Dear Families
- The Venerable Bede
- Humphry Davy
- Thomas Hepburn
- Catherine Cookson
- David Price
A special thanks to Dave Evans, Geoff Hewitt and Rob Kitchen for working with our Year 7 students throughout the day.
Crew Day
On Friday we had our Crew Day which gave all crews the chance to ‘tend’ to and strengthen the crew, to support and challenge each other to be the best versions of self and carry out some important work together. As you know, Crew is our support network at XPG and key to the continued success of everyone at our school.
G31 students continued their work on researching suitable people after whom to name their crews – people who have achieved great things and who display our character traits of courage, integrity, respect, craftsmanship and quality, and above all compassion. I’m pleased to introduce our four Year 7 crews:
- Crew Pankhurst – (Mr Azam’s Crew)
- Crew Curie – (Mrs Diamond’s Crew)
- Crew Shakespeare (Miss Jamison’s Crew)
- Crew Windsor (Mr Parry’s Crew)
G30 students worked on their pitches for which charity they wanted their crew to support, including presentations from G28 students who encouraged them to consider the charities with whom they were already working.
I’m pleased to introduce our Year 8 chosen charities are:
- Anxious Minds – Crew Einstein
- Daisy Chain – Crew Kahlo
- Sands – Crew Earhart
- The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation – Crew Darling (we are delighted that they will pair up with Crew Frank in G28 to support this charity.
G30 also had some time working with our LEGO robots to work on their collaborative, design and coding skills, creating robot hoppers which were then raced competitively.
G29’s Crew Day gave over time to students to work together as a Crew to prepare for charity events for their respective charities, connecting back to the plans that they made in their first week back in September. Crew Attenborough spent much of the day in the kitchen as they will be carrying out a charity event at G28’s presentation of learning later this term. More on this soon.
G29 also spent some of the day working on preparation for their SLCs (see below).
For Year 8 and 9, Crew Day was an important reminder that:
“We are Crew, not passengers, strengthened by consequential acts of service to others.”
G28’s Crew Day attended to wellbeing – mind, body and soul. Our students enjoyed sessions including:
- A Badminton Crew challenge
- Orienteering
- Advice on habits of mind that will support the step up to GCSE
- Yoga
Community Meeting
There was great excitement in our community meeting at the end of the day with Year 7 and 8 this week as students announced their crew names and crew charities. We also collected and shared appreciations from all crews:
I will share appreciations with you when we collect them so you can see the character values our students appreciate in each other each week.
Saturday with the Stemettes
On Saturday some of our students joined the Stemettes Vision Panel in Newcastle. This event ‘Dream, Listen, Connect’ gave young women the opportunity to hear from a panel of role models pursuing careers in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). Our Year 9 students enjoyed the opportunity to listen and ask questions to a panel of experts and meet other young people interested in STEAM careers. Ms Marshall, Ms Jamison and I were incredibly proud and impressed with the dedication our students showed to their learning and contributions on the day from Eleanor, Scarlett, Winnie, Penny, Olvia, Lily, and Lyra.
XPG Ofsted Report
As you know we had our first Ofsted Inspection 15th and 16th October 2024. We emailed this out to all parents and carers last week. If you haven’t seen the report yet, here it is.
There have been changes to how Ofsted report back to schools this year. A main change is that there is no final judgement for overall effectiveness, just gradings around the four areas of quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management. We are delighted with our written report which talks about what it is like to attend our school, what we do well and the area which has been identified for improvement. Please sit back and enjoy the read – this report belongs to us all and is a testament to the hard work of our staff, students and families.
Our week ahead
G29 Student Led Conferences
This week sees the start of SLCs for Year 9 students. All families should have booked their SLC slot. Please contact [email protected] if you need more support with this.
G28 Preparation for PoL
G28 continue preparations for their PoL for their studies of A Christmas Carol. This is an afternoon tea for members of the community that typically experience loneliness, especially around Christmas, all of which connects to their GQ: “Is charity enough?”
This week students received invites to the PoL for members of the community that may experience loneliness at this time of year. Each student has been asked to invite one person to the event. More details can be found on the printed invite.
Crew Frank are cooking in the kitchen tomorrow morning, and Crew Parks on Wednesday. Students do not need to bring ingredients, but it is worth wearing clothes that are older. Long hair needs to be tied back in a bobble please.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- For G30 students (Year 8)
- G30 Class 2 students have PE on Monday.
- G30 Class 1 students have PE on Thursday.
- For G31 students (Year 7)
- G31 Class 1 students have PE on Tuesday.
- G31 Class 2 students have PE on Wednesday.
- All G29 students (Year 9) have PE on Thursday.
- All G28 students (Year 10) have PE on Thursday.
Staff Days – Friday 29th November and Monday 2nd December
We have a staff day this coming Friday and next Monday. The focus for these staff days are forward planning, especially our exciting new learning expeditions for term 2 from January. On staff days our students do not attend school and there is no expectation that they complete work beyond their regularly set extended study (homework). Students will find this work on Google classroom.
Looking ahead – important dates
POLs (Presentations of Learning) this term – dates for your diary
- G31’s PoL will be on the evening of Monday 16th December at St. Mary’s church in Heworth at 4.30pm.
- G30’s PoL will be on Wednesday 18th December in school at 4.30pm.
- G29’s PoL will be on the evening of Wednesday 11th December at the Farrell Centre and Great North Museum in Newcastle University Campus at 3.45pm.
- G28’s PoL will be on Thursday 19th December in school at 4.30pm.
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