Being environmentally aware at Kilgraston
Looking after the planet and being environmentally aware are ongoing drives at Kilgaston with Kilgraston’s Headmistress, Mrs MacGinty leading the campaign. In recent years, Mrs MacGinty has led the staff and pupils to make changes to the school and their daily lives in a bid to do our bit to protect the environment.
These have included a wear it again day to promote the use of vintage fashion against fast fashion and its negative environmental impact. There are also regular assemblies on environmental issues and a no idling policy, which means visitors to the school are required to turn their engines off.
In 2020, Kilgraston’s Headmistress, Mrs MacGinty was a finalist at the i25 Awards. These awards celebrate the best in independent school sector, recognising the leading influencers and innovators. In this video, Mrs MacGinty, members of staff and pupils discuss some of these environmental projects and the impact these have made on Kilgraston.
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.
i25 awards ceremony - Mrs MacGinty is finalist
This week saw Kilgraston ‘virtually’ participate in the annual, prestigious, i25 awards ceremony, having been shortlisted for our pioneering ‘Wear it again’ day.
These awards – rescheduled, having been cancelled from a glittering ceremony at The Waldorf in London during March - recognise excellence in innovation and impact across the independent sector throughout the UK.
Each year, there is fierce competition between hundreds of entries. While Kilgraston was not an out-right winner, we were shortlisted to be among the top 25 and the only school in Scotland to make the final list and be invited to participate in the ceremony.
“I am particularly pleased that our initiative for recycling clothes and raising the environmental implications of ‘fast fashion’ was so enthusiastically embraced by the pupils,” said Dorothy MacGinty. She continued: “Waste, and its reduction, is a matter of huge significance for everyone and so very important that the tomorrow’s adults understand and act to redress the situation.”
From several schools across Britain, the ceremony witnessed, among many others, impressive innovation in the teaching of astronomy and the introduction of exams in the subject; various pupil initiatives, including the campaigning by prep school pupils of Government, resulting in ‘Finn’s Law’ - ultimately changing legislation regarding violence towards animals in the line of duty - and the introduction of a life-long learning curriculum that explored different ways to tackle a subject.
“Being nationally recognised for our work, together with learning about others’ projects and initiatives, is so important,” said Mrs MacGinty, “we must never stop learning and that applies to teachers and Heads just as much as it does to pupils. She added, “It also gave me a great excuse to wear my vintage Dior!”
The over-all winner was Westminster School in London for its campaign to provide bursaries, ‘liberating power through education.
You can watch Mrs MacGinty and the i25 award ceremony below (she is on from 40 minutes in).