News from Mr Grady
Hello everyone,
Is it just me, or is there something about January that makes you feel like there’s just so much to be done? All those plans for the year feel like they need to get started, and if you’re not careful, you find yourself attacking each thing like a bat of hell, rushing to get everything finished, because you’ve got all these great plans, and they just need to get started, and for crying out loud, why can’t everyone just see that??!!??
If you’re not careful your aim to make changes and get something new going can really dominate, and not give you the chance to reflect and approach things calmly.
In order to counteract this “everything has to be done TODAY”, I have taken to giving myself a small list of: “If I’ve done these things, then it’s actually been a positive week.” This seems to be helping, and reminding me that whatever plans I have, they don’t all have to be completed by the end of January.
My three things that will make it a positive week this week were; Try to get out for a run; make sure I got my newsletter in on time; and try to do something that puts me slightly ahead! (Obviously, I have considerably more to do than that, but for my “has it been a good week” consideration, these were my three things…)
Well, I did manage to get my newsletter in on the deadline, and you’ll see from my topic this week, that I am slightly ahead. I’ve yet to go out for a run. Two out of three ain’t bad I suppose.
Importantly though, I’m slightly ahead of myself, because I wanted to use this newsletter to wish all those of you who will be celebrating it, the very happiest of Chinese New Year’s.
New Year’s Eve falls on 31st January, with New Year’s Day this year being 1st February. We will be entering the year of the Tiger, and people born in a year of the Tiger are predicted to be brave, competitive, unpredictable, and confident. The last year of the Tiger was 2010, which means, I imagine the year of birth for quiet a few of our Year 7 and 8 students.
Certainly, in working with those students, I can see some of those traits emerging, and in line with our aims here at RHS, we will hopefully continue to support them to be brave and confident. I’m not quite sure where I stand on unpredictable, but I suppose we can all do with a bit of that sometimes!
I’m told that the Chinese New Year is celebrated with people going back home to be together with families, to eat, drink, and cook together, visit extended family and friends and exchange good wishes, and it feels, that as January draws to a close that it’s just the right time for a little of that: Good food with friends and family, and good wishes and fortune shared for the year to come, a little glimpse of the warm shoots of spring in the darkness of the winter.
Happy Chinese New Year for next Tuesday everyone,
With all best wishes, stay well and safe!
Mr Grady