Charity fundraising and charity ideas
Charity fundraising plays an important part to life at Kilgraston so we recently took part in the world’s biggest coffee morning, Macmillan Coffee Morning 2020. It sees people all over the UK host their own coffee morning, raising money for the charity which provides support and care for people living with cancer.
Of course, with COVID, this year’s event was slightly different. However it didn’t stop our charity fundraising efforts with the school raising £277.38 so a huge thank you to everyone who donated. A special thank you to Kilgraston’s catering team, Inspire, who donated hot chocolate and delicious cupcakes.
The event was organised by Kilgraston’s Community and Charity prefect, Upper Sixth’s, Katie who said: “Charity is a big part of Kilgraston and thanks to the help of many of my peers, Inspire Catering and everyone’s generous donations I believe Macmillan Coffee Morning was a huge success.
“Macmillan Cancer support is crucial during these times and I’m so happy that we were able to bring our Kilgraston community together for such a good cause.”
It is this year’s first charity fundraising event but it is an important subject to Katie and she hopes to have many more brilliant money-raising events.
Katie said: “Charity and Community has always been very important to me because it not only does it make a difference in our local community, but also worldwide.
“I’m really looking forward to being able to try and organise as many charity events as possible this year; fundraisers such as sponsored cycles and walks, bake sales and Home Clothes Days, not only do these help those in need but also brings our Kilgraston community together.
“I am working alongside Mr Allaker to once again be holding ‘SCIAF’ fundraisers later this term, such as the ‘Real Gifts’ at Christmas, which in previous years has been a massive success. ‘SCIAF’ is the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, they work in 26 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America to help some of the poorest people in the world, regardless of religion, work their way out of poverty.
“The Kilgraston boarders are also participating in this years World Porridge day in October, an international fundraiser for Mary’s Meals to aid starving children in developing countries.
“In the local community our trips to Moncrieffe Care Home will be unfortunately be unable to go ahead this year, however the Junior School pupils are making some lovely cards which I’m sure will be greatly appreciated by all of the residents and staff. The annual Junior Years Harvest Festival will hopefully be able to go ahead again this year, where all of the food donations are given go to a local homeless shelter but also helps the junior girls to gain an increased value in the community.”
You can read more about Kilgraston’s charity fundraising and how important it is to the school here.
Sixth Form lectures
This year Kilgraston is launching a series of Sixth Form lectures where our Sixth Formers will do an assembly in front of our Senior School. It is an opportunity for the Sixth Formers to present on a subject that is inspirational and important to them and recently Upper Sixth’s Anna looked at protest poetry and the cult figure of Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova.
Akhmatova was one of Russia’s most famous and influential female poets, using poetry as a mechanism to oppose the totalitarianism of Josef Stalin.
She was one of the very few members of the intelligentsia to survive Stalin’s terrors.
In her assembly, Sixth Former Anna said: “Anna Akhmatova was an inspirational women thanks to her bravery and talent and her strong patriarchal loyalty to her beloved Russia. She chose not to abandon her country, choosing instead to stand by Russia and her people. She decided to risk her life by continuing to write whether or not she was not going to be published.”
Akhmatova’s most famous poem, Requiem was distributed secretly, passed on by word of mouth, committed to memory, with any written records being burnt so as to avoid arrest.
Anna said: “We can continue to learn from her resilience today and her courage and talent will be remembered for many years to come.”
You can watch some of our other Autumn term 2020 assemblies here.
Kilgraston’s Heads of House - House boards 2020
Kilgraston’s Heads of House have been busy making their House Boards for the year. The House boards are a fun way for the Upper Sixth Form House teams to showcase their artistic side and a friendly competition to see who can be the most colourful and intricate. So what is the thinking behind each of their boards? Our Heads of Houses explain:
Mirah – Head of Arran
“For Arran, we decided to do a space theme. We came up with this idea because we wanted to do something fun and new, and thought space was an accurate representation of the Kilgraston Community. We made each of the year groups different planets as we thought this portrays how each year group functions as a planet but we all come together as a solar system. We included some of our House teachers to recognise how they contribute to the House and support us. We also included the sheep as they are the house mascot.”
Mhairi – Head of Kinnoull
“Kinnoull’s theme for the House board was based on the films ‘Monsters Inc’ and ‘Monsters University’. I wanted to include a dragon in our board as that is our House’s mascot, and I also mainly used the colour purple as that is our House’s colour. All of Upper Sixth and the teachers who are in Kinnoull are separate characters from the movie and relate to the character in some way. For example, Paula is the mum from monsters University as she is very kind.”
Elisa –Head of Inchcolm
“We decided to have ‘Hamilton’ as a theme for our House board this year as children over all the year groups can identify with this movie. The board features a hand-painted and drawn stage from the ‘Hamilton’ musical with the important characters shown on the stage as well as the House team on top of the star. All of us are in love with this theme and Hamilton has been growing in popularity since it was released and we all identify with the characters.”
Georgia – Head of Moncreiffe
“Moncreiffe’s board is all about ‘Despicable Me’. It is a really fun movie that all ages enjoy so we knew it would be one people would stop at when they go past. The Minions, of course, are yellow, which is not only bright and colourful but yellow is also Moncreiffe’s House colour. We tried to match the film characters to teachers so Mrs Speed is Vector as she is a computer wizard and Mrs O’Hear is holding up the moon as she is Moncreiffe’s Head of House and is the heart and soul of Moncreiffe. We also made the Junior Years the purple minions because they are so happy and sometimes really excited.”
You can read more about Kilgraston’s Houses, the roles they each play and why they are so important.