Dear Families
This week we have revealed the full details of our new expeditions for all cohorts.
This terms’ Expeditions, Guiding Questions and Presentation of Learning dates
You can see more detailed information on each of the new expeditions by clicking here.
- Year 7 HUMAN – Why is it important to honour all those who sacrificed in WWI?
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- PoL on Tuesday 25th March in school at 4.30pm
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- Year 7 STEAM – Is survival sufficient?
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- PoL on Monday 24th March at Edberts House (this is not an event that families attend, students will present their food packages to the workers at Edberts House)
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- Year 8 – What is Power?
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- PoL on Thursday 27th March at Caedmon Hall, above Gateshead Central Library at 5pm.
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- PoL on Friday 9th May in school from 2pm. This Presentation of Learning is in the form of a Public Health Conference, hosted by our students.
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- Year 10 – Are we really free to choose?
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- PoL on Tuesday 18th March, venue and time to be confirmed.
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G29 (Year 9) Information
We also enjoyed meeting with G29 families at our Information Evening on Wednesday to give further details around key events for Year 9 this year – Passage Presentations, the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award and our KS4 curriculum offer. Thank you to those families who attended. Here are the slides we shared so everyone can access the information.
Raising awareness around the dangers of knife crime
On Friday we welcomed Alison and Yvonne from the charity Samantha’s Legacy into school to run sessions with our G28 and G29 students on knife crime and to hear first-hand the devastation one family can experience at the hands of knife crime. The team at Samantha’s Legacy work relentlessly to raise awareness around this important issue, support families and young people who have been affected by knife crime and prevent knife crime in our region.
The feedback from all involved was extremely positive. We will be running further sessions for our other year groups later this term. We’ve also been offered the opportunity for a group of students to attend the new theatre production of ‘Our Sam’ which is being held at the end of the month at Whitley Bay Playhouse which is a play based on the true story of Samantha Madgin, a young mother who tragically lost her life to knife crime in 2007 and highlights the irreversible impact of knife crime. More information about this event will follow.
The week ahead
Experts at XPG
This week we welcome film director Russell Smith to XP Gateshead. Russell will be talking to our students about his work and sharing his award winning film documentary ‘The Last Men Standing’ with G28 with a screening followed by a Q&A session. The documentary is about 15 East Durham Miners which not only goes back to G28’s first expedition which focused on East Durham mines but also supports learning in their current expedition in terms of our curricular seam of social justice, connecting to themes of social class in their current anchor text ‘An Inspector Calls’.
G30 (Year 8) Local Fieldwork: Working with experts at the Shipley Art Gallery
This week our Year 8 students will spend a day working with experts at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead.
- Class 2 are working at the Shipley throughout the day on Tuesday this week
- Class 1 are working at the Shipley throughout the day on Wednesday this week
More details including kit and packed lunches can be found by clicking here.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G30 students (Y8) have PE on Monday.
- For G31 students (Y7)
- G31 Class 1 students have PE on Tuesday.
- G31 Class 2 students have PE on Wednesday
- G29 students (Y9) have PE on Thursday.
- G28 students (Y10) have PE on Thursday.
SLC Preparation G31 and G30
SLCs for G31 and G30 will take place this term in the two weeks commencing 27th January 2025. It is an expectation that all families attend SLCs to fully support their child’s progress. All G31 and G30 families should have now made appointments to attend their child’s SLC. Our students continue with their preparations this week which, for G30 students includes responses to questions from their families. Please can all G30 families ensure that they have completed this Google Form to help your child to prepare for the conference.
Passage Preparation G29
Our year 9 students continue with preparation for their Passage Presentations which will take place during the 17th and 18th March and slots will be available during the days. We will soon send out a the system to book a passage presentation slot.
Staff Days on Friday 24th and Monday 27th January – EARLY FINISH TO SCHOOL THIS THURSDAY
Please note that our whole staff will be travelling to Doncaster on Thursday 23rd January for a twilight CPD session which will launch an XP Trust Teaching and Learning conference on Friday so school will end at the slightly earlier time of 1.30pm on Thursday 23rd January to allow for this.
As always, students are not expected to be in school on staff days Friday 24th and Monday 27th January.
Dates to note
Year 8 London Fieldwork: Victoria & Albert Museum Fieldwork for Year 8
More details of the fieldwork can be found here.
- Year 8 Class 2 will travel to London on Tuesday 28th January
- Year 8 Class 1 will travel to Longon on Monday 3rd February
Can all G30 families return reply sheets to Crew Leaders by Wednesday this week. As you can imagine it is imperative that we have full details to ensure appropriate arrangements and travel bookings are made.
Please note that we want to give every student the opportunity to come to London and there is no cost to families for this fieldwork. We do expect a commitment from both students and families in terms of their conduct and if there are any absences on the day of travel, we will ask families to cover the costs incurred by us as a school.
As usual 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
Principal