XP Gateshead

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to our final week of term before the Summer holidays. Just a reminder that pupils will finish school at 1.30pm this Thursday and will return to school after the Summer holiday on Tuesday 30th August at the usual time and be in school by 8.30am.

This week students will complete their work from their final expedition of the year, What a Wonderful World,  and will produce a Presentation of Learning (POL) which will be streamed from our website at 6 pm on Thursday evening. Just the right time to get our suppers and settle down on the sofa to watch in the comfort of our own homes. Students will also be completing their final “snapshots” of the year and reflecting on their progress and these along with crew leader comments will be sent to parents on Wednesday 20th July.

This week:

Warm Weather warning

As people will be aware the MET office has issued an amber warm weather warning for Monday and Tuesday of this week for our region.

Please ensure your child has:

• a water bottle filled for the day
• sunscreen applied before school and additional sunscreen with them for during the day
• appropriate and modest clothing to keep cool – looser fitting and light colours where possible
• a hat

We will be refilling water bottles during the day and where appropriate ensuring all of our windows and doors are open to ensure a flow of air through the building. Where possible we will be using classrooms in areas that are in relatively cool parts of our building There will be no PE this week.

• Students will be finishing at 1.30pm on Thursday. There will be a final community meeting before lunch where students will receive a personal copy of the book they wrote – From the Ground Up. This is to mark the occasion of their first published book at XPG and we also hope to organise a “mass” signing. Students will have lunch as normal and then will finally register in crew before leaving at 1.30pm to start their summer holidays.
• Crew leader changes – Mrs Ross will be taking over from Mrs Mosley as crew leader next year and Mr Mead will be taking over from Mr Lovatt as crew leader next year. Both Mrs Ross and Mr Mead have been working alongside Mrs Mosley and Mr Lovatt over the past few weeks to get to know their new crews really well.
• No nuts in packed lunches – Please remember after the Summer holiday that there are to be NO NUTS in packed lunches please. We have students in our new cohort with a severe allergy to nuts and so we need to ask that no nuts or nut products be used in packed lunches from this point onwards. Thank you in advance for your support with this.
• Co-headship – As you know from next year Julie Mosley will be co head with me at XP Gateshead. This will allow us to continue to build upon the fantastic start we have made here at XPG and our strong culture whilst getting the refurbishment of our permanent school site ready for August 2023. We will let parents know at the beginning of term exactly how our co headship will work and the roles and responsibilities we will each manage. We will be continuing to work closely together, as we have this year, to ensure the welfare and progress of all of our students and you will still see us both at the school gate.

Upcoming Events:

A reminder there is a G28 parents’ calendar here.

• • WAWW Presentation of Learning (POL) from What a Wonderful world will be streamed from our website at 6pm on Thursday 21st August
  • Return to school after the holidays is at the normal time on Tuesday 30th August

• G28 students will be working on a mini expedition for the week whilst their G29 peers are in Ullswater.

Finally…

May I finally take this opportunity to thank our parents  and governors for their continued support throughout the year. What a year it has been and I think we can all be proud of the Academic progress of our students as well as the beautiful work they have created. The work our students have completed this year has indeed been “beautiful”. Who could forget the astonishing Presentation of Learning which took place in the Herschel building in Newcastle University in front of an audience of over one hundred people. Nor can we forget the work of our students in their expedition, “Staying Alive”, and the impact they had on our own community through the food and recipe boxes they put together and donated to Edberts House. The highlight of our year though has got to be the launch of our first book – From the Ground Up which our students researched, wrote, and illustrated. This tells the stories of our miners and the communities in the North East in which they lived. It is through the stories we tell that we keep our heritage alive. Our book was launched at Seven Stories, the National Centre for children’s books. None of this could have been achieved without your support and the job you do as parents and guardians. 

Thank you and have a great summer holiday.

Mark Lovatt

Principal

XP Gateshead