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 News from Mr Grady
18th July 2024
Hello Everyone,
And just like that…another year draws to a close. Having said that, as I write this Rugby High school staff and students are currently away in Wales, France, Switzerland, and Borneo, so it is not exactly a “quiet” last week. Curriculum enhancement week has seen us canoeing, paddle-boarding, zip-wiring, axe-throwing, completing forensic science days, undertaking artful maths, completing business enterprise, talking with MI5 operatives and making films and stage productions, not to mention trips to Harry Potter World, Alton Towers and the Safari Park.
We really have crammed it all in. I’m sweating just writing about it all!
And as this year comes to a close, I note, as look at the variety of newsletters that I’ve written, that I’m coming to the end of my fifth year as Head Teacher here at Rugby High School. It seems to have flown by, and I’m looking forward enormously to year number 6, which, with only a few short weeks of the summer, I am sure will be here quicker than we could imagine.
Reading some educational research the other day, I noted that Head Teachers are apparently at their most effective between years 6 and 9 of their headships. I’m not sure what this says about the last five years, but it certainly does promise good things for the next four.
As we all step into the summer break for a chance to have a well-deserved rest, a chance to recharge batteries, and reflect on the last year, I hope we all have the chance to connect properly with our friends and family, to take stock of where we’re at, and think positively about what we want to do as we enter the academic year 2024-25. Whether you’ll be starting the all-important second year of GCSE and A-Level courses, moving upwards through the school, or coming to the end of your time here with us at RHS, I wish you a restful, peaceful and safe summer holiday, and look forward to seeing everyone well and “game-ready” in September.
It only leaves me to thank all our students for their wonderful efforts and the myriad ways they impress us every day, thank all my colleagues for their tireless work on behalf of our students, (it remains a privilege to work with you all) and thank all our families for their support, and the respectful, kind and caring way in which they have interacted with us in the past year.
Have a wonderful holiday - Stay well and safe everyone,
With all best wishes,
Mr Grady
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Certificates awarded at Celebration Assemblies
We recently awarded subject certificates to years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 and some Duke of Edinburgh Awards too!
Year 7
English - Kaiya
Maths - Zahra
Science - Martha
Computer Science - Denver
Art and Design - Amelie
French - Clara
Spanish - Hiya
Latin - Blossom
Drama - Louise
Music - Tia
Geography - Avaani
History - Michelle
PRS - Jessica
PE - Katie
PSHE - Grace
Year 8
English - Amelia
Maths - Freia
Science - Tiana
Computer Science - Ira
Art and Design - Angelyn
Textiles - Amelia
Food - Evelyn
French - Emma
Spanish - Aashna
Latin - Tamsin
Drama - Amy
Music - Philippa
Geography - Gabriella
History - Eshaal
PRS - Anushka
PE - Nasya
PSHE - Mrunal
Year 9
English - Breesha
Maths - Iris
Science - Meera
Computer Science - Ebere
Art and Design - Tinn
Textiles - Kaila
Food - Amelia
French - Shaashvati
Spanish - Chloe
Latin - Daisy
Drama - Bestly
Music - Manon
Geography - Sirisha
History - Molly
PRS - Rishika
PE - Surabhi
PSHE - Poppy
Year 10
English - TajrianSadiq
Maths - Penelope
Biology - Riya
Chemistry - Annvi
Physics - Olly
Science - Charlotte
Computer Science - Amelia
Business Studies - Athulya
Art and Design - Rania
Textiles - Emily
Food - Shantai
French - Ana
Spanish - Karini
Latin - Chloe
Drama - Eva
Music - Alice
Geography - Jesse
History - Freya
PRS - Rhianna
PE - Lhotse
Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards given out at the Summer Celebration Assembly:
Afua, Rania, Corey, Rithika, Emily, Lily, Amulya, Harriet, Amritha, Anya, Haimi,
Sophia, Isabelle, Lena.
Year 12
English Language - Mia
English Literature - Faye
Maths - Milly
Further Maths - Zachariah
Biology - Simrah
Chemistry - Nishad
Physics - Sophia
Computer Science - Simran
Psychology - Hyeonjun
Sociology - Lara
Business Studies - Olivia
Economics - Kacey
Art and Design - Sianne
French - Mihail
Spanish - Ellen
Latin - Nosang
Drama - Alex
Music - Marcie
Geography - Sam
History - Rose
Politics - Sophie
PRS - Aleesha
PSHE - Blessy Susan
EPQ - Millie
Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award - Simran
(Sorry we are missing the Year 12 photo!)
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Highlights of Curriculum Enhancement week 2024
For coverage of our amazing, busy and varied Curriculum Enhancement week please head to Facebook or Instagram for lots of photos and updates on the activities in school! You'll also find updates, photos and video clips from many of our trips in the UK and further afield, including our Duke of Edinburgh Silver and Gold expeditions and our intrepid World Challenge students over in Borneo.
Click here for Facebook Click here for Instagram
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Find Term Dates 2024 - 25 online
Term dates, including staff training days, are now on our website for the next academic year. On staff training days students are not expected to be in school. The following year's term dates are also available to view there and please check our website regularly for any future updates.
Visit the website
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Thank you to our PTA
As we come to the end of this academic year we would like to extend our thanks to our brilliant team of parents who work on our PTA. The PTA have worked hard throughout the year to fundraise on our behalf, and we are grateful for the support they have given to our school extra-curricular activities. Activities and resources the PTA have helped us to finance this year include the following: Digital Theatre, the Onatti French and Spanish plays, our Winter Fayre resources for students to create their products to sell, Crest and many of our Curriculum Enhancement week activities such as Flamenco and Highly Sprung Theatre workshops, Wise Up Hub Challenge and our Art workshop.
The PTA fundraising happens after school/work hours and at weekends and we are grateful to the team for giving up their time to support us. On a personal note, I have very much enjoyed working with and getting to know our PTA parents too, thank you for your kindness, generosity and commitment to our school. I look forward to working with you all again next year. Have a great summer, Jo Grimes
If any of our readers would like to get involved with the PTA please email RHSPTA@rugbyhighschool.co.uk
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Year 12 celebrate Engineering Project event
On Thursday 27th June, the Year 12 Engineering students attended their celebration event at Birmingham University. After working as 2 teams with local industry mentors all year, the students completed 2 detailed projects which had achieved Gold Industrial Cadet awards.
At the celebration event, the teams displayed their projects to other students, industry mentors and University staff. It was a great opportunity to share their work with others and see other projects from the numerous teams from across the Midlands region.
There was a competition element to the day, with one team being runners up in the Overall Project and Dragons Den categories and the other team winning the People’s Choice Award, which came with a beautiful glass trophy!
All the students have worked incredibly hard and demonstrated real commitment, enthusiasm, high level skill and creativity completing this programme and Dr Fletcher and Mrs Mighall are incredibly proud of them. They have so many skills which will be highly respected when applying to Engineering degrees, apprenticeships and future jobs.
If you are interested in STEM and Engineering as a career and fancy being part of future projects, you can access the Engineering programme by studying A-level Physics and then applying for a place in September of Year 12.
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Year 7's Rockets launch to the Skies
Rocket club members have been working hard in their lunchtime club to build and decorate their rockets and last week was the big launch day!
Despite the gusty wind we had a successful test launch, so it was full speed ahead with launch day. Rocket design themes varied from Hello Kitty to SpaceX and fellow students gathered to cheer on the teams launching their rockets.
All the rockets successfully and dramatically took to the skies, and all the parachutes deployed too, taking some rockets sailing over the school. Some descended neatly to the ground while others accidentally ended up on the roof!
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Year 7 Rounders round-up
Year 7 students played Harris School at rounders on Thursday 4th July. Harris unfortunately could only field a team of 7 players but our RHS students showed our school ethos of 'Kindness, Care and Respect' by lending them 2 players for each innings.
The game was a close one with RHS leading by 1 rounder in the first innings. Unfortunately, we lost by half a rounder after the second innings due to one of our own players scoring the final rounder for Harris School...
Earlier in the season, on Tuesday 9th May, our Year 7 rounders team played Avon Valley School. The first innings was played well by both sides, but Avon Valley were in the lead by 3 rounders. The spitting of rain came during the second innings which made the floor and ball a little bit slippy. From this point onwards the game became quite entertaining to watch with all students from both schools giggling at the various scenarios that occurred. Unfortunately, Avon Valley's fielding was stronger than ours in the second innings resulting in them winning the match. This was technically our first loss of the season. So well done Year 7! We will come back to beat Avon Valley in Year 8.
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Year 8 Rounders round-up
Squad:
Siu, Daisy Amelia, Sofia, Anushay, Deeksha, Amy, Victoria, Scarlett, Yenisha.
Vs Free School Won 18 – 10 ½
Our first match of the season was away on an extremely hot day. After winning the toss we opted to field first and managed to keep their batting score low at 4 ½ rounders. After our first innings we had almost doubled their score and so put them into bat again. By the end of the match everyone had added something to the batting score with a good amount of whole rounders scored, which was good to see and very few players getting out in the match.
Top scorer: Anushay 3 ½ rounders.
Vs Ashlawn - Won (Ashlawn defaulted)
Vs Harris Won 14 ½ - 3 ½
A match played in good spirits by both teams. Even though Harris only had 7 players they put up a good fight and made our girls think tactically about our batting. After losing the toss we batted first and unfortunately Harris could not match our score after 2 innings.
Top scorer: Sofia 3 ½ rounders
Vs Avon Valley Won 7 - 6 ½
The score suggests the game was closer than it actually was. This is the score after 2 Avon Valley batting innings and only 1 for us. After winning the toss we put Avon Valley into bat first at the end of which only half a rounder was scored and that was given to them through no balls! We managed to get the whole team out after 10 balls. We went into bat scoring 7 through lots of half rounders and 1 whole rounder. Avon Valley’s second innings was better but not enough to beat our score which meant we didn’t go back into bat again.
Top scorer: Deeksha 2 rounders
The girls have played well as a team over the last term, supporting each other and consistently turning up to practise. They seemed to have enjoyed playing every match and have been very gracious in their victories over other schools. Well done on a successful season!
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A Summer of Drama
Here's this summer’s theatre recommendations from the RHS Drama Department! We subscribe to Digital Theatre which gives us access to hundreds of plays, interviews and learning resources, which are all available to our students. We would love it if you and your families all cwtched up for an evening (or two) of free entertainment on us over the holidays – these shared experiences should make for good discussions over the dinner table and with their peers in September too!
The log-in details above are for our students only, so please do not share them outside of the RHS community as our subscription does not allow it. Feel free to browse some of the other offerings these sites have – age recommendations are on most of the productions, however a quick web search should also help you make appropriate choices for your viewers.
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Virtual Insight into University for our Year 11, 12 and 13 students
This Insight into University virtual course is a comprehensive virtual experience allowing students to explore STEM studies at university and the career opportunities that these subjects lead to. The course is running up until 23rd August and will take students approximately 30 hours to fully complete. It provides access to information on student life, STEM projects and activities set by leading UK universities and global STEM companies, first year undergraduate lectures, live interactive sessions with academics, admissions tutors, employers and current students.
Once completed students will receive an Industrial Cadets Silver Award these awards are highly respected in the STEM industry and are the industry equivalent of DofE - Patroned by the King. The course costs £95 but fully funded places are available if cost is a barrier, please indicate your interest on the application form.
Find out more and book places here.
Virtual Routes into STEM for our Year 9 and 10 students
The 'Routes into STEM virtual experience' provides an exciting opportunity to explore the various routes you can take towards your STEM career. This course is designed to enable young people to work through activities and projects at their own pace, tour a variety of institutions virtually and also have access to live career sessions and mentor panels with STEM employers. This course is running up until 2nd August and will take students approximately 20 hours to fully complete.
This is a fantastic way to explore the different routes into a STEM career, including College Courses, University Courses, Apprenticeships and learning from industry what is involved in a STEM Career as well as enhancing your skills!
This course is open to all abilities and will include live interactive sessions, allowing students to listen and ask questions to STEM students and professionals. Once completed students will receive an Industrial Cadets Bronze Award these awards are highly respected in the STEM industry and are the industry equivalent of DofE - Patroned by the King. The course costs £75. If cost is a barrier, fully funded places are available, please indicate your interest on the application form.
Find out more and book places here.
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Mental Health Support Tips
The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is available to support us throughout the school year, including term time and school holidays. MHST produce useful advice sheets and they look at issues like stress and how to cope with it, anxiety, relaxation, concentration and depression. They recommend getting outside as it can help decrease your anxiety levels, as well as lessen stress and feelings of anger. Research has also shown exercise can help with this and it's even better when you're outside! Regular access to green spaces has been linked to lower risks of depression and improved concentration and attention. Cycling and walking both release our 'feel-good' hormones known as endorphins. These hormones help to relax your mind and make you feel happier which can boost your mood and reduces your feelings of anxiety.
Kooth visited school recently to talk about mental health and wellbeing with our years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12, reminding students that mental health is how we think, feel and act, manage our emotions and cope with stressful situations or challenging times. Students were encouraged to look after their mental health as they do their physical health and were reminded of some of the things that can affect mental health from friendships and relationships to social media or bereavement.
Kooth is an online mental wellbeing community which all our students can access all year round, including the holidays. It is free, safe and anonymous and students can use it to drop in to a live chat with a counsellor, access activities such as breathing exercises or positive affirmations or read other people's experiences and share their own. Students can access Kooth online.
Find more mental health support tips on our website
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Rugby High Students' Sailing Prowess
Jessica, in Year 9, recently attended the under 18 International Laser Class World Championships in Portugal at the end of June. The event had over 400 young people from over 47 countries competing, this was Jessica’s first time at such a large event and she was one of the youngest competitors.
The big seas on the Atlantic proved to be another brilliant experience, overcoming the big swells and very different conditions to anything she had previously endured. Jess did brilliantly and finished 14th under 16 girl and 64th youth woman and reached her goal of making Gold fleet.
More Sailing Success
Imogen, Year 13, recently competed for Team GB in Slovenia in the European Sailing Championships. Imogen and her partner Hugo Valentine secured a bronze medal.
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John Clare
Sunday Dip
The morning road is thronged with merry boys
Who seek the water for their Sunday joys;
They run to seek the shallow pit, and wade
And dance about the water in the shade.
The boldest ventures first and dashes in,
And others go and follow to the chin,
And duck about, and try to lose their fears,
And laugh to hear the thunder in their ears.
They bundle up the rushes for a boat
And try across the deepest place to float:
Beneath the willow trees they ride and stoop -
The awkward load will scarcely bear them up.
Without their aid the others float away,
And play about the water half the day.
All things Poetry found at Poetry by Heart
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We're wishing good luck to all our Rugby High girls who are about to take part in the Rugby Theatre Youth Project which, this summer, is a production of 'Legally Blonde The Musical!'
There are lots of our students taking part, both acting and getting involved in behind-the-scenes tech. If you'd like to go along to watch the final show it is being performed from 31st July - 4th August.
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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
16th July Edition
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The School Newsletter is sent out every other Thursday during Term time.
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