Our lockdown windows
Lockdown has presented us all with challenges, one is that we cannot be together in person as a school community. So whilst we cannot be together physically, we asked our families and staff to share their home classroom and office windows.
Where some are enjoying sunshine, others are reveling in the snow, see where are Kilgraston family is around the world (music is by Kilgraston’s Clarsach Group). You can see another video of view from our windows here.
We are looking forward to having everyone back in school.
Eco Committee launches Kilgraston Tattie Champion competition
The senior Eco Committee has been working towards the Keep Scotland Beautiful ‘Eco-Schools’ green flag award.
One of the targets for this year was to grow some of our own food in school. However, lockdown has meant that this was unable to happen, so as an alternative, the Eco-Committee invited all Kilgraston staff and pupils to take part in a home potato growing competition.
The winner will be defined by the person who can grow the biggest total weight of potatoes.
We look forward to finding out who will be crowned Kilgraston ‘Tattie Champ’ 2021 later this year.
Lessons in how to be a good leader
What are the qualities of being a good leader? This was the topic of an assembly by Sacred Heart Ambassador Ann Miller.
Ann, who usually visits the school in person to hold sessions with Kilgraston pupils, discussed how throughout life we have to learn to deal with a variety of people and how we can all learn to work together can make something a success rather than a failure.
Ann, who recorded the assembly from San Francisco, said: “When I joined your assembly last September I talked about some of the qualities we need in these challenging times: resilience, flexibility and awareness of others. Now, I’d like to say a few things about working with others, particularly those who are difficult to work with.
“What is the first thing we need to know before we can lead others? The answer is that we need to know ourselves. The next thing is we need to know is how we come across to others: do others see us as we see ourselves?”
Sacred Heart Goals are one of the cornerstones of Kilgraston and Ann discussed how these and specifically the Goal of community is the perfect partner to working as a team, working collectively.
Ann then looked at some of the top qualities of being a good leader. These included:
- Taking responsibility
- Treating people with respect.
- The importance of being calm.
- Listening and being a good listener.
- Not giving up.
- Having fun.
Thank you to Ann for an insightful and interesting assembly.
You can read more about some of our other recent assemblies here.
World Book Day 2021
World Book Day is being celebrated with gusto this year.
In Juniors we had a huge selection from Zog from Zog, Mary Poppins, Matilda, Nikki from Dork Diaries, the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, Hermione and a Harry Potter, Poppy Pym from the Poppy Pym series, Russell from The Books of Russell and Violet Beauregaurde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Pupils are dressed up as their favourite characters, they’ve created amazing book-inspired bakes and celebrated the joy of reading in their lessons.
Well done to everyone for participating.
How Duke of Edinburgh Award is continuing during COVID
Throughout the COVID Pandemic and all its attendant restrictions, the Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) at Kilgraston has continued to run. It has made a few adjustments to its various conditions to allow participants to continue with their chosen activities in a safe and legal manner.
Anyone who achieves any of the Bronze, Silver or Gold Awards during this pandemic will certainly have earned it; demonstrating those key DofE qualities of Resilience; Commitment; Initiative; Adaptability; Enthusiasm and plenty more. Even during a pandemic, DofE has remained as an area of demonstrable Personal Development, both to the individual and also to Universities, Colleges and potential employers.
Through the current academic year, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Groups at Kilgraston have demonstrated these same qualities through persevering with their activities (and changing them if need be); attending online training sessions in preparation for the expeditions; and, in the case of the Bronze and Silver Groups, taking advantage of a small window of opportunity in late November to complete their expeditions (Silver Practice and Bronze Qualifier), which means that they are well ahead in their progress towards their full Awards. In fact, a number of the Bronze group have already completed their Award and have embarked on Silver, with more to follow soon!
There are still some expeditions to run (Gold and Silver Qualifier) and we are hopeful of finding dates in June when this may be possible after all the assessment deadlines have passed! The girls who achieve their Awards then will certainly have earned them.
Mr James Ferrier and Miss Lisa O’Brien
You can read more about the people behind Duke of Edinburgh Award at Kilgraston including Mr James Ferrier here.
Kilgraston supports Show The Love campaign
Kilgraston is showing our support of the national Show The Love campaign by encouraging our pupils, parents and staff to send green hearts to their politicians.
The Show The Love campaign is organised by The Climate Coalition, the UK’s largest organisation dedicated to climate change. It aims to promote people’s involvement in building a cleaner and greener world and this year, it is asking everyone to send a green heart to their elected Member of Parliament to show their love of our planet.
Kilgraston has an on-going commitment to protecting the planet and Headmistress, Mrs MacGinty, held an assembly focussing on the Show The Love campaign.
In her assembly, Mrs MacGinty showed the video below from the Climate Collation which aims to inspire us to all work together.
Also taking part in the assembly were some of our Upper First pupils who discussed the ways we can help stop climate change, showed us their pictures on the subject and Minnie specifically highlighted the importance of bees to our world.
Kilgraston food bank drive
Kilgraston’s Charity and Community Prefect, Upper Sixth’s Katie, has been spearheading a drive to help local families facing food shortages with a campaign to donate to local food banks.
Kilgraston pupils and staff donated what they could to the food bank collection points at their local supermarket. Donations would go to their local food banks.
Thank you to everyone who kindly donated.
Women and Business at Kilgraston School - Dr Julie Maxton of The Royal Society
“Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom, always be open to learning.”
Wise words indeed from Dr Julie Maxton CBE, Executive Director of London’s historic Royal Society, spoken via Zoom while giving her inspirational talk as part of Kilgraston School’s Women and Business lecture programme.
Brought up in Edinburgh, and originally training as a barrister at the Middle Temple in London, Dr Maxton talked to girls about her career-trajectory and what had brought her to the position of the first woman in 350 year to hold the post at the world’s oldest, continuous, scientific academy: “I’ve had a lifetime of looking at evidence,” she told girls, “always try to look through the eyes of each side.”
The Royal Society enjoys patronage of scientific super-brains including, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, Jennifer Doudna, Dorothy Hodgkin, Sir David Attenborough, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, together with Elon Musk, one of only five, global, centibillionaires.
It’s motto ‘Nullius in verba’ means ‘take nobody’s word for it’: “This is an expression of the determination of members to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment,” expanded Dr Maxton, “we always look for the facts, we’re the opposite of ‘fake news’”.
Part of Dr Maxton’s job is to administer the RS’s £100m annual grant budget, nurturing a pipeline of over 3,000 young scientists who benefit from the global network of experts offering mentoring, investment and business advice. “I didn’t know a thing about spreadsheets,” laughed the good-humoured speaker, “but I sat down and learnt and knew how to ask if I didn’t!”
Girls also learnt how Dr Maxton’s progression drew on various life- influences, including, in her current position, legal contacts nurtured during time as a barrister: “I knew quite a few judges and one of the recurring subjects was the need for better understanding of the strength of accurate scientific evidence presented in court.” Continuing, she added: “the right questions must always be asked, based on a clear statement of science.”
This thought-process resulted in RS Fellow and renowned University of Cambridge Professor of Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory, Sir David Spiegelhalter OBE, giving several senior judges topic-specific lectures on scientific assessment: “Remember,” commented Dr Maxton, “you must always keep learning; learn anywhere and from anyone.”
As a result of this collaboration with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, benchmark-documents, on subjects such as ‘Forensic DNA analysis,’ ‘Forensic gait analysis,’ and ‘The use of statistics in legal proceedings,’ are now embedded in the UKs legal framework.
Pupils were quick to fire questions at the impressive guest-speaker with one Sixth Former intuitively asking how she dealt with career set-backs.
Answer? “At my first job, I was the only woman in the faculty. Always be analytical and objective, your professionalism will carry you through. Very quickly, I learnt that you have to look after yourself.”
Hugely impressed by the visiting speaker, one Fifth Form girl described Dr Maxton as “inspirational,” adding that it had “opened her eyes to global possibilities.”
Concluding the lecture, Dr Maxton urged pupils not to feel pigeon-holed by following one path: “Be prepared to change career, take opportunities. No one will think for you. Put your own hand up.”
Sound advice indeed.
Kilgraston School assembly on…Lego
Aside from top construction and creative skills, what else can Lego teach us? According the Kilgraston’s Head of Geography, Dr Phillips, a great deal.
Showing us his extraordinary ‘Stranger Things’ Lego set (pictured), in this week’s school assembly, Dr Phillips discussed the lessons we could and should all learn from the construction toy firm. Looking back on the history of the company – an interesting angle for our Young Enterprise teams – we learnt that out of 1,000,000 pieces only 18 are unusable, that initially Lego was only made in primary colours to avoid it being used to make army trucks and the like, and that Lego can be used for years before it wears out.
Dr Phillips pointed out aside from the fun and creativity Lego gives us three top tips we could all learn and live by:
1. Setting the highest of standards for ourselves.
2. Planning for the future.
3. Prioritising creativity over conflict.
Thank you Dr Phillips for another captivating assembly. You can read about more of the thought-provoking assemblies here and watch some here.
Kilgraston Junior School is co-ed
Kilgraston Junior School is co-ed. The process started in August 2021 when the COVID situation around schools re-opening was unclear and was initially open to boys of staff and existing parents.
Now though, the move to co-ed is open to all parents looking for a family focused school to nurture both their daughters and their sons.
It means more families and their children can now benefit from Kilgraston’s outstanding Junior School curriculum as well as our first class facilities including a swimming pool, tennis courts and over 50 extracurricular clubs.
The boys have settled in well into the Junior School, enjoying many different aspects of school life.
Kilgraston pupil James said: “There are lots of clubs and activities to take part in. For P.E we have swimming which is amazing. My favourite club is Science Club. We made a Scribblebot and egg parachutes.”
Conall added: “The clubs are fantastic with Football, Golf and Science Club- making slime was amazing. Being able to swim for core PE lessons has been a real treat in such a lovely pool and has made Tuesday my favourite day. The outside space is great for adventures at lunch time with my friends being able to build dens in the woods.”
Parents Elaine and Gordon have been impressed with their son’s move. Elaine said: “We have been delighted with how well our son has settled at Kilgraston. One of the many advantages of the school lies in its size, which allows the children to be individually known and valued. It has made a remarkable difference to his academic progress this year and Kilgraston is an excellent fit for our son.”
The school and community has adapted well to the co-ed move so if you are interested in finding out how Kilgraston’s Junior School can benefit your child, please contact [email protected]