This week, the Marden kitchen is being taken over by the students, as Year 7 and Year 8 students join forces with a different teacher every day to produce a unique new menu.

WEDNESDAY

Today, Mr. Swain is stepping in for Mrs. Bloomfield and creating a lasagne main course with profiteroles for dessert. Here he is prepping his team in the kitchen…

…and here they are hard at work…

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For an exclusive video shown during a recent Year 8 English project, visit our Gallery page to find out “Who bumped off Mrs. Brolly?”

http://www.mardenhigh.net/category/gallery/

On Tuesday four Marden students competed in the Salters Festival of Chemistry. This was in the Chemistry School at the University of Newcastle. In the morning the students analysed salts to solve a murder mystery.

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First of all, I must thank the many parents and carers who have responded so helpfully to the amendments we want to make to uniform from September.

You might know from my video blog  that the staff and I want to introduce clip on ties and a more standard  jumper bearing the school crest. Parental reaction to the clip on tie has been favourable with people recognising that  this will enhance the smartness of many of our students. The jumper issue has been more complicated than I anticipated, mainly because of the £16 price tag for the very smart pullover offered by our main supplier. We’d overlooked the fact that many families have invested in several school jumpers already so that they can rotate them in line with the household laundry cycle. That’s why we responded to parental concerns by requesting that the school crest is sewn or ironed on to present school sweaters. We also tracked down another supplier which can provide a badge  embroidered jumper for much less than £16.

I’ve enjoyed discussing these issues with parents (I’m sorry about the unexpected phone calls!) and it’s been valuable to work together to reach better solutions.

But why so much attention to uniform?

Everyone knows that the UK is quite unusual in having school uniforms, but that doesn’t mean that they  don’t have a strong influence on learning. I’ve mentioned before that I’m on a training course at the moment which involves visiting outstanding schools around the country. I’ve visited four amazing schools and all of them have  clear, consistent, easily regulated uniform policies which result in immaculately turned out students, even in the poorest areas of London and Birmingham. They all have blazers, jumpers and clip on ties because that combination reduces opportunities for teenagers to customise the uniform to their own, often unwise fashion preferences. But what’s’ more important is that the greater uniformity cuts down the negative conversations about poorly knotted  ties and untucked  shirts  so that relationships between staff and learners are warmer, more positive and more focussed on learning. And all of these schools rightly  identify strict uniform as one of their strategies to inculcate the habits of mind and self discipline necessary to help youngsters reach their  academic potential.

Now I’m not saying that uniform alone results in high standards, but it’s a vital piece of the jigsaw. And this is particularly the case at Marden. When I was appointed, the governors made it clear to me that Marden’s traditional uniform is not for sale – it’s part of our DNA and worn with  great pride by most of our students.

However, they also recognised that it needed improvement so that every one of our students could be a visual embodiment of what we stand for i.e. great learning, high expectations and being part of a strong community.

And that’s why we’re making the changes.

Year 6 students visited Marden today, firstly taking in a tour of the school…

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In September we will be changing our PE kit for pupils who are new to the school in year 7.  For other year groups this is entirely optional.  Please read below for more information.

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On Friday the 24th of May pupils from several different Primary Schools in the local area visited Marden as part of their transition to High School this September.

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Year 11 pupils are still required to attend school as normal on Monday 3rd June & Tuesday 4th June.

From Wednesday 5th June pupils are only required to attend for the lessons where they still have an exam to sit (and for exams themselves).

The official leaving date for year 11 pupils is Tuesday 25th June (the date of the last exam).

On Friday 17th May, three Yr 10 girls attended a Fashion Experience at Newcastle Library run by Creative Enterprises.

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Here is a link to a new British Sign Language vocabulary app for iPhones and iPads, a charitable app to help support friends and family in learning BSL.

Download (PDF, 193KB)