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 News from Mr Grady
3rd July 2025
Hello everyone!
What a couple of weeks of busyness and excitement we’ve had at RHS – last week was RHS Open Evening for prospective students looking to join us in September 2026, 2027 and onwards.
It’s an evening when the whole school is on show, and the very best of RHS shines through whether you’re in the hall listening to our presentations, in the canteen sampling our wonderful catering team’s food, talking to pastoral or Boost staff, or in the classrooms experiencing the excitement of our student guides, and the passion of our teaching staff for their subjects.
I always speak about the importance of our community, of the kindness, care and respect that we all show, and the values and ethos of RHS (You’ll have heard me talking about this here and any chance I get over the years!)
Then, this week, we’ve had year 12 induction day (twice – due to a clash!), year 7 induction day, a visit from G-Force to deliver self-defence workshops to years 7, 8 and 9, and a visit from the reviewers for the “Good Schools Guide.” Not to mention year 13 and year 11 Prom, and a fantastic Sports Day on Monday, when a move to the morning (Thanks to Mrs Wallace and her team for a swift about-turn in changing timings and events!) meant we beat the worst of the heat, and celebrated the athletic, track and field prowess of our students.
What struck me this year was not just how much busier we were, on our induction days – particularly the one for RH6 - reflecting just how popular a choice we are for young people and their families, but the fact that we are exactly what they are looking for: A welcoming community, focussed on working hard, doing our best and developing personally as well as academically – students and their families more and more know what it is they want from a school, not just a strapline on the brochure, abut a school that actually reflects the values it sets, every day and in every way.
The students who spoke at our presentations spoke over and over about how when they joined RHS they felt like they were welcomed, and “fitted” in really quickly, they were accepted for who they were, and encouraged to go beyond their horizons with high aspirations. It did my heart good to hear that what we want for our students, our clear vision to send them out into the world to make a difference is so strongly represented in our student body.
It certainly impressed the parents, students and families that I have spoken to in the last two weeks, and made me feel very proud to be part of the RHS community.
Oh – and our fundraising total stands at just under £7000 for the refurbishment of the Gospel Lab. I do hope you feel able, if you haven’t already, to make a donation through parentmail or our JustGiving page.
I hope you all have a good week,
Stay safe and well,
Mr Grady
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Raising £20,250 for the Gospel Lab!
Our exciting fundraising campaign, £20250 in 2025, is raising funds for the transformation of the Gospel Lab in school, a lab where all of our students are taught in their time at Rugby High!
Click here to watch our latest video - chatting to two of our Year 9 students about what they love about Science, their memories of the Gospel lab and what the lab will be like when it is completely renovated with fantastic new facilities.
Please keep donations coming in!
Don't forget you can also donate through Parentmail! Thank you!
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Project Prevent Launches AGH Campaign
On Monday our Project Prevent team launched their AGH campaign, to Years 7, 8 and 9!
This is the result of the Young High Sheriff (YHS) competition which we hosted last year, a project initiated by Gillian Fletcher who is passionate about it! In the YHS workshops students spoke about the crimes that worried them the most and these have fed into this student-led project.
The former High Sheriff, Rajvinder Kaur Gill, spoke of how "It shows the power of young people coming together to make a change, to help keep others safe in difficult situations."
Our Project Prevent students researched types of abuse and looked in more detail at girls' experiences of sexual harassment. They chose to focus on prevention rather than retaliation and show the boundaries of what is self-defence.
The key aims of Project Prevent are:
- a focus on AGH: Assault, Grooming and Harassment
- Preventative not reactive: Prepare, Prevent and Protect
This week students in Years 7 - 9 had a self-defence workshop from G-Force and are able to purchase an attack alarm at a subsidised price. Students are invited to speak to anyone in the Project Prevent team; they are wearing purple lanyards!
The current High Sheriff, Karen Lynch, challenged our students to make sure this project lives on and continues to have an impact! Our students would like to thank all the VIPs who helped with the project, including funding and creating contacts in the community.
Find out more here
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Sports Day
This week in school was our annual Sports Day! Despite the heat, our students raced their way round 2 laps of the track in the 800m, sprinted the curve in the 200m and launched themselves into the high jump. Javelins were aimed, discuses thrown and shot puts putted!
All our students were on the side-lines of the events, supporting their fellow students, bedecked in their house colours, faces painted and posters held aloft!
The cheering reached epic proportions for the house relays and finally it was time for the traditional staff relay, with teachers showing their competitive streaks!
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Poetry By Heart: The national poetry recitation contest
 You will remember that Rugby High School held its Poetry By Heart school competitions for key stages 4 and 5 in February this year. Our two fantastic winners then had their recitations recorded and uploaded to Poetry By Heart's secure website for the national competition judging.
We are pleased to say that both of our champions did very well indeed. Emily H of year 12 was highly commended in the Key Stage Five competition and Gunjan S of year 10 was declared Warwickshire champion in the Key Stage Four competition! Congratulations to both of our competitors and very well done for their commitment to this prestigious national competition!
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Mother Tongue Other Tongue Poetry Competition
We are absolutely delighted to announce that Sofia A (Yr9) and Anwesha V (Yr8) have been selected as finalists in the poetry competition Mother Tongue Other Tongue at the University of Warwick School of Modern Languages and Cultures. Huge congratulations to both of them!
All finalists’ entries across each key stage will be on display in The Chapterhouse in Coventry Cathedral from 2 July to 2 September during normal Cathedral opening hours with the capacity for visitors to vote for their favourite poems. The University will use these public votes to inform their final decision on the winners for each key stage. These will be announced at the start of the year in September. The University has said that they were so thrilled with the quality of the work they received which was personal, creative and thought-provoking.
Read the poems and Sofia and Anwesha's explanations
All of the schools’ entries they received (well over 100!) will be on display in individual folders in The Chapterhouse alongside the finalists, so we hope that lots of students and their families will visit the Cathedral over the summer break to view the exhibition and vote for their favourite poems. On display there will also be a specially commissioned poem “Airplane Brother” written in English and Hindi by the Coventry Young Poet Laureate, Aamani Kanda on the same themes of peace and reconciliation.
Jackie Vann, Curriculum Leader, Modern Foreign Languages
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A "Big Bang" for Year 7
On Wednesday 18th May, 40 of our Year 7 students along with their Science teachers headed to the NEC in Birmingham to visit the BIg Bang. The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair is a National event aimed at young students. After a short picnic lunch on arrival, students headed into the exhibition to discover hands-on workshops, activities and exciting live shows.
Students enjoyed visiting a variety of stalls with exhibitors on the Tree Council stand very impressed with “the students’ enthusiasm and energy”. So much so that the exhibitors invited the group to help them promote their Force for Nature Festival! Having set the students the challenge of finding the most bizarre, fun or random stands we were treated to an assorted display of freebies that they collected, including 3D printed animals, yo-yos from Specsavers, and a lot of stickers! As ever, the Rugby High students got out there, got involved and enjoyed a fantastic time learning about the many different ways STEM is used. We will certainly be back next year!
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Introducing the Zen Zone
Room 2 in school has been renamed following a competition run by our Peer Listeners. Lots of suggestions were made, and the name that secured the most votes, suggested by Natasha B in 7S, was “THE ZEN ZONE”.
The Zen Zone room is a space where students can meet with our supportive Peer Listeners. Our Peer Listeners are trained by the charity Life Space and are part of our school's focus on promoting student welfare and raising awareness of the importance of emotional wellbeing.
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Wicked workshop
On Tuesday 17th June, our choir attended a vocal workshop at Warwick Arts Centre exploring a medley of songs from the hit musical Wicked. Suzzie Vango and the team at Warwickshire Music gave top vocal tips and guided the students through a rehearsal, culminating in a collaborative performance with various schools across the district. The auditorium was filled with student performers from Year 7 to Year 13 and the sound was mightily impressive - a great day was had by all!
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Creative Writers Win Centenary Competition
The judging has been completed for the Percival Guildhouse Centenary Short Story Writing Competition 2025 and we are delighted that Adrija G, Year 9, has won First Prize for 'A Mother’s Determination’ in the 12-14 Category and that Supriya B, Year 12, has won First Prize for ‘Eyes in the Window’ in the 15-18 Category of the prestigious competition. The Centenary Celebration Evening is on 29th September 2025, which our winners will attend.
Highly commended were Deepshika G, Year 7, Kenuli W, Year 7, and Sophia M, Year 9. Today each was presented with a certificate to mark their success by Andy Roughton of the Percival Guildhouse, who created the competition. They will also receive a copy of the booklet of stories when it is published.
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Y12 Physicists see RED Bull Racing Car Engineering Close Up
On Wednesday 18th June, the Year 12 Physics classes had a visit from ex-student Kaitlyn Henden. Kaitlyn is an aerospace engineering student at Sheffield University who is currently completing her Industrial Placement year with Red Bull based in Milton Keynes.
She gave a presentation to the students about her study path since leaving Rugby High School in 2021 and provided an insight into how she was applying her engineering knowledge and CAD (Computer Aided Design) to focus on key areas of prototype supercar Red Bull are developing.
The students also got so see some cool F1 items up close, including throttle pedals, steering wheels and even trying on a helmet! Kaitlyn was able to also give an insight into university and explain the difference between BSc and MSc degrees and explain the benefits of engineering Industrial placements. Thank you to Kaitlyn for her insightful visit and her time - always lovely to see how our ex-students have moved on.
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Engineering a Success - A Celebration Day to Celebrate!
On Wednesday 25th June, both Year 12 Engineering teams took their completed projects to Birmingham University to display their projects with another 30 teams. The 2 projects linked with local companies (Britvic and EKFB) were displayed to visiting teams, teachers, University staff and local engineers from numerous Midlands companies.
The day culminates in an award ceremony based on assessors feedback from a previous online assessment day. The Britvic team were nominated for the Teamwork and People's Choice award and won the People's Choice trophy, with Adam also winning best mentor. The EKFB team were nominated for Most Innovative and Best Project and took away the Most Innovative trophy. Well done to Shreya, Hugh, Lydia, Luci, Luisa, Rosie, Arjun, Oliver, Ria, Eilidh, Isla and Angela. Also a big thank you to Adam from Britvic and Divyesh from EKFB for their brilliant project ideas, commitment and drive to give to the students an amazing huge step towards a career in Engineering or STEM.
Mrs Mighall and Dr Fletcher can't wait to run new projects next year with our new Year 12 Physicists!
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Uniform sale coming soon
 The RHS Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is organising an outgrown but not outworn school uniform sale on Saturday 12th July 2025. This is your opportunity to make huge savings by buying good quality pre-used uniform for your daughter and play your part in raising funds for the school.
All proceeds will go to the PTA which provides funding for academic and non-academic related activities for our students. You can find more information about the PTA here.
So, please come to Rugby High School on Saturday 12th July 2025 between 10.00am to 12.00pm to make huge savings on outgrown but not outworn uniform!
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Athletics Stars - follow up
A few weeks ago we told you of several students that had been selected to represent to Eastern Warwickshire County Area, at the "Warwickshire School Track and Field Championships" on Sat 14th June.
Having now competed, here are their individual results:
- Emila B- 1st in 75m Hurdles - Time 12.3 seconds
- Betsy F- 3rd in Long Jump - Distance 4.56m. Also 4th in Pole Vault (!) - Height 1.70m
- Anya H- 2nd in Javelin - Distance 24.86m
- Merryn H- 2nd in 800m - Time 2.31.5 mins
- Esther H - 3rd in 1500m - Time 5.35.1 mins
- Afua A - 1st in Hammer - Distance 38.85m
Absolutely fantastic performances from everybody, and each one contributed to the overall win for the Eastern Area team. So very well done to all of them.
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Year 10/11 National School's Rounders Competition
On Thursday 26th June some of our Year 10 Rounders squad competed against schools from all over the country, in very high-level games of rounders. Fielding was so tight from all teams, and the fierce tactical play was a pleasure to observe. Our team made us so proud, though sadly missed out on the semi finals. However, three of the ten players were given "golden tickets" based off their performances, an official invite to train in the England Rounders Development squad! It was a great experience to have really closely fought, competitive games. Thanks to Ms Wallace and Mrs Sabin for taking them, and for all the training time put in, in the lead up to the competition. Special mention to Jesse Humphrey's (Yr11) who should have played, but sadly sustained an injury just the weekend before.
Squad: Izzy B (golden ticket), Poppy F (golden ticket), Emily G (golden ticket), Izzy B, Ella G, Manon J, Sofia E, Chloe B, Kaila J and Poppy C.
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Swim star
Keva E (8R) recently travelled to the Hungarian Open International Artistic Swimming Competition, to compete in the compulsory figures event and as part of the 8-strong team as part of her England Debut. The team won gold and you can catch up with all the action on YouTube!
Watch the winners in action
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Yachting success
Over the May half-term holiday, Jessica P, Year 10, travelled to Puck in Poland, to compete in a EurILCA sailing regatta. The event brought together 147 under-18 sailors, both boys and girls, for a highly competitive 4 days on the water. Jessica delivered an outstanding performance, finishing:
6th Overall
2nd Female
1st Under-16 Female
Jessica returned to the same venue for the ILCA 4 European Championship, where a record-breaking 440 participants from 41 countries competed at this prestigious event, including 165 girls. Jess showed incredible determination and skill throughout the competition, finishing 23rd overall. We are especially proud that she stepped onto the podium as the top female competitor from Great Britain and secured 3rd place in the Under-16 category.
It was a fantastic experience for Jess and a great opportunity to represent the country on such an international stage. Next event for Jess is the ILCA 4 World championship in July in Los Angeles.
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STEM Summer Courses
The Smallpeice Trust’s Summer of STEM course program runs throughout the holidays, and it's a unique chance for students to get hands-on and learn about different engineering topics. They'll get a real feel for what it's like to work in STEM, exploring through fun, practical activities. The courses range from residential courses to online learning, so there's something to fit everyone's summer plans.
Future Cities: 28 - 30th July, online, open to students currently in Year 12
This course invites students to discover how engineering plays a pivotal role in keeping our cities safer, cleaner, and more sustainable. Find out more
Human Habitat on Mars: 20 - 22nd August, online, open to students currently in Year 10 & 11
Three-day virtual course on aerospace, biomedical and computer science. Find out more
Engineering Experience Warwick (residential): 5th - 7th August, University of Warwick, open to students currently aged 12-14
This three-day residential course introduces students to three different engineering topics they could study further in higher education, including designing and building a hydrogen car. Find out more
Girls into Engineering (residential): 12th - 14th July, Loughborough University, open to female students currently in Year 8/9
This three-day course invites female students to explore the exciting world of engineering and innovation at one of the UK’s leading universities in this field, including learning how to solder and build circuits. Find out more
Engineering Experience Humberside (residential): 19th - 21st August, University of Hull, open to students currently aged 12-14
New to this year, students are invited to three days of fun, interactive learning. Team of STEM Engagement Specialists will be delivering a new module, exclusive to this course...mechanical engineering! Find out more
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Last Free Webinar
Elevate Education will be hosting the last in their series of free webinars this summer term. This last one focusses on how you can set your child up for success, on Tuesday 15th July, 6-7pm.
Sign up online
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How You Can Set Your Child Up for Success
15th July, 6-7pm
Click here to register for this webinar for free
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Mary Effie Lee Newsome
Bats
I'd really hate to go to bed
Just swinging from some wall.
But bats, they say, do just that way.
I’d not wish to at all.
I’d hate to swing down from my toes,
All upside-down, and try to doze.
All things Poetry found at Poetry by Heart
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Jobs
Cover Co-ordinator
NJC Scale 7-11
£25,584 - £27,269 FTE (Actual £19,680 - £20,976)
37 hours per week TTO plus 2 weeks (40 weeks) 7.45am-3.45pm
Responsible to: Office Manager/Business Manager
Start Date 1st September 2025 (or as soon as possible after)
We are delighted to offer this exciting opportunity to join our fantastic school as the new Cover Co-ordinator.
You'll need to be organised, professional, competent, retain high levels of confidentiality, have a good eye for detail, excellent communication skills and be able to build and maintain effective working relationships. Ideally you'll also have worked in a Secondary school.
Some key responsibilities include:
- Act as the point of contact for all teachers requiring cover
- Make appropriate cover arrangements for staff who are absent
- Liaise with staff over the quality and quantity of the cover work
- Schedule room changes
- Take classes in the absence of a teacher
- Keep up-to-date with the needs of the students with Pupil Passports
- Support general administration and/or Front of House teams when not actively covering lessons
- Provide First Aid support (Training provided)
Download the job description from our website: www.rugbyhighschool.co.uk/jobs
Interested in applying? Contact Aimie Bennett:
Tel: 01788 810518 / Email: vacancies@rugbyhighschool.co.uk
Closing date: 9am Wednesday 16th July 2025
Interviews: Friday 18th July 2025
Cover Supervisor
£13.74 per hour
Responsible to: Cover Manager/Business Manager
Start Date 1st June 2025 (or as soon as possible after)
This is a broad description of the types of duties/activities expected at this level. This is not intended to provide an exhaustive list of duties. Please read the Job Description on our website.
- Supervising a whole class to undertake set work/activities and can include introducing and closing the class.
- Maintaining good order and managing behaviour constructively.
- Promotion of self-control and independence.
- Keep pupils on task as necessary.
- Responding appropriately to questions raised by pupils.
- Collecting any completed work and returning it to the appropriate teacher.
- Dealing with immediate problems and emergencies in accordance with the school’s policies.
- Reporting back on behaviour of pupils during the class and any issues arising.
- Supporting the general administration and/or Front of House teams when not actively covering pupils’ lessons.
Tel: 01788 810518 / Email: vacancies@rugbyhighschool.co.uk
For more details and how to apply, go to our website.
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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
1st July Edition
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The school newsletter is sent out every other week during term-time.
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