughter is working on at home. In school extended study sessions will continue each day as normal, Monday to Thursday from 3.15pm to 4.30pm for any students who need a bit of extra help or support or would like to get into the habit of completing work in school before going home..
Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Monday 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
In our music sessions we are using Garageband to compose music for our presentation of learning in From the Ground Up.
Whilst Garageband is a free app that is already installed on student iPads, it will ask students to log into an Apple ID through the Appstore to access the app.
Most students have an Apple ID set up, or are using Apple IDs set up by their parents.
Please could you check that students have logged into their Apple ID in Garageband at home. We are not able to access the Appstore during the school day, so this needs to be done outside of school hours.
If you do not have an Apple ID, instructions on how to set one up can be found here:
Dear Parent/Guardian
We had yet another exciting week last week with students completing fieldwork at Beamish museum where they visited a drift mine and talked to âexpertsâ in character about the 1842 mines act which banned women and children from working underground. This was built on in lessons where students had the opportunity to interview the first of our experts in the community who talked to them virtually through the large TV screens in our classrooms. This is all part of our expedition – From the Ground Up and students will be working towards their final product (a published book of historic enquiries and interviews about local mines in the region). They will also be answering our guiding question – What do the communities of the North East owe to the miners. Throughout this expedition they have been studying standards in Science, English, History, Art and Music.
This is a staff training day and XP Gateshead will be closed to students. During this time staff will be planning and designing our next awesome expedition which students will begin after Christmas.
We will be discussing HOWLs again in Crew sessions over the next couple of weeks and students will be returning to the pledges they made and looking to see where they have improved in terms of Working Hard (WH), Getting Smart (GS), and Being Kind (BK). Teachers will also be updating this information and making their own assessments of student HOWLs in lessons. We will be sharing this information with parents in the weeks before Christmas.
We have reviewed and organised extended study and shared with students what they can expect each week and from which subject. We have published our extended study timetable on our website here so you are also aware of what your son or daughter is working on at home. In school extended study sessions will continue each day as normal, Monday to Thursday from 3.15pm to 4.30pm for any students who need a bit of extra help or support or would like to get into the habit of completing work in school before going home..
Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Monday (due the staff day) 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
Dear Parent/Guardian
It’s been Maths Week here at XPG with near fever pitch excitement as our students battled it out on Time Table Rock Stars (TTRS) with students from across the country. As you may have seen we are fourth placed in the countryâs secondary schools for average points scored per student, and top school in the region. This is a fantastic achievement, made all the more special by knowing that every student has contributed. Maths week culminated on Friday with the âGreat Maths Bake Offâ. Our students put their baking (and maths) skills to the test along with lashings of creativity to produce some maths inspired show-stoppers. Thanks so much for all of your support with our maths week.
It has also been Remembrance Week and so alongside our normal expedition lessons students have been remembering those who gave their lives for us and reflecting on the responsibility this leaves us with to live our best lives.
Just a reminder that school will be closed to pupils this Friday (19th) and also the following Monday (22nd). This is to allow time for staff training and also to develop resources and planning for our next expedition. We pride ourselves on the quality of our curriculum and it takes time to plan high quality expeditions and to liaise with experts and organise fieldwork etc.
All students will be attending fieldwork at Beamish on Wednesday 17th November.
The visit will be entirely during the school day.
Students will need:
Students will interview experts about working conditions in the mine, and have an opportunity to go into the drift mine at the site.
This fieldwork is part of their studies for their expedition From the Ground Up, with the guiding question âWhat do the communities of North-East England owe to the miners?â
As a result, PE will be on Thursday afternoon this week.
Please remember to complete lateral flow tests for your child on Sunday and Wednesday evening and as important, please ensure these results are entered into our website. 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.
Best wishes
Mark Lovatt
Principal XP Gateshead
An opportunity has arisen for us to carry out fieldwork at BEAMISH next week on Wednesday 17th November.
The visit will be entirely during the school day.Â
Students will need:
Students will interview experts about working conditions in the mine, and have an opportunity to go into the drift mine at the site.
This fieldwork is part of their studies for their expedition From the Ground Up, with the guiding question ‘What do the communities of North-East England owe to the miners?’
Students have been set two quizzes in Google Classroom.
One is on the Rock Cycle and the other is on the Particle Model.
Students should do each quiz repeatedly, making notes in Google Keep on any mistakes until they regularly get high scores again and again.
The deadline for this work is Wednesday 17th November at 5pm.
As part of Remembrance, this morning in Crew we have been reading the poem ‘In Flanders Fields‘ to help us to better understand the symbolism of the poppy, the sacrifice that others have made to afford us the freedoms we enjoy and how Remembrance is now about all servicemen and women that have have given their lives for our country.
We’re off to a flying start in the National TTRockstars competition.
For the average score per students we are ranked fourth in the region for Secondary Schools.
Our students handed Mr Deviit, Mr Dobson and Mr Said a drubbing in the Rock Arena with some face-melting times table knowledge!
At the moment Class 1 have the edge over Class 2 in points scored and average points per student. We’ll keep on rocking for the rest of the week.
Special shout outs to Tyler S and Finley for some incredible performances today!
