The Grange School, Santiago

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Grange School is a private co-ed school in La Reina, Santiago, Chile with an enrollment of over 1,700 and over 100 full time teachers. It is known for a strong sports program in addition to high academic standards. It was founded June 4, 1928, by John A.S. Jackson —a Chilean born in Valparaíso and educated at Cambridge University. Part of his founding philosophy was to apply the concepts of "fair play" and the notion of the "all-rounder" he observed at Cambridge.

[edit] Characteristics

Enrollment is nearly equally divided between of boys and girls. Parents are required to purchase shares in the school on the stock market and hold a minimum of 2 shares for the first student in a family and one additional share for each added family member enrolled. During the first years class size is limited to 22. In the Upper Prep and Senior School years students are divided into various sets depending on their abilities and electives chosen.

The Grange divides its students into four "houses", assigned distinguishing colors: Light Grey, Dark Grey, Light Blue and Dark Blue. A student is assigned a color on enrolling and continues with that color until graduation. Assignments of colors is random except that members of the same family are all assigned to the same color.

The Grange is a secular school, however, as is consistent with the character of Chile, the majority are Catholics with a small percentage of them being Jewish and Protestant.

The school has extensive green areas, including an artificial field hockey court. Classes are taught in various, separated buildings.

[edit] Sports

Sports form an integral part of The Grange program and are given a high priority. Boys and girls are separated in sports and do not normally compete with each other. Girls have volleyball and field hockey while boys practice rugby and football (soccer). The only sports they have in common aretrack and fieldcompetitions at the end of year. During weekends there are friendly matches between schools that can take part in different educational establishments to encourage friendship and competition between schools.