Kilgraston assembly - what a wonderful world!
Mr Allaker, our Chaplain, held an inspiring and insightful Kilgraston assembly this week, encouraging us all to start our week on a positive note, and to remember all the things in this wonderful world, in which we all live.
Kilgraston is a Laudato Si’ School, which holds its foundations in an encyclical letter written by Pope Frances. At its heart it highlights the importance of looking after our planet and each other.
As COP26 closed, and the dust settles on what was and was not agreed, in his assembly this week, Mr Allaker asked us to reflect on all the many amazing and memorable things in the universe, from mountains and oceans to planets and animals. But what about each other?
Mr Allaker urged us all to keep love at the forefront of our week and to remember, what a wonderful world this truly is.
Thank you Mr Allaker for a compelling assembly. You can find out more about our assemblies here.
COP26 week two activities
It’s week two of Kilgraston’s COP26 inspired events and as world leaders made a barrage of pledges, staff and pupils signed up to our own Tree of Promises. Headed up by Mrs Saunders, promises to the planet were gathered and displayed on a tree in the glass square. We have all been encouraged to commit our own pledges to pen and paper, adding it to the tree this week and in months or years from now, we will review how we have managed to keep to these promises and the impact it has had. Examples of promises include:
-I will buy less out of season food from different overseas countries.
-Buy clothing from sustainable brands or second hand.
-I will lift share
One of the most difficult-to-replace sources of single-use plastic waste is cling film. So as part of COP26 Activities Fortnight, the Eco-Committee and Dr Phillips held a beeswax wrap workshop to show one way in which you can make your own reusable alternative out of beeswax.
Sacred Heart ambassador, Ann Miller, also caught up with the eco committee via Zoom to discuss their progress and there was also a display of ‘Seaspiracy’ in the Geography rooms.
A special mention to Lower Sixth’s Manon for her outstanding Sixth Form lecture last week related to cop26 and our need to look at food for the future.
Find out more about last week’s events here.
International Evening 2021
Staff and pupils at Kilgraston enjoyed International Evening 2021; an evening of International Food, information and entertainment.
Representatives from France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Syria, Mauritius, Wales and Mexico decorated tables in the Theatre with items from their homelands and we learned about their legends, traditions, history, national and regional dishes and tourist sights to see. The audience’s knowledge was tested in a series of quizzes and we all enjoyed dancing the Macarena at the end of the evening, ably led by our Spanish students.
After missing out due to Covid last year, it was a wonderful way to celebrate our diversity at Kilgraston, and a welcome opportunity for staff and students to spend some fun time together.
You can find out more about international admissions here.
Kilgraston COP26 activities
During the two weeks of COP26, the senior school Eco-Committee is running a series of activities that are intended to be fun, and to encourage as many as people to take part, but that are also intended to be educational and to make people think. These activities have ranged from a scavenger-hunt style quiz around the school buildings, collecting food waste at lunchtime, and launching a ‘Future Visions’ art and writing competition, with more to come next week.
Ruby Forbes, the Eco Prefect, said: “As part of the Eco-Committee, I was keen for us to take the opportunity of COP26 being held in a Scottish city to start activities all throughout the school, to try and help our school community gain greater awareness of our climate crisis and what steps we have the power to take to try and solve it. The activities have been really successful so far, and we’re really looking forward to what we’ve got planned for next week.”
Look out for more COP26 eco-events next week including representatives from Kilgraston attending the COP26 mass. In the meantime, read this article more information on other eco committee activities.
Lessons in finance at Kilgraston Junior School
Proving it is never too early to start planning for their financial future, pupils in our Junior School received lessons in finance.
Pupils from Upper First, Lower Second, Upper Second and Lower and Upper Third got to grips with fun finance thanks to the super skills from Mr Andrew Stewart from AS Wealth Management and Ms Louise Laing from The Mortgage Finance Store.
Over the sessions, pupils looked at how trade works, analysed world economies, discussed personal finance and how to plan for the future.
The year groups then took part in a competition where they traded as different countries to get the largest amount of resources, and to ultimately run the world.
Thanks you to Andrew and Louise for these fascinating lessons in finance.
Our Junior School offers families outstanding wraparound care - so no extra breakfast club or after school club costs.
All pupils have fresh and nutritious lunches made in school every day.
Specialist teachers in art, music, science, modern languages and sport starting in our Junior School.
Access to our outstanding facilities including indoor swimming pool, tennis courts, AstroTurf and equestrian centre – the only school in Scotland to have one on-site.
Contact us to arrange your taster - [email protected]
Kilgraston’s strong performance at Scottish Girls’ School Association Swimming Gala
It was with huge amounts of excitement and a great deal of training and preparation that Kilgraston pupils hit the water recently at the Scottish Girls’ School Association Swimming Gala.
The event was hosted by Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh, and took place at Stewart’s Melville College Swimming Pool with Kilgraston joining Fernhill, St. George’s, MES, and St. Margaret’s in the competition.
Kilgraston swimmers had some superb performances with Lower Four’s Millie winning the S1 50m Freestyle. Other results included:
Second place for Upper Third’s Lara in the S1 50m Breaststroke
Second for Lower Four’s Edith in the S1 50m Backcrawl
Second place for Upper Four’s Kirsten in the S2 50m Freestyle
Third place for Upper Four’s Poppy in the S2 50m Backcrawl
Third place for Upper Fifth’s Rebecca in the S3/S4 50m Backcrawl
Third place for Upper Sixth’s India in the Senior 50m Backcrawl
Third place for Lower Fifth’s Martina in the S3/S4 50m Breaststroke
Third place for Lower Sixth’s Jeanie in the Senior 50m Breaststroke
Third place for Lower Four’s Maia in the S1 50m Butterfly
Third place for Upper Four Kirsten in the S2 50m Butterfly
Third place for Lower Sixth’s Millie in the Senior 50m Freestyle
Third place for Upper Fifth’s Rebecca in the S3/S4 50m Butterfly
Fourth place for Lower Fifth’s Carlotta in the S2 50m Breaststroke
Fourth place for Upper Fifth’s Maddie in the Senior 50m Butterfly
Fourth for Lower Fifth’s Isla in the S3/S4 50m Freestyle
The team also put in strong performances in the relay events with the following results:
Second in the S1 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay
Second in the Senior 4 x 50m Medley Relay
Third in the S2 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay
Third in the S3/S4 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay
Third in the S1- Senior Canon Relay (Freestyle 8 x 25m)
Congratulations to all our swimmers for their strong performances, and thanks to Mary Erskine for hosting. We are looking forward to the next event.
Kilgraston celebrates Goals Day 2021
Each year Kilgraston focuses on one of the five Sacred Heart Goals, with Goals Day an opportunity for the whole school to spend time working on projects and in groups to learn about the year’s theme in more detail, hear from influential people in that field and work on action plans.
This year’s Sacred Heart Goal is ‘Community’ and this term we have focused on the idea of community in terms of our relationships with each other, charity and environmental awareness.
Upper Sixth have just led a Charities Week for the school, which has involved every year group researching and presenting information about a charity they would like to support throughout the year.
This information has been turned into artwork and information posters (displayed in various locations throughout the school) as well as a special video about the different charities. Upper Sixth also brought back iPray24, but this time as iPray12+12. The Side Chapel was beautifully arranged and decorated into a range of prayer stations, whereby individuals or classes could come and visit from 7.00am-7.00pm over two days.
Charities Week culminated in this term’s ‘Goals Day’ on Thursday 7th October, where we celebrated our own Kilgraston community with a range of fun activities, including a charity ‘Soak the Staff and Upper 6’ fundraiser for CHAS!
We were honoured to welcome Anya Hart Dyke, our special guest speaker for the day, who inspired our junior and senior pupils with engaging and interactive talks about the environment. Anja
We were also inspired by Upper Four Katie’s presentation about her parents’ farm, which then led into a goal-setting session to support the UN’s International Day of the Girl. The chaplain was very grateful to the Head Girl Team and Upper 6 for their wonderful contributions to the planning and delivery of all these events – a brilliant demonstration of community!
Kilgraston’s Women and Business welcomes the British Transport Police
Kilgraston’s senior pupils were lucky this week to benefit from a visit by British Transport Police officers.
As part of the School’s commitment to industry insight, BTP members were taking part in the on-going Women & Business series, where girls are given first-hand experience of a highlighted career.
Appearing in full uniform (including reflective ‘stab vest’ weighing a hefty 6.5kg) all four officers described life within the most specialised and oldest Force in Great Britain, the broad range of skills needed and huge rewards gained: “We are very much part of life on the rail networks,” explained one officer from Central Glasgow, “so much of what we do is about prevention and anticipation, knowing how and when to make a difference.”
Girls learnt about the different aspects of the job, including the handling of explosive-expert dogs and firearms: “Women can be particularly good at conflict resolution,” explained one officer, “frequently they have the best gut-feeling for a situation.”
After the formal lecture - interspersed by several questions from the audience - officers spoke with members of the team on a one-to-one basis, finding out more about the career: “It was really fascinating,” said one Fifth Former, “I had no idea that there was a separate police force for the railways. It was the first time I’ve actually spoken face-to-face with a policeman!”
Kilgraston would like thanks the BTP for their time.
7.10.21
BTP officers speaking with Kilgraston pupils at the school
Kilgraston Harvest Festival 2021
Wednesday 6th October marked Kilgraston’s annual Harvest assembly both in our Junior School and in our Senior School.
In a bright and colourful assembly, each class in our Junior School performed or presented on different elements of the Harvest Festival. We were treated to a performance of ‘Old Macdonald’ by our youngest pupils – in French, while each Upper First pupil gave a presentation about a different fruit or vegetable from around the world. Lower Second read a Harvest Time Poem and Upper Second performed ‘The Rainbow People’, a story about friendship and people being the same. Pupils in Lower Third talked about different cereals and then Upper Third performed ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’. We also welcomed an address by Rev. Allan Wilson, Minister of Dunbarney and Forgandenny who used the characters of ‘Lola and Charlie’ to discuss community.
The Junior Head Girl team has also been coordinating the food donations for local charity, C.A.T.H. (Churches Action for The Homeless). With a table ladened with cereals, pasta, tins of fruit and vegetables, the proceeds were taken to C.A.T.H. after today’s service.
This year’s senior harvest assembly was presented by Upper Sixth’s Sana, Hannah and Poppy. They spoke about the importance of being grateful for what we have, that harvest is a significant time of the year to celebrate the food we have and our farmers. Hannah and Sana spoke about what Harvest means to them.
“It is really important in this day and age that we are made aware that all the choices we have, were not always available to us and to take time to be grateful for what we have”, said Hannah.
“I am now aware of the consequences that buying food out with the season of Britain has, I am now going to make a conscious effort to buy local produce”, added Charities prefect Sana.
Kilgraston School’s STEAM success highlighted by international magazine
Making sure girls learn to love Physics at school is very close to Kilgraston’s heart: “It’s all about engaging pupils early in their learning journey,” says Head teacher, Dorothy MacGinty, in the autumn term edition of The BSA Guide to UK Boarding Schools.
Featured on the front cover of the international magazine, the article looks at why an all-girls senior school is the ideal environment for tackling a subject more traditionally studied by boys: “Girls feel free to let their natural curiosity reign,” writes MacGinty, “where every question is encouraged.”
Each year, nearly two-thirds of Kilgraston School leavers pursue STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) subjects at undergraduate level.
“The enthusiasm is definitely there,” states the Head teacher, “but we must continue to deliver the subject in a life-engaging manner.”
Read the full article (front + p124/5) here
6.10.21