Dear Families
It’s been another busy and productive week at XPGateshead.
In these final weeks of term, rather than wind down, our students step up in their work and dedication to craftsmanship and quality. They are working hard on their expedition’s final products, responses to their guiding questions and preparing for upcoming Presentations of Learning. This brings lots of challenges as you can imagine but I am so proud of the courage, determination and resilience shown by our students and staff on a daily basis.
This week’s Crew Day gave staff and students the opportunity to ‘tend to’ crew. Returning to agreed crew norms, developing team work, crew identity and wellbeing is key to our continued success. ‘If we get crew right, we get everything’ right at XPG, so it is vital we take the time to ‘cultivate crew’.
G30 students worked to research suitable people after whom to name their crews – people who have achieved great things and who display our character traits. Over the next couple of weeks, they will present their proposals to each other and vote for the person they want as their crew namesake.
G29 started their work on looking at which charity their crew would like to support. Students put together their proposals and have started pitching their choice of charity. This work will be completed over the next couple of weeks and each Y8 crew will have elected a charity to support as part of their activism work.
Both G29 and G30 crews are also putting together hampers for our local community to introduce their crew, share some of their beautiful work and give a greater insight into the work we do at XPG. Hampers will also include some Christmas treats.
Our G28 students continued their activism work, looking at their strategic plans for charity work for this year which includes raising awareness of their charity.
Our G28 pioneers also got a chance to try out our new Food Technology room as part of their crew day too which was really exciting. A huge thank you to Pamela Tatters who spent the day working with each crew training staff and students on the health and safety requirements in a kitchen alongside how to make flapjacks, shortbread and chocolate brownies. Our students had a fantastic session and their baked goods were delicious.
As part of our Christmas season, Crew Stanton ran a Christmas movie night on Thursday raising money for Tiny Lives charity. It was a great success thanks to the hard work and dedication of the whole crew.
Our next Christmas social event will be brought to us from Crew Angelou in support of their elected charity Young Minds. They are planning a Christmas Party to take place on Wednesday 20th December. Please see their website posts for more details.
Our week ahead
Extended Study and Clubs
Our school offer of extended study and clubs will run Monday to Wednesday. On Thursday there will be no after school extended study or clubs due to the G28 Presentation of Learning.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- All G30 students (Year 7) have PE on Monday this week.
- All G29 students (Year 8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
- All G28 students (Year 9) have PE on Friday this week.
G28 Presentation of Learning – Thursday 14th December, Newcastle University 6pm – 7:30pm.
How are structures important in helping us to explain our world?
The evening will be in two parts:
G28 will be presenting their final product from last term’s expedition ‘Should I stay or should I go?’. This is a film made by our students which tells the stories of people who have migrated to or from the UK. This will take place at the Herschel Lecture Theatre in Newcastle University (where the PoL for ‘Do your bit’ took place in Y7).
G28 will also be presenting their learning from their current expedition at the Farrell Centre on Claremont Road.
Year 9 is an important year for students as they further consider pathways through education and training.
As you know, being on a pathway to university-readiness is an aim for all of our students. All young people must now remain in education or training until they are 18 years old. At XP Gateshead, we believe that university-level education is something that all children should consider regardless of their background.
As such, we have planned for part of the afternoon on Thursday to include a university experience including a campus tour and an insight into life as a university student.
See our separate post here for more details.
Looking ahead
Presentations of Learning
We will be putting out separate posts with more information on these events for Year 7 and Year 8 tomorrow.
G30 – What do the communities of NE England owe to the miners?
- G30 will be presenting their learning on the evening of Monday 18th December at St Mary’s Church in Heworth at 6pm.
G29 – What does it mean to be human?
- G29 will be presenting their learning on the evening of Tuesday 19th December at XP Gateshead at 6pm.
Christmas Events
Christmas Party event
This has been organised by Crew Angelou as part of their charity work – Wednesday 20th December 4:30-6:30pm.
XPG Christmas Lunch
This will take place on Thursday 21st December
As usual if you have any questions about your son or daughter please get in touch with your child’s Crew Leader in the first instance or email general enquiries to [email protected].
Julie Mosley
Principal, XP Gateshead