News from Mr Grady
Hello everyone,
The last couple of weeks have disappeared in a haze of examinations for Years 11, and 13 and of course end of year tests for Years 8, 9 and 12. There’s something about the summer that brings tests-aplenty.
I am always reminded at exam season of my own examination “nightmares” and one in particular from my GCSE Maths exam. It’s a story I’ve shared with students before, but one that I think bears repeating here.
In 1993, there were three Maths papers, and this was the third and, we knew, the hardest paper. The last third of the paper (amounting to nearly half the marks) was a sequence of trigonometry focussed questions that started with a diagram of geometric shapes, and required you to find angles, areas and a whole variety of calculations that required at the very first for you to identify the right angle, and work from there.
I sat for nearly 15 minutes of a two-hour paper desperately trying to find the right-angle. I could not. Don’t ask me why. A kind of “exam-panic” had descended and rendered me ineffective in this quite simple task. What should I do? If you couldn’t do the first bit of the question, then the following questions are all impossible! I felt like I was trapped in a space, looking at a locked door for which there was no key. And I’d been banging my hands, feet and head against the door for 15 minutes – my exam was ticking away, what could I do? Somehow in my haze of anxiety, the mantra that my Maths teacher had repeated lesson after lesson after lesson broke through: Always show your working out. And so, I wrote a short note to the examiner, the person who would be marking my paper. It read:
“Dear Marker. I know that that the first bit of this question is to find the right angle, and I can’t do that. However, I do know all the steps I need to take to complete the questions, even if I don’t have the actual numbers to put in the calculations. So, I will explain and show that I know how to do that.”
I then proceeded to write out the “working” for every single question, even though I didn’t actually have a single number to put into the calculations. My GCSE grade came back an A grade that August. To this day, I thank my GCSE Maths teacher for that sage advice, of always making your thinking explicit. At the moment of most tension, that clear-sighted advice meant that I could rely on the fact that I could draw on all the knowledge and skills I had gained, and not get caught up on “the answer” and whether it was right or wrong.
Sometimes finding “the answer” just gets in the way. It’s like getting stuck behind that locked door, and getting so focussed on the door, you don’t spot the open window behind you. I’m sure we can all identify with this feeling: The focus on the job in hand, the task you’ve been given, and the pressure to complete it, getting in the way of why you’re completing it in the first place. We’re all going to encounter moments when we can’t do something, a knotty problem that seems unsurmountable, but in those moments having the capacity to breathe, take stock, step back and consider alternatives is vital.
So as our students begin to receive results and feedback from assessments and tests, the key thing is not to focus on the grade itself: A number or a letter on its own doesn’t give you a great deal of information. It’s the feedback, the guidance and the support that will help you to see your way to the next step.
It’s very easy to see a grade or a result as a locked door, but I can assure you, if you’re ready to engage, to listen and to keep working with resilience and humour, there is always a way to make it through.
With all best wishes, stay well and safe!
Mr Grady
Dear Parents
Actor Edward Bennett visited Rugby High School to deliver Shakespeare workshops to Year 10 English classes. Edward’s lively, engaging, on-your-feet approach helped the students to use Shakespeare’s words in an exciting and exploratory way. Sophia Wilk presents some personal insights into the day and reflections about the “Much Ado About Nothing” session in which, after some great games and warm-ups, Edward encouraged the students to perform in different ways Beatrice’s and Benedick’s verbal sparring interchange from Act 1, scene 1. 
The English Department would like to give special thanks to the PTA for their contribution to this Shakespeare workshop. Without their generosity this event would not have taken place and Year 10 would not have had the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful event.
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