We now have poppies for Remembrance Day available for students to purchase in reception. In addition there are a limited number of wristbands and small pins, £1 each.
We estimate that we will be back at school very slightly earlier than planned, at 4.10pm.
A reminder that G28 Class 1 are on fieldwork tomorrow, Wed 3rd Nov and will be back at school around 4.15pm.
G28 Class 2 are going on the following day, Thu 4th Nov.
We will update the website with arrival times if there are any delays.
Can you please ensure that your son or daughter has:
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Clothes that will keep them warm and dry. LOTS OF LAYERS, WATERPROOF COAT are a MUST. HAT and GLOVES would be useful too.
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Wellies or old trainers.
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A packed lunch (we will provide for Free School Meals).
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School bag with regular school kit inside. Please put kit inside a plastic bag in the bag.
Dear Parent/Guardian
Just a quick note to offer a warm welcome back to you and our pupils after what I hope has been a restful and safe half term holiday.
We are looking forward to seeing all of our students again and moving forward with our expeditions. We are particularly excited that pupils will begin their fieldwork this week and will work with a renowned North East geologist exploring the geology of our coastline at Whitburn and carrying out an enquiry into the pit and pit village that were located on the cliff tops.
I am pleased to say that work on site has continued with a new external fire door in Crew Dobson’s rooms and installation of manual window opening systems to give us more control over ventilation in the building. There will be further work externally and I am expecting a bike shed for students and work to begin on additional temporary car parking and seeding of the grassed area on the other side of the tennis courts.Â
COVID mitigations – Important
As parents will be aware Covid infection in the community continues to be high and we ask for your continued support in helping us to ensure we keep our provision open and safe for pupils, families and staff. We have updated guidance from Public Health Gateshead. We are proposing the following measures to limit the spread of Covid in our school.
- Limiting the visitors on site to essential only.
- Please continue to use Lateral Flow Tests to test pupils on Sunday and Wednesday evening and enter results into our Covid testing spreadsheet – this is absolutely essential and we really do appreciate your support in this.Â
- We will be keeping the building well ventilated with classroom windows open during lessons etc – as the weather begins to turn colder this means students should arrive at school with warm clothing and/or coats which they will be permitted to wear in class.
- Please inform us if you or any family member living at home exhibits Covid symptoms.
- If there is a confirmed case via PCR in your household, we ask that you organise a PCR test for your son or daughter as a close contact, even if they are not displaying symptoms.
- If a member of your household tests positive, we will ask you to also conduct daily lateral flow tests on your son or daughter each morning for 10 days as a close contact, and only attend school if they test negative.Â
Fieldwork arrangements
As mentioned above, all students will be going on fieldwork this week, more details of which can be found in Mr Said’s post. It is important that they are prepared for the weather as they will be outdoors for most of the day. The forecast at the moment is for light showers on Wednesday and cold temperatures on both days. Students will arrive back at school at around 4.15pm on the day that they are out on fieldwork.
ParentPay
Lunch charges for the first term have been added to parent pay and will updated on an ongoing basis from this point. Please login to your account to check the balance and make a payment using the login details provided in the letter that was sent home with your son or daughter last term.
Good morning, thanks to all of the students and families that have been in contact with us to ask for guidance and support around the holiday Extended Study.
We are asking for the work set to be completed in each subject. However we wanted to make it clear that we recognise that students and families are still getting used to the various platforms we use such as Google Classroom, TTRockstars etc and that we will bear this in mind when we return to school net week around deadlines etc.
Where students need additional support with their Extended Study, we will work with them in the first week back next week to make sure that they are able to complete the work.
From Tuesday 2nd November, and every day following (Monday-Thursday) there will be ongoing support for students with extended study from 3.30pm to 4.30pm in addition to our clubs.
We will publish more details next week of the regular weekly flow of extended study that will be set in school weeks.
Don’t forget, there’s still time to apply through the local authority for your place at XPG in September:
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If you’d like to see what makes us XPG, be sure to watch this virtual open evening – produced by our Year 7s after just 6 weeks as a Crew!
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#WeAreXPGateshead
Charges have now been added to ParentPay for school meals up to and including the 15th October.
You will see these as a debit on your ParentPay account for “Dinner Money for XP School”.
If you have not yet set up your ParentPay account, you will need the letter that came home with your son or daughter. If you need a replacement letter, please contact me via [email protected] .
Many thanks
Families that qualify for Free School Meals should receive and email from Edenred today with a code for your £15 vouchers for this week.
A second email should arrive on Sunday with vouchers for next week.
If you think you should have received vouchers but do not receive an email today, please contact [email protected] tomorrow.
Thanks
If you think you may be interested in INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC TUITION for your son or daughter in G28 during next half-term, please complete this form.
Gateshead music service can offer tuition on almost any instrument. We part-subsidise these sessions so we need to determine the level of interest.
This is not a commitment at this stage but will help us to work out a sustainable pricing structure.
All G28 year 7 students will be carrying out fieldwork at the location of the former Whitburn Colliery and Marsden Village near to Souter Lighthouse in South Tyneside.
G28 Class 1 will be going on Wednesday 3rd November.
G28 Class 2 will be going on Thursday 4th November.
Students will need:
- to wear clothes that will keep them warm and dry.Â
- wellies or old trainers are needed for footwear as part of the fieldwork will involve studying the rocks in Marsden Bay which is a sandy beach.
- a packed lunch.
- their school bag with regular school kit list inside. Most bags are not waterproof so we suggest putting kit inside a plastic bag inside the rucksack.
A packed lunch will be provided for students that have free school meals.
Students need to be in school at the normal time of 825am on each day.
We expect to return to school at 4.15pm on each day and will update our website if there are any delays due to traffic.