International Nurses’ Day
It’s 11th May 2022 which marks International Nurses’ Day and what better way to celebrate than to meet Kilgraston’s school nurse, Mrs Louise MacDonald:
“I joined Kilgraston in August 2021 from Kelvinside Academy (a day school in Glasgow) where I was nurse and part of the pastoral team there for thirteen years. As well as my professional role, I’m a Listening volunteer with Samaritan’s, doing shifts in both Perth and Ayrshire.
The Nurses role in a school has a great focus on pastoral care with an emphasis on health and wellbeing. I love contact with young people and being able to support them when they need it. It’s all about making their school experience as positive as possible, them getting the most from their time here. At a boarding school, the challenges can be different. Sometimes pupils are a long way from home and having a good support system for them is absolutely vital.
Kilgraston’s Infirmary has been renamed and now we have a Health and Wellbeing Centre, a less clinical environment with a focus on mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing. With a wellbeing space now in place ,I am hoping moving forward into next session ,that some Sixth Form pupils will take on roles as Wellbeing Ambassadors and take forward one or two health initiatives each session.”
A longer length version of this will appear in the next Cor Unum, our annual school magazine. Sign up to receive your copy here.
Heads’ up – it’s time to put your back into learning at Kilgraston School
The full effect of pupils having been away from the classroom for months will take a long time to fully comprehend. However, at Kilgraston, one consequence has already been clearly identified.
“Since returning after the Easter holidays, several teachers began to notice a common theme of slouching,” said Head teacher, Dorothy MacGinty,
It soon became evident that months of home-schooling, crouching over a laptop, hadn’t done anything for pupil posture, with several commenting on sore backs and necks.
“Of course, because of social distancing, staff and dining room chat is severely curtailed,” continued the Head, “it took a few days before we realised that this was a common theme. Since restrictions were eased, there has, quite rightly, been a great deal of national discussion about lockdown lethargy, mental health issues, weight gain and children struggling with speech and language skills, however, none of us were prepared for, or expected, a bearing on personal carriage.”
To try and address the issue, pupils throughout the Kilgraston’s Junior and Senior Years are now being asked to carry-out shoulder-rolls and stretches before each class, with time spent in PE also concentrating on personal posture.
Year-group bubbles are encouraged to think about their stance and the body as a whole. “We’re not quite ‘Miss Jean Brodie’,” said Mrs MacGinty, “but we are asking them to sit-up a bit straighter for their own long-term benefit.”
Senior pupils at Kilgraston School taking part in a pre-English class stretch session
The Daily Mail newspaper also thought this was a good idea, reporting the story on Wednesday 5 May 2021
Deportment for education… school bids to stop slouching
- Scottish Daily Mail
- 5 May 2021
- By Kate Foster
IT is a lesson worthy of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – a ‘deportment’ class to correct slovenly posture.
Now, just like the girls in the classic book and film, pupils at a Scottish boarding school are being taught how to carry themselves, after teachers saw them ‘slouching’ at their desks following months of home schooling.
The posture classes are taking place at Kilgraston, an independent school near Perth where fees range from £11,550 for primary to £33,500 for senior school boarding.
Many pupils have been studying from home during lockdown and when the mostly girls’ school reopened for face-to-face learning two weeks ago, teachers saw youngsters slumping and complaining of aches and pains. Now they are being given daily exercises such as shoulder rolls and stretches before they start lessons, with PE classes concentrating on deportment.
The problem is thought to have been caused by pupils at home not looking up as often as they would do in the classroom – and teachers not being on hand to tell them to sit up straight.