Kilgraston’s Christmas movie features in the Telegraph
Kilgraston’s Christmas movie, a school only, drive-in movie event, featured in The Sunday Telegraph.
The article looks at how some schools are inventing ways of still allowing pupils and parents alike to soak up the excitement of the annual Christmas show.
In the article, Kilgraston’s Director of Music, Mr Jason McAuley, says: “It would be easy to say, ‘We can’t do this and we can’t do that’, but we have to accentuate the positive. It’s vital for the girls’ enthusiasm. Besides, their grannies want to see something.”
Our families will be able to enjoy this wonderful performance very soon, with the show available on YouTube in the coming weeks.
You can read more about the Kilgraston Christmas Movie by subscribing to the Telegraph at this link.
Image via Telegraph: Chris Watt
Magazine reports on Kilgraston’s latest British Horse Society success
Leading independent school sector magazine, Attain, has reported on Kilgraston’s recent British Horse Society (BHS) Stage 1 Complete Horsemanship success. It is the first pupil cohort to take part in this alternative pathway and the pupils will now move onto Stage 2.
Pupil Issy said: “It has been such a great privilege to study the BHS Stage I, learning how to properly manage horse care and be rewarded with a professionally recognised certificate which will help me on the first stage of my career with animals.”
Kilgraston is the only school in Scotland to offer the BHS qualifications and shows the tremendous variation on offer to our pupils to pursue their dreams.
You can read more about this success here.
Kilgraston’s Headmistress discusses exam changes in The Independent Schools Magazine
Recent exam changes is the subject Kilgraston’s Headmistress Mrs MacGinty writes about in the latest edition of The Independent Schools Magazine.
In her article, Mrs MacGinty writes, “Of course I, like every Head across the country, wish that we were not having to make adjustments that potentially threaten the stability of the teenagers’ lives for which we have responsibility, now and in the their future.
“But I don’t think it is an entirely negative situation.”
You can read Mrs MacGinty’s entire article in the magazine on page 4, here.
The magazine also features Upper Sixth’s Anna’s recent global poetry competition win for her work ‘Total’ (page 38) and the Junior School’s ‘decade of growth’ observations with the hedge planted in 2009 (on page 22).
Press coverage of i25 awards
Recently, Kilgraston made the finals of the prestigious i25 Awards, the only Scottish school to do so, a move honouring our environmental campaigns including our ‘Wear it again’ event.
The news was covered in the Catholic Universe, and you can read the story here.
Kilgraston Sixth Former writes in national magazine
Kilgraston Sixth Former, Anna, has written an article for a national magazine about embracing the return to school in September.
In the autumn edition of magazine, Independent School Parent, Anna discusses how she is relishing the human interaction of being back in school, and has got used to the ‘new normal’ of face masks and temperature checks.
The autumn term senior school special digital edition of Independent School Parent features some of the winners and finalists from the Independent Schools of the Year 2020 awards, including an interview with Captain Sir Tom Moore’s grandson Benjie, who won the Rising Star category for his fundraising efforts.
You can read Anna’s article on page 23 in the link below.
Kilgraston’s teachers - Mr Maxton’s story
Kilgraston’s teachers and support staff are a diverse and talented bunch.
Take Modern Languages teacher, Mr John Maxton. In the latest edition of Boarding Schools’ Association magazine, Mr Maxton, discusses how having started his professional career as a pilot, he is now happily teaching languages to our pupils.
You can read more about Mr Maxton’s story in the latest edition of Boarding Schools’ Assoication magazine.
You can also find out more about the people behind Kilgraston in our ‘A Chat With…‘ section.
Former pupil to train with senior Great Britain hockey squad
Former Kilgraston pupil Emily Dark is to train with the senior Great Britain hockey squad. Emily, who graduated from Kilgraston in 2018, said: “It has been an ambition of mine to play for GB for so many years, so to be offered this opportunity to train with them for the next three weeks is unbelievable.
“I am incredibly excited to get started, not only for high-quality hockey, but to meet everyone too. This is a big opportunity for me to show what I can bring to the game and I want to embrace it and have fun.”
Emily, who is now studying Physics at St Andrews University, was selected for the GB Elite Development Programme (EDP) in 2018, and the opportunity to train with the GB women’s team presents an excellent opportunity to develop, and impress, at the top level.
It has been an outstanding few years for Emily, with her representing Scotland at international level winning her 23 senior caps. Her international career has also seen her be part of the team which won gold at the EuroHockey Championship II in 2019 with Emily winning Young Player of the Tournament.
Speaking on the Scottish Hockey website, Emily said: “Winning gold with Scotland at the home Europeans last year has definitely been a highlight for me, and I loved working with the team before and during the tournament to make sure we were in the best position possible to perform at our best.”
Commenting on Emily’s achievements, Kilgraston’s Headmistress, Mrs Dorothy MacGinty said: “We have watched Emily’s progress through the ranks with great interest and enthusias, and watching her move on to this next, very demanding, level of the game is hugely exciting for all the staff and pupils here at Kilgraston. We wish her every success with the future and will be following her progress very closely!”
Image by Mark Pugh
Kilgraston’s commitment to the environment
Kilgraston’s Junior School has been busy charting the growth of a hedge planted in 2009, part of Kilgraston’s on-going commitment to the environment and educating our pupils on nature.
Speaking in the Catholic Universe, Ms Dana Cooper, Junior Years’ teacher and head of the school’s Eco Committee said, “We thought it would be demonstrated particularly well if we showed our eleven-year-olds what nature can do in the same period. Our pupils are particularly interested in natural habitats for indigenous wildlife, which we have an abundance of here at school, but they are also keen to create artificial habitats and, additionally, are currently building a ‘bug hotel’ out of palettes and recycled materials.”
The hedge, which is made up of hawthorn, common lime, hazel and the guelder rose, stretches along the Kilgraston beautiful countryside campus next to the school’s swimming pool. Now, eleven years since it was planted, the hedge reaches four and a half metres high in places and is almost 80 metres long.
Upper Third’s Edith, who is Head of the Junior Years Eco Committee, said: “We have been learning how the hedge provides wildlife with a natural larder.
“Birds such as thrushes, blackbirds and fieldfares love the rose hips, while bees enjoy nectar from the hawthorn and robins, red squirrels and rabbits enjoy the berries.”
This story also featured in the November issue of magazine, Scottish Field.
global poetry competition - winner
Kilgraston pupil Anna has won a top prize in a global poetry competition. Upper Sixth’s Anna was the only Scottish winner in this year’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year award and was one of only fifteen winning young poets from over 6,000 people who entered.
Anna’s poem, Total, was about exam stress, reflecting the experience as a balance sheet.
Speaking in an article on STV, Anna said: “The poem was written the week before results day, it’s a poem about exam anxiety. Every line was given a monetary value to equate to the emotional strain I was experiencing.
“However, you can’t put a price-tag on personality; I am so much more than just results. The final line – ‘trying to add up the breeze’ – represents the impossible, like catching smoke, it’s a poetically expressed concept of being unquantifiable.
“I think the judges all had their own results day memory so this struck a chord.”
The global poetry competition news featured in a number of press outlets including the BBC’s Newsround where Kilgraston’s Headmistress, Mrs Dorothy MacGinty, said: “Anna has been an inspirational pupil to teach throughout her seven years with us. We have witnessed her talent and enthusiasm for the subject of English rapidly develop and could not be more thrilled for her.”
The competition’s virtual award ceremony takes place Thursday 22nd October, where Anna will read her poem to the other 14 winners, guests and judges.
In an article in The Herald, Anna said: “It will still be a very moving experience. Such a shame not to actually be with the other winners and to meet the judges face-to-face but it will be a momentous opportunity nonetheless.”
Anna wins a place at a writing residential course at the Arvon Centre, The Hurst set to take place in early 2021 and you can read Anna’s winning poem below:
⁎///TOTAL///⁎
All slow summer long £9.99
I have been living £6.90
in a glass jar of anxiety £16.60
and dreading £7.68
a day in August £6.57
when a devious envelope £12.90
with a barbed paper tongue £3.76
will slither through the door £2.46
to determine my fate £6.83
with only a few £5.80
letters: grades that might £5.45
be as sharp as blades £9.90
or as soft as rising dough. £5.67
At the end of the day, is this £3.54
all that I amount to? £12.80
Five letters on a flimsy £6.53
ghost of paper? £6.45
The narrowest indication £3.87
of my past £7.90
and my future. £14.90
God, these £1.65
endless days of waiting £8.76
and balancing on these tenterhook £17.76
cobweb tightropes just won’t do, £4.50
they just won’t do. £14.90
⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎
I don’t want to be calculated £8.76
counted, £6.84
or summed up £7.36
in cold numbers and letters £3.56
that are typed by robotic fingers £4.90
that have no grace nor growth, £23.90
because I am breathtakingly £16.00
three dimensional, and £5.35
to total me £2.95
would be like £0.90
trying to add up the breeze. £??.??????
⁎//Please retain receipt for your records//⁎
You can read further press articles on this news in The Scotsman, the Evening Express, The Courier and the Independent School’s Council website.
Kilgraston’s Headmistress discusses 2021 exams on Radio Tay
Kilgraston’s Headmistress, Mrs Dorothy MacGinty, featured on local radio station, Radio Tay, discussing the recent 2021 examination announcement.
You can listen to what Mrs MacGinty said via the link below, at around the one hour mark.
You can also subscribe or register to the Catholic Universe and read more about Mrs MacGinty’s response to the exam announcement and you can read some of our other press articles here.