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News from Mr Grady

Hello everyone.

You’ll be reading this on polling day, and ever aware that we should not be offering partisan comment, I’ll need to tread carefully.

I was talking to a couple of Year 13 students about their excitement at being old enough to vote, and was incredibly impressed that they had made sure they were registered so that they could execute their democratic right on polling day.

I remember my first casting of a vote, back in 1997 and the slight thrill I felt at doing something that felt “properly grown up.”  I remember taking it very seriously, reading manifestos and watching election broadcasts, and coming to what I felt was “the right decision.” 

I think it’s fair to say that the political scene is more complicated than it was.  I grew up and started to pay attention to politics when there was (or certainly there felt like there was) a choice of only three parties.  It felt like a simpler time. And yet, for the people who voted in 1987 and 1992, when I was interested, but couldn’t cast a vote, I’m sure there was still that same feeling of responsibility, that same feeling that voting mattered, and, in the aftermath, the same feeling that some people got what they wanted and some people didn’t.

Whatever happens, I think the one thing we can be sure of is that on Friday morning, there will still be those who are pleased with the outcome, and those who are not.  But the important point is that we will have all have had our say.  I do not envy those young people with their first vote to cast, burning a hole in their pocket, as I’m sure it will feel like a great responsibility this time.  But of course, that’s the point.  It is always a great responsibility – it is our chance to take part in the democratic process, to safely cast a vote, to be heard. 

For all those students yet to be of an age to take part we are running our own ballot in school, where students can take part in that democratic process, can see what it is like to consider how they want their voice to be heard, can start to respond to political discussion, learning how to express and share beliefs and views, how to listen to someone who might not share the same view as yourself, to reflect sensitively and to find consensus in whatever outcome is reached.

I look forward to seeing what the students of Rugby High School would choose and how it matches the national picture!

Mr Grady