Last week I mentioned how our Year 11 cohort have really risen to the challenge of the Trial Exams, both in terms of their efforts in the exams themselves and in their attendance too. More broadly, there’s really positive news about attendance overall. Whilst attendance tends to go up and down over a school year, often starting high at the start of a term and then dropping off, at MHS we’ve been bucking that trend recently. Not only were the last couple of weeks before Christmas really strong, but the first three weeks of the new year have been very positive too and improving week by week. To be a percentage point above the national rate doesn’t sound like much, but in attendance terms it is and we’ve been at that level for most of the year since September. However this term MHS attendance is rising, with the school almost a full three percentage points above national rates last week – and over five points above in one year group. That’s massive! Also, the percentage of students classed as persistently absent (with an attendance of under 90% across the year to date) is over 6% points below other secondary schools. We’re not complacent though, and there are definitely areas that we need to work on, but we should also recognise positives where they exist.

Well done to everyone who is contributing to this excellent and very encouraging picture. And it’s not just those with 100% or nearly 100% attendance who deserve the credit – well done to all those who have struggled with attendance and who have managed to improve recently. That’s just as important and just as significant. If we can keep this up then EVERYONE WINS, so fingers crossed. If the key to success in school is to ‘Turn up and read’ (and it really is) then more and more MHS students are at least half way there.

One week to go until half term, let’s make it a good one. Turn up and read!

Have a great weekend,

Joe Barker

Firstly, thank you to everyone who came to the Year 9 Options and Parents evening last night. Great to see so many students, parents and carers hearing feedback from core subject teachers, and of course speaking to the teachers of every other subject to help with options choices for next year. Thanks also to all my colleagues for making the event a success.

Turn up and read. That’s the phrase/message that I have been sharing a lot this year – in assemblies, in lessons, on this blog. Good rates of attendance and good habits with reading (especially fiction) are the two surest signs that a child will do well in school. Turn up and read, turn up and read, turn up and read.

However I’d like to add to this core message, thanks to an assembly delivered by Mr Osgood and Miss Ditchfield this week. Mr Osgood, along with Miss Ditchfield and Miss Griffies, are currently leading on the development and promotion of our whole school extra curricular offer. As Mr Osgood eloquently said in assembly, turning up and reading are absolutely key to a student doing well in school. But, taking part in some form of extra curricular activity as well really helps a child to excel. Taking part in extra curricular activities helps to build resilience, teamwork, determination and communication skills. It can help a person develop new skills and confidence, boost their sense of wellbeing and make them feel more connected to school and the school community. Basically, extra curricular is great!

At MHS we have over 40 opportunities every fortnight for students to take part in some form of extra curricular club. More than that, we’re developing an exciting online provision called Digital Discoveries. This a new extra-curricular themed challenge that students can undertake at home with minimal equipment, available via the student hub on the school website. There’s something on there already so check it out. Finally, and perhaps most excitingly, Mr Osgood outlined plans for a new set of societies – student led extra curricular groups – that have the potential to expand our offer significantly, as well as give students valuable leadership opportunities. I’m looking forward to seeing who steps up and what societies are formed.

Speaking of turning up…a big ‘well done’ to our Year 11 cohort who are currently engaged in their trial exams. Over 95% of the cohort are in and taking part which in the context of the current national attendance crisis is pretty remarkable. Alarmingly Year 11 cohorts on average this year nationwide are barely reaching 90% attendance, and so the way that our young people have responded to the challenge of the trial exams is a very positive sign indeed.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

It’s been a chilly week in school this week, -7 was the coldest my car showed on Thursday morning. Tuesday saw some fairly significant snowfall and led to the inevitable calls from some students for me to close the school. I’ll be honest, unlike some wintry days in previous years, I never came close to closing the school on Tuesday. There is always a concern over the safety of our site, which being as large as it is requires students and staff to spend a lot of time outside. Icy paths can be dangerous and this is something that we have to take into account. Not all ‘snow days’ are the same, and sometimes clearing the site can be impossible, but I knew early on that Mr Hutchinson and his site team were well on top of the job even before I arrived just after 6.30am. The second, and often most crucial factor, is the state of the roads and the transport networks. We haven’t lost a day of school to snow since 2019, but when we did – and all the other times before it – the main issue was that the road network had ground to a halt. Students stranded on buses, staff miles from school and no hope of there being enough adults in the building to supervise those students who could walk to school. This simply wasn’t a factor this week, and so in terms of a decision it was the easiest non-snow day that I can remember. Either that, or after Covid the challenge of a snow day no longer seems that big!

Therefore we were open on Tuesday and I was very glad of it. We don’t tend to get snowfall like we used to in the 80s… (I know, showing my age!)… and so in some respects it was nice seeing students actually playing in the snow at break and lunch. We didn’t go down the now common route of banning snowballs, and I’d say 98% of students enjoyed themselves sensibly and within limits. As always in life some couldn’t handle it and took it a bit far, but there was a really good staff presence all across the site to keep things in check. One student did ask me if we could have a staff vs student snow ball fight. I told him that when I was a schoolboy that was exactly what happened in my school. He looked excited as hope seemed to rise in him that I might actually say ‘yes’. Sadly for him the answer was a firm ‘no’. ‘Why, if your teachers were ok with it?’, asked the boy. My answer? ‘Back then I was a student and I thought the staff vs student snowball fight was a great idea. Now I’m in charge, and I can see that it was utter madness’.

Anyway, enough on that and enough snow for 2024 thank you!

To finish, a quick update from some of the charity work done before the end of term last year. There was a lot going on, partly in aid of charities and also partly to support the costs of the Year 11 Prom. Our year seven charity leaders did a fantastic job organising a whole school Christmas jumper day on the last day of term, and along with money raised in PE the total was around £500! The majority of this is going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation which is great to hear. Well done all!!

Have a great weekend,

Joe Barker

Happy New Year everyone, I hope that you all had a good break and are ready for the year ahead. It’s been lovely welcoming students and staff back into school this week, helped of course by some crisp sunny days as opposed to the seemingly never ending rain in late December.

A new calendar year is of course a great time for fresh beginnings and I hope that students are looking forward to all that is on offer in 2024. Of course it is a very big year for our oldest students as they prepare for and then sit their final exams. We are currently gearing up for the formal ‘Trial Exam’ season which starts in just over a week’s time from now. On Wednesday this week students were able to opt into the most recent round of after-school independent revision sessions known as Pomodoro. 137 students were there this week, working hard alongside their peers and many members of staff. Not bad for the first week back!

A theme of my blogs last term was on the subject of attendance to school, something that was in the news again just after the New Year. We know for an absolute fact that there is a clear and direct link between good attendance and good educational outcomes, and vice versa. Therefore I’ll keep mentioning it as although overall attendance at MHS is higher than the national average for secondary schools, it is still well below pre-pandemic levels. You’ll be aware that in the final weeks before Christmas we tried to incentivise daily attendance and this does seem to have had an impact. In the final week of term MHS attendance was 2.7% above national which is much more than the usual difference. We’ll keep raising this issue as, along with reading for pleasure, attendance is the most important factor in a child’s education.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

I don’t know if it’s just that I’m getting older or if the years are actually passing more quickly, but the fact that 2023 has nearly come to an end is pretty scary!

I think it’s fair to say that the MHS school community deserves their break. At the end of a busy, exciting and productive Autumn Term, our students have enjoyed some fun at social times this week in the form of ‘sponge the teacher’, the Year 8 ‘cardboard catwalk’, an amazing ‘Lunchtime Winter Wonderland’ and more to raise money for charity and the school prom.

Celebration assemblies have also taken place in which we gave out more badges than ever before to students whose efforts in subject areas, and their ambition to display the Marple Hall Spirit in their every day lives, were acknowledged and rewarded. At the time of writing there is still the highly anticipated staff panto (never letting a lack of talent get in our way!) to look forward to for the older year groups and the draws for the ‘Have Christmas on Us’ are just about to take place.

The highlight for me has got to be the Elements group in Year 7 and 8 who wrote and produced their version of “Peter Pan”. It was a privilege to watch them perform in front of an audience; all I can say is they were all absolutely fantastic!

This is community. This is us. Thank you to you all for being part of our community and for your support. We are looking forward to all that 2024 has in store for our school, but until then, on behalf on Marple Hall School, I wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!

Take care,

Joe Barker

Huge congratulations to everyone involved in the Christmas concert in school last night. There was a real festive spirit in the air and it was a lovely experience to be a part of. It was wonderful to see so many talented young people proudly performing in front of a packed hall. Thank you to everyone involved, and of course to everyone who bought tickets and came to support.

Speaking of Christmas, a reminder that our big new ‘have Christmas on us’ competition is running between now and the end of term. Any student who is in school every day in December (up until Thursday afternoon, 21^st December) will be entered into a prize draw to win a range of family friendly Christmas themed prizes. Check out my previous blog here for details.

Finally, as we approach the final week, a pre warning that there will be a few charity and fund raising things happening across the week. Soak a teacher (including me, allegedly!), Christmas jumper day, fun performances…and more. We know that times are tough and so donations are not expected, but they are obviously gratefully received. If you have any loose change around the house and can spare to give it to your young people to bring into school, then we’d love to put it to good use.

Have a great weekend

Joe Barker

Last night we invited our ‘Class of 2023’ back into school to collect their qualification certificates. For the vast majority of those who attended, this was the first time they have been back in school since the results day in August. It’s always great to see old faces back and to catch up on what they are doing now, as of course their time at MHS is just one part of a much longer journey. Colleagues speaking to the former students heard of college courses, plumbing courses, A Levels, university plans, sporting successes, film showings, art exhibitions – you name it, the MHS alumni are on to it! It’s a reminder of the impact that school can have and the importance of education for all. It also underlines how important it is that students currently in school ‘have a plan’ for what they want to do after Year 11, something that we work on a lot in school with our careers team taking the lead.

Also this week the vast majority of our Year 9 GCSE languages students completed a set of trial speaking tests. These can be nerve-wracking experiences for some students but the year group took to the challenge with enthusiasm. Well done!

Have a great weekend,

Joe Barker

I make no apology for repeating a key message at the start of this blog. The two biggest factors in how well a student does in school is a) how much they read and b) how often they turn up to school. As I said in assemblies over the last two weeks to years 7-10…they need to turn up and read, read and turn up, turn up and read.

However, we know that attendance to school has become a national issue since covid. Schools are trying really hard to encourage students to attend more regularly and MHS is no exception. Our overall attendance rates are well above the national average, but they are still a long way below pre-covid levels and this is harming the quality of education that our students are getting. One successful recent initiative is focussed on encouraging students to come to school on Fridays, which is the day with the lowest attendance for our school. ‘In it to win it’ sees every student in school entered into a weekly prize draw with vouchers and other tempting goodies handed out the same day. It’s early days but already working.

As we run up towards the end of term we’re launching another, bigger competition. This time we hope that the whole family can benefit from students coming to school, in an initiative called ‘Have Christmas on us‘. Thanks to some wonderful local businesses listed below, we have some great prizes to hand out to families chosen at random on Thursday 21st December. To be entered into the draw students need to attend school every day between Monday 4^th December – Thursday 21^st December inclusive (14 days in total). The confirmed prizes are as follows, with perhaps more to be added as well:

5 x £50 vouchers for ASDA (one per year group)

2 x £10 Littlewoods Butchers vouchers

2 x £10 Marple Bookstore vouchers

4 x £5 Stationary Supplies Marple vouchers

Plus, one luxury hamper from Dutsons (see below!)

We’ll aim to get these prizes out to families immediately after the draw, and hope that they will make a small dent in the cost of a very expensive time of year.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

Parents and carers will remember that earlier this year our school opened a consultation about converting to academy status. Alongside Romiley Primary School, we also shared plans to form a new Multi Academy Trust (MAT) called the Helix Academies Trust.  

We can now confirm that these plans have all been approved by the Department for Education. This means that the process of academisation will now commence, which is likely to be completed in the Autumn of 2024. We are confident that this positive change will be to the benefit of everyone connected to both schools, and will enable us to continue to improve the quality of education that we currently offer.

We will be in contact with further updates when appropriate.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker (Headteacher) and Paul Cavanagh (Chair of Governors)

All school leaders were asked recently to make students and parents/carers aware of ‘The Big Ambition’. This is a survey set up by the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza. The Children’s commissioner is a non-party political role whose job it is to champion the rights of children across the country. You can find out more about the commissioner’s work on her website here.

The Big Ambition is a survey aimed at all young people to ask them about themselves, their experiences to date and their ambitions for the future. Obviously I don’t know what will come of it, but I’m happy to make everyone aware of it in case students or parents wish to fill it in. The survey can be accessed here.

Finally today a reminder that next Friday (1st December) is a training day for staff. Adults will therefore be in the building but the school is closed to all students. We’re back open as usual from Monday 4th December, through to the final day of term on Friday 22nd December. We’d love to see all students in every day in the run up to Christmas. As I said in assembly this week to most year groups, simply turning up is the most important thing that students can do.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker