1990: Sympathetic Article on Kilquhanity: Author Unknown
Kilquhanity School
. . . The school has always been a smoothly integrated whole, applying principles which are still being struggled with outside, despite years of Green Papers, White Papers, research papers, and government reports, all pressing for education to be seen as continuing from birth to the grave. The Education System should stand in awe of this, but instead it sleepily closes its eyes.
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In many other respects, Kilquhanity continues to lead the field. The child-centred approach that in many schools receives only lip-service, and in few reaches its highest levels in integrated days and topic- and resource-based learning, with some problem-solving thrown in for good measure, is enacted here as an underlying principle of life that will not be bent to the needs of the service.
The everyday basis of their activities is goal-oriented problem-solving, task centred and driven predominantly by the children’s enthusiasm for achieving the ends. In this way, of course, there is all the relevance that an HMI would require, inspiring a will to learn all the essential basics, at an appropriate time for each child.
The children are involved in the management of their own environment, in their accommodation, in the farm, in their own hut-building, and in choosing the best way to run the whole school. The decisions had recently been made about how best to heat some of the pupil’s rooms – after an investigation involving pupils in sending for all information and then studying costings of the systems and materials and fitting required to use coal-fired, oil-fired, and storage heating, eventually calculating that the local multi-fuel stove was most efficient, reliable and economic.
This was of course the ultimate in effective learning processes, rewarded by the arrival of the system, its successful fitting , and finally, the greatest benefit of all, warm rooms in the long winter hours. The clearest sign of sound practical applications of learning came to me whilst watching a seven-year-old perched precariously on some planks half-way up a tree. She was hammering home 4-inch nail into the structure of a new hut that she was building with her fellows, clearly excellently coordinated and confident, and extremely fluent about wanting to get on with the job during the remaining daylight hours without being interrupted for my photograph of the situation.
Every aspect of the school’s activities and priorities is under the scrutiny and awareness of the pupils and staff on an equal basis. This weekly Council Meeting is the foundation stone of the whole school. It is here that the principles of fairness and equality are learned, that responsibility for one’s own behaviour and that of one’s neighbours is balanced, and where there is great learning about the interplay of individual and group wants and needs. There is an opportunity to see the benefits of a larger view than one’s own, and of the real value of consideration for others.
It beats, hands down, the state schools limited time for attention to the socialisation of pupils. We can spare so little time for this because the curriculum does not have such a philosophy at root. The time-scale under which we work often has no relation to the needs of the individual children, or even of the children as a whole. We are not seen enough as a part of their environment, nor they as part of ours. We are belaboured by the practicalities of modern life, determined to continue regardless, and even more determined to make sure the children learn to live in the same way, without questioning if this is what our education should be aiming for.
At Kilquhanity, there are no concessions to the errors of the present. (There are few places in Britain today where a child would naturally ask ‘do you have a television? Before ‘did you watch . . . .? during a discussion about a favourite story just serialised on BBC.) All senses are clearly focussed on the ethics and principles behind their actions, leaving little room for woolly thinking or moral ineptitudes. Here, the message is constantly being underlined for the staff – be clear about what you are doing, and why, because if you are not you will be questioned deeply by all around you.
It is clear that the child’s view is paramount here, and that the staff have their work cut out to maintain a reasonable position when faced with some of the demands of the growing pupils, especially the adolescents. Critical moments arise particularly in relation to the Loco Parentis aspect of their role.
In all of these spheres, I have come up against the constant reminder that my fellow staff are not aware of this place. We could be developing our professional skills far more effectively than we do, by watching and discussing those guiding lights, then actively working together to try out the ideals in our practical world. In this way some of the Kilquhanity spirit may reach us.
