After a very successful first showing last year, the very popular ‘Have Christmas on Us’ attendance initiative returns for another year.

I’ve mentioned many times how important good levels of attendance is for a young person’s education. On a par with reading for pleasure, good attendance at school is the best way to maximise learning and enjoyment in school, and therefore it’s something that we take very seriously at MHS. So seriously in fact, that despite being very short of it, we are prepared to put our money where our mouth is. The initiative includes some genuinely helpful prizes aimed at families rather than the students themselves.

To qualify for the prize draws that will take place at the end of the day on Thursday 19th December, a student just needs to attend every day in December. That’s 14 days in total. Not only will that do wonders for their attendance record and their progress in school, but they will have the chance of winning the following prizes for their year groups:

Top prize: A £50 voucher per year group

Runners up prizes: Three £10 vouchers per year group

Last year this initiative helped MHS students attend at a rate well above the national average for the month of December, and we’re hoping to do even better this year.

Here’s to a very strong 14 days.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

ps a reminder that we are IN SCHOOL on Friday 20th December as well, periods 1-3, and finish for Christmas at 12.20pm

We spend a lot of time talking to students about reading, and I dedicate quite a bit of time on this blog to the subject too. We know that reading is one of the most impactful things that a person can do to improve their level of education, and that’s why we promote it so much. It’s a shame that the age that reading can make the most difference – childhood – is also a time when other distractions can be more attractive. But, we know that young people who read well achieve well in exams, and so we’ll carry on promoting reading as much as we can.

Last week we were thrilled to welcome renowned children’s author Onjali Q. Raúf in to school to speak to all of Year 7 and forty students in Year 8. Onjali’s recent book ‘The letter with the Golden Stamp’ is a fantastic story and one that students love, and so it was great to be able to hear from Onjali herself about what inspired her to write it, and her love of reading. It was also fantastic to see students queuing up to get their copies of the book signed!

Also on the theme of reading, I’d like to give a mention this week to the work of the History Department and their unique way of teaching the Holocaust. For a couple of years now the topic has been taught entirely through the reading of five ‘My Voice’ stories. The My Voice project has gathered together the testimony of Holocaust survivors who later made their new lives in the North West of England, and published the works for future generations to read. Our year nine students have absolutely loved reading these life stories, engaging directly with the survivors and even meeting some of them face to face in Bradshaw Hall. Last week Sarah Fern, Head of History, was invited to speak at a wonderful event at the John Rylands library in Manchester. She did a superb job, and you can watch her in action here. If we needed to be reminded of the power of stories then this is it.

Have a great weekend all and keep reading!

Joe Barker

ps My blog from now on will include some safeguarding updates that parents may find useful, we hope there’s something of interest to you.

Last week I mentioned that I hadn’t yet seen the annual school production, which this year was ‘Collected Grimm Tales’, and so it would feature in this week’s blog instead.

We’re very fortunate as a school that we have such a dedicated team of staff who are willing to put on a school production each year, and for many years that production has been a musical type show. ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Bugsy’, ‘Annie’….that kind of event. This year, for the first time in a long time, the staff opted for a play rather then a musical. The change was in my opinion well worth it, as it gave staff and students a different set of challenges to overcome. By selecting a range of fairy tales by the brothers Grimm, we were able to include a huge cast working in different performance troupes, each directed by a different member of staff. This clever approach maximised the number of students involved, leading to (I think) the largest ever cast with speaking parts that we’ve ever had.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show last week and it was great to see the hall completely full. The lighting, set design, costumes and music really added to the magical atmosphere, and showcased the students’ work very effectively. Not only that but the variety of performance on show was fantastic, incorporating puppetry, shadow work and dance. As usual we were able to also put on a couple of matinee performances for local primary school pupils, and we were thrilled with the following feedback:

We wanted to take the time to send this email to thank you for inviting us to watch Grimm’s Tales yesterday afternoon. Our children absolutely loved the performance and particularly enjoyed seeing children that had previously attended Rose Hill. In the words of one Year six pupil: ‘I loved how everything was so clear and you could really tell what was happening because of the way that we were sat. I thought the music was beautiful.‘

So, well done to everyone involved – young and less young – it was a great show and one that you should all be very proud of.

Here’s to next year!

Thanks,

Joe Barker

It’s school production week this week, and I usually reserve my blog to write about the performance and to thank everyone involved. However, I’m yet to see the Collected Grimm Tales as I’m seeing it on Friday night, so more on this next time.

Instead this week I’ll blog about another area where students can contribute to school life – student leadership. Our school is full of leaders of all ages, and we witness informal acts of leadership by students on a daily basis. Leaders in the classroom, leaders during social times and those who defend the ethos of our school both on and off the premises. However, for over a decade now we have also formalised student leadership opportunities in a number of ways.

This week, Head girl Rachel and Head boy Freddie have been speaking to all students in Years 7 to 10 about the new range of leadership options open to them. Supported by Mrs Wilson and other fellow students, Rachel and Freddie confidently outlined a whole range of ways students can get involved:

Spark leaders will be those students who lead on any kind of extra curricular activities, be they sporting, creative, performing, activist or anything else!

Form ambassadors will represent the views of their form, and take part in recruitment days for new members of staff.

Transition leaders will support incoming Year Seven cohorts and they make the move from primary to secondary school.

And finally the Head Girl and Boy will lead the student body, co-ordinate the work of other student leaders and work directly with staff leaders too.

As Rachel and Freddie said so clearly during the assemblies, there is something for everyone here and taking part in student leadership enables a person to grow in so many ways. It’s the old adage – the more you put in, the more you get out. I’d encourage every student to look out for leadership roles when they are advertised and to get involved!

Best wishes,

Joe Barker