It is with great pleasure that we invite the Grandparents of our Year 7 and 8 students to visit the College each year and learn a little about their grandchildren’s teaching and learning programmes - that are so very different from when they attended school!

Our visitors play a very special part in the lives of our students, offering not only love, support and moral guidance but, in many cases, also offering the financial resource to ensure their grandchildren have the very best education available to them.

Almost 300 extended family members joined Head of Middle School, Mr McQueen and staff for morning tea this morning in the Sports Centre Lounge. Each year Mr McQueen asks which grandparent has travelled the furthest.  A bit of a discussion ensued but it was agreed to call a tie between Wales and Ireland!

Head of College, Mr Cole welcomed our special guests and gave them insight into the values and expectations for excellence in all endeavours that we place on a Saint Kentigern education. He explained about our ‘parallel education’ model, where boys and girls are taught separately in our Middle School before coming together in a coeducational setting in the Senior School. He also spoke about the importance of developing the whole child and the part that the co-curricular life of the College plays alongside academic endeavour.  He said that in ‘his’ generation, university graduates could be assured of a job. That is no longer the case and he sees great benefit for those students who take up the extra opportunities offered by our co-curricular programmes in service, the arts and sports. There is a lot more about life, compassion, self-confidence, skill development, presentation and team work to be learned from these endeavours.

Our Year 7 and 8’s waited excitedly to escort their visitors back to their classrooms. Each class had devised their own programme for the morning but the use of technology, in particular smart boards, notebooks and video were prominent. There was also a questionnaire for the Grandparents about school life when they were growing up. Whilst the use of technology was an obvious difference, there was one common answer that was totally foreign to this generation of students….their grandparents walked to school!

After a tour of the campus the morning concluded with them being welcomed to a Middle School assembly and an invitation to join their grandchildren for lunch if they so wished.

Thank you to all grandparents who came from near and far for your support to your grandchildren, families and the College.  

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