MHS Update 18-12-2020 ‘ONE’

MHS Update 18-12-2020 ‘ONE’

Two blogs for the price of one today:

ONE: The end of term and Merry Christmas

TWO: Last minute changes to the start of term, and ‘mass testing’ from January (click here)

ONE: The end of term and Merry Christmas

This is the blog that I started drafting on Wednesday morning and that I hoped would be the only blog I had to write. I start by saying again that I remain so, so proud of the way the MHS community has come together during this term. We’ve had our challenges with 27 Covid cases during the past 4 months, with many students having to isolate (one is too many!) and some disruption to learning as a result. We’ve rapidly improved the remote learning offer and as you know have been impressed that 80% of isolating students have accessed hybrid lessons in recent weeks. More importantly, the overall attendance of students in school has remained high and has improved even further in the past few weeks. 92% attendance wouldn’t be deemed good in a normal year, but compared to national attendance rates at the moment it is exceptional. Thank you for the faith that you have placed in our school, the education we seek to offer and our efforts to keep your children and our staff safe.

Christmas is almost upon us and I have been heartened by the way that the students and staff have not let 2020 dampen the festive mood. We have been strict in that learning has continued right to the end of term – gone are the days of ‘fun’ lessons – but the students have made up for it with the way they have taken part in secret Santa and joined in with our festive ’12 Days of Christmas’ video. I am sure the Christmas jumper day on Friday will be enthusiastically followed as well. However, beyond that, Christmas is also about thinking of others and about charity. Each year we gather presents for local elderly residents and this year was no exception. Although the annual tea dance had to be postponed for obvious reasons this didn’t stop students showing their fantastic generosity. The range of gifts donated was fantastic as you can see here:

Furthermore, colleagues Pat Elder and Eva-Joy Sargent both led campaigns to collect food for the Stockport foodbank. The donations were so numerous that we couldn’t fit them under the tree as you can see!

We have always been ‘good’ at charity at MHS and it’s lovely to know that our young people and their families are able to think of others after such a tough year.

I’ll leave you by reminding everyone that we have provided two full days of remote learning for Monday 21^st and Tuesday 22^nd December, accessible via Satchel One (Show my Homework). The students all know what to do and how to register attendance in the morning each day, and we urge as many students as possible to complete the work on those days if not over the break.

Many thanks again for all your support and Merry Christmas,

Joe Barker

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