Craigclowan Preparatory School

The children constantly make the most of the other opportunities available to them; camps, a chance to sail the 80 foot yacht Ocean Spirit, participation at the Gordonstoun Challenge, horse riding, maths challenges, ballet, watching chicks hatch in classrooms, growing vegetables, sports days, recycling projects, visits to a plethora of places of interest, drama, computing, project work, learning to speak in public … the list goes on all the way, of course, to skiing. What lucky young people they are and how fortunate, too, to have parents who send them to Craigclowan.

In today’s society it is good to see that the children here are not just takers – they are prepared to give, as well. They give of their time and their spirit, they have good manners, they share and they smile. These are all qualities that I hope they will carry with them when they eventually move on to senior school and beyond. The children and families of 2A showed these in abundance this term as they raised over £2300 from a sponsored walk for Diabetes UK, thereby helping one of the members of their year group and children like her and 2B raised £1530 from a sponsored sumathon to help charities in India.

I announced at Prize Giving yesterday that over the holidays the teaching blocks and Main House will all be networked using a cabled system and each classroom will have a computer linked to the network. This will have many advantages for the pupils in terms of teaching and learning and paves the way for the installation of more smartboards. It will also allow the school to run more smoothly in terms of its administration, as well as increasing communication within the school and with outside parties. All of the above does, of course, come at a price and the governors, bursar and I, while being keen to implement these changes, have been aware of the cost implications. It was agreed at the recent meeting of the board that the increase in fees for the year 2007/08 would be just under 3.8% (the national average for the previous year was 5.7%), taking the termly rate to £2750. I hope you will agree that this represents very good value.

F.V at Bannockburn

Late prep has become something of a concern for me as many of the children attending seem not to complete their prep there and so it becomes a battle to get it done at home. Starting in the Autumn Term the first part of the sessions will be devoted to the children from all parts of the school finishing work that has been set before moving on to other activities. This will mean extra staffing and as a consequence the charge for this well used facility will rise to £4 per hour or part thereof.

In the last newsletter you were informed that work will start shortly to improve road safety outside the school. The Roads Department visited early in May to show us the plans and Mrs Robinson and I felt that they fell short on a number of key issues. On inspecting the junction more carefully from the school’s perspective, the engineer agreed that more could be done and has gone away to redraw the plans. The work has, inevitably, been delayed but we thought it best to push for the best and safest possible solution. Keep watching this space.

Many of you kindly make donations to the school at various stages of your children’s careers here and these are always gratefully received. If I may, I would like to plant a couple of thoughts in your mind if you are planning a gift. First, we are hoping to situate as many benches around the grounds as possible to give children and adults places to sit in order that they can talk, read, reflect, watch others or simply take in the lovely views. Second, The Mark Taylor Trust, of which Mike wrote in last term’s newsletter, is still building funds: donations, possibly legacies, will be very warmly received to help the less fortunate benefit from a Craigclowan education.

Next term we will be losing Ruth Grahame who goes on maternity leave and will be replaced in Form III by Lynne Jenkins. Louisa Wood has been in school for the last two and a half weeks of term and she will be joining the 2B team to replace Ann Mazur who is retiring after 23 years loyal service to the school. She has been a lynchpin of the junior part of the school and has inspired generations of pupils throughout the year groups with her caring, imaginative teaching. She will be missed by us all in equal measures and we hope to see her regularly in future years, especially as she has kindly agreed to maintain her link with the school as our Lay Chaplain. We also look forward to the return of Iain Simpson at the end of August and I know that during his absence, what he has missed most has been the company of the children here.