Dear Families
It has been a good start back to school and most students have settled back with us quickly and, as always, have impressed us with their HoWLs, character values and their engagement in learning.
G30 Staying Alive
As part of rounding off last term’s expedition for Year 7, students had an expert session with Alice Roberts who is carrying out a PhD which aims to explore opportunities to improve the food and drink environment in UK secondary schools. Students will soon be gathering the ingredients needed for the food boxes which will be donated to families in need through our partners Edberts House.
G29 and G30 Immersion
This week has been immersion week for our Y7 and Y8 students marking the start of our new Summer expeditions. Both G29 and G30 students have been puzzling over what their new guiding questions will be after 5 days of immersion this week.
G29 have been looking at a wide range of stimulus materials on the theme of people on the move including the poem Home by Warsan Shire, a briefing from a minister from the Pacific island of Tuvalu which addresses rising sea levels and the context that has led to the ongoing civil war in Syria. Their guiding question will be revealed this week.
G30 have spent the week looking at literature, in particular poetry associated with rivers and developing their knowledge of the water cycle. Mrs Ross has been particularly impressed with the connections that Year 7 have been making back to previous our expedition in term 1 which looked at the nature of the ground beneath our feet.
G30 had the reveal on Friday afternoon and now know that their guiding question for STEAM, HUMAN and ARTS this term is “How does water shape our world?”. Students will carry out three case studies focusing on how water is essential for life, how water shapes the world around rivers and also around coasts. There will be some great fieldwork this term too, more information on that to come.
G28 Expedition ‘You Give Me Fever’
Students are coming towards the end of this expedition, and are looking at the story of public health in the modern period and making connections between this and the pathology of non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
As we have posted previously, we have asked all Year 9 families to sign up for the student-led Public Health Conference which is taking place in school on the afternoon of Friday 10th May.
You can sign up by clicking here. Please check your emails for more details on timings of the event etc.
Work on the grounds of the school site
Connor and Kenzie in G29 have been supporting Mr Walters to develop an area of the site which will be used for outdoor learning sessions. G28 will have some campcraft sessions soon as part of their DofE and G29 will soon be introduced to some elements of campcraft as part of an upcoming Crew Day. Thanks to Kenzie, Connor (and Mr Walters) for their hard work on preparing the ground here.
We need your support
Monitoring online activity
There are some students who have taken longer to settle the week and we have invested a significant amount of staff time this week picking up issues around friendships which have played out online outside of school. This is definitely not what we expect or want to spend time on and we ask for your support, as parents and carers, to monitor your child’s online communications outside of school hours.
As you know, character growth is a key component of our 3-Dimensional curriculum at XP Gateshead and we all (students, staff and families) have a responsibility to support the development of our character values of courage, craftsmanship and quality, respect, integrity and compassion.
I understand the challenges that being a parent or carer of a teenager brings and how difficult this can be, especially around social media and finding the right balance between privacy, monitoring and trust. This term we will look to run some online safety sessions for families involving experts from the wider community. More information to follow.
Stewardship
Last week we drew attention to some of the areas around dress code where we most frequently challenge students. This week we would like to also ask for your support around chewing gum. Whilst it is not endemic in school, we have recently spoken in community meetings about chewing gum under tables and how this should not be something that our cleaners have to attend to.
We have made it very clear to all students that chewing gum is not to be brought into school as this is the most effective way to ensure it does not end up under tables. Where children are found to have brought chewing gum into school this we will arrange for them to do some stewardship work in school over a number of days. This reflects an important principle of our school and our restorative practices. Where mistakes are made in any regard, it is vital that these mistakes are put right. Doing acts of service in terms of stewardship helps students to understand the work that our staff and cleaners do in ensuring that we have a clean and hygienic environment for learning.
This week
G28 Geography fieldwork – Wednesday 24th April
G28 students will be completing important fieldwork to help them answer the geography enquiry question: “Why are there differences in life expectancy in Gateshead?” This will support the students creating a final report investigating health inequalities in Gateshead which will be shown at their presentation of learning.
Students will be in crews walking from Felling to Gateshead collecting primary data to answer their fieldwork question. Please see the website post for full details and the kit list required.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
- G29 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
- For G28 students (Y9)
- G28 Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week
- G28 Class 2 have PE on Friday this week.
Extended Study and Clubs
Extended study and after school clubs will be running from Tuesday 23rd April onwards as we have some important whole-staff training taking place on Monday after school.
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