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 News from Mr Grady
15th December 2022
Hello Everyone,
At last, we reach the end of term! What a busy and full one it has been, and yet definitely one with so much going on for all our students, we can be really proud of what we’ve achieved this term.
Today, we witnessed the infamous “sixth Form Entertainment” where year 13, write and perform a play based around life at RHS. They perform and impersonate teachers (with varying degrees of accuracy) who have to wrestle with the challenges of RHS in the modern world. All students get to see the performance across the day, and it is also well attended by staff eager to see “who’s playing them” and how.
It is always quite a love letter to everything that is RHS, with catchphrases of the school, and staff popping up with regularity. I was incredibly glad to see “kindness, care and respect” making at least one appearance.
The Hunger games framework, of all the departments striving to be top raised quite a body count, but what was most wonderful was the witty, clever script.
Only at RHS would you not only have silly jokes, and daft stage business, rubbing shoulders with Latin phrases, references to the assassination of Caesar, French, Spanish and literary allusions, mathematical concepts and scientific information all thrown in with ease and relevance.
Once again, our year 13 have done us proud, and their script is wonderful evidence, as if it were needed, as to what a great experience our students have here, and how special a place RHS clearly has in their heart.
I am now off for a well-earned break, as are all my colleagues, and indeed our students, and I wish you all the happiest of holidays, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Stay well and safe everyone,
With all best wishes,
Mr Grady
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GCHQ National Language Competition
The GCHQ, one of the UK's intelligence agencies, ran a national online language competition for Year 9's across the country in November. The challenge was to break as many language-themed puzzles as your team could in a week; you had to accumulate the most points as a team to win. There was fierce competition throughout the week with over 3000 teams from more than 600 schools across the country putting their language skills to the test. A huge well done to all those Year 9 students who took part for their fantastic effort and team work (they were allocated their team names by the GCHQ):
Team: Super Determined Warthog – in 50th place!
Team: Zany Cheerful Puffin – in the top 180!
Team: Proud Busy Stingray – in the top 500!
Team: Sensible Fabulous Iguana – in the top 1000!
Read more about the experience here.
We are very proud of all of you. Ms Vann, Curriculum Leader, Modern Foreign Languages
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Consultation on Admissions Policy 2024
As required by the Admissions Code, we have published our proposed admissions policy for 2024 entry and initiated a consultation period which will run from Monday 5th December 2022 to Monday 16th January 2023.
Copies of the policy and the catchment area map can be viewed on the Admissions web page. If anyone wishes to comment on this policy, they should write to Mr D Merritt, Governance Professional, at the school address before the deadline of midday on Monday 16th January 2023.
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Christmas decorations in school
Students have been getting into the festive spirit by decorating four Christmas trees around the school and enjoying delicious Christmas lunches. The annual classroom decorating competition has been taking place in the last week of term. Classrooms will be judged on the ingenuity of the Christmas theme, teamwork, artistic impression, use of materials and extra touches such as music, songs and costumes!
Enjoy more pictures in our online gallery.
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Year 7's enjoy a Christmas quiz
Year 7's enjoyed a Christmas quiz at lunchtime this week, with buddies from other year groups. Round 1 tested their general Christmas knowledge with questions like "What country is Bethlehem in?" Round 2 focussed on countries and round 3 on Christmas movies. Next was the music round with title and artist to be identified, with classics like "Last Christmas" and "Mistletoe and Wine." Finally they had 2 minutes to scribble down as many of the gifts given in the 12 Days of Christmas. The lucky winners from 7G and 9G claimed their chocolate prizes at the end!
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PE Fixtures and School trips
When collecting your child after a school trip or PE fixture, we would very much appreciate your child being collected on time. We will wherever possible give you clear collection times, updated if anything changes.
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Staff obviously have to get home for their own commitments, and we have to know that all children are safely collected before leaving the site, so arriving to collect your child in a timely fashion is always very much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
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Ice Safety Over the Break
Given the tragic events in Solihull over the weekend, we are sharing this advice from the Local Authority and ROSPA. Please visit this website: www.rospa.com/leisure-water-safety/water/advice/ice
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MEI Data Science Certificates awarded
5 of our Year 13 students recently completed the MEI Introduction to Data Science course that they took part in via webinars in the evenings. The one-term course introduced the students to some key ideas in data science, and provided some valuable insights to the career opportunities in this exciting field. The course introduces the use of Python for pre-processing data, exploratory data analysis, visualisations and building models using data. The students had to complete the taught course, hand in an assignment and sit an exam in school which was sent to the MEI (Mathematics Education Innovation) for marking. All 5 students passed with either a Merit or a Distinction. Well done to them all.
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Festive Fun in Latin
Last week Latin students were led in a festive chorus of Jingle bells, sung in Latin! Enjoy a snippet of the students singing on our Facebook page.
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Year 8's Winter Fundraiser Event
Classes 8H and 8S hosted a winter fundraiser event today, raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation and WWF. Stalls included a bake sale, book and chocolate tombola, guess the sweets in a jar, guess the name of the giant fluffy penguin and a raffle of donated teacher festive artwork. The mood was Christmassy and the red velvet cookies proved very popular. Well done to all the students who organised the fun event!
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Christmas Carol Trip
96 Year 10 students we're excited to see a live performance of 'A Christmas Carol' last week. The production at The Albany Theatre really brought the novella to life with its storytelling conventions and will help the majority of Year 10 when revising for their GCSE. A super enjoyable morning for staff and students alike!
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PTA Wreath-making Event
The dining hall of the school was ‘decked with holly’ for the PTA’s (parent teacher association) fundraising wreath-making event this December. More than 50 RHS supporters created their individual wreaths using holly, spruce, ivy, and conifer, adding final decorative touches with pine cones, Christmas baubles, cinnamon, dried citrus fruits, bows and glitter.
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The session was led by Vicki Bridgewater, who provided instruction and guidance at each stage of the process as well as the raw materials and equipment for making the wreaths. Mulled wine and mince pies were also enjoyed during the event! Read more about the event here.
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Latest Basketball Success
PE Teacher, Emily French, shares the latest basketball success! “I am delighted, and so proud, to share with you our Year 7, 8 and 9 basketball team successes this half term. The students showed great team spirit and represented RHS with the mature, respectful manner we would expect.
Year 7 thrashed both Rugby Free School 30-18 and Avon Valley School 26-14. Year 8 got a whopping 42 – 0 against Rugby Free School. But unfortunately Houlton School failed to arrange their team which resulted in a by. Year 9 drew 24-24 against both Avon Valley School and Rugby Free School. We have arranged a tournament for the 17th January 2023 to hopefully decide a league winner.”
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Badminton Success
Congratulations to year 7 and year 9 teams who won their group stages in this year’s Badminton league (the year 7 team winning every game!). Both teams went through to the finals, playing Bilton High School, the winners of their group.
Success was to be had again, beating Bilton to become this year’s overall winners of the Badminton league. Once again with the year 7 team not dropping a game! Well done everyone! From Mrs DG
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Physics Competition Prize: Visiting the ESRF
Madeleine Fletcher 13C shares her experience after winning a trip to the ESRF: "In June I was lucky enough to go on a trip organised by Warwick and Liverpool universities to the ESRF in Grenoble, a huge science experiment that fires high speed electrons round a cylindrical tube in order to create extremely powerful beams of x-rays, which are then used for the analysis of materials. This trip was the prize for a female-only, nationwide essay competition on the life of Ada Yonath, a noble prize-winning physicist. About 20 girls from across the country were chosen to go on this trip to see physics in action.
Read more about Madeleine's trip on our website.
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Engineering Opportunities for Year 9, 10 and 12 Students
EDT and Industrial Cadets have new STEM opportunities available to students in years 9, 10 and 12. These courses offer a great insight into the different paths available in the world of STEM. From experiencing university life and meeting role models and industry experts to working on exciting hands-on projects and participating in STEM industry workshops - the knowledge and exposure gained will help them make decisions about their future.
For Year 12 there are Residential Insight into University summer schools run over 4 or 5 days where students get a taster of university life and an insight into a specific STEM subject. The application deadline is fast approaching, apply before 3rd January 2023.
For Years 9 and 10 Virtual Routes into STEM is happening in February half term 2023! Take your chance to:
- explore routes into a STEM career including University Courses and Apprenticeships
- engage in projects and activities such as a Biopharm challenge from GSK
- gain an Industrial Cadets Bronze Award showing all that you have achieved on the course
Places are limited so apply here today! Find out more about the opportunities here.
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French and Spanish Theatre Productions
"At the end of November, we were absolutely delighted to be able to welcome back Onatti Productions. Students in Years 8 to 12 were treated to a wonderfully engaging theatre performance when they watched Mi personalidad or La maison hantée - or both if they study French and Spanish! With many thanks to our PTA for making this enrichment activity possible." Ms Vann, Curriculum Leader – Modern Foreign Languages
Mi personalidad: “We thoroughly enjoyed the Onatti Spanish play performance ‘Mi personalidad’. It was a great way to see how much Spanish we knew and learn some new phrases and words! We think that everyone understood more than they anticipated which was great!” Year 9
La maison hantée: “We watched 'La Maison Matinee' by Onatti Productions. I personally think that the play was very well acted out, as you could understand what was going on by the actors and their actions. My favourite thing about the play was when the actors would ask the audience for input in the story as it made the afternoon fun, entertaining and enjoyable.” Year 10
Read more about the productions here.
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Foxcroft Essay Competition
Mr Sam Robinson, Head of Science at Rugby School, would like to invite Year 12 Science students to take part in the annual Foxcroft Essay Competition. Each year students from the local area are invited to write a 1500-word essay on a given title and a shortlist of finalists (two each from physics, chemistry, and biology) are chosen to attend the final held at Rugby School in March 2023. At the final, the students will make a short PowerPoint presentation of their essay, followed by a question-and-answer session. The judges then deliberate and select the winning essay. The evening is rounded off with an award presentation and a sit-down meal for all finalists and judges.
Details of the competition and essay titles can be found here. The competition offers a wonderful opportunity for our budding scientists to showcase their talents, hone their public speaking skills, and add interest to their UCAS applications and/or CVs. Last year saw an impressive 40+ entries and the standard was extremely high which apparently made the judging very difficult! The submission deadline is Friday 10th February 2023.
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Cadet Recruitment
Warwickshire Police Cadets is a volunteer scheme for young people who wish to be part of a year programme that offers an opportunity to gain a practical understanding of policing and develop their spirit of adventure and good citizenship.
Recruitment is open from 1st January to 28th February 2023 and the application form can be downloaded from Warwickshire Police website from the 1st January 2023.
Go to the Warwickshire Police website, download the application form to complete and email it to cadets@warwickshire.police.uk
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Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2022
Do you want to know the secrets of forensic science? Then watch the Royal Institution Christmas lectures where Professor Dame Sue Black will reveal more about this science in the lectures being broadcast on BBC Four between Christmas and New Year. Lecture details are here.
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Biomedsoc
Biomedsoc is now open to year 11’s too! Meet in room 28 on Mondays from 1.30-2pm.
Join the club for weekly presentations, medicine and biology in the news and information about Med School applications.
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An extract from 'Another Night Before Christmas'
By Carol Ann Duffy
On the night before Christmas, a child in a house,
As the whole family slept, behaved just like a mouse . . .
And crept on soft toes down red-carpeted stairs.
Her hand held the paw of her favourite bear.
The Christmas tree posed with its lights in its arms,
Newly tinselled and baubled with glittering charms;
Flirting in flickers of crimson and green
Against the dull glass of the mute TV screen
The hushed street was in darkness. Snow duveted the cars –
A stray cat had embroidered each roof with its paws.
An owl on an aerial had planets for eyes.
The child at the window stared up at the sky,
Where two aeroplanes sped to the east and the west,
Like a pulled Christmas cracker. The child held her breath
And looked for a sign up above, as the moon
Shone down like a gold chocolate coin on the town
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School Vacancies
Cleaners: £9.50 – £9.60 per hour, morning shift flexible starting between 6am to 7 am or afternoon shift from 3.50pm. Term-Time plus 5 training days plus 1 working week for deep clean – 40 Weeks. Training for cleaning and COSHH will be provided. Applicants must be able to work alone and as part of a team.
Please visit our website to find out how to apply for the Cleaner position.
Visit the vacancies web page
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For RHS Students ONLY
If you have a concern about another student, please fill in this form to report your concern.
For more information about Wellbeing including resources and links to our DSL's, please visit our Wellbeing page here.
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Please find below information that has been passed to us that may be of interest to you and your family.
Warwickshire Family Information Service Newsletter
13th December Edition
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The School Newsletter is sent out every other Thursday during Term time.
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