A quick check of the news just now has confirmed that the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, is to meet with the four main teaching and school leader unions next week. After four days of strike action over the past few weeks, the talks are a sign that hopefully a compromise may be reached without any further strikes. As I have mentioned before, I support the right of staff to strike and I share their concerns over an education system that has failed to recruit enough trainee teachers year after year after year. The country needs teachers and school based support staff, needs them to be happy and fulfilled in their role and – most of all – needs them to stick at it for a long time. Hopefully the discussions will bear fruit and there won’t be any more disruption to learning for the remainder of the year.

In other news, this week our Governing body discussed the recently closed consultation on whether MHS should apply to become an academy alongside our partner school, Romiley Primary. The consultation was a positive experience and although not all the responders agreed with the proposal, others did and in either case there was often a healthy and productive discussion. The MHS Governing body formally approved the consultation document on Monday, and so we can now proceed with the application process. This does not mean that academisation is a done deal, and there is in fact still a lot of work to do, but hopefully we are one step closer.

Have a great weekend,

Joe Barker

Dear Parent/Carer,

I am writing to you to share information about the next planned teacher strikes on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March 2023. As I have explained in previous blogs, these strikes are not action against the school but are instead about concerns over teachers’ pay and the overall funding for schools, which is damaging to every child’s education and leading to challenges recruiting and retaining school staff. These issues affect MHS as much as they do all schools.

Arrangements for both Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March are as follows:

Year 11

1. Students in Year 11 will be expected in school for a normal school day. Thursday will start with the planned ‘trial exam results’ assembly which is very important.
2. Roughly 60% of lessons will take place as normal, and so students should be prepared with the right books and equipment.
3. Where teachers are not available students will take part in supervised independent study.
4. Many students have a practical PE lesson that day. Students will need to choose whether to take part in some physical activity OR study in the hall, and bring the right equipment for their choice.
5. On Wednesday 15th March there will be a formal exam for students in Miss Worsley’s RSL Drama class. This is compulsory and not optional, all students in the class must attend school for the full day. Please see details on a letter here.

Years 7-10

1. School will be closed for students in Years 7-10, unless a place is requested under the provision for vulnerable learners. See below for more details.
2. On Thursday 16th March there will be a formal exam for students in Miss Worsley’s Year 10 RSL Drama class. This is compulsory and not optional, all students in the class must attend school for the full day. Please see details on a letter here.
3. Students not in school will be provided with work to undertake at home. This is slightly different to the previous strike and will consist of either:

Links to online platforms (as per the previous strike day), OR specific work for their class set on Satchel One, OR Teams lessons lasting between 30 and 50 minutes. Where the class teacher is not on strike, every lesson will begin with at least a short online Teams session where the tasks for the class will be explained by the teacher. This is different to the last strike.

The offer will differ per lesson per student depending on whether their teacher is striking or not striking and available. A letter explaining the offer and how to access it can be seen here.

Vulnerable Learners

We may be able to provide accommodation for the most vulnerable learners on the day of the strike. If you believe that your child meets this criteria and wish to book a place, then please follow the link here.

The deadline for letting school know is midday on Monday 13th March.

Free school meals

The parents or carers of any child who normally receives a benefits-related Free School Meal, who will not be in school on 15th or 16th March should also follow the link below and complete the final question of the form if a meal is required. These meals will be available for collection before the end of the day on Tuesday 14th March from Bradshaw canteen. Only pre-booked meals, via the form, will be available. The deadline for letting school know is midday on Monday 13th March.

The form for requesting a meal is here, please see final question.

I hope that this information above is helpful and of course, if anything changes, we will let you know.

Best wishes

Joe Barker

One of the most important things that society can do for a child is to teach them to read and inspire them to actually do it.

Schools have always had a huge part to play in helping students to become readers, but I would probably say that until a couple of years ago the focus was more on primary schools than secondaries. We had always helped individuals who struggled with the basics, but to some extent our work on encouraging all students to read often and widely was more limited. Thankfully that has changed, and here at MHS we are well on our way to bringing about a ‘Reading Revolution’ at our school. I’ve blogged about why reading matters so much earlier this year, and if you’re interested then the blog is here. We have massively ramped up individual support for students who haven’t yet mastered reading, embedded literacy teaching into every single subject area (ask your child about what vocabulary they have learnt in different subjects) and have really raised the bar on encouraging students to read for pleasure. Lots of work still to do, but it’s great.

Yesterday (Thursday) was World Book Day, and as such there was no better time to encourage students to pick up a new book and give it a go. The theme for the day was to introduce students to five of our ’16 before 16′ novels, a carefully selected group of twenty novels that we think all students would benefit from reading. The challenge is to complete sixteen of them before the end of Year 11, and if they do then we think their vocabulary, confidence and cultural understanding will really flourish. In yesterday’s event teachers introduced their classes to five different novels, reading an extract and discussing the theme of the different stories. By the end of the day itself the Hub leader, Mrs Goodall, was inundated with requests for copies of the books and so it clearly worked!

If parents/carer would like some support on how to encourage reluctant readers to get back in the habit, then you may find some good ideas and resources here.

Finally, advance warning that there are another two days of national strike action on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March. It is too early to say what the impact will be as of yet, but parents of students in all year groups should be prepared in case should some or all year groups have to close.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

The half term break next week means that the next day of industrial action by the NEU, scheduled for 28th Feb, will come round very quickly indeed. Therefore I am using this blog to outline plans for the day in order to give families as much notice as possible about disruption to normal routines. As ever, I am grateful to my colleagues for sharing what they plan to do so we can avoid unnecessary problems on ‘strike day’ itself. I am aware that there is still time for the strikes to be called off, and if they are then all this planning won’t have been necessary, but better to be prepared!

Arrangements for Tuesday 28th February

Year 11

1. Students in Year 11 will be expected in school for a normal school day. The day will start with assembly as usual, followed by the regular ‘Blue Tuesday’ timetable.
2. Roughly 66% of lessons will take place as normal, and so students should be prepared with the right books and equipment
3. Where teachers are not available students will take part in supervised independent study.
4. Any practical PE lessons on the timetable for that day will take place including for Sports Studies.

Years 7-10

1. School will be closed for students in Years 7-10, unless a place is requested under the provision for vulnerable learners. See below for more details.
2. Students not in school will be provided with work to undertake at home. This is slightly different to the previous strike and will consist of either:

Links to online platforms (as per the previous strike day), OR specific work for their class set on Satchel One, OR Teams lessons lasting between 30 and 50 minutes.

The offer will differ per lesson per student depending on whether their teacher is striking or not striking and available. A letter explaining the offer and how to access it can be seen here.

Vulnerable Learners

We will be able to provide accommodation for the most vulnerable learners on the day of the strike. If you believe that your child meets this criteria and wish to book a place, then please follow the link HERE. The deadline for letting school know is midday on Friday 24th February

Students will attend normal lessons where their teacher is in school, and will be supervised to do independent work where their teacher is absent.

Free school meals

The parents or carers of any child who normally receives a benefits-related Free School Meal, who will not be in school on 28th February, should also follow this link and complete the final question of the form if a meal is required. These meals will be available for collection before the end of the day on Monday 27th February from Bradshaw canteen. Only pre-booked meals, via the form, will be available. The deadline for letting school know is midday on Friday 24th February

I hope that this information above is helpful and of course, if anything changes, we will let you know.

Thanks

Joe Barker

This blog is largely aimed at those connected to students in Years 7 and 8, but hopefully the message is relevant to everyone. There’s also a little update on ‘Industrial Action’ at the end too.

This week in assemblies, following on from the very important Children’s Mental Health week messages, Mrs Osgood has spoken to Year 7 and Year 8 about the extra curricular offer in school. Mr Osgood is our Head of Drama and is also leading on the ‘extra curricular revival’ after covid, and like me he is really keen to encourage students to try out different extra curricular clubs and activities. We have a really good range of things that students can do at lunchtimes and after school, from sport to performance to games and hobbies. There’s a huge choice and it’s growing all the time. I was really encouraged in the Year 8 assembly to see that about half of the students responded ‘yes’ to Mr Osgood when he asked if they had attended at least one club or activity this year. That’s not bad…but we’d love it to be more!

To encourage our younger students to give something new a try, Mr Osgood launched the Try Three Challenge. Every student was given a simple loyalty card style piece of card, and was asked to try three activities between now and Easter. Students who get three signatures from three different things will be entered for a prize draw in the celebration assembly at the end of term. Sounds pretty good to me! Of course extra curricular activities are open to all students, and many do take part in Year 9-11, but hopefully by getting into good habits now our Year 7 and 8 students can embrace the offer and carry on for the rest of their time at the school.

Finally, as promised, a little word on upcoming industrial action. The next NEU strike is due to take place on 28th February, which is the first Tuesday back after our half term break. A lot can change between now and then, but I wanted to give families as much notice as possible that if things play out like they did on 1st February, it is highly likely that school will be closed for Years 7-10. I will confirm more when I can.

Thanks

Joe Barker

In my blog this week I’d like to promote a very important piece of work being run by the Beacon Counselling service across Stockport. Good mental health is so important when it comes to helping children learn, but often young people are unaware of how they themselves can improve their own mental health. I have spoken to many children over the years who seem to accept that having poor mental health is simply ‘who they are’, but I firmly believe that everyone can take steps to make their mental wellbeing that little bit better.

MHS are therefore proud to be supporting the Stockport-wide mental health week campaign by providing a venue and some of the stands at the ‘In person event’ as advertised on the poster below. Our Isherwood canteen will be hosting the event where attendees can speak to a wide range of providers and groups, all with the shared goal of promoting good mental health within Stockport. You don’t have to be part of the MHS community to attend, all are welcome. Just make sure you book a place as it’s likely to be popular.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

Dear Parent/Carer,

I am writing to you to share information about the planned teacher strikes over the next couple of months. As you may know from the national media, the National Education Union (NEU) has announced strike action in the North West and England on the following dates: 1 February; 28 February; and 15 and 16 March 2023. This is not action against the school but is about concerns over teachers’ pay and the overall funding for schools, which is damaging to every child’s education and leading to challenges recruiting and retaining school staff. These issues affect MHS as much as they do all schools.

I am writing to share the school’s plans, so far, for operating safely and sensibly on the first strike day of Wednesday, 1 February.  As a headteacher I have carefully considered all the information I have available for our school and whether I can open school safely either to some or all of our children.   What follows is the description of how we will be operating on February 1^st.  The position for each school will be different so our arrangements may well differ from those of other schools.

Please be assured that there is a full risk assessment in place which looks at contingency plans for the school.

In our school the arrangements will be as follows:

1) The school will be closed to students in years 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Remote learning will not be available on the day of the strike. The school will provide some suggested work that students can complete independently via satchel one, and we encourage all learners to spend some time reading. Reading is hugely beneficial to all learners and we recommend learners take the opportunity to read. All of our students can access over 1250 ebooks and 500 audio books free on our ‘Hub online’ which is accessed via the school website.

2) The school will be fully open to all students in year 11.

The whole year group has two trial exams that day, and we are confident we can safely supervise the students who may have no teacher for the lessons in between. Students should attend as normal in full school uniform, and should bring suitable revision materials in case they have a lesson with no direct teaching.

Whilst the plans may change right up to the day of the strike itself, we are very confident we can manage the plan below even if more than expected staff are absent.

We will be able to provide accommodation for the most vulnerable learners on the day of the strike. If you believe that your child meets this criteria and wish to book a place, then please follow the link here. *Updated 31-1-2023: the deadline for requesting a place has now passed*

Students will attend normal lessons where their teacher is in school, and will be supervised to do independent work where their teacher is absent.

Also, the parents of any child who normally receives a benefits-related Free School Meal, who will not be in school on 1^st February, should also follow this link and complete the final question of the form if a meal is required. These meals will be available for collection before the end of the day on Tuesday 31^st January from Bradshaw canteen. Only pre-booked meals, via the form, will be available. *Updated 31-1-2023: the deadline for requesting a meal has now passed*

As arrangements can only be provisional at this stage, any further changes will be communicated via the edulink app and posted on the ‘news’ section of the school website.

We will of course be re-visiting our plans as we approach the second day of strike action.  I will continue to keep you informed about future decisions.

I thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

Headteacher

My blog this week consists of four short updates:

Academisation consultation reminder

A reminder that we are in the middle of our consultation into whether MHS should convert to academy status, and to form a Multi Academy Trust with Romiley Primary School. Details of the proposal, and how to respond, can be found here. So far we have had some very thought provoking discussions with people either in person over email, and more opinions are definitely welcome.

The next milestone for the class of 2023

Our Year 11s are a week away from the next big step in their journey to the GCSE exam season – the trial exams. These are a really important stage of a student’s final year at school and we are confident that students are taking them seriously. Hard work now pays off not just for the trial exams, but for the real thing too. Good luck!

‘It’s not Ok’

Next week we are embarking on an important but potentially controversial initiative in school to raise awareness of the issues of harmful sexual behaviour, misogyny and sexual abuse. The initiative is named ‘It’s not ok’, a simple but powerful statement that we will not tolerate sexual harassment in any form, from anyone to anyone, and that we will empower people to be brave and call out any inappropriate behaviour. At the same time, we will endeavour to educate young people on the toxic side of high-profile influencers such as Andrew Tate. We are aware that these may be concerning issues to parents and families, so please get in touch if you have any worries.

Potential strike action

One of the main teaching unions, the NEU, has voted for strike action on four days – 1^st Feb, 28^th Feb, 15^th March and 16^th March. Not all our teachers are members of the NEU, but some are and some colleagues may well decide to take strike action. I do not yet know what impact this action will have on school, but I am actively working on the different scenarios and hope to be able to communicate with families well in advance of the strike day so that you know what is happening. However, it is important to note that the situation can change right up to the day of the strike itself, and so some last minute decision may have to be made. Finally, please don’t make any assumptions about what may happen here based on what you hear from other schools. Some schools have no members of the NEU on their staff and so will already be able to announce that it will be ‘business as usual’, others have many members and may be able to announce early that their school or certain year groups will not be able to attend. At MHS we are somewhere in the middle, and so working out the exact plan will take more time.

Have a good weekend,

Joe

Welcome back, I hope you all had a fantastic festive break and New Year.

It was great to spend some time with the parents and carers of our Year 11 cohort last night at parents evening. As a class teacher I always appreciate the chance to speak to parents/carers in private about how students are doing, and it’s brilliant when everyone is so clearly pulling in the same direction. Year 11 are shaping up well and have the potential to achieve very highly in the summer exams, and of course we will be there supporting them as best we possibly can.

I thought I’d use the opportunity of this blog to cover a few of the questions that have come back in following the launch of our academisation consultation on Monday. These questions have come from various sources including parents, staff and students – and there is no such thing as a silly question!

I hope they help,

Thanks

Joe

1) Is it the case that only failing schools become academies?

When modern academies were first created before 2010, they were indeed for those schools that were deemed to be failing. However, for the past decade or more any school has been able to convert to academy status should they wish to. For example the majority of secondary schools have now done so (the proportion is 80%), including some of the very best schools in the country. The majority of schools who convert do so voluntarily and from a position of strength, which is the case here. Marple Hall School and Romiley Primary School are both solidly ‘good’ schools according to Ofsted, with strong educational outcomes in both schools in recent years.

2) Will the school lose autonomy?

At the moment the school is officially controlled by the Local Authority in Stockport, but in reality we are very independent. However should MHS join another, existing Multi Academy Trust, then the school may well lose a lot of that autonomy. Therefore by forming our own MAT we ensure we retain independence and the ability to make our own decisions, and in fact will gain even more independence than before.

3) Will the school name and/or uniform change?

No, not at all. This is the benefit of forming our own MAT alongside Romiley Primary School. Both schools will retain their unique features, they will keep the current uniform and the school name

4) Will the schools get more money?

Yes, and no, at the same time! No because the amount of funding allocated per pupil at each school won’t change. We’ll get the same funds compared to what we would have done as a Local Authority school. However, we will be able to negotiate our own contracts for products and services, and we know from the past decade of already doing this that we can often find better services and cheaper prices than are available through the LA. Also, as an academy, we will be eligible to access more money to improve our buildings and grounds than is open to LA schools. At the moment we have to use some of our base funding to fix issues with the site and buildings, and so by accessing other pots of money for this we will be able to spend more on educating the students. So, even though per pupil funding will not rise, we may well have more to spend as a school overall.

5) Why haven’t other primary schools been asked to join?

We’re keen to work with all local primary schools and would be happy to have conversations with headteachers and governors. We respect that every school has its own decision to make about academisation between now and 2030 (when all schools are, in theory, supposed to have converted) but we’re happy to speak to all local schools when convenient to them.

There’s a lot that I don’t know about education, but amongst some of the things I do know is this. The more a student attends school, the better they do. Fact.

This fact has been known for a long time. As the data around schools and performance gets more and more sophisticated, the evidence for the impact of attendance vs absence grows clearer and clearer. As I explained to Year 11 in September, the single most important thing that they can do to maximise their progress is to turn up every day. When a student is not here but the rest of the class is present, then the absent student cannot help but fall behind. Many can catch up to a degree, especially as teachers now often share work with those who are off, but the impact of regularly missing lessons soon builds up.

Nationally school attendance has never recovered after Covid back to where it was in 2019. At MHS we’re tracking comfortably ahead of the national data, but even so we’re keen to ensure that all students attend as much as they can. A day here or there DOES matter, it does add up and it definitely has an impact.

Our Christmas holiday starts much later than most schools and so we still have a week to go. Last week, we were 4 full percentage points above the national average (which in attendance terms is a huge amount) and I want that trend to continue right to the end of term. Just to make it clear, next week your children can expect proper lessons, real work and no ‘fluff’ activities such as watching Christmas films. We don’t do that here. There may be a collective Christmas activity or two laid on by the school but these will be enriching and purposeful, within a week that will be largely focused on proper learning. So, if your son or daughter says ‘but they’ll just be watching videos…’ then you can confidently tell them that we won’t!

There won’t be a blog next week so I’ll end by saying thank you for all your support this term, I wish you a restful holiday and a Happy New Year.

Best wishes

Joe Barker