In 2018, a learned group of scientists reported that, “youngsters have greater energy levels than professional endurance athletes.”
You don’t say! Fast-forward to Spring 2021 and every parent in Britain can safely report the same findings.
Long, hard, months of lockdown-learning have tested everyone’s resilience, the emotional elastic of even the keenest home-schooler being stretched.
During these testing months, Kilgraston School’s Junior Years has continued with its full, energy-satisfying, timetable. From the first day of online learning, every one of its primary pupils continued to benefit from their diverse curriculum, small class sizes allowing teaching flexibility and a litheness within each day’s timetable.
Case in point: the recent snowy weather.
Realising that the old adage of ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, Junior Years Co-ordinator, Dana Cooper, instructed the pupils to plunge into the white stuff.
With an educational twist, however, she insisted that they make, build and create while doing so.
“It’s all about problem-solving through play,” she said. “We wanted the girls and boys to embrace conditions, think how to utilise facilities and, most importantly, have fun through learning, using brains and bodies.”
And fun they most certainly had. One ten-year-old pupil built an impressive igloo – incorporating a disused Wendy house and raising over £1,500 for local charity SCAA into the bargain – before spending the entire night alone in the snow-clad self-build while a brisk -15°C wind-chill circled the structure. Despite conditions, the pupil slept for nearly two hours longer than normal – result!
So, ingenuity, community and pleasure; three words that pretty much sum-up life as a Kilgraston pupil.
Almost uniquely for a Junior School, from aged five, the girls and boys Kilgraston benefit from specialist tuition, with teachers from the Senior School fully integrated in primary learning.
Pupils can be found scouring the extensive campus grounds, studying environment biodiversity or building solar-powered model cars at the School’s Science Centre.
Learning from a native speaker, they commentate on sports matches in French and Spanish before diving into the swimming pool to better understand underwater search and rescue from a qualified instructor.
As every child knows, making funny noises is a vital part of growing-up, a fact embraced by the Director of Music who encourages access to an orchestra of available instruments in both the theatre and professional-standard sound studio.
Individual experimentation might allow your child’s inner Benedict Cumberbatch to be tapped during one of the many School productions or weekly drama lessons. After all, who doesn’t love dressing-up?
Kilgraston is like a family, where individual influences are listened to within the team, but where specialist knowledge and experience truly enhances the rounded, holistic, approach of their education.
Indeed, this philosophy can be neatly encapsulated by the Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of the word holistic: “Dealing with or treating the whole of something or someone and not just the part.”
Kilgraston understands that young minds need constant feeding and engagement; done well, teaching can be an exhausting process. That’s why Kilgraston shares the responsibility among experts.
The centuries-old mantra, “it takes a village to raise a child,” is even more applicable these days, preparing the next generation for life’s future demands.
Every day really is a school day; young minds and bodies need to be engaged, stretched and satisfied.
Kilgraston understands this, and they know you do too.
For more information, visit Kilgraston School’s website.
