MHS update 12-11-2021

I’ll start this week by passing on my thanks to the entire student body for the way in which they conducted themselves during our lockdown and fire drills on Wednesday morning. Both drills were taken very seriously by all students. Gathering 1550 young people in one place, with 170 adults, and then seeing them stand in silence while we carry out the essential attendance checks is quite something…and certainly not something that I take for granted. To be able to carry out a lockdown drill, then a fire alarm and then have everyone back into school in the right place doing the right thing within 35 minutes is pretty impressive and a real testament to how mature and sensible our students are.

I’m going to dedicate a little time in my blog this week to discuss the matter of email communication between home and school. I’m aware that a lot of this email traffic comes from us to parents, and I am not ignoring the fact that sometimes we send too much information out. It’s a fine balance to find and I know that we’ve probably got an equal number of families who think there is too much, too little or the right amount. On the flip side, we welcome emails from parents/carers and see this as an essential part of the home-school partnership. There are though times when staff can receive too many emails or the many other demands on staff time mean they cannot reply as quickly as the sender may wish.

Finally, a growing number of students are choosing to email teachers in particular to ask for support with schoolwork. Again, this is often a very positive thing and one of the better things to come out of remote learning, but we need to find a manageable balance all round.

I am very proud of the dedication and effort that staff put into their work at MHS and couldn’t ask for a more hard working and professional team. Of course one of my jobs is to protect their wellbeing and help to manage workload, and so we have put together some simple guidelines for parents/carers and students who are planning to email staff. The guidance is available here. It would be great if you can have a look when you can.

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

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