Rugby High School Parent Portal - Rugby High School

News from Mr Grady

12th October 2023

Hello Everyone,

As I opened up my “newsletter” files today to think about what I’d like to share with you all, it struck me that I’ve been writing a newsletter since September 2019, and I wondered how many newsletters it was that I had written. (I should say at this point, that I have been out of school training for nearly a fortnight, and my list of “to do items” is extensive and requires my immediate attention, so of course, in the way of all people feeling that they’ve got a lot to do, what I did was find a distraction that meant I felt like I was doing something useful but wasn’t actually doing anything useful.) Yes, in the face of a huge, great pile of work, I opted for “avoidance:” I counted up how many newsletters I’d written.

It’s one hundred and twenty one, if you’re interested. That’s a lot of words. I didn’t count the daily writing to staff students and parents during the lockdowns. And, despite thinking it would be a good idea, I also didn’t count up how many times I’ve used the phrase “kindness, care and respect” and nor did I (although I really wanted to…) sort them into themes and topics to see what I’d spoken about the most and what I’d mentioned the least. Because, at that point, I realised that what I was doing was avoiding the things I needed to address, and I had to stop myself, and knuckle down. Self-awareness is a useful thing.

This week, as part of our tutor programme, some of our year groups will be “taking stock” of the term so far – what’s gone well, where do you feel successful, and what might need a little more focus, or more of your attention. And it’s easy, isn’t it, when you feel like you’ve got a lot on, not to take that moment to look at reflecting and taking the time to check you’re still heading in the right direction. Like me, counting newsletters, we can get distracted or convinced that if we “just do this thing” it will all be fine. But we have to be more honest with ourselves than that.

It’s so easy when taking stock to think “well I couldn’t do that because of this person, or that barrier, or this thing,” and not go: “What might I need to change about myself, or reflect on about myself, or change in my behaviour to make a difference?” And it’s really easy to distract oneself with a million other things, rather than getting on with the task at hand. It’s so easy to say: “I’ll address that after my mocks, after the next piece of work, next half term,” when in fact, addressing a misconception, or a concern, or a piece of work now, with your teacher, or with other support is exactly the thing to do. It just needs that first step of self-realisation, that “the difference is going to come from me.”

So, as I put away the calculator, and stop re-reading what I happened to write to the community back in October 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 “just to see if there’s a theme,” I am making the difference myself – and starting in on my tasks for the day, because if I want there to be a difference, it’s going to have to come from me first!

With all best wishes,

Mr Grady