Dear Families
We hope you and your children have had a great break and look forward to welcoming students back for the final half-term of this academic year with lots to look forward to! This half-term we will welcome our Year 6 G32 students into school for the first time supported by student leaders from G31, G29 will be making important decisions on their pathways into Key Stage 4, G28 will be taking part in their work placements and students of Spanish will have speaking exams to prepare for – for all students we have a Sports Day on our next Crew Day too!
Our usual reminders for a good start back…
Attendance
Can I remind all families about the importance of students attending school everyday. School attendance is vital to the life chances of young people and being in school improves health, wellbeing and socialisation throughout life. Put simply if pupils are not at school then they are not learning and quickly fall behind in all areas of their development. Term time holidays are not authorised at XP Gateshead. Let’s all work hard together to ensure school attendance is high – students, parents/carers, Crew Leaders and XPG inclusion team.
Punctuality
School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew. A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning so we ask that parents support their child with this.
Dress code
Please refer to our website post for full details on our dress code. Can I remind parents of the following expectations around daily dress within school and ask for your full support around this as we move into our final Summer half term and warmer weather.
For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:
- Hats, hoods & coats inside school
- Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh
- Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes
- Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery
- For example heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails
- Impractical footwear:
- For example sliders, flip-flops or high heels.
Daily kit list
As always, all students need to be fully equipped for school and bring a school bag with:
- A filled water bottle
- Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
- A fully charged iPad
- Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
- Headphones – see the note about music for G30 below.
- A healthy snack for break (no sweets, fizzy drinks or energy drinks or nut products)
- A notebook
This week
G30 Music Composition – Electronic Dance Music
Starting tomorrow G30 will be using what they have learned about Indian Classical Music to create fusion Bhangra dance tracks using their iPads and school Macbooks. All students must have their headphones for these sessions – these are part of their regular day to day kit.
G31 Ecology Experts
Tomorrow we have experts working with a group of G31 leaders to take samples from our school pond, which was a product of G30’s work in the same expedition next year.
Digital Leaders – Clickview staff training Monday 2nd June
Our digital leaders are working with Martyn Soulsby from Clickview, an Edtech company that specialises in providing educational video content to schools to support learning. Our digital leaders will work with Martyn in the afternoon to plan a CPD session which will then be delivered to staff after school from 3.30pm.
G29 Pathways Drop In Evening – Tuesday 3rd June
On Tuesday at 5pm, we are hosting a drop-in event in school for families that would like to talk to Key Stage 4 course leaders, to support them and their child to make decisions about the subjects that will be studied in year 10. Please see Mr Said’s post here for more details.
G28 Mock Results – Wednesday 4th June
On Wednesday afternoon this week, G28 will receive the results from their mock examinations. Crew Leaders will be with students when they receive their results to provide support and guidance, and help students to consider how best to communicate their next steps based on these results as part of their upcoming Student-Led Conferences.
PE sessions this week
- G31 Class 1 have PE on Monday
- G31 Class 2 have PE on Wednesday
- G30 Class 1 have PE on Tuesday
- G30 Class 2 have PE on Friday
- All of G29 and G28 have PE on Thursday.
Extended Study and after school clubs
Due to the ongoing SLCs for G30 and G31, and our first week back from the break there are no after school clubs or extended study this week. They will return next week, w/c 9th June.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
G28 Student Led Conferences
From the w/c 9th June G28 families will be invited into school by Crew Leaders for G28’s next SLCs with a focus on mock results, readiness for Year 11 and work placements.
Dance sessions in school
Each Tuesday from 10th June, students that are dancing as part of the XP Trust Arts Festival in July will have a weekly session during the school day with an expert to choreograph and rehearse a routine which will be performed at the festival. All students that are taking part in the festival were given permission slips at the end of last term, including musicians and dancers. Please can you make sure that these are returned to school as soon as possible.
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