News from Mr Grady
Hello Everyone!
During our planning day last week we talked, as you can imagine at great length about well-being, and about the many external pressures we might find ourselves under, and of course how we might deal with those pressures or address them.
What was also very clear, as I discussed with colleagues how our students might be supported in managing their own well-being and understanding when their own strategies might need greater support, was that in a school such as RHS it is often the pressures we apply to ourselves that can be almost more demanding!
I don’t know if this is similar for everyone, but I sometimes think the standard that I hold for myself often means I’m challenging myself even more than I need to: Am I being decisive enough? Or Indecisive? Am I doing everything I should be? Is there a secret other list of things I should have been doing, and haven’t spotted? Is someone going to ask me to do that “one more thing” that I just won’t have time for?
These are just some of the things that can flit through my head at different points in the day, or at that 4am slot when you ping awake, and struggle to get back to sleep, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that!
What is sometimes harder to do is to take the time to congratulate yourself on the positives and your achievements.
Now. I know that if you’re very busy and feeling under-pressure, the last thing you want is someone telling you to “take a break” or “congratulate yourself on the good things in the day.” I know, it can feel infuriating, but it is also at the same time, good advice, and if you get into the habit of it, can have a small but significant impact on your well-being. You can’t just do it on one day, and hope that it works, it is like anything else – you need to give it time.
So, after an incredibly busy day yesterday, I was able to sit down for 2 minutes and write down three things that were positive about the day: I had a pleasant conversation with a colleague over Teams, I made a phone call that I thought would be an unpleasant one, but it turned out to be very supportive for both of us and finally, I dropped a text to a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while, and we shared a couple of silly jokes.
Two minutes out of my day to acknowledge these positive things was not much, but if I keep up the daily 2 minutes, like any exercise, I’m sure it will start to have an impact, and I can look forward to my little “hit” of positivity every day. If you’re reading this slightly sceptically, why not try it for a week? See how you feel. You never know, it might just be the thing that helps you through the winter months, it might lead to all sorts of positive things for you – but I know this – You’ll never know, if you don’t try it!
Stay well and safe everyone!
Mr Grady
The first virtual PTA AGM took place on Monday night. Thank you very much to those new faces and 'old' for attending. It was a very productive meeting in which we discussed departmental bids for funding and some fun whole school fundraising events to run over the coming months. 
We are planning to offer virtual sessions on topics such as ‘How to network on and offline’, ‘Building your personal brand in an increasingly virtual world’ and ‘Effective Time Management’. Again, we are flexible as to how this happens. The conversations and skills building could be live Team events or we could pre-record material. To give you a taste of what this material might look like, take a look at 
