News from Mr Grady
Hello Everyone!
Well, we’ve been back for nearly 4 whole weeks, and by the end of this week, will have only three weeks left in this half term!
At the start of the year, I spoke to staff and students about the fact that September was about getting used to new routines and rules and in fact a slightly different way of learning, but that we weren’t going to be running ourselves raged trying to start everything at once!
As October hovers into view, I hope that everyone is at least more familiar with how we’re doing things in our new normal, and I have to say how impressed I’ve been with our students and the way they have embraced and simply got on with the new routines without question or fuss. What I’m most pleased by is that lessons seem to be focussed on learning, on the joy and curiosity of progressing through the curriculum, and for those few hours we’re in school, both students and staff can simply get on with getting on!
Students will already be starting to think about the challenges of the coming year, and where they might continue to build their understanding, their skills and experience, and October is a great time for us to take stock of that. To be honest about areas that might need a little more focus, and to reflect carefully about what might need to be done to ensure success as we move through the academic year.
I, certainly have now settled into my new routines: Gate duty in the morning, how to put a mask on and off, and the fact that in order to do anything from my office, the one way system turns any activity into a considerable walk around the school.
Feeling more settled inevitably means thinking “what’s next?” And for me, “what’s next” is making sure we’re all in the right frame of mind to start looking forward beyond what the next few minutes might bring! In the next week or so, we’ll be looking at our development plan for the year, and on 9th October, we’ll be coming together as a staff to plan for the rest of the year.
We look forward to having both student and parental voices in those plans too, so look out for communications asking for your thoughts, hopes and ideas for planning the next few steps the RHS community will take together.
What’s next at this exact moment though, for me, is to see if I can manage to eat a sneaky chocolate bar in the gap between writing this and my next meeting. I have 2 minutes…
Stay well and safe everyone!
Mr Grady