Kilgraston Christmas Concert 2022
On Friday 2nd December, the whole school community gathered in the spectacular setting of the Perth Concert Hall for our annual Christmas Concert.
The audience were wowed by performances in music, dance and drama based on Christmas cards each portraying a different theme from Disney to a Scottish Christmas. Kilgraston must be almost unique in having every pupil in the school on stage performing which gives the concert a genuine whole school community ethos. Pupils and staff had been busy rehearsing all term and four days of intensive rehearsals in the run up to the concert itself were a fantastic build up to the night itself.
Mr Morley and Mrs Murphy with the technical help of Mr Pryke were delighted with the concert itself and despite many pupils battling with coughs and colds gave their all on the stage. Mrs Murphy said of the concert, “”I was so happy we got to showcase all the talents of Kilgraston - from the visual artists to the Highland dancers, from the lyrical trio to the comedy sketches. I loved putting together the programme and I genuinely hope it reflected the very special place Kilgraston is and all the magic that Christmas offers us” while Laura in Lower 6th who is our Music Captain and took a leading role in the concert made reference to the excitement felt by pupils each year, “I look forward to the Christmas concert every year. The whole school rehearsing and performing together makes it really special to be a part of.”
But it was not only the pupils on the stage who were buzzing after the concert, it was lovely to receive so much behind the scenes support from staff, with one teacher commenting, “I am so, so proud to teach at Kilgraston when as a school we are represented by such an amazing display of talent, teamwork and a ‘can do’ attitude”. As the strains of songs that have been heard sung in corridors and on buses since late September start to fade away it is already time to start planning ahead for next year, do put the date in your diaries, Friday 8th December 2023!
Kilgraston equestrian teams win
Kilgraston’s equestrian teams were out in force at the weekend at a team show jumping competition organised by Strathallan at Howe, Fife.
We had 14 horse and rider combinations taking part over 3 classes from 70cm - 1m.
A team of Upper Fifth’s Melissa, Upper Four Melissa and Ishbel rode three fantastic double clears to win the 70cm and with Upper Fifth’s Melissa and her pony Rover also taking the trophy for first individual. A second team of Upper Sixth’s Jessica, Upper Fourth’s Olivia and Upper Fifth’s Melissa on her second pony took team fourth.
In the 85cm it was another huge class and this time is was Upper Sixth’s Kiki, Upper Sixth’s Faith, Upper Sixth’s Jess and Upper Fifth’s Lucy taking the trophy and sashes for another team win! Upper Fifth’s Meadow, Upper Fourth’s Olivia and Upper Fifth’s Melissa made up another Kilgraston team to scoop fourth place.
The last class of the day was 1m where we had sadly run out of luck and Upper Fifth’s Meadow and Lucy and Upper Sixth Kiki had a few unlucky poles between them to come fifth overall.
Brilliant results overall and well done to all horses and riders.
Find out more about Kilgraston equestrian.
Junior Years Harvest Festival 2022
Each year our Junior Years Harvest Festival offers a time to reflect and encourage charity amongst our younger pupils. Ms Cooper, our Deputy Head of Junior Years, reflects on this year’s service:
As the colours start to change, we celebrate the seasons with our Harvest Assembly and are very grateful for your non-perishable food donations. A huge ‘thank you’ to the Junior Years pupils and staff for their efforts in preparing this special assembly – it’s a great pleasure to welcome parents into school again to share in this together.
Following the service all proceeds were taken to C.A.T.H. (Churches Action for The Homeless) and your generosity will bring great relief to many people less fortunate. The Junior Years Head Girl Team accompanied Trish in taking your donations directly to the charity, which is a heart-warming experience.
Boarding trip to The Enchanted Forest
On Sunday 2 October Kilgraston visited the Enchanted Forest and were treated to the most dazzling visuals and innovative design, all choreographed against a musical score that accompanied the pupils as they made their way around the stunning autumn woodland of Faskally Wood.
Niamh in Lower Sixth described the Enchanted Forest “as entering the grandest sensory room” which it certainly was in its ability to create the most unique experience.
This year’s theme ‘Together’ was certainly apt for our Sacred Heart Goal for this year of Social Awareness. Walking together around the event, leaving our own subtle imprint on the forest with its motion tracking projections, we came out a tiny bit closer, to each other, and to everything around.
A fantastic trip that set all our imaginations alight.
Want to find out more about what it is like to be a boarder at Kilgraston?
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
Find out more about boarding at Kilgraston.
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