Rugby High School Parent Portal - Rugby High School

News from Mr Grady

Hello Everyone,

I hope that Monday was a positive International Women’s Day for everyone. In all the planning and organisation of getting us back into school, we perhaps didn’t take quite the whole school approach that we might have done when we would normally all be in school, but I know teachers discussed it in individual lessons, and there was a form time story to mull over and discuss around the theme this year’ International Women’s Day “#choosetochallenge”.

In normal times, when we are welcoming prospective students to open evenings and induction days, I talk a lot about the fact that Rugby High School allows its young women to find a voice, a voice that they feel comfortable with, but a voice that they know they can use powerfully and sensitively for change. Your five or seven years at Rugby High School should be the chance to learn how to develop and use your voice. I think the theme of “#choosetochallenge” is an absolutely perfect one for our students in the current time. Too often, we are expected to accept or “make do” or simply “be quiet.” Or, when offering “challenge” we’re labelled as subversive or disruptive or difficult.

But the point is, in our school, where our ethos is one of mutual care, kindness and respect and our aim is to set heights in our heart, then we are perfectly placed to develop those skills of choosing to challenge in a way that makes our challenge heard, considered and responded to. I am reminded of a routine by the comedian Eddie Izzard, who in calling for a “liberal revolution” started with: “Let’s kick the doors in and say: “Look, we’ll pay for the damage…”” Capturing, certainly for me, the idea that one needs to challenge when you see something that isn’t right, but consider the voice and the manner of the challenge to ensure that you have the most impact.

I was also amused and, I have to admit a bit shamed by a stream on a social media site of a range of women having their work “mansplained” to them on the internet, where female scientists, authors, engineers and academics had their own work explained back to them by a range of men. At best they were misguided, at worst, simply misogynistic. The way in which these men were challenged was fantastic, showing them more patience than they deserved, but refusing to let their idiocy go.

So, while the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “#ChoosetoChallenge”, and that should apply to us all, I suggest for those of us with a voice that has a tendency to dominate, or by dint of our gender assumes an importance in conversation or interaction, whether intended or not, we should “#choose to stop talking and listen a bit more.”

Have a great week, stay well and safe everyone,

With very best wishes,
Mr Grady

EES – Gold CREST 2021:

Each year RHS takes part in the Engineering Education Scheme where students take part in a real-life engineering project with a paired company and their mentors. We are given a real-life engineering-based problem to try and tackle, giving us essential skills needed for the industry. This year, our project’s aim is to design a cooling system for the giant pumps used in a pumped water storage system, to enable them to operate at maximum efficiency. For this we need essential skills such as effective research skills, calculations related to heat transfer and analysis of different options and ideas and most definitely organisation and communication skills.

Week to week, the team meet up, via Teams of course, with our mentors from GE who provide us with new information about our task and set us work to complete towards our project that we discuss in the following meeting. Initially, we had to do more research-based work as we began to grasp new engineering concepts to do with heat exchangers and cooling systems that would provide the foundation of our report. After that, we moved on to calculations to find the values that would accompany different aspects of our design. For example, estimating the number of tubes in our heat exchanger, or calculating the flow rate of the fluid. This in turn helped us to begin to picture our heat exchanger on a design software that we navigated through by weekly catch ups on Teams. Despite working from home, we have tried not to lose the vital collaborative aspect of this project.

With the help of mandatory webinars and last-minute emails to Dr. Fletcher, as a team we have been able to overcome the challenge of navigating through ideas that we initially knew very little about. For some of us the calculations seemed the most complex, while for others it was knowing how to use AutoCAD, or figuring out what a Gantt chart is. Through this however, we believe that we have gained a lot of new experiences from this scheme that will definitely prove useful in the future; not only practical skills such as report writing, but time management and organisation skills that can be applied to whatever academic path we choose to take after sixth-form.

This project was a big step for all of us as we launched into learning new technology and bits of engineering skills and though proving to be quite a challenge, we enjoy going into new territory with topics that are unfamiliar yet interesting. Being able to experience aspects of the engineering field is an amazing opportunity and we look forward to developing our project and knowledge every week.

Newsletters

Rugby High School - Spring 2021 Issue 24

News from Mr Grady

Following on from last week's news from World Book Day, we would like to invite you to view the Gallery of Winners and Runner-ups. Whilst not award winning, you might want to check out the photo entitled "A Horse! A Horse! My Kingdom for a Horse!"

Guess who Game....

EES – Gold CREST 2021:

Please find below information that has been passed to us that may be of interest to you and your family.