Dear Families
It has been a strong first week back at XP Gateshead with some great work from students and staff alike. We have had several visitors in school this week who have all commented on how confident and articulate our students are when talking about their learning, the strength of relationships at XPG which mean our students are safe, are known, feel seen and valued.
G32 and G31 students have all both started their Summer expeditions and have made a great start – guiding questions will be revealed this week.
G30 and G29 saw the culmination of their Spring expeditions:
Year 9: How can we continue to make progress on public health?
G30’s expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’’ culminated on Wednesday last week in a Public Health Conference where students shared their knowledge and expertise on public health health inequalities in Gateshead today, looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation. Experts invited to the conference included local politicians, NHS experts and health charities and they were blown away by the quality of work produced by our Year 9 students and the confidence they showed when sharing their knowledge. The leaflets on the dangers of alcohol our students have produced were on display and are heading to printers now so local health centres and hospitals can stock these and share them across our community.
Year 10: Are we really free to choose?
G29 travelled to Newcastle Sixth Form College on Friday for their presentation of learning for their expedition ‘Act Naturally’. Families and guests enjoyed watching and voting on a debate between classes, dealing with some of the issues that have arisen during term two studies. During the afternoon our students got the opportunity to tour College facilities and find out more about the courses on offer at Sixth Form and student life.
It was a great afternoon for our Year 10 students and they conducted themselves with real maturity. A special mention goes out to those groups who picked up the load for absent students on the day. G29 are really starting to step up, facing challenges head on and showing real resilience. These skills are crucial now as we move towards mock exams in readiness for final GCSEs.
XPG get their voices heard and demand change on a regional stage
On Thursday, 12 of our Y9 and Y10 students presented a keynote at a North East Conference at the Baltic, Brighter Future, Young People in the North East. Yet again, our young people were amazing and we have had feedback from many organisations and experts who attended the conference praising students’ confidence, quality and the beautiful work they shared from the last three years of our Public Health Conferences. To get young people’s voices heard and listened to around issues of social justice is key if we want our students to affect positive social and cultural change.
This week
New Expeditions for G30, G29
This week sees the start of new expeditions for our Y9 and Y10. Immersion will take across the week and students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.
PE sessions this week
There are some changes to PE sessions again this week due to staff training and G28 exams.Sessions will be caught up in the coming weeks. Please make sure that your child has their full PE kit for sessions.
- Year 7
- Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
- Class 2 have PE on Wednesday this week
- Year 8
- Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
- Class 2 have PE on Tuesday this week.
- Year 9
- Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week.
- Class 2 have PE on Tuesday this week.
- Year 10 and 11 will not have PE this week as Mr Devitt is not in school on Monday.
Extended Study and Clubs
After school sessions will all start again this week.
If you have any questions please contact your child’s crew leader in the first instance.
Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley