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News from Mr Grady
20th April 2023
Hello everyone,
I do hope everyone had a great break over the Easter Holiday, and had time to catch up with family and friends, and take a chance to unwind.
We return to school this week, just in time to for the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan. As the exact date of when the celebrations begin depends on the specific sightings of the moon, this is a celebration that occurs at slightly different times as it moves across the globe.
What seems to be very clear though, is that the celebration of the end of the fasting period is one of warmth and togetherness, as families and communities come together to pray, share food and mark the occasion with decoration at home, and offer forgiveness to each other and seek forgiveness.
That idea of forgiveness is such an important one for us all in our daily lives, not just the expectation that one will receive forgiveness for a sharp word, or an action that you regret, but that we actively take time to reflect and seek forgiveness, that we reflect on our own actions, and how they affected others and consider how we might make amends for them.
If this all sounds a bit like a sermon, it’s not meant to. We can all understand the times when we have felt that someone should be seeking forgiveness from us, and I’m sure we have felt times, perhaps less of them, when we have wanted to seek forgiveness from someone. It’s the idea of personal reflection that is the key to this, the consideration of our own actions and how they might affect another person or group of people.
We can all make mistakes, take choices that perhaps on reflection we are not happy about, that is part of being not just a young person in school, but a person in general. What is so vital is having the self-reflection to consider one’s actions and words, and make different choices accordingly. It’s what we keep central to our work here at Rugby High School, and is summed up in our ethos of kindness, care and respect.
As we enter the third and final term of this academic year, it is always useful to remind ourselves of the ethos and culture of our wonderful community, where we can safely celebrate the many different cultures, backgrounds and communities that make up RHS.
Kindness, care and respect are the bedrock of our success as a school, and ensure that we can continue to thrive and grow stronger as a united community, and I look forward to doing so in the coming term, with all of the exciting challenges to come!
To those of you celebrating in the coming days, Eid Mubarak.
Stay well and safe everyone,
With all best wishes,
Mr Grady
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Celebration Assemblies
This week we have been celebrating our students’ achievements with our termly celebration assemblies, with certificates awarded to students. Here are those students who have received awards this week, well done to everyone!
Year 7
English – Imogen Green
Maths – Nina Brennan
Science – Anushka Krishna
Computer Science – Kai Okafor
Art and Design – Tiana Tehrani
French – Aiza Beg
Spanish – Sofia Allen
Latin – Eva Birkenshaw
Drama – Pippa Bennett
Music – Amelia Price
Geography – Emma Artiss
History – Michelle Boateng
PRS – Vaibhavi Sudhindra
PE – Evelyn Huhle
PSHE – Pia Garrett-Dambowy
Headteacher’s Award – Lin Li
Year 8
English – Daisy Clark
Maths – Isabel Selvin
Science – Lilla Dobo
Computer Science – Hawa Niass
Art and Design – Sofia Fracchia
Textiles – Kaila Joy
Food Technology – Ana Volosciuc
French – Sirisha Gupta
Spanish – Iris Parsons
Latin – Gisele Howell
Drama – Tinn Marsh
Music – Alyssa Barnett
Geography – Ella Godfrey
History – Jenny Mynott
PRS – Indie-Rose Cave
PE – Diana Obi
PSHE – Emily Gascoigne
Headteacher’s Award – Laura Marsden
Year 9
English – Ananditha Venka
Maths – Megan Juckes-Paton
Science – Summer Greer
Computer Science – Ada Azogu
Art and Design – Addy Woo
Textiles – Advitha Nagella
Food Technology – Neha Anand
French – Emily Shields
Spanish – Penelope Bridge
Latin – Mabel Jupe
Drama – Chloe Wensley
Music – Alice Perraut
Geography – Lhotse Warner
History – Zara Hussain
PRS – Harriet Humphrey
PE – Olivia Davey
PSHE – Astrid Bastable
Headteacher’s Award – Carys Parton
Year 10
English Language – Matilda Clarke
English Literature – Malavika Sabith
Maths – Isabel Kirby
Biology – Lily Smith
Chemistry – Reetha Joy
Physics – Jismal Jobi
Science – Amelia Kerr
Computer Science – Shreya Hegde
Business – Ivany Mebou Talla
Art and Design – Sofia Nicolson
Textiles – Casey Dodd
Food Technology – Avneet Vraitch
French – Elsa George
Spanish – Eilidh Cowe
Latin – Chloe Barrett-Leafe
Drama – Eve McEvoy
Music – Poppy Goodwin
Geography – Pippa Thompson
History – Chloe Butler
PRS – Evelyn Bastable
PE – Ava Parker
Headteacher’s Award – Deekshita Sure-Venkata
Year 11
English Language – Lucy Goldthorp
English Literature – Melna Paulson
Maths – Naomi Wright
Biology – Hani Nasir
Chemistry – Angel Bhatnagar
Physics – Arshnoor Kochhar
Science – Amy Partridge
Computer Science – Simran Johal
Business – Chloe Wai
Art and Design – Sana Deshpande
Textiles – Mia Lee
Food Technology – Achsah Abraham
French – Nia Jones
Spanish – Isabel Morgan
Latin – Millie Gooch
Drama – Rose Ridley
Music – Joanna Sathyaseelan
Geography – Edie Lenehan
History – Daisy York
PRS – Amnique Sandhu
PE – Amelia Hughes
Headteacher’s Award – Phoebe Hirons
Year 12
English Language - Lorna Moran
English Literature - Millie Dangerfield
Maths- Jen Juckes-Paton
Further Maths - Elizabeth Hooton
Biology - Osariemen Benson
Chemistry - Elisabeth Holland
Physics - Angela Liu
Computer Science - George Gorman
Psychology - Alejandra Montiel Hernandez
Sociology - Gurleen Singh Kaur
Business - Lizzie Richardson
Economics - Aaliya Patidar
Art - Angela Liu
French - Ansruta Ayyalasomayajula
Spanish - Edie Henderson-Morrow
Latin - Aimee Hewitt
Classical Civilisation - Charlie Billington
Drama - Jessica Woo
Music - Matilda Legge
Geography - Eve Lawson
History - Emily Stoddart
Politics - Sam Wordley
PRS - Amy Leighton
PE - Neha Dhadda and Lauren Tuffin
PSHE - Emily Midgely
EPQ - Isabella Cooper
Headteacher’s Award - Maz Madziba
Year 13
English Language - Kate Freeman
English Literature - Ava Corry
Maths - Leandra Khan
Further Maths - Claudia Pyne
Biology - Aishwarya Gurijala
Chemistry - Elena Ridges
Physics - Dylan Modi
Computer Science - Safah Butt
Psychology - Amber Vegad
Sociology - Stella Watson
Business - Emilie Williams
Economics - Julia Przbylak
Art and Design - Kirsten Gee
French - Opshara Bhuiyan
Spanish - Georgia Hathaway
Drama - Miriam Clements
Geography - Rhea Khurana
History - Leah Charlesworth
Politics - Ellie Leonard
PRS - Evan Bown
EPQ - Rose Marshall
Headteacher’s Award - Jess Hammond
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Duke of Edinburgh Awards
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These students have achieved their Duke of Edinburgh awards, ranging from Bronze to Gold. We have presented 38 Bronze awards and 13 Silver awards! A total of 7 Gold awards have been achieved and these students will have their certificates and badges awarded at one of the Royal Palaces. These are fantastic achievements, well done everyone!
Bronze awards
Jessica Allen, Chloe Butler, Sophie Chang, Matilda Clarke, Eilidh Cowe, Ria Dhinsa, Casey Dodd, Elsa George, Jasmine Green, Lydia Huhle, Livia Jacob, Lydia Jacob, Shaan Khaira, Akanksha Linesh, Shayni Mistry, Maya Moorthy, Amy Morris, Eleanor Newey, Olivia Ouattara, Sruthi Paramadayalan, Ava Parker, Rosie Revell, Lily Smith, Svara Tejaswi, Jessica Thain, Fresia Thompson, Zoe Tonelli, Hollie Conboy, Aimee Farmer, Rhiana Lear, Amy Partridge, Daisy York, Amelia Forbes, India Hartfield, Maddie Mawby, Eva Pathania, Krupa Patel and Daisy Ringer.
Silver awards
Sophia Chowdry, Eleanor Colwell, Amelia Hughes, Simrah Irfan, Ellie Laird, Joanna Sathyaseelan, Rosie Seago, Rose Marshall, Lucy Morgan, Annabelle Valkhoff , Keira Barnes, Eve Newson and Rebecca Pope.
Gold awards
Eloise Bakewell, Grace Calder, Constance Farmer, Chloe-Anna Hunt, Alanna Pandey, Ellie Riddle and Lucia Virdi.
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House Points winners
Last term’s winner of the house points competition was Rauf!
All members of Rauf house will enjoy time off from lessons to play a rounders game later this term.
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Open Evening for New Students
We'd like to invite year 4 and 5 students and their parents/carers to visit Rugby High School for our Open Evening on 14th June, 5-7pm!
Parents/carers and prospective students will be able to explore Rugby High School, speak to teachers and current students and hear talks from the senior team. Please share these details with any friends or family who have daughters in years 4 or 5.
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Prom Date Reminder
The Year 11 Prom is taking place on 28th June and it's time to buy your tickets. The cut-off date for ordering your tickets is 1st May!
Location: Draycote Hotel
Time: 7-11pm
Dress: Formal
Cost for RHS students: £40
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Poetry Competition Success
Sixth Form students Eve Lawson, Elise Scotney and Luisa Curtis were all longlisted for the prestigious Christopher Tower Poetry competition.
The Tower Poetry Competition offers the UK’s most valuable prize for young poets. The competition is open to students between 16-18 years of age and this year the theme was ‘The Planets', with the intention of giving entrants free rein to interpret it as widely as they like.
Out of the 1700 entries they received they were all in the top 10%!
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Particle Physics Competition Winner heading to France
Congratulations to Angela Liu in Year 12 who has won a place on the XMaS Scientist Experience. This is a nationwide opportunity for any Year 12 Physics students, who identify as female, to attend a 4-day trip to the Particle Accelerator facility in Grenoble, France at the beginning of July 2023. The competition aim is to encourage students to consider science careers, foster a sense of community and encourage self-belief. This trip will take students out of the classroom and show them science in a real-world application, with the aim of sparking an enthusiasm for the wonder of science. It is a tremendous opportunity to see how far a career in science can take them.
Angela will visit the Particle Accelerator facility in July and will experience what life might be like as an international research scientist, by taking part in the Synchrotron@School Programme. She will also get the opportunity to meet amazing scientists who live and work in Grenoble and also do a little bit of sight-seeing in this beautiful French city.
Angela secured 1 of 16 spots on the programme with her fabulous detailed essay. In addition to researching how X-rays are useful for material research, she also produced a fantastic essay on the life and achievements in Physics of Lise Meitner which she creatively displayed as an amazing newspaper article which you can see below. Many congratulations to Angela - the Physics department is very proud of her!
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Experiencing the Uniq programme at Oxford University
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UNIQ is the University of Oxford’s access programme for state school students. Every year more students from diverse backgrounds get offered places at Oxford with help of UNIQ. One of our students describes her experience:
“I signed up for the Classics course in the UNIQ programme as it is the subject that I have the most interest in at the moment. During the Easter break, UNIQ ran a three-day online course where we discussed big questions and had a chance to talk to some Oxford students about accommodation and courses. A few of the big questions we discussed as a group were; Can we trust the history books? Do we see colours the same? Is a robot a person?
On the last session of the course, we were tasked with creating our own big question in our mini groups and creating a video under 2 minutes discussing our question. Our videos were submitted with a link to YouTube, and we voted as a group which video we wanted to be submitted to be short listed. The question that we chose to discuss was ‘Does censorship oppose persona freedom?’. We each collected our own opinions to the question and combined them to make the video. We researched topics like art, literature, music, and social media. I focused on art and researched the censorship of Michelangelo’s ‘David’. I also have a residential in Oxford during the summer holidays for three days.”
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Big Sing on Britain's Got talent
Year 12 student Evie Francis-Miller was part of a fantastic audition on Britain's Got Talent last weekend. Here she shares her experience:
"When I was 6 years old, my parents, Gemma & Howard Francis, started The BIG Sing Community Choir in Witham in Essex. Over the past 12 years, the business has grown into 16 choirs across the UK with over 500 members, all with the aim of bringing uplifting music to ordinary people. On 27th January, we were so blessed to have the opportunity to audition for Britain's Got Talent. After a lot of brainstorming and organisation behind the scenes, we managed to take 7 coaches and 350 of our choir members to the London Palladium. Due to the flash mob style of our audition, we had to get all of our singers sitting in the correct place in the auditorium - this part took over an hour!
We were able to have one practice and, afterwards, the judges and studio audience came in. During this, my parents and I had to do lots of extra filming behind the scenes - including those awkward slow-mo shots that you always see! After an interview with Ant & Dec, it was time for our real audition with the judges in front of us. It was so surreal to be on the stage that we all see on TV every year but even better to be doing it with all of the choir members that I grew up with. After I performed my brief solo, my nerves disappeared and I focused on enjoying every second of singing.
Initially, there were around 30 of us on the stage but we surprised the judges with choir members standing up and singing incrementally throughout our song "Brighter Days". By the end, the Palladium was filled with 350 of us singing our hearts out. The judges were so surprised as they had no clue but they truly loved it - even Bruno sang a little reprise at the end! As we watched it back on Saturday, we had no idea what they were going to show but we were incredibly pleased. The most beautiful part was they really captured the true joy and happiness that everyone had in that moment.
Post-audition, life has been a bit crazy! We had an article in the Daily Mirror on Saturday morning, we were up early on Sunday morning to do a BBC Radio interview and I went along to ITV Studios on Monday morning. My parents did a live interview on the sofa with Lorraine and, amazingly, I was allowed to watch behind the cameras. The whole experience has been such a joy but, most of all, it has highlighted how positive and uplifting singing is for all of our choir members and everyone involved.
If you would like to get involved in singing, come and join the School Choir which runs every Wednesday lunchtime at 1:20PM. This is co-led by me and Evie Finch - we do a mixture of Pop and Musical Theatre songs and we always have chilled out, fun and joyous rehearsals. Just come along!"
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Cross country success
Olivia McGhee recently competed in the Schools International Athletics Board Cross Country competition finishing in an amazing 3rd place. Olivia was representing England who won the team gold!
Well done Olivia!
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Netball Final result
Erin Khaira provides the latest match report from our netball team:
"Since being selected for the RHS netball team, we have been training weekly and playing matches after school every Wednesday. On Wednesday 29th March, we WON the final against Bilton, whom we had played twice before, both of them being losses. Here's how it happened...
In the group stages Avon Valley and Houlton both, frustratingly, forfeited our matches, so when it came to our first match, against a very strong Bilton side, we were taken by surprise and we lost the game 5-10. It then came to the group rankings to see who we would play for the semi-finals. As we'd come 2nd in our group, Ashlawn were our next competitors - whom had won their group. Throughout the game, our team showed great determination and had strong mentality. With this being said, the end score was 15-5 to us. Despite being happy about this result, we had to look ahead because Bilton had also earned a place in the finals. This was an extremely tense game for both teams, as we'd lost to them previously and had been putting in a lot of training time to try and improve our game. In the first quarter, we had gained the lead (3-2) and kept this position after the 2nd quarter too (6-4). In the 3rd quarter, Bilton dominated and took the lead to make it 7-10 but we remained resilient. The 4th quarter was definitely the hardest- we were all exhausted but that didn't stop us. With less than a minute left on the clock, we had pulled it back to 10-10 (!!) With quick pace we worked the ball down the court to where we were shooting. Liv then took a brave shot from over 2m away from the post, and scored!! Seconds later the final whistle blew. The end score was 11-10 and we all celebrated our victory, because all of the training had paid off. I just wanted to say thank you to all of the team for working so hard and -from all of us- a big thanks to Ms Wallace because without her, none of this would have been possible. Well done everyone!"
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Free webinars from Elevate Education
We’re inviting parents to join a series of free webinars this academic year 2023. The next series of webinars from Elevate Education in 2023 are:
- Memory - 2nd May, 6-7 pm
- Stress and Wellbeing - 23rd May, 6-7 pm
- Motivation - 20th June, 6-7 pm
- Setting Up for Success - 11th July, 6-7 pm
You can sign up for any or all of the next 4 free webinars here.
These free webinars are provided for parents by our partners Elevate Education. They also come into school and work with our students, delivering workshops that help them with study skills, motivation, wellbeing, and exam preparation. This webinar series will help you to support your children at home through reinforcing the skills they learn at school and we hope you can join in.
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A Short Story of Falling
by Alice Oswald
It is the story of the falling rain
to turn into a leaf and fall again
it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower
and every flower a tiny tributary
that from the ground flows green and momentary
is one of water’s wishes and this tale
hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail
if only I a passerby could pass
as clear as water through a plume of grass
to find the sunlight hidden at the tip
turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip
then I might know like water how to balance
the weight of hope against the light of patience
water which is so raw so earthy-strong
and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along
drawn under gravity towards my tongue
to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song
which is the story of the falling rain
that rises to the light and falls again
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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.
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Warwickshire Family Information Service Newsletter
18th April Edition
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The School Newsletter is sent out every other Thursday during Term time.
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