Dear Parents/Carers
We have come to the end of another full and busy half term and, as always, our whole community have worked together demonstrating courage, respect, craftsmanship and quality, integrity and above all compassion. We have continued to work hard across this first half term, welcoming new students and staff, continuing to build our culture through crew.
As you know, an Ofsted team visited us this week for our first inspection. It has been a very positive experience for us at XPG. It is a challenge for an Inspection team to get a real understanding of our school and expeditionary curriculum since we do some things differently at XPG! Our lead inspector Hannah Millett, really took the time to do this and led the inspection with integrity, care and compassion.
The verbal feedback given at the end of the inspection was stunning. The commitment, passion and care that staff, students and governors have for the work we do here at XPG has shone through. Ambition was commented on several times across the inspection – the ambition we all have (adults and children) to change lives and our communities.
A special thanks to all of those families who took the time to respond to the Ofsted parental survey. We get to see the final statistics on each question but don’t see the written comments you make so thank you to those who took the time to share their lovely comments with us too.
We should receive our draft report after the half term break and hope to get our final report published before the end of November. I really look forward to seeing this and sharing it with you all.
Important dates for your diaries for next half-term
PoLs are used as an opportunity for students to showcase their learning from their most current learning expedition. PoLs enable students to grow their character and further embed their learning through presenting their work in front of a range of authentic audiences and in a variety of contexts. In addition, students develop oracy skills by presenting to different audiences and in different contexts which builds confidence and further allows students to grow their character whilst developing key skills.
Below are the dates for our PoLs (Presentations of Learning) next term. It is important to note that we expect for every child to have a family member there to support them.
- G31’s PoL will be on the evening of Monday 16th December at St. Mary’s church in Heworth. Start time is to be confirmed but we expect at around 5.30pm.
- G30’s PoL will be on Wednesday 18th December in school at 4.30pm.
- G29’s PoL will be on the evening of Thursday 12th December at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle University Campus. Start time is to be confirmed.
- G28’s PoL will be on Thursday 19th December in school at 4.30pm.
Have a wonderful break with your children
So, it’s been an exhausting one, and I think that we can all agree that it’s time now for a well deserved rest! Have a great half term break and we look forward to seeing all of our students on Monday 4th November at the normal time. It will be week 3 on the lunch menu when we return.
Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support.
.Julie Mosley