Marple Hall School

[Lisa Oldham]

Id probably agree with most of what giffer says too...

[The Giffer]

Have a son at MH and  a daughter due to attend in September . Living in Marple Bridge we have very little local alternative other than MH [unless we pay of course]
Perhaps my expectations are high but overall our experience overall is B-.   MH has the basics in place but could do with a bit more effort and hard work . Perhaps the school is simply too big but i have been disappointed with feedback and communication from teachers/Management . The parents evening we attended [last year] was chaotic - poorly organised and discussions were very general and had  no privacy -infact on  couple of occasions  i wasn't convinced the teachers  know who  my son was.  . We had no follow up to a few issues we raised on the night  .When i tried to communicate with the Head last autumn about an area of concern my sons subject teacher responded .The Head appears very distant and i am told has very little interaction with the pupils .
The Board of Governors are simply non existant . Oh and if you are have children who have a talent for Football or Cricket then forget it - However if your sport is Rugby then fine - All the sports teachers appear obsessed with Rugby .[Sorry that's my predjudices showing]
 I think overall my son has made reasonable progress and appears fairly content  but i never the get the impression he is pushed to excel - if he is to be believed - and i have no reason to doubt him he gets approx 2 hours  a week  combined subjects set homework maximum  -i would have expected more . We could of course get him to do more . My son says some of his teachers are very good - Two or three appear to have made a real impression .He has also said  that there are a couple that are  " out of their depth " - His words . The children [his friends ] generally appear very decent but i am aware of two  of his peers who have left in the past 18 months because of  alleged bullying. Uniform policy is not consistently managed.

[gazwhite]

"if the child wants to do well and succeed, they will"

Pardon me, but what's the point of the school if they aren't "adding any value", to use that awful phrase?

It is a two way street, unless both parties are up for maintaining an effective working relationship, no one will feel any benefits or reward.

[Lisa Oldham]

Ive got 3 kids there at moment.

At times its been great.. no problems at all.. at times its been horrendous!

Teaching for my eldest when he got there was fantastic, amazing incredible.  Marple hall has THE best Maths teacher that ever walked this earth in my opinion! Teaching for my next child initially was awful,  both in Maths and English. ( maths teacher who taught maths in german!!) Teaching for my newest one there is ok.. no complaints. generally good all round!

I prefer the old head to the new, as do all the children I've talked to. The new one seems to be less visible than the last!

General behaviour I think considering the wide catchment area for the school is very good. I think it highly unlikely that you will find a local school that takes such a range of children from so many different backgrounds.  I've heard of several bullying problems over several years where the school haven't dealt with it very well and the children being bullied have moved school, which i think is sad.  However i also think its really hard for any school to deal with serious bullying problems nowadays so i guess this would be the same anywhere you go. 


I find the worst thing about the school is the uniform policy.  Its not consistent at all  They tell girls off and give out detentions if they don't wear white underwear but let them walk around with skirts that show their knickers and painted like they're out on the town! This is clearly outside school... but inside as well. A lot of the lads look slovenly.. including my son who i think is possibly the worst looking child in the school and is never pulled up about it( if you see a 6ft 3 VERY long haired crumpled looking lad hes mine!) . I pull him up.. i send him looking "ok" but whats the use of me trying if the school don't back me up.  And yes I know its where kids "rebel" but wearing just a belt(girls) at the age of 12 is a bit too much!

If i had my time again to choose a different school... hmmm tough one! I might..for my eldest.. but then his obscene love of maths comes from that fantastic teacher! I wouldn't for my 2nd.. but her absolute hatred of maths comes from that rubbish maths teacher !  But in the end they can walk there in 10 minutes, they can have a social life i don't have to be involved in ( giving lifts to other parts of stockport!) And they might all have had certain issues there, but they've learnt valuable life lessons as a result.

So Marple Hall.. its alright.. its not the best ever.. but its far from the worst... proper normal in fact

[Rachael]

My son left 2 years ago nearly, we were very pleased with Marple Hall.  I attended an independent school , which is tiny in comparison, I dreaded my son going to Marple Hall as its so big ,  but I needn't have worried, the school years  are  split into houses , my son got fantastic results in his GCSE's, although this was not without nagging from his teachers !   

He is now at the Ridge , and doing very well there

[JMC]

I have two children there at the moment. I also went myself many years ago!

My kids are very happy there, any bullying issues were sorted out. Only thing we had a problem with was form allocation for one (all other kids from primary together with friends and my child with no friends but with someone who they were bullied by previously-MH wouldn't change forms and said 'there are plenty of others who will have your place'-charming!) but as time went on they settled after a rough start.

I find teaching is good and my children both enjoy going. They do push them to succeed and there are loads of good extra curricular clubs to join. The house system is a good idea and having a specified house pastoral manager makes liasing with school easier since it is such a big school. They seem to be tackling disruptive behaviours and have a Waterloo RD style 'cooler' for persistant offenders, so I am told! Overall, behaviour seems very good when I have been in the school with most kids very polite etc. I would recommend the school and overall have mostly very good experiences.

[Duke Fame]

Indeed, finetime - but peeple who make speling mistakes wuld be well advised not to moan about 'faling standards'.   

Oi, 'falling' was the one word I got right. The answer to my question was A' levels.

note to webmaster, is there a way of allowing the text to scroll up when replying on here.

[Dave]

Indeed, finetime - but peeple who make speling mistakes wuld be well advised not to moan about 'faling standards'.   

[finetimefontaine]

We al make speling mstakes Dave - its nott the mezure ov a man/wuman

[Dave]

I hope standards of spelling haven't fallen any lower than this....   

Wuite, Offsted have to address the falling standards. No what do they call O' levels in schools these days?

[Duke Fame]

I think this is because 'satisfactory' is no longer satisfactory, but is a euphemism for 'needs improvement'.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/17/ofsted-satisfactory-rating-scrapped for an explanation.

Wuite, Offsted have to address the falling standards. No what do they call O' levels in schools these days?

[Harry]

I think this is because 'satisfactory' is no longer satisfactory, but is a euphemism for 'needs improvement'.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/17/ofsted-satisfactory-rating-scrapped for an explanation.

[Dave]

Indeed.  Although the language of these reports seems to be increasingly strange.   So if you click on the link to the 'letter to students', first you read 'We found that you go to a satisfactory school', and you think, oh, that's OK then.  But it goes on to say 'While some of the teaching is good and outstanding, too much remains satisfactory'.

'Too much remains satisfactory?' How can you have too much satisfaction?  If someone said 'Did you have a nice holiday', would you say 'it was far too satisfactory'?  'What your new car like?' 'Oh, it's too satisfactory.'

Presumably what they really mean is UNsatisfactory?  In which case, the inspectors' English is unsatisfactory.  Or do I mean satisfactory?   

[hollins]

The latest Ofsted report for Marple Hall (February this year) has just gone up on the School's website at
http://www.marplehall.stockport.sch.uk/index.php/news/story/142
Presumably it will appear on the Ofsted site in due course.

Nothing very exciting. Probably that's good.

[Dave]

Indeed.  It's sometimes referred to as Goodhart's Law:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law.    The so-called 'gaming' that is now widespread in education, the health service and elsewhere provides good examples.