User:RudolfSchmidt/sandbox/Gordonstoun
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| Gordonstoun School | |
| Motto | Plus est en Vous |
| Established | 1934 |
| Type | Independent Boarding School |
| Religious affiliation | Inter-denominational |
| Principal | Mr Mark C S-R Pyper |
| Acting Chaplain | Mr B C Goss |
| Chairman of Governors | Professor Bryan P Williams |
| Founder | Kurt Hahn |
| Location | Gordonstoun Road Elgin Moray IV30 5RF Scotland  |
| LEA | Scottish Council for Independent Schools |
| Staff | ~120 |
| Students | ~600 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 8 to 18 |
| Houses | 9 Boarding Houses |
| School colours | |
| Publication | The Gordonstoun Record |
| Website | g-stoun.org.uk |
| Coordinates: | |
Gordonstoun School is a Scottish co-educational independant boarding school. Named after a 150 acre estate originally owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 1600s, the school now uses this estate to form its campus. It is located near Duffus to the north-west of Elgin, Morayshire.[1]
Founded in 1934 by Kurt Hahn, Gordonstoun has an enrolment of around 500 full boarders as well as about 100 day students between the ages of 8 and 18. With the number of teaching staff exceeding 100 there is an extremely low pupil to teacher ratio. Annual full boarding fees range between £15 000 and £25 000 but many are able to attend through the different scholarships available.[2] There are nine boarding houses, including three 17th century buildings that were part of the original estate, the other houses having been built or modified since the school was established.
The school forms part of The Round Square Conference of Schools, a group of over 60 schools named after one of the 17th century buildings on the Gordonstoun school campus.[3]
Gordonstoun has many notable alumni and is famed for having educated three generations of British royalty including The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles. The school is internationally renowned with nearly 30% of students coming from abroad and is ranked alongside Eton and Harrow.[4]
Contents |
[edit] History
Gordonstoun was established in 1934 by Dr.Kurt Hahn after being asked by friends to give a demonstration in the UK of his "Salem system". He was born in Berlin in 1886 and studied at The University of Oxford. After reading Plato's The Republic as a young man, he conceived the idea of a modern school and with the help of Prince Max of Baden he set up the school Schule Schloss Salem in 1920. After seeing what had happened in The First World War, both men decided that education was key in influencing the future and so Salem was built in order to make leaders of the community out of its students and by the 1930's it had already become a very renowned school throughout the whole of Europe. In 1932 Hahn spoke out against the Nazis and was arrested in March of 1933. He was released and was exiled to Britain in the same year through the influence of the Prime Minister, Ramsey MacDonald, who was familiar with Hahn's work. It was then that he decided to start a new school in Morayshire.[5]
Gordonstoun started in a very small way and with a lot of financial difficulties. The buildings were in need of much repair and at the start of the first academic year there were only two pupils. It had been decided that Gordonstoun would only last a few years and was only to serve as an example of what Hahn's vision entailed. But slowly more students arrived, transferred from Salem, including Prince Philip of Greece, now more commonly known as The Duke of Edinburgh. Eventually things picked up and by the start of The Second World War there were 135 boys attending.
The start of the war saw a lot of change for Gordonstoun. In June 1940 the whole school was evacuated and the Gordonstoun estate was taken over by the army for use as barracks. A new home was found in Montgomeryshire in central Wales when Lord Davies, a parent of two of the pupils, allowed the school to use one of his houses there. The proposal was accepted but the buildings were insufficient and finances and pupil numbers began to drop. The school managed though and survived the remaining years of the war and was actually able to grow in numbers overall as well as becoming a lot more well known throughout Wales and the Midlands.
By the end of the 1940's the school achieved its primary target of 250 pupils and continued growing in size. It managed to build more boarding houses on the estate, removing the need of a house in Altyre, Forres, many miles away from the main campus. Gordonstoun also continued in its growth in education. Schemes were set up to allow poorer children from the surrounding areas to attend, as well as deepening the outward bound activities, which were central to Hahn's system. Skills in mountaineering and seamanship were always taught at the school but the introduction of the Moray Badge, from which The Duke of Edinburgh's Award was borrowed, expanded this.
From the 1950's onwards, with the foundations of the school firmly set, more focus could be put into improving the facilities and expanding the curriculum. Major changes since then include: the founding of Round Square in 1966, an international community of schools sharing Hahn's educational ideals, the school officially becoming co-educational in 1972, and the moving of Aberlour House, Gordonstoun's preparatory school, from Speyside to a purpose built junior school on campus in 2004.[6]
[edit] Ethos
In the beginnign Hahn blended a traditional private school ethos, modelled on Eton and his experiences at Oxford, with a philosophy inspired by Plato’s The Republic and other aspects of ancient Greek history. This is most notable in the title "Guardian", denoting the head boy and girl, the adoption of a Greek trireme as the school's emblem, and a routine that could be described as Spartan. He placed a high emphasis on militaristic discipline and physical education, particularly outdoor activities such as seamanship and mountaineering. It is therefore appropriate that the school's motto should be "Plus est en vous" (More is in you). The school formerly had a (possibly undeserved) reputation for harsh conditions, with cold showers and morning runs as a matter of routine, and physical punishments, known as "penalty drill" or PD, in the form of supervised runs around one's house (dormitory) or the south lawn of Gordonstoun House (pictured above). Physical education and challenging outdoor activities are still taken in high regard at the school but full supervision and safety is paramount.
Nowadays the school's ethos is defined by 'Four Pillars’ of education with each pillar representing a part of the whole curriculum. These are:
- Internationalism
- Hahn’s views on education centred on the ability to understand different cultures. Gordonstoun incorporates this in a number of ways including its association with Round Square and in offering student exchanges to the different schools within the association. There are also service projects around the world set up by the school where students travel to areas which are in need of vital resources for example in Thailand where students built a well to provide water for the local inhabitants.
- Challenge
- Hahn believed that an important part of education was to challenge a person and take them out of their comfort zone, improving a person’s ability to deal with difficult situations. Although challenge can be found in all areas of education, the school requires that every student takes part in a series of outdoor programmes particularly expeditions in the Cairngorms and sail training on the schools 80 foot vessel, Ocean Spirit.
- Responsibility
- Forming part of the school’s general education, responsibility is instilled into the students through giving opportunities of leadership roles and allowing more freedoms as the students progress through the years.
- Service
- Hahn is quoted to have said that “The Platonic view of education is that a nation must do all it can to make the individual citizen discover his own power and further more that the individual becomes a cripple in his or her point of view if he is not qualified by education to serve the community.” Service to the community is achieved in a very broad way. The school has created a number of different services, each service dedicated to a certain cause. All students are put into one of the services and stays with that service until they leave. Caring for members of the local area and the environment is done by the Community Service. The other services provide rescue or emergency assistance. Coast Guards, Lifeguards, Canoe Lifeguards and the Special Boat Service assist the local authorities and community in and from the water. The Mountain Rescue Unit and the Nordic Ski Patrol services assist in search and rescue operations in the nearby Highlands. The Fire Service work closely with the Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and have two on campus fire-fighting appliances at their disposal.[7]
Gordonstoun also tries to help as many underprivileged students attend as possible. This is achieved through a series of grants, trusts and funds from which the school can draw upon in order to support students who are unable to pay the full fees. In the academic year 07/08 the school was providing financial support for 163 students including 16 with 100% fee coverage and 34 with 50% fee reduction.[8] In order to make this easier the school is now a registered charity- Scottish charity number SC037867.[9]
The school also has a reputation for not placing an over-emphasis on testing and league tables, the school view being that this tends to lead to an education with a lack of time and freedom for a true, imaginative and humane engagement with life. This philosophy has not hindered their pupils from achieving university places, with many going on to Oxford and Cambridge as well as American Ivy League universities such as Yale and Brown.
[edit] A Day In The Life
Breakfast begins at 07:30 and is served until just before 08:00 at which time students start to head over to St Christopher's Chapel for assembly at 08:15. After this 20 minute or so service classes begin and go on until 14:30 with a 15 minute morning break and a 40 minute lunch break in between. All main meals are served at the school refectory. From 14:30 to 17:00 students will partake in their chosen activity, which varies through the week. From 17:00 to 18:00 is a short study period known as first prep. Dinner starts at 18:00 and the students are free until 19:00 at which time they must be back at their houses for a meeting where a register is taken. Now the main prep period starts and finishes at 20:45. The student are given time to relax with the lowest year going to bed at 21:30, whilst the eldest students are allowed to visit other houses up to 22:00 and are required to go to bed at 23:00. The bed time of the students and the freedoms they get after prep increases as they progress through the school. Although it is known as bed time, students are only required to be in there rooms and remain quiet, they may be allowed a short amount of time after their designated bed time in which to read etc.
On Saturdays there are still classes but only until 12:35 after which students must attend their service activities. All years have a social event in the evening.
On Sundays breakfast is served later at 09:30 after which the main chapel service of the week takes place. For the most part the rest of Sunday is free for the students to relax although any inter-house competitions or special events normally take place on a Sunday.
[edit] Boarding Houses
There are nine boarding houses spread throughout the campus. During a students time at Gordonstoun they will always be apart of the same house and a lot of pride and loyalty can be associated with one's house. Some houses will go on house expeditions and there are many inter-house competitions that take place in the year. In order to properly accommodate the students all houses have TV and a common room in which students from all houses can relax in. Small kitchenettes are also available, normally with only limited appliances such as a kettle, microwave, fridge and toaster but some houses have kitchens vastly lagers than others depending on the number of students in the house. The house will also provide showers and cleaning facilities such as a washing machine and dryer although there is a biweekly school cleaning service but it is only intended for under garments and uniform. All houses have wireless internet access.
The houses are run by a small team of teachers. The House Master (HM) has overall responsibility and is helped by the Assistant House Master (AHM). Either or both of these will be present at the daily house meeting and will oversee prep to make sure students are studying. The HM will organise any special house events, decide who the house captain will be for the term as well as choosing a captain to take care of other house related goings on. The HM is also the person who most students would talk to if they had a problem although all teachers are available for help. Both the HM and the AHM normally have residences within the houses and so are very much part of the house. Each house has a Matron who helps the students through their daily routine as well as a tutor to help the students in their studies. The year a student is in, and the amount of rooms in the house decides which students are allowed a room of their own, although it is normally decided that younger years share whilst senior students get their own rooms. All students rotate rooms each term.
The houses are:
- Female:
-
- Hopeman House
- Plewlands House
- Windmill House
-
- Male
-
- Bruce House
- Cumming House
- Duffus House
- Gordonstoun House
- Round Square
-
- Co-ed
-
- Altyre House
-
[edit] Aberlour House
[edit] Sports
[edit] Music and Drama
[edit] Extracurricular Activities
[edit] Prefects
[edit] Encouragements and Punishments
[edit] School Magazine
[edit] Old Gordonstounians (OG's)
[edit] See Also
- Round Square
- Kurt Hahn
- Broneirion, Gordonstoun's home during the war
[edit] References
[edit] Books
A. ^ Brereton, H.L. (1950). Gordonstoun. The University Press Aberdeen, 28-32.
B. ^ Ibid, p34-35
C. ^ Ibid, p37,49,54
D. ^ Ibid, p11
[edit] Websites
- ^ http://www.houseofgordonva.com/Gordonstoun.html
- ^ http://www.isbi.com/isbi-viewschool/2833-Gordonstoun_School_and_Aberlour_House,_The_Junior_School-1.html
- ^ http://www.roundsquare.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=117
- ^ http://www.123exp-education.com/t/03754130455/
- ^ http://www.crrobs.org/about/history/index.shtml
- ^ http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/about/school-history/
- ^ http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/unique-ethos/four-pillars/
- ^ http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/admissions/scholarships/
- ^ http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/about/school-aims/
