CONNECTSummer Term 2017 Edition 5 of the Marple Hall School student written magazine

P7 Read the winning Year 7 Creative Writing Entries

MagazineMagazine

P6 Year 11 Prom

P10 Global Studios Trip - June 2017

P2 Marple Hall Spirit Badges

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New MHSL Team

Head Boy Ben Mochan

Lucy Taylor Y10

Rosie Reid Y9

Head Girl Emily Cross

Jake Mohareb Y8

Anya Munro Y7

New Marple Hall Spirit BadgesThe ‘Marple Hall Spirit’: something we’ve heard a lot about this year, but that isn’t reflected (yet)in our rewards system. So Miss Gregory and the Marple Hall Spirit student committee hosted acompetition open to all students to see who could design the best Marple Hall Spirit badges.

The competition had over 50 entries, which were judged by a group of teachers including Mr Barker.Everyone who took part did extremely well, but there could only be one winner. Well done toHannah Sparrow for winning the competition and the £100 prize. Hannah’s designs will be thenew MHS spirit badges - we hope you like them!

Zach Cook Y8

NY RESOLUTIONS UpdaTE

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Mr Owen – to make time for myselfI completed several events for my target this year, which went really well. I have one more in July to complete, and am going away with my family to spend time enjoying myself before starting back at school in September. Success all round.

Mr Purdie – to be more positiveFailed! But I have put an alarm on my phone to remind me to read my positive affirmations every morning. I am trying to do it but not consistently.

Mr Sharp – to give up swearingThe frequency of my bad language is on the increase again! I am aware of it though. Others have mentioned it which is helpful and it’s still better than it used to be. It started with expletives under my breath when driving or in other sometimes stressful situations and has progressively got worse. I’m on the case though and determined to stick with it.

Ms Goodall – to take up runningI have had to suspend my running for the moment as my injured leg does not like me running. I continue to do hill walking and will hopefully try running again in the holidays.

Mr McLaughlin – to lose a stone I am still going to the gym and try to complete a park run most weekends. I have cut down on my sugar intake - especially sweets. I would still say I’m a work in progress. If I miss going to the gym once I tend to make excuses why I can’t go for the whole week.

Mr Sandercock – to be more physically activeI’ve been keeping up with commitments towards my goal, with some slip-ups due to letting workload get on top of me. Still focused on the aim and motivated to continue.

Ms Hill – to read more books and take more holidaysI have finished 2 books and started another one. Also made my summer reading list for my 3 summer holidays (I think I booked too many) Booked my (probably final!) holiday of the year – finally going to explore Paris, a city I’ve always wanted to go to.

Mr Graves – to run 1000 miles, and read 10,000 pagesI’m slightly behind with both my reading (just under 4000 pages) and my running (350 miles). However, I’ve got a summer holiday ahead of me to catch up on the reading. I’m also doing a long race in September and am following a training plan which means I’ll hopefully be running 400 miles in the next three months. I’ll certainly be there or thereabouts by Christmas.

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Marple Hall is delighted that the following staff will be joining us in September:

Ms Bullen ICTMs Clifton HistoryMs Fallows MusicMs Moore ScienceMs Greenall TechnologyMs Hall MathsMr Hopley MathsMs Neil MFLMs Oakes MathsMs Rothwell EnglishMr Welsford Geography

Huge thanks and best wishes to all the staff leaving Marple Hall School this summer. Good luck in whatever and wherever you are going to next:

Ms D’Arch Smith MathsMs Froc MFLMr Wightman MusicMrs Griffiths HistoryMs Heaton EnglishMr Worsdale ScienceMr Owen TechnologyMs Rae ArtMs Powell LSA

Our very first Key Stage Three

Graduation!

On the 22nd May we held our KS3 Graduation

Ceremony as a way of giving Key Stage Three its

own identity and ensuring that these three important

years are awarded the status they deserve.

It was possibly our best attended event ever with around

450 people split across the two halls. This is testament to

how seriously so many students took the whole process

and how well it was led by their form tutors.

Over the last year Y9 have been working towards their

graduation, meeting a set of criteria linked to our MHS

Spirit and we are incredibly proud of the achievements of this year group.

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Year 9 eNDS - Year 10 BeGINS

They say that time flies when you are having fun. I can therefore only assume that the past three years have been a ball! I am finding it difficult to get my head around the fact that Key Stage Three for Year 9 is now over.

This year has been yet another great one for the year group. There have been, as always, many highlights over the course of the year. The talent within the year group continues to go from strength to strength. We were well represented in this Year’s school production, both on stage and back stage as well as in the orchestra. Our sporting stars continue to shine in their various fields as well. We have many young sports men and women participating in sports ranging from football to boxing, many of whom regularly represent their teams, counties and country in various competitions.

We introduced split lunches this year and it became apparent very early on that these new lunches opened up a leadership opportunity for the year group. An invitation went out to the year group to apply for the position of Year 9 Captain as well as the positions of prefects. We received many outstanding applications for both roles. Rosie and Ethan have done a fantastic job as the first Year 9 Captains and have been great ambassadors for the school. I cannot thank our Captains and our 35 prefects enough for the time they have devoted to their roles.

We also held MHS’s first Key Stage 3 graduation this year. Our pupils spent a great deal of time completing their graduation portfolios and collating evidence to support their applications for graduation.

The evening itself was a fantastic occasion. I was so nice to see so many of the Year Group there, clearly proud of their achievements over the past three years and rightly so. They have worked hard to get to where they are and have always shown us that they have the Marple Hall Spirit!

And so begins the final chapter in their Marple Hall careers! I have great faith in their abilities to continue to shine during Key Stage 4 and the new challenges that they will face. I look forward to working with them during the next two years. On behalf of the Year 9 form tutors, Mr Cooke and myself, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the past three years and to wish you a pleasant summer break.

n Mr Jones - Head of Year 9

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Goodbye Class of 2017! Well, finally all the hard work is over and all the GCSE exams are finished. It was time for the Class of 2017 to celebrate the end of their journey at Marple Hall School. On Thursday 29th June we held our Leavers’ Assembly and said our goodbyes: there were musical performances from Robbie, Micah, Joe, Ben, James and Ethan and also some fab dancing moves from Harry.

Ellie and Cian (Head Boy and Head Girl) did a great job leading the event and presenting the Year Book Awards (voted for by the students) with prestigious awards such as ‘best bromance’ and ‘most likely to rule the world’, to name a few!

There were tears and also laughter as we ended the assembly with ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’: a song that will now forever remind us of June 2017.

On Friday 30th June it was time for the Year 11 Prom at the beautiful Shrigley Hall Hotel. It was a bright and mild evening as the students arrived looking like movie stars in their gorgeous dresses, posh suits in some posh Limos too! We had a great night dancing and laughing and sharing memories, staff and students alike.

It’s always sad saying goodbye to a year group, but particularly emotional for Mr Francis and I as we have worked with the Class of 2017 since the start of Year 7. We shine with pride when we think of how far the students have come over the last five years.

Each student in the year group has made their own unique contribution to the tapestry of the school and we miss them already and wish each and every student all the best for wherever their future takes them. n Mrs Lyndon and Mr Francis

Marple Hall ScHool

PROM 2017

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Marple Hall ScHool

PROM 2017

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2017 GCSe art exhibition The GCSE art exhibition this year was amazing. The standard of the work was better than ever before and brought a smile to everyone’s face that managed to catch a glimpse of the spectacular pieces. The theme was set out very clearly with the amazing tiki bar and the staff dressing up to suit the theme with students playing music in the art staff room. On behalf of everyone that came we would like to say well done on creating such amazing pieces of art work and for all your hard work over the GCSE course, we would also like to thank the art department staff for creating a night to remember.

n Year 9 Art Leaders

Frantic assembly Workshop On April 27th world renowned theatre company Frantic Assembly visited Marple Hall to deliver a workshop to our Year 10 Drama students. Frantic Assembly are famous for their innovative work, focussing on telling stories using physical theatre and movement. Their best known production to date has been the stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s book ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’ which is currently touring the UK after being a sell-out at the West End. The workshop was challenging and engaging, pushing the students to approach their Drama work in a totally new way. The aim of the workshop was to help prepare students for their first exam piece a devising project inspired by a stimulus.

Here’s what the Year 10’s had to say: “I found it an eye-opening experience.” Becky Owen

“It was unique.” ‐ Lewis Drayson “Sweaty, but good!” Will Cairns-Black

“Original.” ‐ Callum Thornton “Unlocked a way of working I never knew about before.” Billy Hadfield

GCSE Art Exhibition

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artsmark for MHS! At MHS we are fully committed to ensuring the Creative Arts and Cultural Ed

ucation of our

students is given a high priority: we never want this school to just become a type of ‘exam factory’.

To ensure our students also have a rich extra-curricular and cultural life we ha

ve applied for Artsmark

Gold standard. As part of our two year journey, we have introduced a ‘Culture Corner’ in our Daily

Bulletin; Bradshaw Hall will soon be adorned with a huge banner of our students’ art work (see

picture); we will be launching our new Creative Arts and Sports Day next year; and we are naming all of

our classrooms after famous figures connected to each subject area that also embody an aspect of

the MHS Spirit.

Mr Wightman the legend

Creative Arts

School of rock

November 29th - December 1st

Get these dates in your diary now because you won’t want to miss out on tickets for what is set to be our most exciting school show yet! MHS will be performing a brand new musical, ‘School of Rock’, based upon the smash hit film of the same title starring Jack Black. You’re guaranteed to love it!

Every evening after school, you will find Mr Wightman working

in a music room. Some nights he stays for several hours to help

his students achieve their best. Whether this is conducting the

brass band, concert band, samba band, P band or orchestra,

or helping individual students with their GCSE compositions,

he can always be relied upon to dedicate time and talent to

make us feel involved and valued.

Mr Wightman is welcoming to

students of any ability. Whether

you are a beginner saxophonist or

an expert drummer, he is always

there to pass on words of advice and

wisdom. This is true of his lessons as

well where he enthusiastically and

passionately passes on his love of all

things musical. Mr Wightman – you

are respected and looked up to

by all of your students. You will be greatly missed by

everyone in school. We wish you all the best for the future and

cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for us.

n Alex and Elinor

Mr Wightman

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Global Studios Trip June 2017 This trip was just great. Nine other students and I went to Global studios for

a day of learning

and experience. They house such studios as Capital, Radio X and Heart which we got to visit

on the tour.

The day started off with us arriving from the coach.

As soon as we stepped foot in the building we could

tell this was one fancy place. We were sat down in

a conference room and given a basic introduction

over some pretty darn good croissants before

heading into the Capital studio while they were

recording. The main anchor, Rob, said hello to us all

and invited me into the spare chair and asked me a

couple of questions before throwing on a song and

taking some pictures with us before we left.

That’s when we were given the formal intro and told what the rest of the day had in store for

us which began with us separating into our teams and recording our own mini shows. My team

was called ‘Lower case’ as a play on the name ‘Capital’ and the other was named ‘The freckled

pandas’ because… I don’t quite know why. We began by brainstorming ideas before moving on

to the recording of our shows which was interrupted by a little bit of drama that I’d rather not

talk about.

We finished them off and headed to a Subway

lunch. After that, the teams took it in turns to

record our adverts for School of Rock and Marple

Hall respectively. So all of our audio was edited and

presented to us. It was time to decide the winning

team: Lower case.

But that award was nothing compared to the Rising

Star award which was ultimately awarded to James

Reeve. After that we shipped off, each bearing a

certificate, a smile and a great memory. A memory

that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Mrs O’Shea and Mr

Barker so I give a huge thanks to them for making

the day possible as well as all of the folks down at

Global who were also involved.

Now if you yourself are feeling a bit jealous of the experience we had then do not worry

because this trip will hopefully be happening again next year. Look out for the notifications and

submit your 30 second video to have a chance of going on this simply amazing experience.

Global Studios

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Summer Wordsearch

Careers I’m a florist Describe a typical day in your job.It can be very varied either choosing flowers at the wholesalers, discussing wedding flowers with a bride, arranging funeral flowers or serving a customer in the shop.

What qualifications did you need to get this job?A City and Guilds in floristry and floral design, levels 1 and 2.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking of this career choice?It can be very cold, keeping the flowers in good condition, so wrap up warm. Its hard work, you are on your feet all day but it’s very rewarding when you create something you and your customer are pleased with. Ask in a local florist for work experience or a Saturday job to see if it’s for you.

D R P S U N T A NI C E C R E A M

Z F C H U S U N BU R N F N J E N

Y I A H G H B O AT C O U S U G B

W R U E F F I S HI N G O I N L E

M K G U T I B I KI N I C W E O A

N Q U B E E W A TE R M E L O N C

A N S W I M M I NG J L W G B B H

Y Q T A C I P Q TO U Q N J D O H

V R N N G X S G TW L X X G R L Y

A L T F C M F Q DP Y S D A P C D

C O L O A O A X GC M A I T P C E

A T W S M S N S UN G L A S S E S

T I O H P Q F X DF T E N T P X L

I O V O I U I W QK R H O T B M C

O N J R N I M U FF H L K G L R W

N Z R T G T X J ZK L H A T X Z T

B K N S V O Q W JV X X R D W E B

AUGUST

BEACH

BIKINI

BOAT

CAMPING

FAN

FISHING

HAT

HOT

ICE CREAM

JULY

JUNE

LOTION

MOSQUITO

SHORTS

SUNGLASSES

SUNBURN

SUNTAN

SWIMMING

TENT

VACATION

WATERMELON

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MHS students showed their skills in persuasive language after they pitched for money to fund projects around school, in the first PTA Dragons’ Den event. Seven ideas were put before the ‘Dragons’ - Jon Doyle, Claire Hardy, Diana Massam and Katherine Nolan.

Each student or group had five minutes to pitch their idea and then answer questions from the Dragons, for a share of £2000. Students from each year took part, Katherine Nolan said, “The pitches were well prepared and delivered very confidently, we had a difficult time deciding which ideas were to be given cash and a long discussion took place as we wanted to fund as many of the ideas as possible”.

The money was finally divided up like this:

The Year 9 Sports Ambassadors put forward a great pitch for trampoline safety equipment.The school trampoline cannot be used at the moment as it doesn’t have the required safetymats. This is going to cost £1500, so it was decided that whatever money was left would go towards the trampoline fund.

The good news is that with the profits from the Spring Concert and recent KS3 Graduation evening, the total has almost been reached!

The PTA raises money for the school by simply selling snacks and drinks at school events. It’s fun and takes up little time. The group meet about twice a term and they’re always needing new members to help out. If you’re interested please contact Diana Massam demassam@btinternet.com

The PTA hope to run another Dragons’ Den event next year… better start fund raising soon!

The PTA are no Dragons!

Bean bags for the library

£300Art around school

£400

Inflatable course for transition day

£500

Flower planters (to be maintained by students)

£300Trampoline equipment

£400