Studying for 'A' levels in Marple

[Miss C]

I wish them well and think that this opportunity will provide a balance. Some students are ready to leave at 16 for the college environment whilst  others prefer to stay in the familiar and more structured environment where relationships have already been formed and sustained. I'm sure there is room for a sixth form school and a sixth form college in Marple and maybe this level of competition for students will further improve the quality of teaching across the board. It definitely sounds like the new head and senior management at the high school have a determination to really put the school on the map, which can only be good news for our kids. I wish them every success in their endeavour and applaud them for not resting on their laurels after their recent OFSTED good grade.

[mabel]

According to the college website Marple college are the best performing college in Stockport so not sure why people feel the need for another 6th form.

Best exam results ever - AGAIN!
Students are celebrating their best ever and fifth consecutive record year of outstanding exam results to reinforce the College's position as the best performing College* in Stockport.
 
With an A Level pass rate of 98.9% the College again beat the national average.  26 A Level subjects achieved a 100% pass rate with 44% of all the A Level grades awarded being A*- B and 71% being A*- C.  In total 50 A* and 176 A grades at A Level were achieved.  7 students achieved an incredible 4 grade A’s or better while a further 21 achieved an amazing 3 grade A’s or better.
 
The results for the College’s wide range of vocational courses were equally impressive with all subjects at Advanced Level 3 and Intermediate Level 2 achieving an unbeatable 100% pass rate.  In total 250 Distinction and 288 Merit grades were awarded.

[simonesaffron]

'All we have to do now is abandon the 'Nuhope''

This is unlikely to happen. Staff have sent letters out in support of it and stating their intention to keep it going.

For the time being yes. However 'Nuhope' was very much a Rose Hagen initiative and it is my understanding that there is a difference of opinion about it's continuance between some governors and Senior Teachers. The current Head Teacher of course is comparatively new in post and has yet to assert in full. So we live in hope  - real hope that is as opposed to 'Nuhope.'

[hollins]

It is excellent news that Marple Hall is to have a sixth form. They are aiming high and I suspect that they will concentrate on the more "academic" A-levels, leaving the broader range to the Sixth-Form College.

Given that schoolchildren now have to stay on in education or training until 18, more sixth-form places are needed, so I don't think the Marple College will suffer. As has already been posted, their A-level results last year were actually quite good. They take a lot of students from Derbyshire as well as the immediate area.

I suspect that less Marple sixth-formers will go to Aquinas. The main complaint that I hear from those that do is the duration of the bus journey to get there in the morning and it is much easier to walk to a good local school.

[JMC]

'All we have to do now is abandon the 'Nuhope''

This is unlikely to happen. Staff have sent letters out in support of it and stating their intention to keep it going.

[JMC]

I'm not sure about this. It is already a very big school and some studies show that separate six form colleges do better.

My eldest child goes to Marple College and my only complaint is that it has a high number of cancelled lessons. Many children have done well there and 5 went to Ox bridge Unis last year which is the same as a relative's expensive private school. I know my child finds it a better environment than high school as they are treated more as young adults than when they were at MHS.

I worry what would happen to MC if this goes ahead.

[Dave]

Where have I ever said I had any faith in the innate rationality and good sense of politicians!  No rational or sensible politician would have 'privatised' 6th form colleges as they did in 1993.  Just as no rational or sensible politicians would now be spending over a billion pounds of taxpayers' money on setting up 'Free Schools' in areas where there is a surplus of places, whilst other areas have a severe shortage, especially of primary school places.   

[Bowden Guy]

The point I was trying to make, Dave (but not very well!) is that when politicians make decisions a about education, or anything else, political considerations will always be paramount. In the case of Ellesmere Port the Government KNEW that £6m of public money had already been spent on the campus yet they went ahead and decided to give the College another £60m or so to knock the buildings down and start again. They made that decision, on our behalf. And, guess what, at the 2010 General Election, Chester (where the College was based, and which also had a new college built) had one of the most marginal Labour MPs in the country. And, lest we forget, every penny of that £60m was being BORROWED by Gordon Brown as the nation's finances went done the pan.

I do not share you faith in the innate rationality and good sense of politicians, Dave, especially when they are spreading our money. Guess we'll just have to agree to differ.....

[Dave]

I think BG has missed my point.  I entirely agree that what's going on is utterly wasteful, but this is not because these bodies are in the public sector - on the contrary.   The reason is that 6th form colleges were removed from local authority control, and set up to compete with schools not collaborate with them, so there is now no joined-up planning for 6th form education.  Or as BG himself puts it: 

So where was the "planning" in all of that?

So buildings are built and then stand half empty, because of an ideological obsession with competition by all governments, Tory and Labour, over the past twenty years.   If 6th form provision were returned to local authority control, much of this waste could be avoided.

[Bowden Guy]

Ellesmere Port - over £6m spent on new buildings and refurbishment at the College in around 2005. Just six years later, everything demolished and a new College built, funded in the last days of the previous Government. So where was the "planning" in all of that? Dave, do you really have faith that Governments, whether national or local, ever spend OUR money as if it was their own? And Ellesmere Port is but one of numerous examples where massive amounts of public money have been "invested" in new College buildings that have then been demolished, as you will know from your own time in Further Education.

[Dave]

Like most other posters above, I regard this as a positive move, and I hope it is successful.  Although it seems that there is no capital funding for MHS to build new specialised facilities - they are planning to rely simply on the per-capita recurrent funding which will come with each sixth form student enrolled.  So don't expect a smart new student common room, new laboratories, studios or computer facilities, at least in the first two or three years.

As for this, it certainly raises a smile!

And, as is usually the case with the public sector, only after they have spent a huge amount of money on refurbishing their Buxton Lane, which will then be knocked down to build yet more houses.

Until 20 years ago, sixth form colleges were part of local authority controlled education provision, and the LAs were able to plan and co-ordinate a seamless pattern of primary, secondary and tertiary provision in their area.  The Further and Higher Education Act 1992 changed that, by removing FE and sixth form colleges from local authority control, and making them independent corporations with funding from central government, thereby creating the ridiculous situation which Bowden Guy accurately describes.  But it's a bit rich of BG to airily say 'as usual with the public sector'.  The reality is that we are in this position because 6th form colleges are no longer fully within the public sector.  If the Tories had left them alone instead of semi-privatising them, we would not now be in this crazy position, and SMBC would be able to plan and co-ordinate sixth form education in a rational and economical way. 

[simonesaffron]

Interesting news, and bang up to date - the announcement was only made today.  And contrary to what some of us (including me) have assumed, it does not seem to be linked to any plan to become an Academy.   

There is no requirement for it to become an academy. If you are able to obtain the acquiescence of the local authority then there is no need for academy status. There are three Marple Councillors on the governing body and they will be against academy status. In addition to this the Chair of Governors is SMBC's Executive Member for Education, has been for two years and will probably still be so until 2015 when the Council will turn Labour. So in effect she will be signing her own decisions off until then  - game, set and match.

[Bowden Guy]

The new sixth form at Marple Hall will undoubtedly be a great success because the school will do everything in its powers to recruit its own Year 11 pupils. In other parts of the country this often involves recruiting people on to quite inappropriate courses or recruiting them on to A Levels without the minimum entry requirements. I hope this will not be the case in Marple.

The likely outcome of this development is that the College will be forced to close its operations in Marple and concentrate on Cheadle. And, as is usually the case with the public sector, only after they have spent a huge amount of money on refurbishing their Buxton Lane, which will then be knocked down to build yet more houses.

Strangely enough, this was precisely the scenario I outlined to "Miss Marple" as she was haranguing people on Market Street about 18 months ago.....

[simonesaffron]

MHS's plan for a sixth form facility is all ancient history. It has been under discussion for a while now. It would have happened in September 14 if events had not overtaken it.
 
It was informed on this website last year and it will of course get ...'the green light.'

The consultation as we all know is only a piece of protocol that has to be satisfied. All we have to do now is abandon the 'Nuhope' and we will be on our way to having a good  Senior school in Marple.

In the meantime C & MSFC seems to be travelling in the other direction. It is becoming increasingly difficult to see a future for it other than one gigantic housing scheme.   

[Middle wood]

Fair comment! I do think that school sixth forms will are a positive move backwards for Stockport schools though. I'm sure that it will encourage some good teachers back into the secondary education sector and gives a greater choice to pupils than they have at present.