MARPLE HALL CELEBRATES PRIDE MONTH

One of the biggest challenges of working in education is feeling like you are not doing enough for the young people in your charge. This month, however, members of staff at Marple Hall have come together in force to support our LGBT+ community and help tackle some of the negative impacts faced by the young people of the community. As a school we are big on visibility, that is showing our students that school is a safe space to be open about their gender and sexuality. Around school we have many visual initiatives; painted bricks with the Pride flag, proudly flying the Pride flag outside of our main reception; many staff wear Pride lanyards or rainbow pins to promote LGBT+; we also have many staff and students who are out and proud, acting as role models for those who wish to be their true self but have not yet got the confidence to come out. With the support from some amazing charities including Stonewall UK and Time for Inclusive Education, here are some of the other initiatives we have been up to over Pride Month 2021.

Just before half term we announced to our school community the relaunch of the LGBT+ club. With Covid-19 restrictions in place since March 2020 it has been a challenging time for all young people, not being able to participate in the usually extensive range of extra-curricular activities we offer at Marple Hall. According to LGBT+ charity Just Like Us, youth members of the LGBT+ community tend to seek support from friends and like-minded people, often struggling to find the support they need at home, either due to living with unsupportive families or families who are unaware of their identities. The relaunch of the LGBT+ club, within Covid-19 guidelines, aims to bridge the gap of support to ensure our LGBT+ students to do not suffer disproportionately to their non-LGBT+ peers. We look forward to welcoming new members every week and sharing positive messages with our students.

As a young person it is often hard to know which adults to turn to for advice and support. To promote staff awareness and encourage pupils to seek support from their teachers and form tutors we have issued all our members of staff with “Ally” cards. Staff proudly exhibit these cards in their classrooms in solidarity of our LGBT+ community. Recognising that many people outside of the LGBT+ community identify as allies, but do not always know how to best support their peers, we are working on resources specifically designed for allies with a focus on the language they use when discussing LGBT+ issues. These resources will soon be available for everyone in our reception area, staff rooms and on our school website. Watch this space!

Life at school is all about preparing for the future. It is a time for setting goals for life ahead taking the necessary steps to achieve those goals, often encouraged by idols and role models in a chosen career path. Unfortunately, many members of the LGBT+ community struggle to find role models they can identify with as for decades people who identified as LGBT+ had to hide their identity out of fear of the law or social ridicule. With the help of Scottish charity Time for Inclusive Education we have been promoting LGBT+ advocates in a range of careers; politics, sports, sciences, and arts. Each week form tutors have been sharing the stories of pivotal people in LGBT+ history such as Maureen Coloquhoun, Billy Jean King, Alan Turing, and Sylvester James. Everyone should feel like they have someone like them to look up to, knowing they can pursue any career they want regardless of how they choose to identify.

Towards the end of Pride Month, in our extended form session, we will be sharing a TEDxYouth talk by Camelia Bui, a bilingual teenager who talks about inclusive language. LGBT+ rights have come so far in the last decade thanks to the advocates and activists promoting changes needed for a more inclusive society. In her talk Camelia speaks of the power language has to change our perspective and how language is pivotal to how we view ourselves, each other, and the world around us. She offers simple but practical tips for adapting your vocabulary to ensure you are inclusive of all genders.

One of the biggest rewards of working in education is empowering the next generation, to think for themselves and to challenge the status quo. Only through a more inclusive education can we shape a society that is fair and equal for all. As part of ensuring we are part of positive change for the LGBT+ community, we have recently secured a School Champion Membership with Stonewall UK and will be applying for their School Champion Award to have our hard work recognised. This will allow us to provide a wealth of resources to our school community and share some of the work we have been doing with other schools around the UK. If you have any questions about LGBT+ or are wanting to learn about what we are doing for inclusivity at Marple Hall School, please feel free get in touch with a member of our staff LGBT+ team. You can find their staff bios on our website along with details of how to contact them. Remember you are loved, and you have the freedom to love without judgement. But most of all remember to love yourself. You are beautiful and we accept you for who you are! We hope the work we do will help you on your way to being your authentic self and achieving your goals

Art Exhibition at Marple Station

The Art Department curated an exhibition of Year 11 art work at Marple Railway Station this week. You will find the display in the waiting room on platform 1. If you are travelling from the station you certainly don’t want to miss it, and well done to those Year 11 students whose work was selected!

Welcome to our new website!

We are pleased to welcome you to our new website.

We believe that our website should show you what we stand for as a school, our achievements and our vision for the future. With this update, we hope that we have reached that goal.

Our new site includes a new page devoted to our school’s ethos, The Marple Hall Spirit. Here, you can read about how we incorporate Determination, Honesty, Readiness, Respect, and Spark into everything we do.

You can also find our brand-new prospectus here, which gives a useful overview of our school for any prospective parents, pupils, or visitors.

We have worked with Concept4 to create the site, so take a look around!

MHS update 25-6-2021

Before I start properly today, a quick note to say that over the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out a new online communication system called EduLink. Over the coming months EduLink will merge together several other school systems making life easier for parents, students and staff. You may well receive a letter either today or in the next week or so. 

Ok – Covid concerns continue to dominate the education world at the moment – the radio chat on my morning commute these last two days has focussed on the rise in the number of students self-isolating across the country, largely due to being identified as close contacts in schools. You may well be aware of the debate as to whether this is still necessary as more and more of the country are double vaccinated, but the process at the moment is clear in that self-isolation for school aged children who are close contacts is essential.

Once again though I hold my breath and say that at the moment, MHS has escaped the worst of it. We have had two confirmed cases in the last three weeks that have led to groups isolating, which is fewer than many local schools have experienced in the last three days. We don’t take this for granted though and we know that things can change very quickly, and so I hope you’ll forgive me reinforcing three key messages in this blog before addressing another matter at the end.

1) Please can parents/carers ensure that students conduct lateral flow tests twice a week and report them on the government website. The tests can (and have) stopped cases coming into school, and the reporting may help us remove the risk that the government will ask us to reinstate mass testing in school. Mass testing would have a massive disruptive impact on teaching and learning at a time when our low cases means it isn’t necessary. You can read more on this here.

2) A reminder to check the guidance in the here if you’re not sure what to do regarding symptoms, lateral flow tests, PCR tests or isolating as a family. I appreciate that it’s complicated and we’re more than happy to answer any questions that families may have.

3) Although the list of students isolating is falling, here’s a reminder about the educational provision on offer when they do need to stay at home. I walk past many lessons a day and see numerous hybrid lessons going on, and percentage attendance at hybrid lessons has been increasing week on week.

Before the May half term it was tempting to think that Covid in school was a thing of the past. It wasn’t…but equally we’re not letting it dominate daily life either. I’m aware that my blogs are often Covid themed but it’s best for me to address these issues whilst the rest of the school gets on with the job of education.

Speaking of which, one thing that hit the headlines around Easter time were the reports of widespread peer on peer sexual harassment and abuse in some private schools in London. As you may have seen, it soon became clear that this is an issue in schools up and down the country. Harmful Sexual Behaviours (HSB) is something that we take very seriously at MHS, and I wanted to flag up a statement that the Chair of Governors and I have written recently on this important issue. You can access the statement on the main school website under the following tabs:

Best wishes

Joe Barker

Goodbye to the class of 2021

Farewell to a fabulous group of students

A bitter-sweet day on Tuesday this week as we said goodbye to another year group. Like last year’s cohort, our outgoing year 11s have been denied some of the rights of passage that mark the teenage years – the stress of the exams, the study leave, the prom. These events are important and sadly another group of students will go without. However, unlike last year we were able to lay on a few things to mark the occasion of the class of 2021 finishing high school. On the Friday afternoon before half term the ‘bubble’ that is the Year 11 cohort were able to spend some time in the canteen, saying goodbye and posing for an impromptu photo of roughly 280 students in one go. 

On Tuesday this week pretty much the whole cohort came back into school for the morning for a slightly altered version of our leavers morning. None but the essential staff were there to greet them (although they did manage to say goodbye via video), the celebration assembly was barely half as long as usual and the year 11s were kept apart from everyone else in school. Bubbled in their year group they got to have an hour of normality in what has been the most abnormal year – and then after 15 minutes of throwing foam into each other’s eyes they left MHS as a group for the very last time…until results day that is! Of course I’m sorry that we were not able to book a prom, but given the pause in lockdown lifting I have to say I think it was the right decision. Although not the same I hope that the two events we did manage to put on have at least part filled the gap. 

I’ll miss the class of 2021. All the way through their time at the school they were a hard-working, enthusiastic, respectful and fun group of students. I’ll remember them for their sense of purpose, their sense of right and wrong, and their incredible hard work through the endless cycle of assessments that formed the ‘Teacher Assessed Grades’ process. I was lucky enough to teach one class of them this year and couldn’t have been more impressed with their attitude and work ethic. It’s often said that ‘kids are resilient’ – well, if that means keeping your head up when the last 15 months of your secondary school education has been decimated by a worldwide pandemic, and then having to prove what you can do in every subject, every day, for weeks (or months), then I’d say our class of 2021 are well and truly resilient. 

As I said in my message to the class of 2021 on Tuesday – You have left our school a stronger, happier and more capable place than you found it. Thank you.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

Covid notice – repeated from last week

Although we haven’t had a case in school for over a week, a reminder that cases are rising and a number of students are isolating due to being contacts of people outside the MHS community. I therefore repeat my ‘what to do if’ message here:

How families and students can keep infections down to a minimum

I cannot stress how important it is that families and students stick to the following rules. It is the only way we can keep people safe and keep disruption to a minimum, especially where the need for contact tracing is avoidable.

1) If a student has any of the three main symptoms (New cough, fever or loss of sense of taste or smell): Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, keep the child off school and book a PCR test. Report the result to school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk and only send the child back to school if the test is negative

2) If anyone in the household has a positive coronavirus test or is waiting for a test result having had symptoms: The household should isolate and students should not come to school. Where a household positive result is received then inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk

3) If a student has a positive PCR result: Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, and only send the child back to school when the isolation period is over. Having a follow up negative test of any kind does not cut the period of isolation short.

4) If a student has a positive LFT: Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, keep the child off school and book a PCR test. Report the result to school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk and only send the child back to school if the test is negative. If it is positive, then having a follow up negative test of any kind does not cut the period of isolation short.

5) Students should continue to do LFTs twice a week. These are ONLY for people with no symptoms, if a child has symptoms then see point 1 above. If a child has a positive LFT then see point 4 above

6) If at any point a parent/carer is not sure what to do, please keep the child off school and contact us on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk. This email address is monitored constantly and we will get back to you asap.

I appreciate that the situation is complicated and so I am happy to keep repeating the above advice. The fact is that every Covid case in school disrupts children’s education, puts staff at risk and puts everyone’s families at risk too. Of the 31 cases we have had between September 2020 and now, more than a handful would have had no impact on school life had the 6 steps above been followed. I therefore urge everyone to be familiar with the guidance and above all ask us for advice if you’re not sure.

 

Marple Hall Welcomes Further Education Providers for Post-16 Options Evening

Tuesday 15th June saw Marple Hall’s first ever virtual Post 16 careers evening, which despite competing against Euro 2021 saw many parents and students logging in to listen to twelve of our local providers talk about the courses they offer. Mr Meredith & Miss Marney pre-recorded an introduction outlining the event and how to get the best out of careers advice and guidance at the school.

The local colleges taking part were:

  • Cheadle & Marple College         
  • Aquinas College              
  • Stockport College
  • The Manchester College             
  • Reaseheath College      
  • Buxton & Leek College 
  • Xaverian College
  • Clarendon
  • College
  • Ashton Sixth Form College
  • Juniper Training

Attendees were also given the opportunity to listen to an apprenticeship talk by Matt Leigh from the Greater Manchester Learning Partnership Network, as well being offered sessions on:

  • College Life by Cheadle & Marple College
  • How to make a college application by Aquinas College
  • An introduction to T levels by The Manchester Colllege
  • Preparing for university by GM Higher

Recordings of all the talks can be found in this document

Feedback from the event has been extremely positive both from our providers and parents:

The Manchester College:

“Thank you Marple Hall for inviting The Manchester College to run two sessions during your Post 16 Virtual Evening. It was a fantastic event which allowed students from years 9,10 & 11 and their parents and guardians to gather vital information regarding post 16 providers and the different types of courses available. It was particularly great to be asked to present ‘An Introduction to T Levels’. Getting the opportunity to share information about this exciting new qualification with students and parents/guardians of Marple Hall was a fantastic opportunity and we hope those who joined found the sessions useful and informative.”

Marple College:

“All went very well on the evening and one kind parent commented how our presentation on College Life was brilliant. Thank you!”

From parents:

“The evening was extremely useful. We especially liked being able to find out about what college life is like and how to make a college application. The later sessions were a really nice addition and answered lots of our questions”

“We found it really helpful and just wanted to say thank you. Everything worked well. There was a great format and we preferred it to in-person presentations. We now know which college open days we plan to attend and it also hopefully seems to have jolted my son into the reality of how close his GCSEs are.”

“There was a great range of colleges and providers available for us to choose from on the evening and its nice to know that they will be available for us to watch back using the recorded sessions. It was definitely an eye-opener and great to hear that there are so many amazing opportunities close by for my daughter to look into.”

Parents and students can find careers information at any time via our Careers page, or by contacting our Careers Coordinator, Miss Marney, at Jessica.marney@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk

MHS Update 11-6-2021

MHS Update 11-6-2021

On Monday I blogged mainly about how families can keep cases of Covid to a minimum in school, reducing the risk to others and the impact on education. I’ve copied the relevant information at the bottom of this blog too.

Today I’d like to remind everyone about the ‘remote offer’, by which I mean how we will provide education for students who are self-isolating due to covid. As a staff we are fully committed to ensuring that our young people isolating at home do not miss out, continue to thrive and can overcome any hurdles to learning. We are proud of our remote offer, designed as it is with staff workload in mind at the same time.

Before I get into the specifics, as a reminder a hybrid lesson is where the teacher teaches those students present in the classroom and those logging on from home at the same time. An unheard of skill a year ago! Hybrid Form times work in the same way, with students able to join their forms remotely in the morning. Hybrid lessons do take more planning and more teacher input that regular lessons, which is why not all lessons can be hybrid ones all of the time.

 

1) Full school or full year group closure

As you all know from January through to March, when we have a full school closure we can offer a 100% live lesson package. The same will be true if we have to close a full year group, and the ‘fully live’ curriculum would start from the second day of a full year group closure. On ‘day 1’ some staff might be able to offer live lessons, but if not then work will be provided on Satchel One.

 

2) Where the school asks students to self-isolate after being identified as close contacts of a positive case

We will offer a hybrid form time and one of the following for every lesson, starting on the first full day of absence:

a) Work on Satchel One

b) A mixture of a hybrid session for part of the lesson (often the first 10-15 minutes) and work on Satchel One for the remainder of the time

c) A full length hybrid lesson

We would aim for all but practical PE lessons to be at least part hybrid, bearing in mind the considerations below.

Also, please bear in mind that the teacher may have just finished a lesson immediately before a hybrid lesson starts. It can then take a few minutes before they commence the hybrid lesson, as their first priority will be greeting those students in school.

 

3) Where the student is isolating due to other reasons, eg contact of a case from outside of school or their household is isolating

As information on isolating students can come in at any time, it is not always possible for teachers to set up work on Satchel One/Hybrid lessons straight away. As well as hybrid form times, in all cases we will have one of the following up and running asap for each lesson:

a) Work on Satchel One

b) A mixture of a hybrid session for part of the lesson (often the first 15 minutes) and work on Satchel One for the remainder of the time

c) A full length hybrid lesson

Again, we would aim for all but practical PE lessons to be at least part hybrid, bearing in mind the considerations below.

Also, please bear in mind that the teacher may have just finished a lesson immediately before a hybrid lesson starts. It can then take a few minutes before they commence the hybrid lesson, as their first priority will be greeting those students in school.

 

Why cannot all lessons be ‘Hybrid’

I understand that it can be frustrating for students and families when they are expecting hybrid lessons, only to find work set on Satchel One instead. As I stated above, we have the ambitious aim of all but practical PE lessons to be at least in part ‘hybrid’, but I need to ask for understanding when this isn’t possible.

 

There can be numerous reasons why certain lessons are not hybrid:

1) The teacher may themselves be isolating and it is not always possible for them to deliver lessons online from home – although many are doing it with some impressive results. 

2) The lesson may be being taken by a cover teacher due to staff absence

3) Notice of the need for a hybrid lesson may have come in too late, which is more often the case when individual students are isolating. Hybrid lessons can take more planning and preparation than normal lessons

4) The lesson planned may not lend itself to be ‘hybrid’ although in these cases we would normally expect there to be at least some element of a hybrid lesson, where the teacher can speak to those at home for a time. This is most likely to be the case in other practical subjects such as music, drama, art and the technologies.

5) The teacher may be teaching in different rooms on the same day and may not have the right set-up for hybrid lessons

 

I have every confidence that the team will try hard to deliver the best remote learning offer that they can, I know that this week there have been many examples of fantastic hybrid lessons taking place for the c.50 students isolating at home, and I thank my colleagues for rising to the challenge yet again.

 

Finally, here are the guides for how to access the remote learning package:

Technical support FAQs

Teams quick start guide – MAC/PC

Teams quick start guide – PHONE

If your child cannot access any of the remote learning for any reason, please inform their Head of Year asap and we will see what we can do to help.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

 

 

From my last blog:

How families and students can keep infections down to a minimum

I cannot stress how important it is that families and students stick to the following rules. It is the only way we can keep people safe and keep disruption to a minimum, especially where the need for contact tracing is avoidable.

1) If a student has any of the three main symptoms (New cough, fever or loss of sense of taste or smell): Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, keep the child off school and book a PCR test. Report the result to school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk and only send the child back to school if the test is negative

2) If anyone in the household has a positive coronavirus test or is waiting for a test result having had symptoms: The household should isolate and students should not come to school. Where a household positive result is received then inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk

3) If a student has a positive PCR result: Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, and only send the child back to school when the isolation period is over. Having a follow up negative test of any kind does not cut the period of isolation short.

4) If a student has a positive LFT: Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, keep the child off school and book a PCR test. Report the result to school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk and only send the child back to school if the test is negative. If it is positive, then having a follow up negative test of any kind does not cut the period of isolation short.

5) Students should continue to do LFTs twice a week. These are ONLY for people with no symptoms, if a child has symptoms then see point 1 above. If a child has a positive LFT then see point 4 above

6) If at any point a parent/carer is not sure what to do, please keep the child off school and contact us on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk. This email address is monitored constantly and we will get back to you asap.

 

I appreciate that the situation is complicated and so I am happy to keep repeating the above advice. The fact is that every Covid case in school disrupts children’s education, puts staff at risk and puts everyone’s families at risk too. Of the 31 cases we have had between September 2020 and now, more than a handful would have had no impact on school life had the 6 steps above been followed. I therefore urge everyone to be familiar with the guidance and above all ask us for advice if you’re not sure.

MHS update 7-6-2021

MHS update 7-6-2021

A ‘bonus’ blog today, but not for the best of reasons. 10 days ago I wrote my ‘end of term’ blog genuinely convinced that we had seen the last of Covid disruption in school. By that point we’d had 11 weeks since a confirmed case leading to groups having to isolate, and I was looking forward to a very positive summer half term where we could make some real progress and then start again strongly in September. But then….

The spike in cases that had been limited to Bolton/Blackburn has moved to Stockport. The rate is rising quickly and all secondary schools I have heard from have reported cases over the half term break, MHS included.

As it stands we have had five positive cases reported in the last week leading to three groups of students isolating, numerous instances of students self-isolating as they are themselves contacts of non-MHS cases and a number of staff are having to do the same. Given we only had 26 cases from September 2020 to March 2021, five in a week over a half term break is a big jump and perhaps a sign that the new variant is very infectious.

I therefore think it is reasonable to state that Covid is back and we may well face disruption again this half term. Of course it may be that now the more vulnerable members of society are protected the Government may look to change what happens when cases are reported in school. But, at the moment there is no change to what we have to do and so we have to be prepared for the worst.

 

How families and students can keep infections down to a minimum

I cannot stress how important it is that families and students stick to the following rules. It is the only way we can keep people safe and keep disruption to a minimum, especially where the need for contact tracing is avoidable.

1) If a student has any of the three main symptoms (New cough, fever or loss of sense of taste or smell): Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, keep the child off school and book a PCR test. Report the result to school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk and only send the child back to school if the test is negative

2) If anyone in the household has a positive coronavirus test or is waiting for a test result having had symptoms: The household should isolate and students should not come to school. Where a household positive result is received then inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk

3) If a student has a positive PCR result: Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, and only send the child back to school when the isolation period is over. Having a follow up negative test of any kind does not cut the period of isolation short.

4) If a student has a positive LFT: Inform school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk immediately, keep the child off school and book a PCR test. Report the result to school on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk and only send the child back to school if the test is negative. If it is positive, then having a follow up negative test of any kind does not cut the period of isolation short.

5) Students should continue to do LFTs twice a week. These are ONLY for people with no symptoms, if a child has symptoms then see point 1 above. If a child has a positive LFT then see point 4 above

6) If at any point a parent/carer is not sure what to do, please keep the child off school and contact us on covid@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk. This email address is monitored constantly and we will get back to you asap.

 

I appreciate that the situation is complicated and so I am happy to keep repeating the above advice. The fact is that every Covid case in school disrupts children’s education, puts staff at risk and puts everyone’s families at risk too. Of the 31 cases we have had between September 2020 and now, more than a handful would have had no impact on school life had the 6 steps above been followed. I therefore urge everyone to be familiar with the guidance and above all ask us for advice if you’re not sure.

 

School actions when cases are reported:

  • If a positive PCR test result is reported during the school day, school staff will seek to contact trace immediately. Close contacts will be identified, parents informed and the students asked to leave site and isolate for the given period. School will put in place hybrid lessons via teams as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours of the isolation period starting. Where hybrid lessons are not in place then work will be provided on Satchel One.
  • If a positive Lateral Flow Test (LFT) result is reported during the school day, school staff will seek to contact trace immediately. The same process will take place as above, but if the initial person who had the positive LFT then has a negative PCR result the whole group will be able to come back to school immediately. This is because a positive LFT result on its own is not secure enough and needs to be confirmed by a PCR.
  • If a positive case is reported outside of school hours then we will most likely have to ask the year group to stay at home the following day whilst contact tracing takes place. This is because we cannot accurately contact trace remotely and so all potential contacts must stay at home while the tracing is complete.

Best wishes

Joe Barker

FIND US
Marple Hall School
Hill Top Drive
Marple
Stockport SK6 6LB Headteacher: Mr Joe Barker
CONTACT US
Tel: 0161 427 7966
Fax: 0161 426 0931
Email: info@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk
Safeguarding: safeguarding@marplehall.stockport.sch.uk