News from Mr Grady
Hello Everyone!
It is a real pleasure to welcome you all back to the start of the academic year 2020-21, and to the Autumn Term, and of course to Rugby High School post lock-down, as we, along with other schools take our first steps to welcoming students and staff back into the school.
I looked back at my first comments from this time last year, and I saw:
“We welcomed back the whole school, and I spoke to every year group about sustaining the positive ethos of Rugby High School of mutual respect and of kindness for others and how we can all contribute to that ethos. I, of course, spoke of setting heights in our heart …As a school we always strive for the best; If we work hard with commitment and integrity, who could possibly ask for anything more?”
Those words could not have been more apt for the approach that sustained through last year and it is our ethos that will continue to sustain us in the coming weeks. Obviously, this year I couldn’t meet all year groups in one big group and so I recorded a video greeting, which you can find here. You’ll notice that my guiding principle is our ethos of continued mutual respect, care and kindness. It’s this approach that will ensure we continue to return all our students to school in a calm and safe manner.
I was struck very much by the commitment of our students and staff to maintaining the highest standards of education possible during our period of lock-down, and have been equally impressed by the plans staff have to ensure as full a coverage of the curriculum as possible within the guidance we have for the safe operation of the school for the whole community.
I’m sure in the next few days and weeks we’ll have to adjust our plans and guidelines to reflect the needs of our community, but for now we are eager to welcome everyone back safely, with care for their wellbeing and with the aim of offering as full and broad a curriculum as we can.
The last year has taught us all to be flexible and roll with changes and adaptations, and I am sure those skills will continue to be vital as we move forward. I can only thank everyone for their continued patience!
But for now, it is an absolute joy to actually be sat in my actual chair in my actual office, writing these words, not sitting at the kitchen table trying to ignore the recycling, fend off the cats and tune out my neighbours’ children and the volume of their “home-schooling.”
I look forward to catching up with you all in a variety of socially distanced ways in the coming year.
Do continue to stay well and safe.
Mr Grady
Rugby High School PTA AGM Monday 12th October 2020, 18.30 
I also enrolled on the online ‘Digital Explorers’ course run by EDT about the technology side of STEM, which I haven't really looked into before. There was a range of videos and information with a worksheet to complete in my own time. I also had to come up with an idea for a Startup company and design an app for it. I had the idea for an app to help students learn a European language with an exchange partner from that country so that they could communicate with each other in both languages. I had to design the wireframes for the app and then create a storyboard showing how each screen linked on the next. Although the course was interesting, I don’t think digital technology is really for me. At the end of the course I received a Challenger Industrial Cadets Award.