Over the past few weeks our Year 7-10 school community have been taking part in a big charity event, raising money for The Wellspring. This is a local charity supporting people who are homeless or at risk of losing their home, and we’re very proud to be helping them do their brilliant work. More details are available at The Wellspring | Charity for Homeless

The challenge involves each year group cycling a quarter of the way from Marple to Madrid in one day, on exercise bikes, over four days. The daily target of 300 miles would see us reach the 1200 mile target by the end of today, Friday. As I’m writing this on Friday morning years 7, 8 and 9 have already exceeded expectations and the current total cycled stands at 1048. Year 10 therefore just need to finish the job today, although I’m sure they won’t be taking it easy and will smash well past the final goal.

However, in order for a form to be able to put forward their cyclists, they had to raise at least £50 for the charity pot. This led to all sorts of fund raising ideas with cake sales galore, raffles, sponsored silences and much more. The highest individual fundraising effort was from a Year 7 student George who raised £120 on his own selling his cakes outside of school, and the most prolific form was Miss Swift’s form, who together raised a staggering £357 (and still counting)!

In total the school community has at the moment raised £2652 with more donations still coming in. Not only that, but the cycling challenge has gone brilliantly with lots of positivity and teamwork on show. Obviously though the 500 meters I chipped in at the start on Tuesday made all the difference….

It’s been great watching the creativity and drive on show from the school community, and I’d like to thank Mrs Wilson and the student leaders for making this happen. Well done to everyone involved.

Have a great weekend,

Joe Barker

It’s the day before the February half term break, meaning that we have successfully made the sometimes challenging leap from Christmas to very early spring. We managed to stay open during some wintery weather in January, and many students and their families have overcome several bus related problems. Fingers crossed we can put both weather and transport issues behind us for a while now.

Over the past three weeks our year 11 cohort, plus those students doing exams in Year 9, have all completed a set of trial exams. These are as close to the ‘real thing’ as our students will get before the summer, and aside from the outside temperatures the experience is very similar. At the moment teachers are working hard marking the exams, and then will come the very important feedback which will hopefully help make a difference for the next time around. I know from speaking to colleagues that our class of 2025 have given the trial exams a really good go, which is great to see. Well done to them, and huge thanks to the staff who will no doubt be giving up much of the week to come marking the exam papers.

The temptation I suppose could then be for exam students to have a bit of a break over half term. After all, that would be a natural response to a full-on three weeks. However, I’d argue that to do so would be a mistake. To reach their potential, any student needs to put in some additional effort at home. Just working in school and completing basic homework will get them so far, but independent revision is essential for anyone who wants to achieve the best possible grade. After all, the UK grading system means that only a certain number of students can achieve any given grade per subject. We’ve shared loads of advice with students about what and how to revise, and how to strike a positive and productive balance between working hard and relaxing. Therefore I hope that all our exam candidates can seize the opportunity that half term brings, and come back both refreshed AND having done some great revision.

Wishing everyone a good week,

Joe Barker

I don’t really care about Ofsted. There you go, I’ve said it. Actually I’ve said it a lot, and at least 36 times times in public, starting with once during each of the three speeches I have given on the twelve Open Evenings I have hosted as Headteacher of Marple Hall School.

I mean it too.

Ofsted is an important part of the educational landscape, it does an important job and I think that schools in general would be worse without it. My now very elderly dad was a teacher in the days before Ofsted and he used to tell me stories of the poor stuff that happened all the time. It sounds fun, but not good. Therefore I’m glad we have accountability as school leaders and I welcome it. But…I don’t worry about it. I don’t let it drive what I do, I try very hard to make sure I don’t compromise what we believe in just because of Ofsted, and I try even harder to make sure that any pressure of inspections doesn’t filter down to our colleagues. I consider that to be an important part of my job and one that means that we can all get on with what matters, which is providing a good quality education for the young people of this area.

I guess because of this I didn’t really mind the soon to be ‘old’ version of Ofsted that is due to change in the Autumn. But, change is coming and that’s fine too. There’s a consultation on the plans out now, and so this blog is just to advertise the fact that colleagues, parents and carers are also being asked to contribute. If you fancy having your say then the link is here.

Have a good weekend,

Joe Barker

ps TfGM are listening, the buses are better but not yet quite good enough. Thank you to everyone who has helped us to make the necessary points to those in charge.