Newsletters

News from Mr Grady

Hello Everyone!

I’m aiming, as with last year to ensure that the newsletter remains a safe haven of warmth and the joys and curiosity of learning, and the continued ethos of Rugby High School and our focus on kindness, care and respect.  It is a specific decision, as far as possible not to allow too much of the background noise of the outside world to filter in.  My reasoning is that if I were, in print each week, to respond to the news and add my voice to an already noisy forum, then the weekly Rugby High School experience would get lost completely.  I just thought I should make it clear that if you’re looking for detailed political insight into the worlds events, there are better places than my musings in which to find it!

It has been a real pleasure this week to start talking to the Year 13 students who are hoping to apply for university about their UCAS personal statements, and hearing from them about the myriad of experiences they’ve all had, discussing how they can best capture this in writing. For those of you who don’t know, UCAS stands for “University and Colleges Admissions Service”

The 4000 characters that you’re allowed on a UCAS statement can be the cause of some distress, as you try to cram into the space provided your 7 years experience of secondary education, your passions for the subject you want to study at university, alongside the need to support with extra-curricular (or in the case of Oxbridge candidates “Super-curricular”) experiences.  You want to sound academic, but not stuffy, you want to sound fun and human but not lackadaisical.  You want to make sure your statement follows a certain format, but that it’s also unique and stands out from all the rest.  You want it to reflect you, but not the nervous you that you secretly think you are, but the outgoing amazingly confident you that you secretly wish to be.  In fact, you want it to be so many things, that quite often you can’t even put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

It’s so hard for so many of us to “big ourselves up” to essentially write down “I think I am very good at this thing, and you should allow me to continue to do this thing at you institution,” and yet, hopefully if you’ve been with us at RHS for any time, we will have helped you to find that voice, your voice, with which you can say these things boldly and confidently.  To all of the Year 13s currently wrestling with this I say:  You have all the skills and the ability to move on from RHS and to thrive, and not just that, because you’ve been with us, you will have found the voice with which you want to address and change the world!

Stay well and safe everyone!
Mr Grady