Kilgraston competes at SSSA Dual Slalom Event
Pupils were thrilled to represent Kilgraston at this year’s SSSA Dual Slalom Event with two junior teams and three senior teams taking part.
All of the racers skied really well and there was such a super team spirit within the Kilgraston teams! Even a couple of tumbles didn’t put anyone off, but they showed such great resilience. The Junior A team (Elsie, Lochie, Freya and Darcy) were thrilled to come away with silver medals!
The senior teams also all skied very well and the s1-3 Senior team came home with bronze (Heidi, Lucy, Isla and Helena)!
The Junior team will now go through to the finals which will be held in Glasgow in November.
Kilgraston Boarders visit Glasgow
Over the weekends our boarding community are introduced to the beauty of Scotland and recently we travelled to the Glasgow Botanical garden and the Kelvingrove Art Museum.
Our first stop was the Botanical Garden, which is full of mystery and knowledge across every corner of the garden. Not only does it remind us of the beauty of Scottish nature but it has also given us the opportunity to learn something new. We roamed through every rose and plant and branch taking in all the glory of the garden. It has brought us all together and so much for everyone: the girls who enjoy biology and science commented on every flora and fauna that they found, and the girls who enjoyed art took many photos to take inspiration from later on in their creative journey.
Our next stop was the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It was truly an inspiring trip. Not only have we collectively found new artists and movements of art to research about later on, we have also found ourselves mesmerised by the diversity of knowledge that the museum had to offer. From statues made of clay from the 13th century to the skeleton fossils of dinosaurs, everyone has found something to look at and to read about. The museum has given us a better understanding of our surroundings and the big world that is yet for us to discover and conquer.
Written by Lower Sixth boarder, Esma
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Sixth Form visit CERN
This September, a small group of Higher and Advanced Higher Physicists lead by Kilgraston’s Head of Physics Mrs Hewett and Head of Modern Languages, Mme Depreux set off at dawn for Edinburgh airport, bound for CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.
CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), is where Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (originally for sharing data between scientists) and home to the 27km circumference Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and highest-energy particle collider.
Friday was our big day at CERN. After an early start, we set off from the Old Town on Tram 18 to the CERN site on the border with France and Switzerland. After a brief but captivating visit to the Globe of Science and Innovation, we met Professor Makoto Ikeda (who suggested we call him Mac) and over three fascinating hours he took us on a tour of some of the main CERN sites, patiently guiding us through the history and the science of what happens at CERN and questioning the girls to make them think and work out the physics involved.
He talked about the early days of research in the 50s, when the calculations carried out by their first computer were checked by a Dutch maths genius as the scientists were sceptical about the new technology! The huge amount of data generated was (and amazingly still is) stored on magnetic tape.
As a young physicist working at MIT in the US, Mac used to carry these tapes back in his hand luggage! The girls asked lots of questions, some of them quite challenging, and Mac did his best to give each question due consideration. We learned that at CERN the majority of direct employees are engineers and computer scientists, whereas the physicists from universities across the world tend to come to CERN to work on specific projects. After our tour we tucked into a hearty lunch from the CERN cafeteria, sitting out on the terrace in the sunshine with many other scientists.
The girls made the most of the rest of our remaining free time, exploring the beautiful city of Geneva, including travelling on trams and the small boats called moettes and even swimming in the lake. The locals, wrapped in coats and hats, must have thought we were a hardy bunch!
We are already looking forward to returning to CERN.
Kilgraston celebrates European Day of Languages 2022
The European Day of Languages (EDL) is celebrated across Europe on the 26th of September every year. It aims to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe and raise awareness of the importance of lifelong language learning for everyone. It was set up by the Council of Europe and was first celebrated in 2001. It provides an excellent opportunity to celebrate languages and explore other cultures.
Language learning brings benefits to young and old – you are never too old to learn a language and to enjoy the opportunities it opens up. Even if you only know a few words of the language of the country that you visit (for example on holiday), this enables you to make new friends and contacts.
At Kilgraston, on Monday 26th September, our Advanced Higher French class will showcase during our school assembly, the importance of language learning.
This year, a t-shirt competition is organised by the EDL. Eilidh, Kiki and Kinvara will launch a KG TEAM EDL t-shirt 2023 competition, giving our Kilgraston pupils the opportunity to take part in this European competition and to show their artistic skills by submitting their design onto our school Teams. There will be 3 categories: Juniors, L4th to L5th and U5th to U6th. Each drawing will be rewarded with House points and the best t-shirt for each category will be forwarded to EDL.
Here is the winning t-shirt design 2022.
We are looking forward to receiving many designs; the overall winner will also receive 10 t-shirts to share with their friends. Allez, à vos crayons.
Kilgraston Cross Country 2022
We were delighted to welcome back our parents to support the Whole School Interhouse Cross Country event on Tuesday after an absence of spectators of three years. We enjoyed super weather and the course took all pupils from the Reception class to Upper Sixth around the beautiful campus here at Kilgraston.
We had an array of outfits from a green monster to an inflatable donkey as well as our competitive runners – it’s true to say everyone had fun! We had runners from all parts of the Kilgraston family and congratulations to Mr N Campbell who won the staff race.
The four houses of Inchcolm, Arran, Moncreiffe and Kinnoull battled for points in each age group with everyone who took part getting participation points too! The results are:
Whole School
1st Lexie Upper Sixth (Arran), 2nd Ishbel Upper Four (Kinnoull), 3rd Carlota Upper Four (Inchcolm).
Thank you to everyone for making the event such a success.
Drama at Kilgraston - Edinburgh Fringe Festival Trip 2022
Drama at Kilgraston includes acting, set design, performances, theatre trips and much more.
On Friday 27th August 2022, the Higher and Advanced Higher Drama classes enjoyed a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This takes place yearly and there are always a plethora of fantastic shows to interest all ages. This year, we went to see Shakespeare for Breakfast, Classic, The Birds and Trainspotting.
First up was Shakespeare for Breakfast, which started with complimentary tea/coffee/juice and croissants on entry. The play followed the Shakespeare story The Winter’s Tale in which the jealous King Leontes falsely accuses his wife Hermione of cheating on him with his best friend, and she dies. Leontes exiles his newborn daughter Perdita, who is raised by shepherds for sixteen years and falls in love with the son of Leontes’ friend. When Perdita returns home, a statue of Hermione comes to life, and everyone is reconciled. The story was told in a comedic way and was very entertaining!
Next up was Classic. This is a comedy in which the actors attempted to tell the story of 42 classic novels, ranging from Pride and Prejudice to The Lord of the Rings in one hour. The cast succeeded - pretty impressive!
The penultimate performance was The Birds based on the Daphne du Maurier short story. The Birds is a drama in which a couple, thrown together by the birds’ terrifying assault, find their delicate balance suddenly threatened not from the birds they are trying to keep out but from a young woman they let in. This is a thrilling and slightly creepy story of what happens when nature turns against humanity - I would definitely recommend it!
Last but not least was Trainspotting. This highly immersive performance is adapted from Irvine Welsh’s classic novel and not something you will be likely to forget. The performance is filled with flashing, coloured lights, drugs, alcohol, is staged in a bespoke venue and even a bit of poo. If you book anything on your next trip to the Fringe Festival, Trainspotting is definitely not to be missed!
Finally, thank you so much to Mrs Murphy for organising this trip and to Ms Flint for accompanying us. I think I speak for everyone when I say that this was a really enjoyable and memorable trip!
By Zoe U6
The death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
It is with great sadness and sorrow that Kilgraston pupils and staff receive the news of the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
Her Majesty has been a beacon of strength and courage since she acceded to the throne in 1952.
Her Majesty has demonstrated a moral compass we as a community strive for and has given her life unstintingly in devoted public service to us all for which we are grateful beyond measure.
To His Majesty King Charles III, and all the Royal Family, we extend our sincerest condolences. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Kilgraston’s boarding team 2022
We would like to introduce Kilgraston’s boarding team for 2022 and wish a very warm welcome to all our new boarders and also to those who are returning. Our boarders have settled back into school, their boarding routines and are enjoying making new friends and participating in a range of activities, from baking and board games, to movie nights, sporting activities and outings.
Supervised Prep has begun in earnest and the girls are eagerly settling down to hard work completing assignments and revising.
Mrs Kerbelker remains as our Boarding Housemistress in Mater. Mrs Kerbelker has over thirty years experience in the education sector and is joined by Mrs Bluett and Mrs Guthrie, both experienced teachers as well as Miss Orlova, who is a qualified vet from Ukraine.
Over in Barat and Swinton Boarding Houses, Miss Carden continues as our Boarding Housemistress, who is another well qualified member of the Boarding Team. She is ably assisted by Mrs MacDonald, our school nurse and our new Boarding Assistant from Germany, Miss Wolff.
Heading up the entire team is Kilgraston Head of Pastoral Care and Boarding, Mrs Mueller.
Boarding is an excellent way to build life skills and prepare for university, we have boarding options available, so please contact us to find out more.
Kilgraston horse-riders compete at Blair Horse Trials
Kilgraston horse-riders competed at Blair Horse Trials. Find out how they got on.
The world-renowned Blair Horse Trials took place at the weekend (25th - 28th August) in the stunning setting of Blair Castle. It is one of the highlights of the British equestrian calendar, if not in Europe and beyond, with tens of thousands of spectators flocking to the event.
A number of Kilgraston pupils took part in this year’s competition across a variety of classes. This included eventing and show-jumping.
Lower Sixth Charlotte and horse Joey competed in the BE100 which took place in the sunshine on Friday. Charlotte and Joey had a super dressage and jumped double clear round a huge track with just a few time penalties which unfortunately left them out of the placings.
Also in Lower Sixth, Daisy and her horse Freddie qualified for the prestigious BE90 Scottish Championships - a huge achievement. No rosette this time but a huge well done to Daisy and Freddie.
Upper Fifth’s Meadow and Gerry jumped a lovely double clear in a very busy 90cm British Showjumping class, just missing out on the placing too.
Lower Sixth’s Flora and Sydney was also competing in the BE90 class and had a strong performance.
Kilgraston was also proud to sponsor the Mountain & Moorland Lead Rein & First Ridden Championship. This was, as always, an extremely popular class judged by Mrs Julia Woods.
Well done to all riders, ponies and horses who took part and in particular to Charlotte, Joey, Daisy, Freddie, Meadow, Gerry, Flora and Sydney. We are already looking forward to next year.
Kilgraston collaboration: Duke of Edinburgh Awards and John Muir programme
Kilgraston is proud of the breadth of clubs & activities we offer to our pupils. It is an opportunity to extend and grow skills, whether these be old or new.
This year our Duke of Edinburgh Awards department will be collaborating with Dr Phillips and his John Muir Award programme.
We will be using the John Muir Discovery Award to support and evidence the Volunteering section of the Bronze level Duke of Edinburgh Award. The students will devise a structured conservation project to complete and in doing so they will gain knowledge and skills from this practical learning that will be useful for all aspects of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.
The John Muir Award is something that is achievable within a short time frame and this collaboration will increase the participants appreciation of the environments which they will find themselves in during their Duke of Edinburgh expedition. Students will also gain a nationally recognised certificate upon completion of their Discovery Award and again upon completion of the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.
The Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award is open to any student over the age of 14 and enrolment will take place over the coming weeks. For more information on The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award please contact Mrs Herbert at [email protected] or for information on the John Muir Award contact Dr Phillips at [email protected]