MHS Update 10-7-2020

MHS Update 10-7-2020

Today should have been our now annual ‘Spark’ day with music, art, sports, drama, and other creative lessons across the school followed by a festival on the field in the afternoon. We can’t do that of course, but we can run our virtual Spark day and I hope that loads of people get involved in the activities shared by Mr Follett earlier this week. Also, next week would have been both enrichment week and work experience week – two great opportunities for students that sadly have had to be missed this year. As many of you know all the residential trips for next week have now been cancelled and we are in the process of returning money owed to families. Some is being returned straight away, and four of the nine trips have already had the first refunds. The rest of the money (ie which had already been paid to travel companies) may take longer to recover but I can assure you that our team is on it. Karen, Ang and Helen have done a great job so far to recover the money for everyone and are tenacious to say the least!

Rather than enrichment week we will have as ‘normal’ a week as we can to finish off the year. By normal, we now of course mean home-learning focussed around the live lesson timetable. In fact, next week is probably the busiest week so far with over 50 lessons taking place across the year groups. Year 10 will carry on in school Tuesday-Friday morning, with the afternoons given over to allow staff to access the buildings in much greater number to prepare for September. Speaking of which, we have been working very hard this week interpreting the Government’s guidance for how we can open to all students, full time, from September. We think we have a good plan to work with and will of course spend the next seven weeks perfecting it and changing it should the national or local picture alter. Parents and carers will be sent a letter early next week that outlines the key control measures and what we will expect of students, staff and visitors.

Finally from me a further comment about summer catch up work. My blog last week attracted a small number of responses asking why we were setting summer work for students, explaining that young people need a break. That will of course be true in many cases and ultimately parents and carers know the children best – if they need a complete break then that is of course fine. However, we also know that many students may well benefit from a structured approach to work over the summer to build on the learning they have (or have not) done since lockdown started. Therefore we have put together what I think are a very good set of resources tailored to each year group (and to each option choice in Year 9 and 10) and have incentivised the completion of the work with a set of raffle prizes in September. Ultimately though we hope that students engage at the right level for them and come back in September ready to learn. Further details of the plans can be found here:

http://www.marplehall.stockport.sch.uk/recent-letters-home2/13087.html

So, one week to go until the end of the most bizarre term any of us have ever experienced. Thank you for all your ongoing support as always.

Have a great weekend

Joe Barker