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 News from Mr Grady
12th January 2023
Hello everyone,
A happy new year to you all, I do hope the two-week break gave everyone a chance for some rest, relaxation and rejuvenation, and that any new year resolutions that you might have made are still holding firm.
As we’re in week two of this term already, it is very much back to business as usual, with Year 13 students now embarked on their mock examinations, year 9 students considering their GCSE options, and guidance meetings starting for our year 11 students looking to join us in the sixth form.
We will also be conducting those guidance interviews for the record number of external applicants to RH6 we have had this year over the coming weeks. It is always lovely to see students from other schools marvelling at the calm, purposeful atmosphere of RHS, the focussed and academic learning environment, and making comparisons to the schools from which they have come.
The popularity of our sixth form is rooted in the personal and individual care we offer our students, and the fantastic results and destinations we support our students to achieve.
Prior to the Christmas break, I was privileged to see several of the Extended Project Qualification presentations of our year 13 students, the culmination of an independent piece of work, research or creative artefact. I was in awe of the range of literate and challenging subjects our students had chosen to present on, and equally impressed with the maturity and confidence with which they presented. I always think the “EPQ” is the culmination of the great experience students have at RHS, the evidence of the ambition, the curiosity and the intellectual sophistication we would expect all our students to develop. It certainly made me consider my own presentation skills, and up my game for the first assemblies of term, as we welcomed all students back to school!
I do hope 2023 has started well for you all, and with the same excitement and vigour we have seen here in school!
Stay well and safe everyone,
With all best wishes,
Mr Grady
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Year 11 Certificate Winners
Year 11 had their Celebration assembly last week and the certificate winners were announced.
All the winners were announced and congratulated in the e-newsletter sent to parents / carers, students and staff.
Congratulations and well done to all of them!
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SSLT and Prefects announced
Our new Senior Student Leadership Team has been announced and is made up of:
Belle Ngan: Head Girl
Morgan Jeffs: Head Boy
Elizabeth Hooton
Sasha Muthami
Michelle Wu
Well done to all our new members of SSLT and prefects and good luck in your new roles.
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Consultation on Admissions Policy 2024
As required by the Admissions Code, we have published our proposed admissions policy for 2024 entry and initiated a consultation period which will run from Monday 5th December 2022 to Monday 16th January 2023.
Copies of the policy and the catchment area map can be viewed on the Admissions web page. If anyone wishes to comment on this policy, they should write to Mr D Merritt, Governance Professional, at the school address before the deadline of midday on Monday 16th January 2023.
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Bus Queueing arrangements
Following concerns raised by staff and students about the management of the bus queue at the end of the day we are trialling some small changes to the organisation of the bus queueing areas. Students waiting for buses should now wait behind the newly installed blue barriers and not on the footpath, this will allow others to easily and safely leave the school site.
For students taking the 85S, we have created a specific area to wait in. When the bus arrives, students will be asked to leave the waiting area in groups of 10 at a time. Senior Leadership Team members of staff on duty will supervise this. This is to ensure an orderly and safe departure from school for all students.
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Tickets for The Red Shoes
"A dark and delicious tale about desire, temptation and punishment!" The school production of The Red Shoes is coming soon!
Performances are on 25th, 26th and 27th January at 7pm. Book your tickets via Parentmail now!
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Refreshments by the PTA
Wine and snacks available at the ‘Red Shoes’ performances
The PTA will be serving a selection of drinks and snacks from 6.15pm on each day of the performance. Why not grab something to eat or drink and support us at the same time?
On sale will be: Prosecco, Fruit Shoots; water; cans of fizzy drink; vegetable samosas, crisps, popcorn and cupcakes. Payment by card or cash.
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E-Library reminder!
A quick reminder of how to access the e-library to borrow eBooks and audiobooks - go to the online platform or scan this QR code:
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Aim High club
Mrs Dermott-Bond and Dr Carr will be running 'Aim High' club from this Friday, 13th January, onwards. Details will be confirmed in an email to students later today
All year 12 students are welcome to come along.
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Latest PTA news
Your PTA committee members
The PTA elects a committee for each academic year during the Annual General Meeting. The 2022-23 committee members are:
Chair – Vikas Garg
Treasurer – Pallavi Subramanyam
Secretary – Debbie Brent
200 Club – Tess Juckes
School Rep – Rachel Holland
Committee Member – Ruth Hooton
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Date for your diary – next PTA meeting
The next RHS PTA meeting will take place at 6.30pm on Monday 24th April in the Sports Hall Classroom. Meetings are friendly and informal and usually last for about an hour. Please join us and support our fundraising activities; the PTA exists to enrich the learning experiences of all our daughters and sons attending Rugby High School.
If you are a parent who can spare a few hours to help with fundraising, have a particular skill that you would be willing to ‘donate’ to the PTA or work for a company that would be able to match-fund our fundraising activities, please get in touch with us at rhspta@rugbyhighschool.co.uk
Join the RHS PTA Facebook group
We now have a RHS PTA Facebook page! Join us at Rugby High School PTA. Or scan this QR code:
You will be asked to answer two questions before you are approved to join the group, which is private to RHS parents and carers only. Please join us and add your voice to the PTA community.
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Call for donations - outgrown but not outworn uniform
Has your daughter grown this year? Do you have any items of uniform that you could donate to the PTA for our next outgrown but not outworn uniform sale? Read more about what donations we welcome.
The next PTA uniform sale will take place on Saturday 11th February. Look out for further details in this newsletter or on the website and Facebook.
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Michael Scott talk
Year 11 and 12 Latin and Classical Civilisation students were excited to have Professor Michael Scott, Academic, Author and TV Presenter, give them a virtual presentation on Greek Theatre this week! You may have enjoyed Michael's TV series on invisible Cities and he is also a professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. His talk covered the origins, context and stories around Ancient Greek theatre. Students learnt that in Ancient Greece, theatre was fundamentally a religious act and watching plays was part of your ritual worship of the gods.
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Food banks
We have internal food banks available in school, please take what you need from them. They are in discreet places, including Mrs Thompson’s office, Room 2 (next to psychology), and Mrs William’s office (by Latin). Any member of the school community can take what they need.
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Elevate Webinars
There are another 4 free parent support webinars lined up for this term:
- How to Help Your Child Make Better Notes - 17th January
- How to Help Your Child Improve Their Memory - 7th February
- How to Help Your Child Prepare for Exams - 28th February
- How Your Child Can Maximise Marks in the Exam Room - 21st March
Tuesday 17th January (6-7pm)
How to Help Your Child Make Better Notes
Here’s what they will be covering on the night:
- The most effective way to structure notes
- The 3 levels of acquiring knowledge and how to implement this with your child at home
- The power of deliberate practice and the fastest way for your child to improve their marks.
Click here to register for free
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PE Fixtures and School trips
Please remember, we really appreciate students being collected on time after a school trip or PE fixture. We will do our best to also give you clear collection times and send updates if anything changes. Staff have to get home for their own commitments, and we have to know that all children are safely collected before leaving the site. Thank you in advance.
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School Governance Professional part-time role available
Warwickshire Governor Services runs a successful clerking service for schools in the county and surrounding area. They are recruiting additional School Governance Professionals (formerly known as clerk to the governing board) to deliver a high-quality clerking service to schools, to meet demand.
The main duties are:
- providing advice to the governing body on governance, constitutional, and procedural matters.
- providing effective administrative support to the governing body and its committees, including minuting meetings to a high standard.
- ensuring the governing body is properly constituted.
- managing information effectively in accordance with legal requirements.
School Governance Professionals will be employed by Warwickshire County Council but will usually be allocated to specific schools. Day to day accountability is to the governing body.
This is a flexible part-time role, which can involve clerking for just one school (to fit around your substantive post) or it can be grown to involve clerking for many schools. The hours can be agreed with candidates on an individual basis. Pay (including holiday enhancement) is £14.21 per hour. You will mainly work from home, with some attendance of meetings at times convenient to the governing body, typically early evening. These are both on-line and in-person meeting
Find out more here. The closing date is 24th January 2023.
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WCC Consultations on SEND and Inclusion
Have your say on proposed changes to support for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities in a Local Authority consultation. Warwickshire County Council is inviting views from parents and carers, children and young people, education settings and other stakeholders on proposed changes to support services for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Two public consultations are running side-by-side until 26 February 2023. They focus on the following areas:
- SEND Home to School Transport – how families apply for transport, how transport options are determined based on individual level of need and updates to the policy to make it clearer and easier to understand.
- SEND and Inclusion Service Offer – changes to both the core and traded offer currently provided for education settings in Warwickshire to support children and young people with SEND.
They are hoping to capture the views from as many people as possible to help shape future support services in a way that meets the needs of families and schools and settings. Find out more here.
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Shake My Future
by Dorothea Smartt
shake my future push me past my complacency
my taken-for-granted my comfort zone
shake my future let me source the unimagined
be released from the sentence of the inevitable
take control, empower myself
past the dour predictions of the present
and change myself
shake my future challenge our ‘first world’s
capitalist consumerist criminal zone
of perpetual purchasing
shake my future past the edges of the known
world launch me out into the hinterlands
of the intuited imagined
beyond the droughts of apathy
and quench my thirst for something different
shake my future with alternative endings
curdle the milk of human kindness beyond
the patronizing rattle of charity cans
to preserve the poor and assuage my guilt
shake my future with a kaleidoscope of tunes
play some other melody and bliss me out
of ignorance let my mind expand with a question
and seeking the answers shake my future
shake my future shake my future
in a triangle of tangential tirades and beckon me
into a sandwich of yes we can and hope
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School Vacancies
We’re recruiting for a Premises Manager and Cleaners, with all posts starting as soon as possible.
Premises Manager: NJC Grade H: Points: 17-22 (£26,845 to £29,440), full-time and permanent (37 hours per week). We are currently looking to appoint a Premises Manager to manage our caretaking and cleaning team. The successful candidate will be self-motivated, have a high attention to detail and take pride in their work and that of their team. They must be passionate about developing a programme of continuous improvement of the site. They will be a great communicator, with a passion to serve their internal and external customers.
You will ideally have previous experience managing such a team in the education sector. You must have well-honed practical skills and a thirst to utilize them to the maximum benefit of the school. You will have purchasing expertise and a knowledge of a wide range of professional service providers. You must have experience of managing a budget and be a competent ICT user. The ability to work to tight deadlines and to communicate successfully with staff and students is essential.
Cleaners: £9.50 – £9.60 per hour, morning shift flexible starting between 6am to 7 am or afternoon shift from 3.50pm. Term-Time plus 5 training days plus 1 working week for deep clean – 40 Weeks. Training for cleaning and COSHH will be provided. Applicants must be able to work alone and as part of a team.
Please visit our website to find out how to apply for the Cleaner position.
Visit the vacancies web page
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For RHS Students ONLY
If you have a concern about another student, please fill in this form to report your concern.
For more information about Wellbeing including resources and links to our DSL's, please visit our Wellbeing page here.
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Please find below information that has been passed to us that may be of interest to you and your family.
Warwickshire Family Information Service Newsletter
10th January Edition
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The School Newsletter is sent out every other Thursday during Term time.
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