Kilgraston Junior School fundraising for Captain Tom
The weekend saw celebrations to mark fundraising hero Captain Sir Tom Moore on what would have been his 101st birthday - and Kilgraston Junior School took part with a variety of different fundraising events
Lead by the British Army veteran’s family, and supported by charities such as the NSPCC, events were inspired by Captain Tom’s original campaign. For Kilgraston Junior School, the fundraising for this event included running around The Grange one hundred times, walking one hundred steps together around the Atrium, making 100 cakes, brownies and cookies and much more. The pupils raised a worthy £101 for charity in the process.
Captain Sir Tom started his fundraising campaign in 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic, when he was 99 years old, aiming to complete one hundred lengths of his garden. He was hoping to raise £1000 for the NHS Charities Together. The campaign resulted in nearly £33 million being raised for NHS charities, with donations coming in from around the world. Captain Tom was knighted by the Queen in a special outdoors ceremony at Windsor Castle on 17 July 2020.
What an inspiration, and Captain Sir Tom’s legacy lives on. Well done to everyone in Kilgraston Junior School for their fundraising efforts.
You are so very valuable - Kilgraston assembly
We were treated to a wonderful assembly this morning by Mr Allaker, the Kilgraston chaplain. Discussing the subject of value, he shared some interesting examples. These included: a tub of Justin Bieber’s hair which sold for £25, 024; Pharrell Williams’ brown fedora hat which sold for £26,444; and the cost of Princess Beatrice’s hat worn to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton which cost £81,100.
What value do we each place on these items, asked Mr Allaker? It depends on how important it is to you and how much you are willing to pay for something.
Looking at our own sense of value, Mr Allaker talked to the school about how it can be easy to let other people influence your own value. Citing Merle Streep’s unsuccessful audition for the film King Kong when she was told, “she wasn’t pretty enough”, Mr Allaker discussed how we all face challenges of people trying to influence us, to pull us down and how we can rise above this and to never forget that we are all valuable and there is no-one like you.
Thank you Mr Allaker for a thought provoking assembly.
You can read more about our assemblies here.
National and personal athletics success for Kilgraston pupil
Huge congratulation’s to Kilgraston School pupil, talented athlete Freya H, who took part in last weekend’s British Athletics Coventry Spring Meet, producing a personal best performance in shot-put and finishing top of the F37 classification.
Lined-up against some of the country’s best para athletes, the Sixth Form pupil was representing her hugely supportive club, Perth’s Strathtay Harriers.
Commenting on her recent performance, Club Head Coach, Jim Hunter, said: “Freya’s continual improvement - she is also a talented javelin thrower and runner - is just reward for all the hard work she has put in to this point. From a club perspective, we are really chuffed for her.”
Picking up on the story, the Daily Record ran a feature on Freya, which also highlighted the difficulties the last year of lockdown has had on athletes and the sheer dedication needed to maintain standards.
Freya competing on Saturday in Coventry on Saturday 24 April 2021
Picture credits: the Perthshire Advertiser, Richard Wilkins, & Alison Howgate
Kilgraston Juniors - show and tell
They love PE and they’re fans of animals such as owls and springer spaniels. Find out what some of the Kilgraston Junior School classes have been sharing in class recently.
Perform in Perth 2021 results
Perthshire’s annual festival of music, speech and dance, Perform in Perth, took place this year virtually with contestants sending in their entries by video.
Kilgraston pupils from all ages put in outstanding performances across a variety of different categories.
Lucy, Upper Sixth
1st in Euphonium/ Baritone Horn Solo (Advanced)
Emily, Lower Fifth
1st in Classical Guitar Solo (Transitional)
Madeleine, Lower Fifth
1st in the Dramatic Solo (aged 15- 17)
Libby, Upper Four
3rd in Pipe Band Solos Practice Chanter
Rebecca, Lower Four
1st in Harp Solo (Elementary)
Chloe, Upper Third
1st Under 12 Scots song winning the Anne Nicol cup
1st under 12 classical song
1st place under 12 dramatic solo
Erin, Upper Third
1st in under 12 – Disney Song category
Lucy, Upper Third
1st in Descant Recorder Solos (Elementary)
1st in Flute Solo (Transitional)
1st in Bible Reading (aged 11 or 12)
Sally, Lower Third
1st in Clarinet Solo (Initial)
Alice, Lower Second
1st in Bible reading (aged 7 or 8)
1st in verse speaking (aged 7 or 8)
Well done to you all and congratulations to everyone who took part.
You can see more examples of the outstanding musical talent at Kilgraston with this year’s Young Musician of the Year competition.
Kilgraston’s Head of Geography discusses Earth Day
Earth Day was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson, with the first Earth Day being held on 22nd April 1970. There are a number of reasons why this date was chosen, but one reason is that it fell the day after the anniversary of John Muir’s birthday. John Muir was born in Dunbar, in East Lothian, on 21st April 1838. As a young boy, he spent a lot of time wandering the local coastline and countryside until, at the age of 11, Muir and his family migrated to the USA, starting a farm near Portage, Wisconsin.
In March 1867, at the age of 28, Muir was working in a wagon wheel factory in Indianapolis, Indiana when an accident happened that nearly caused him to lose his sight. He was confined to a darkened room for six weeks, worrying all the time about whether he would end up blind. Eventually, his sight did return, and Muir resolved to follow his dreams of exploration. “This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields,” he wrote. “God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons.”
The next year, in 1868, moved to San Francisco, California, then almost immediately set out for a week-long visit to Yosemite, a place that he had only read about. He climbed a number of mountains, scrambled down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at waterfalls, and built himself a small cabin along Yosemite Creek, designing it so that a section of the stream flowed through a corner of the room, so he could enjoy the sound of running water.
Over the next twenty years, Muir threw himself into campaigning to preserve the natural landscape of Yosemite until, in June 1889, he camped there with Robert Underwood Johnson, the influential associate editor of The Century magazine. Johnson agreed to publish any article that Muir wrote on Yosemite. He also used his influence to introduce a bill to Congress that, on 1st October 1890, established Yosemite National Park.
Muir’s campaigning attracted so much attention that, in 1903, Muir camped out in Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt himself; three years later, on 8th June 1906, President Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law, which grants the President of the United States executive powers to dedicate ‘national monuments’, which Congress can then upgrade to National Parks. Roosevelt himself created a further 18, and all but four US Presidents have since added to this number. It is for this reason that John Muir is sometimes known in the US as ‘the Father of the National Parks’.
In time, perhaps he will also come to be known as the Father of Earth Day. As Muir wrote: “When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.”
Our latest virtual open day
On a beautiful sunny Saturday morning in April, Kilgraston’s Headmistress, Mrs MacGinty hosted our latest virtual open day.
Joined by two of our parents, our Junior Head Girl Willow, and Sixth Formers Yolanda and Maria, it was the opportunity for families to find out more about our school and ask any questions.
Mrs MacGinty was also joined by Kilgraston’s Deputy Head, Carol Ann Lund, Dana Cooper, Kilgraston’s Junior Years co-ordinator, and our Head of Sixth Form, Deirdre McCormick who talked through the tremendous benefits of the Scottish Education system, the robust curriculum in the Junior School, and Sixth Form at Kilgraston.
You can watch the open day below.
Kilgraston’s Young Musician of the Year 2021
Music runs to the heart of Kilgraston and Kilgraston’s Young Musician of the Year competition is always one of the annual musical highlights.
Every year the standard of musicality is outstanding and even though this year, the competition was performed virtually, the pupils’ talents are clear. As Kilgraston’s Director of Music, Mr McAuley says, “You really are exceptional young musicians.”
So it is with immense pleasure that we can announce this year’s Senior School competition winners.
The Grade 3 and 4 class was a large class, so we have numerous positions to highlight. The results are as follow:
Winner: Martha, L5 Voice Feed the Birds, Sherman
2nd Place: Emily, L5 Guitar Yesterday, Lennon and McCartney
3rd Place: Maia, U4 Voice & Guitar Closer
In addition, the following two are Highly Commended:
Lexie, U5 Flute Chasing Pavements, Adele
Isla, U4 Piano Walking in the Air, Blake
In the grade 5 and 6 class the winner was:
Emily, L5 Piano Princess Mononoke (Ashitaka and San), Hisaishi
Before the Easter holidays, we were also delighted in being able to announce our Junior School Young Musician of the Year.
Huge well done to everyone who took part. We would also like to say thank you to Mr McAuley for organising, to Mr Cormack and Mr Murch for accompanying, and Mr Pryke for the recording.
You can enjoy performances from our 2020 winners, Olivia in our Junior School and Emma in our Senior School, as well as watch our 2021 Open Class where the winner of Kilgraston’s Senior Young Musician of the Year 2021 is announced…enjoy.
Fun and smiles at Kilgraston Easter Camps 2021
Kilgraston was delighted to offer local children the chance to get outdoors and be active these Easter holidays, with our Easter Multi-Sports Camps and Equestrian Own a Pony Days. After a difficult term of online learning at home, the children came out with buckets of energy and enthusiasm and took part with gusto!
Grouped by age and ability, Multi-Sports participants took part in a range of sports: tennis, football, hockey, rounders, mini-Olympics, along with the ever-popular games of Capture the Flag and our coaches’ plentiful and dynamic variations of ‘tag’.
Over at the Equestrian Centre, our budding young riders were able to develop their horse-care skills as well as their riding skills, with trekking and games on horseback thrown in as well.
This was this our most successful holiday camp to date (550 student days booked over two and a half weeks!), and we’d like to take the opportunity to thank all our wonderful sports coaches, riding instructors, and helpers who made it such a success! Most of all – we’d like to thank all the children who participated with such positivity each day, who battled through the wind (and occasional snow!!) – they were the real heroes of our camps!
Easter camps will return again in 2022, but we’re now turning our attention to Summer 2021. Full Summer Camp information will be posted next week at www.kilgraston.com/mini-camps. You can also contact [email protected] to be added to our mailing list.
Thank you again, and see you in the Summer!
Kilgraston boarders Easter weekend 2021
Kilgraston boarders kicked off their Easter weekend with an energetic zoom Bollywood dancing session organised by Kilgraston’s drama teacher, Miss Smith. It was part of the OnFife Spring Fesitval 2021 and was led by Edinburgh based dance teacher, Tanwi Bhattacharya.
Inspired by Holi – the Hindu festival of colours – Tanwi led us through a series of short routines with some classic Bollywood Dance moves. It was great fun and the Mater boarders got to learn about a new style of dance.
But of course, Easter wouldn’t be complete without an egg hunt and so in the afternoon, Miss. Smith organised an Easter Egg Hunt for the Mater boarders. Each team had six cryptic clues to find which would send them to a location such as the tennis courts (“What a lovely place to eat strawberries and cream!”), the front of school (“I want six pillars outside of my front door”) or the forest (“Red tape? Is there a VIP nearby?”). Once they had reached their location, they then had to look for a plastic wallet with one or two plastic eggs and a clue to their next location.
With all six wallets and clues collected, the teams ran back to Miss Smith to collect their first, second, third, and fourth place prizes – a bag of chocolate eggs of various sizes and their choice of Easter Egg to share amongst the team. So, who was victorious…?
In first place, the Green Team (Ana, Valentine, Montse, Greta, Maria, and Martina) with the Blue Team (Ambika, Maria, Maddie, Maddie, Erin, Anais, and Maia) came an incredibly close second. The Yellow Team (Emma, Lilly, Jemima, Amalia, Antonia, and Clara) was third and last but not least (and with a little bit of help from the Easter Bunny), the Orange Team (Kelly, Esma, Jenny, Maggie, and Meteor).
Afterwards, it was lovely to see the teams enjoying the early Spring sunshine and sharing their winnings!