Marple Hall Spirit – Readiness

Marple Hall Spirit – Readiness

80% of success is showing up….

Fail to prepare and prepare to fail…

The world is not short of quotes that back up the third of our five values of the Marple Hall Spirit: ‘Readiness’. Last week I explained how ‘Honesty’ is perhaps the one that I think is most important, but Readiness is without doubt the one that everyone needs to show first in order to stand a chance of success. In assemblies this week for Years 7-9, Mr Sharp has been delivering an excellent message about what we expect of students in the classroom. One of the points he makes is that no-where in the Marple Hall Spirit are words like ‘genius’ or ‘intelligent’ or ‘clever’. The Marple Hall Spirit is about what literally all of us can show all day, every day, no matter our natural ability in maths or music or marathon running. Of all the day to day habits to get in, showing readiness is an absolute must.

What does being ready mean? Well…to me a student is ready if they attend every day, if they arrive to lessons on time, if they bring all their equipment, if they make sure their homework is done on time, if they make sure their lunch money is topped up, if they pay attention and answer questions in class, if they know about the clubs and activities that they can join, if they know their timetable off by heart and if they know who to ask if they are stuck. Ready students don’t dawdle to class 3 minutes late….or only have one pen….or forget their blazer!

Whenever I speak to students about the Marple Hall Spirit I always make sure they know that the spirit applies to adults as well as students, and this is certainly true about readiness. I’ve worked at MHS for almost 13 years now and have never once been late and never once had a day off. Being ready matters and it matters to me that I lead by example.

Speaking of showing readiness, there is no more important time than the run up to the final exams in Year 11. Students who are serious about being successful have to be ready to put the hard yards in all the way through Year 11, and never more so than right now. We’re keen to express on year 11 students that the Easter break is a great time to get some proper work done, and we hope that our great class of 2022 make the most of their opportunities. We’ll be sending home some support materials for this very purpose.

Best wishes

Joe Barker

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