74% of our pupils achieved Grade A at National 5 level

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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 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.

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.

Coping with Covid- TES reports Kilgraston School’s approach

Pupils returned to Kilgraston School’s Autumn Term, 2021, having lived with Covid 19 for a year and a half.

Noticing how this experience manifested itself in the youngsters’ approach to the pandemic, Headteacher Dorothy MacGinty has written about the old adage of a ‘problem shared is a problem halved’ in newspaper, TES.

“The seriousness of the disease is still very much emphasised,” she notes, “but with the reassurance that there is less likelihood of hospitalisation.”

Continuing, Mrs MacGinty comments: “So many more girls have the shared experience of knowing someone who has had Covid – or perhaps even having experienced it themselves – that they now have their own story to tell and discuss; the common bond (facing the enemy, if you like) is a lot less frightening. With the help of the school’s mental health ambassadors, discussion of guilt or concern is commonplace and encouraged both in and out of the classroom.”

The full Times Educational Supplement article can be read here

6.9.21

Sunday Telegraph reports boarding in Britain increasingly popular

International interest in British boarding schools is on the increase with Britain being seen as ‘open for business’ thanks to the UKs successful vaccine roll-out programme.

Head teacher of Kilgraston School, Dorothy MacGinty, is quoted in today’s Sunday Telelgraph newspaper (6.6.21), discussing the trend.

The full Sunday Telegraph article can be read here

Sixth Form boarding at Kilgraston School

 

 

Seeking ‘space’ and ‘fresh air’ - Scottish boarding market sees domestic, post-lockdown, uptick

Dorothy MacGinty, Head teacher of Kilgraston School: “Life at a boarding school is always challenging but, like everywhere else, the last fourteen months have been specifically difficult for myriad reasons. Apart from ensuring pupils were academically and pastorally fulfilled, an independent school is a multi-million pound, international business and, obviously, Covid-19 has thrown-up many additional hurdles to parents from abroad contemplating sending their child to a British boarding school.”

Mrs MacGinty continued: “However, life is always surprising. Interest from the domestic boarding market has seen a remarkable upsurge. Parents (and their daughters) are quoting ‘space’, ‘smaller classes’, ‘fresh air’ and, most interestingly, ‘having a bedroom to escape to and their own personal space’ as the last few months have been so confined. Also fascinating is the move from the English GCSE and A-Level curriculum to our SQA, Highers and National Fives. Parents from down-south are clearly thinking ahead to university places and now seeing the Scottish school timetable as positive move to getting into Scottish universities.”

The full article can be read here: Daily Telegraph

Kilgraston attends Scotland’s Boarding Schools event

Kilgraston is delighted to be part of the first ever Scotland’s Boarding Schools event, which is taking place virtually Saturday 22nd May.

At the event 14 leading Scottish boarding schools will come together to showcase the range and quality of boarding schools in Scotland. They offer an enviable range of outdoor pursuits with the incredible Scottish landscape always playing a part.

Families will have the opportunity to meet with some of Kilgraston’s senior team including our Headmistress, Mrs Dorothy MacGinty, and our Head of Sixth Form, Mrs Deirdre McCormick.

The past 15 months has seen a rise in demand for Scottish boarding schools, particularly from London and city-based families.

Almost 6000 families from London alone have used the Scotland’s Boarding Schools and Scottish Council for Independent Schools websites to research boarding schools in Scotland over the past year.

Admissions teams say interest seems to be driven by the effects of lock-down and parents’ desire for their children to grow up in with access to wide open spaces.

Director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, John Edward, said:
“During lock-down many families were cooped up together in major cities like London and dreamed of an idyllic childhood with easy access to wide open spaces and a safe environment. That is something that Scotland has in spades and our members are seeing an increase in inquiries from city-based families as a result.”

Kilgraston looks forward to meeting with families at the event.

Find out more here.

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!

Boarding in Mater - dancing and laughter

What is boarding in Mater like? Fun, energetic and full of laughter is probably the best way to describe it.

So when Boarding Mistress Miss Smith opted for a virtual session with Strictly Come Dancing winner, Oti Mabuse, we knew it was going to be all of the above and much more.

We started off with a vote on whether to learn a ‘The Greatest Showman’ themed dance or a ‘Frozen’ themed one, the girls went with ‘The Greatest Showman’. Oti and her husband, Marius Lepure, led us through a series of moves to create a one minute 30 second dance routine to ‘The Greatest Show’. It was very dramatic and it was a lot of fun.

Later that day, Miss Smith led the girls in a series of improvisation games and activities. We started with a bit of ‘Wish, Wash’ before moving into a game called ‘You! Yes!’ – both of these games got the girls thinking about the importance of eye contact, and clarity of voice and gesture. We then moved onto playing a game called ‘Sevens’.

Then Montse bravely led us in a rhythm game, which tested our ability to keep a rhythm AND listen closely to each other. We then played a game simply called ‘Numbers’ – the aim of the game was to try and get the ‘Queen’ out of her chair by catching her out. If you spoke too slowly or you hesitated in your decision, then it was the ‘Peasant’ chair for you!

Our last game of the day was the hilarious ‘Emo-Taxi’ – with Maria as the taxi driver. This game means every time a new person gets into the taxi, the rest of the taxi has to adopt the emotion of that new person whilst carrying on with their conversation. This results in the mood of the taxi changing at warp speed and someone who was previously very angry about their destination suddenly becomes incredibly happy about their destination.

We ended our day with a Karaoke session in the Theatre. The girls danced and sang to pop-tastic hits like ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ by One Direction and ‘Waka Waka’ by Shakira before someone suggested a few rounds of ‘Just Dance’. Cue all the girls lined up in the theatre following the Russian folk-dance moves for ‘Rasputin’ by Boney M then strutting their stuff to Kei$ha’s ‘Tik Tok’.

What a day: we all fell into our beds exhausted but certainly well entertained!

You can find more about boarding at Kilgraston here.