What a week!

One of the best things about working in a school is how busy the days are, especially in a community like MHS with over 1800 people here each day. There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure.

This week though was perhaps verging on ‘too busy’, what with an Ofsted inspection on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by the annual Open Evening on Thursday night. We haven’t had an inspection since September 2018 and so we knew we were in line for a visit at some point this year, but knowing that didn’t lessen the sense of anticipation and excitement when the phone rang on Monday morning to tell me of the visit. What did help though is our general approach to the whole principle of Ofsted inspection, which is that we never do anything purely for the benefit of inspectors. Instead, everything we seek to do here is in the best interests of our school, and this week I was proud to see staff and students doing what they normally do, confident that we didn’t need to change anything.

I’m not able to share the outcome of the inspection until the report is finalised, which should in around five to six weeks. However, I will say that we are happy that the inspection team gained a clear and accurate view of our school, and that the feedback will be both positive and beneficial in helping us to get even better. I’d like to thank all the students and staff for their participation in the inspection, and also to every parent who filled in the Parent View survey. Your views are always so important and the inspectors were very grateful that many families responded.

Of course, that should be the end of my blog…but then we had Open Evening last night. It was BRILLIANT. Easily the busiest we’ve ever had, with the school buzzing with visitors, staff and student helpers alike. There was a great atmosphere around the whole school and I really enjoyed chatting to so many people. A huge, huge thank you to the staff for raising the energy levels once again after a very busy few days…it’s almost the weekend!

Best wishes,

Joe Barker

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