Dear Families
We welcomed all of our students into school last week and we are delighted by how they have all settled into school. A Kurt Hahn quote that has continued to resonate with us over these last weeks is
“We are crew not passengers, strengthened by acts of consequential service to others”
We build our culture of crew at XPGateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others.
We are still getting used to our new bigger site and enjoying new spaces – our new classroom and crew spaces, theatre and larger social spaces. We are really pleased with how well our students are using these spaces and the maturity they show whilst moving around the site.
Last week saw the start of immersion for all new learning expeditions. Immersion is an opportunity for students to dip their toe into the content of the learning expeditions, to build background knowledge and generate curiosity about the guiding question for the expedition. Guiding questions will be revealed to students this week.
G30’s first week back in school
G30 started their week in Crews unpacking what they learned at Ullswater about ‘What it means to be Crew’ and considering how that is applied back at school. All Crews took time to curate their Outward Bound fieldwork and the individual journeys they had all taken along with the character traits they had demonstrated. They then spent time agreeing their crew norms and what they would look like, sound like and feel like in classrooms.
All G30 students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely. All student iPads have now been delivered and we will be able to ensure that all students are online this week.
Our week ahead
G30 students (Year 7)
Students will continue with their immersion this week, thinking about what their guiding question can be having already held coal and considered its importance to the industrial revolution, as well as studying maps to consider how our landscape has changed since the 18th century.
PE sessions take place on Mondays for our Year 7 students so students need a full PE kit on this day.
G29 students (Year 8)
Our year 8 students have had much deliberation on what their new expedition guiding question could be. This last week they have been learning about Peter Scott-Morgan, a man who defied biology by making more of his body digital after a diagnosis of motor neuron disease. They have been making connections between this, their anchor text – ‘The Curious incident..’ and a gallery walk which focussed on the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.
All will be revealed on Monday morning when there is a G29 expedition launch session.
There has been a change to the timetable for this week for PE:
- Class 1 have their PE session on Wednesday so will need their PE kit.
- Class 2 have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit
G28 students (Year 9)
After last week’s immersion, which included building structures; 3D modelling; and atomic weapons our year 9 students will discover their new guiding question on Monday.
There is more fieldwork for G28 on Thursday as part of their new learning expedition. We have organised a cultural visit to Northern Stage to see the critically acclaimed ‘I, Daniel Blake’. We are delighted to be able to offer this to our students as tickets are difficult to get hold of. Students will have a slightly early lunch and leave site at 12:30pm to travel by metro to the theatre for the afternoon performance. Students should be back to school by 5pm. Please see the recent post for more details.
G28 PE sessions take place on Thursday and Friday
- Class 1 have their PE session on Thursday so will need their PE kit.
- Class 2 have their PE session on Friday so will need their PE kit.
Making the right start
Punctuality
Can I remind all families that students need to be in school for an 8.30am start to sessions. They must arrive by 8.25am at the latest. There will be staff in school supervising so students can arrive from 8.00 am. The vast majority of our students had perfect punctuality last week but not all of them. Please support us with our high expectation around punctuality to school.
Extended Study
For the next two weeks we will offer extended study sessions, from 3:15pm – 4:30pm each day apart from Friday when we finish at 3:15pm. These are study sessions where students can get support with their extended study.
Students do not need to book into these sessions, but must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm.
We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme at the end of September.
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].
Thank you as always for your ongoing support. Together we are stronger #WeAreCrew.
Julie Mosley