Junior Years Summer Show 2023 - ‘Annie’
The Junior Years’ pupils have been working hard on the production of ‘Annie Jr.’ We have been performing this week and the experience has been fantastic. The rehearsal process has been busy but amazing. It all started in February with auditions and casting. Soon after that the preparation started with blocking the first scene and creating the choreography for ‘It’s The Hard Knock Life.’ After drama rehearsals we would go to music to perfect our songs and friends would learn their solo parts and learn pitches.
On Tuesday, we started to perform it on stage and each performance has become better and better. The quick costume changes and mic changes have been mastered and everything was perfect. It is a surreal feeling to stand up on stage projecting lines and speaking into a mic doing what we all love.
The Lower Fifth have been a huge help with hair and makeup, and we are very grateful to them. Some of the hair was a bit crazy but it felt like our characters were coming to life. When we take our final bow at the end of the show it is an amazing feeling! They are all cheering for us and our show.
The whole experience has been great and I am going to miss the rehearsals and the nerves before going on stage.
Upper Third would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved who has made this production possible. A special thanks goes to Mrs Murphy and Mr Morley.
Olivia (Upper Third), May 2023
Junior Years’ Parents’ Afternoon Tea
We warmly welcomed our Junior Years’ Parents on Friday 17th March, for our charity fund-raising afternoon tea. The Junior Years Charity Committee put on a fantastic spread at an afternoon tea for their parents. This was to raise money for our chosen charity Mary’s Meals.
The pupils created bunting and decorations to transform the atrium. The afternoon tea also gave Junior Years pupils the opportunity to show their appreciation to their parents for everything they do. Parents were welcomed by Sofia playing on the violin and were invited to sit down and enjoy a delicious feast.
They were also treated to performances by our award-winning Early Years and Junior Years Choir. As it was St. Patrick’s Day, Ceola and Conall also delighted the guests with some Irish dancing. A lovely afternoon full of chatter and cake.
Junior School highlights for 2021 - 2022
Kilgraston Junior School has had many highlights, over the course of the year, including the whole school production of ‘Matilda, Jnrs.’, which was a triumph. Having a real live audience again (filled with friendly faces) was such a treat.
Upper Third’s final trip to the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, where an art professional led a very creative workshop was inspirational. The class then donned bird and bee vision glasses (to become pollinators) and viewed the flowers at the Royal Botanical Gardens in a completely different light.
Lower Third’s Enterprise stalls raised an amazing £440 and taught pupils a great deal about marketing and entrepreneurship. Their class trip to Stirling Castle brought history to life and completed their project on The Battles of Independence.
The Upper Second had a fun filled day out at Edinburgh Zoo watching real life research including a chimp play computer games!
Lower Second went bird watching at Auchingarrich after using taxidermy from Perth Museum to research their topic on Birdlife in class.
Upper First have been industriously building Eco Bug Hotels and even saw a shark up close and personal at Deep Sea World whilst learning about life Under the Sea.
For the early years, having the fire brigade in for their first school visit since lockdowns was a real milestone and the front lawn was well watered. Equally, having parents in for a Pirate Play was a welcomed step back towards normality.
At Christmas we all still remember the ballet. Our last large group visit!
We held an epic Book Battle and the ‘Ickabog’ won a fierce battle between Juniors’ favourite novels - this got everyone reading.
We also held a Times Tables Rock Star Day to aid Maths fluency - even the teachers dressed up as rock stars. Everyone competed to increase the times tables fluency.
Our trip to Landmark was eagerly anticipated as we hadn’t been allowed to visit such attractions in some time. It was a well-earned treat and the teachers couldn’t have been more proud of the pupils’ exemplary behaviour. A fantast end to the year!
Ms Cooper, Deputy Head, Kilgraston Junior School
Junior School - Upper Second turn detective
This week, Upper Second became Crime Scene Investigators.
As part of their class project on crime they were visited by Jon Bates from Sci-High Forensics who spent the day with our Upper Second detectives and led them through different role plays.
In this scenario, there had been a break-in at Kilgraston School and the culprits had left behind lots of forensic evidence. Upper Second pupils donned their forensic suits to collect blood swabs, dusted for fingerprints, and found footprints in our initial search.
The police then sent the forensic team the fingerprints, clothes, handwriting samples from the three main suspects. They then had to analyse these carefully to paint a picture of what happened that night.
Once the Crime Scene Investigators had pulled together all the evidence, Upper Second pupils then held a full trial complete with judge and jury to determine whether the suspects were innocent or guilty. The forensic evidence we had found was essential, especially the blood spatters.
The class had a fantastic day so thank you to Jon for leading this investigation.
You can find our more about our Junior School curriculum here.
Junior School show 2022 review - Matilda
The Junior School show 2022 is ‘Matilda: The Musical’. After last year, when the Junior musical was recorded, it is great to be back performing live in front of an audience, and everyone has certainly taken it in their stride. You wouldn’t be able to tell that we had all been online for the last two years! The energy and enthusiasm of the young actors and actresses can’t help but make you smile.
Matilda is a fantastic choice of script; it has everything you could wish for from a musical – comedy, suspense, and of course, catchy musical numbers. The set, which was designed and created by our own stage crew was indistinguishable from a professionally made set, and really speaks to the talent and vision of our National 5 drama students. The number of people involved in pulling this off speaks to the inclusion and spirit of community within our school, with children aged five performing in the musical, to the exam years helping during the performances and coming in during study leave to assist teachers.
It is evident how much time and effort our head of Drama Mrs Murphy, and Director of Music Mr Morley, dedicated to the musical, as the acting, choreography, and singing came together at the final performance to encapsulate the work of several months of hard work. Mr Murch and Mr Stewart provided the top-notch instrumentals to accompany the scenes. The sound and lighting was carried out by Mr Pryke and a team of talented sound technicians in the making, Emma and Kaitlin, and gave a polished and professional feel to our musical.
I think we definitely have some future stars in our midst - Caitlin played the lead role of Matilda, and made us all fall for this intelligent, quirky character with her heartfelt and genuine performance. Ms. Honey, Ms. Trunchbull and the school children also gave delightful performances, showcasing vocals and acting that rivals a West End production. The entire cast was enthusiastic and shared their feeling of fun with the audience.
This was a superb production and is testament to the dedication and perseverance of our outstanding performing arts teachers, as well as the students! I feel privileged to be a part of this wonderful school community.
Isabel, Upper Sixth, Music Prefect
National Numeracy Day at Kilgraston
Our youngest pupils joined forces with schools around the world in a bid to crush a world record.
The Reception, Lower First and Upper Second classes were taking part in National Numeracy Day on 18 May. They attended a live event, watching the Times Tables Rockstars number roll at the same time. The organisation behind National Numeracy Day was aiming to get 1500 children to watch, but in fact almost 600 joined in - now confirmed as the ‘Most viewers of rolling numbers live stream on YouTube’.
The children all had to know the 5 x table and join in a dance taught to them by Strictly star, Katya Jones.
National Numeracy Day is the only day in the UK dedicated to Maths and a raft of stars joined the pupils online for the event and well done to the Kilgraston pupils who took part as well as everyone else in the UK. You did it!
Kilgraston celebrates St Andrew’s Day 2021
With a whirlwind of tartan and a blast of the bagpipes, Kilgraston pupils celebrated St Andrew’s Day 2021.
In our Junior Years, pupils were piped into the Atrium before taking to the dance floor for an afternoon of Scottish Country Dancing and a St Andrew’s Party which included a special cake. Our youngest pupils, four-year-old Abigail and Olivia were given the honour of cutting the cake.
Later on, Senior School pupils enjoyed an energetic ceilidh with lots of dancing and happy faces. This was the first time the School’s Ceilidh band performed and it was fantastic to hear. After more dancing, the pupils then enjoyed a delicious meal of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties prepared by Kilgraston’s in-house catering team. The evening finished with a mixture of modern and traditional music for the pupils to enjoy.
Organiser, Mrs Ferry, Kilgraston’s Head of PE, said: “Even with the COVID restrictions, we still enjoyed a wonderful day, a culmination of a lot of hard work from the pupils and it was wonderful to see. Everyone had a fantastic time.”
Thank you to everyone who took part and to Mrs Ferry for organising. Find out more about our schedule of extra-curricular activities
Watch our St. Andrew’s Day celebrations below.