Dear Families
We welcomed all of our students and staff into school last week so for the first time, five year groups were all together. We are delighted by how our new G33 students have all settled into school and how students in other year groups have welcomed our new cohort, settled into their new classes and sessions and daily life of 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 XP Gateshead so that all members of our school community are impelled to work together as a team, to pitch in, to help others. This happens in crew, in classrooms, during social times and at the start and end of the day. It was great to hear appreciations given in our first in person whole school community meeting on Friday by students from all year groups around our character traits.
At the start of the year our focus is always culture, culture, culture and we all work hard to build a strong community where all staff and students support each other to be the best versions of themselves. Last week everyone stepped up to this challenge and it was great to see, feel and hear this from staff, visitors and our students.
Immersion and new expeditions
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 are revealed to students at the end of each immersion.
G33 – Year 7
G33 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 with an additional question: “What will my learning be like at my new 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.
G33 students have received their iPads. We hope setting these up has gone smoothly – any issues can almost always be sorted in school. Students have resigned our ICT acceptable use agreement, which helps to ensure that students use technology appropriately and most importantly safely.
A fully charged iPad is now expected as part of daily kit for G33 students, as well as headphones. We advise against buying expensive headphones.
There is additional guidance for families here on setting up apple accounts to download additional apps, and also on how to set sensible boundaries at home using screen time functions and parental controls on your home Wifi router.
G32
G32 have started their immersion which included study of the human body through the emotional true story of Peter the human cyborg and also Bill Bryson’s texts “The Body: A guide for inhabitants” and “A short history of nearly everything”.They have been introduced to the text “Noughts and Crosses” by Malorie Blackman, studied various creation stories and considered what makes effective speeches.
On Friday they met with experts from the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which will be the home for their final product for this learning expedition.
G31
G31 started their new expedition by learning about the geography and history of Russia around the turn of the 20th century. Connected to this, and to build further background knowledge they have also been studying the atomic bombs that were dropped at the end of WWII, and have seen further evidence of the power of the atom by learning about the impact of the Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union. They have also used Ken Loach’s film “I, Daniel Blake” to develop questions and curiosity about how societal and governmental structures can impact on the way that we live our lives.
On Friday our G31 students participated in local fieldwork to build on the virtual fieldwork they completed in school, collecting primary data to answer an enquiry question : “Are there inequalities on Gateshead High Street?”
G30
As part of their immersion, G30 students first discovered what the Vikings were not, where they looked at some of the misconceptions that people have of them. They also investigated a ‘Viking Horde’ to discover what artefacts they had, what materials they were made from and what it tells us about Viking lives. This also led to students considering how objects can tell a story which connects to their GCSE Art projects. We also did some close reading of travel writing to provide pupils with a background knowledge of Scandinavia, whilst deepening their understanding of literary devices. All of this supported by fieldwork to York Museum.
In Science immersion they have began to explore the properties of metals and what makes them useful, looking at simple extraction reactions that helped them revisit the reactivity series of metals.
In English, students have been considering conditions in workhouses such as that at Southwell to better understand the social and historical context of the novel ‘A Christmas Carol’.
G29
G29 have started the year with a really sharp focus in lessons, building on the work in their first week back about readiness for the challenges of an exam year. In this term they will complete the content for most of their courses and then there will be an even greater focus on revision from January.
Our week ahead
PE Sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit.
- G33 (Year 7), have PE on Wednesday
- G32 (Year 8) have PE on Thursday
- G31 (Year 9) have PE on Tuesday
- G30 (Year 10) have PE on Wednesday
- G29 (Year 11) have PE on Wednesday
Meeting our expectations
As you know, we are all crew at XPG and work together to ensure our students are successful in all aspects of school life.
Families have a key part to play in this and we ask for your support in getting our students into good habits, checking they have everything required each day and they come to school ready for learning.
Dress code
As you know at XP, we believe that:
- Children need to learn to express themselves responsibly.
- Children are not all the same, so they should not be forced to look the same.
- Families would rather spend their money on clothes that their children can wear inside and outside school.
We do not have a school uniform however we do have a dress code and we ask our students and staff to dress appropriately and modestly.
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 (eg. heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails)
- Impractical footwear (e.g. sliders, flip-flops or high heels)
Can all families please read our website post on dress code so you are clear on our expectations and can fully support these.
Kit List
It is really important that all students come to school ready and equipped to learn. As always, students need to bring a school bag with the following kit :
- A backpack or suitable sized sized bag to carry equipment
- A filled water bottle
- Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser, pencil sharpener, purple pen and a gluestick
- A fully charged iPad (G29, G30, G31, G32 from Tuesday, G33 on the day following their distribution to students) and headphones (ideally not expensive ones, for example here).
- The newer iPads have a USB C headphone connection.
- A notebook
- A reading book
Students also need to bring a healthy snack for break time – no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks please as we do not allow these in school. Please note there are to be no nut products in snacks or packed lunches.
Mobile Phone reminder
Mobile phones are not allowed in school. Phones should be switched off and in school bags each morning. Students are not allowed to use mobile phones during the day . If you need to contact your son or daughter please do so via the school office at [email protected] or on 0191 4814360.
Punctuality
All 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. Can all families please support us with our high expectation around punctuality to school. Crew Leaders will contact if there are ongoing issues where students and families need additional support.
Extended Study
Teachers will start to set extended study this week and students will begin to build their extended study timetable. We will publish our extended study timetable at the end of the week so that you can fully support your child with their learning.
After school extended study sessions will start next week and students attending these sessions must stay until the end of the session at 4.30pm. These sessions allow students to work with their peers and staff on extended study tasks in school where support is on hand.
Enrichment Clubs – lunch and after school
We will be launching our new lunchtime and after school clubs programme next week and will be encouraging all students to get involved in an enrichment activity.
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