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Gordonstoun School
MottoPlus est en Vous
Established1934
TypeIndependent school
HeadmasterMr. Mark Pyper
FounderKurt Hahn
Students~450
LocationDuffus, Near Elgin, Scotland
Colourspurple, white
WebsiteGordonstoun.org.uk
Enlarge picture
Gordonstoun House


Gordonstoun (originally in full, the British Salem School in Gordonstoun) is a Scottish co-educational independent school. It is sometimes referred to as a public school, although strictly speaking, this is an English term. However, it is highly regarded and can lay claim to being among the finest schools in the independent sector in the UK today. In fact it probably ranks alongside Eton and Harrow as to its fame overseas, having educated three generations of British royalty.

History

Located in a 17th century house with over 150 acres near Elgin, Moray, in Scotland - near to RAF Lossiemouth - it was founded as an international school in 1934 by the German educator Dr. Kurt Hahn. It was named after the first school established by Hahn, Schule Schloss Salem (School of the Castle of Salem) in Southern Germany. Although a fierce German patriot, Dr. Hahn had to leave Germany after the Nazis gained power, mainly on account of his Jewish background and critical stance towards national socialism. Kurt Hahn himself was educated at Oxford University. Hahn turned down the prestigious headmastership of Eton college to establish Gordonstoun. Hahn had a new vision of education which envisioned a school based on Plato's 'Republic'. In time, it became one of the most distinguished and progressive schools in the western world.

Ethos

Hahn blended a traditional private school ethos with a philosophy derived, at least in part, from that of ancient Greece. This is most notable in the title "Guardian", denoting the head boy and girl, which Hahn took from Plato's Republic; the adoption of a Greek trireme as the school's emblem; and, most notably, a routine that could be described as spartan. He placed a high emphasis on militaristic discipline and physical education, particularly outdoor activities such as sailing and hill walking. 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).

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 most of their pupils achieving university places, with many going on to Oxford and Cambridge as well as American Ivy League universities such as Yale and Brown.

During World War II, the school temporarily moved to Llandinam in Wales.

It is best-known as the school attended during the 1960s by Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, on the recommendation of his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who had himself been one of the first students to attend Gordonstoun having previously been educated at Salem in Germany. Princes Andrew and Edward eventually followed in their father's and elder brother's footsteps. Of the four princes, three (Philip, Charles and Edward) were appointed Guardian (head boy) during their time at the school. Princess Anne, the Queen's only other remaining child, was not educated at Gordonstoun, which at that time was boys only. However, she did send her own two children there and also served for some time on the school's board of governors. She still maintains her links with the school, serving currently as a Warden of the school.

The school has changed since Prince Charles's time there. It had been a means tested school with boys from varied backgrounds, the rich paying far more than the poorer families. It had not been a popular school and was not really on the list of schools to which the wealthy wanted to send their boys. However after Charles's sojourn there it became very fashionable and has maintained that status to the current day. It later became, and remains, a very popular co-educational school. Ranked alongside Phillips Academy (USA), Le Rosey (Switzerland), Eton College (England) as one of the finest schools in the World. The membership of Gordonstoun's former pupil association reads like a copy of who's who.

Because of its strong international reputation, the school has no problem attracting sons and daughters of wealthy foreign businessmen, many of whom arrive in private jets at nearby RAF Lossiemouth to drop off their children at the start of term.

William Boyd has written in detail about his time there in Protobiography, although he never mentions the school by name.

The School has a volunteer fire unit attached to the Grampian Fire and Rescue Service.

Boarding Houses

There are nine boarding houses at Gordonstoun School:[1]
Female:
:*Hopeman House
:*Plewlands House
:*Windmill House


Male
:*Bruce House
:*Cumming House
:*Duffus House
:*Gordonstoun House
:*Round Square


Co-ed
:*Altyre House

Aberlour House

Main article: Aberlour House


Aberlour House, the preparatory school for Gordonstoun, was relocated to Gordonstoun's grounds from Aberlour in 2004. It is made up of dormitories, classrooms and communal areas in one building. Other lessons, like art and design technology for example, are done in the main Gordonstoun classroom area. Construction of the building was compleated in 2004 and in 2006, large extensions were added to the existing building, incorperating additional classrooms and dormitaries. At the moment around 100 children from 8-13 attend but this is expected to rise with the coming extension. [2]

Alumni

Alumni of Gordonstoun are called "Old Gordonstounians" or "OGs": "Chaplin's granddaughter acts up", BBC News, 2003-07-23. Retrieved on 2007-07-02. 
4. ^ IMDB biography of Jason Connery. imdb.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
5. ^ "Lara's school days on big screen", BBC News, 2001-07-02. Retrieved on 2007-07-02. 
Coat of arms elements
A motto (from Italian) is a phrase or a short list of words meant formally to describe the general motivation or intention of an entity, social group, or organization.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
1931 1932 1933 - 1934 - 1935 1936 1937

Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV
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Educational institutions are often categorised along several dimensions. The most important is perhaps the age or level of the students in the institution, but funding source, affiliation, and gender, racial, or ethnic exclusivity are also commonly used.
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An independent school is a school which is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operation and is instead operated by tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the investment yield of an endowment.
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Kurt Martin Hahn (5 June, 1886 - 14 December, 1974) was a German educator responsible for the creation of Outward Bound.

Biography

Born in Berlin of Jewish parents, Hahn studied in Oxford, Berlin, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Göttingen.
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Duffus is a village in Moray, Scotland, centred on a Mercat Cross. The Duffus Village Inn, along with the local shop, Post Office and Duffus Village Hall provide a focal point for the community. Nearby are the impressive remains of Duffus Castle.
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Elgin
Gaelic - Eilginn


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Motto
Nemo me impune lacessit   (Latin)
"No one provokes me with impunity"
"Cha togar m'fhearg gun dioladh"   
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School colors are the colors chosen by a school to represent it on uniforms and other items of identification. Most schools have two colors, which are usually chosen to avoid conflicts with other schools with which the school competes in sports and other activities.
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A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN.
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Motto
Nemo me impune lacessit   (Latin)
"No one provokes me with impunity"
"Cha togar m'fhearg gun dioladh"   
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Coeducation is the integrated education of males and females at the same school facilities. The opposite situation is described as single-sex education. Most older institutions of higher education restricted their enrollment to a single sex at some point in their history, and since
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An independent school is a school which is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operation and is instead operated by tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the investment yield of an endowment.
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An independent school in the United Kingdom is a school relying, for all of its funding, upon private sources, so almost invariably charging school fees. In England and Wales the term public school
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King's College of Our Lady of Eton

Motto Floreat Etona
(May Eton Flourish)
Established 1440

Type Public School
Religious affiliation Anglican

Head Master Anthony Little

Provost
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Harrow School

Motto Stet Fortuna Domus (Latin: "Let the fortune of the house stand")
Donorum Dei Dispensatio Fidelis (Latin: "The faithful guardians of the gifts of God")
Established 1572

Type Public School


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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th Century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar.

The 17th Century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement and the beginning of
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Elgin
Gaelic - Eilginn


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Moray (pronounced Murray, Scottish Gaelic Moireibh or Moireabh) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.
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Motto
Nemo me impune lacessit   (Latin)
"No one provokes me with impunity"
"Cha togar m'fhearg gun dioladh"   
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RAF Lossiemouth (IATA: LMO, ICAO: EGQS) is a Royal Air Force station to the west of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is one of the RAF's biggest bases and currently Britain's main base for Tornado GR4s.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
1931 1932 1933 - 1934 - 1935 1936 1937

Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV
..... Click the link for more information.
Kurt Martin Hahn (5 June, 1886 - 14 December, 1974) was a German educator responsible for the creation of Outward Bound.

Biography

Born in Berlin of Jewish parents, Hahn studied in Oxford, Berlin, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Göttingen.
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Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: School of Salem Castle, Salem Castle School) is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany.
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Historical Jewish languages
Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others
Liturgical languages:
Hebrew and Aramaic
Predominant spoken languages:
The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and
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The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. 750 BC[1] (the archaic period) to 146 BC (the Roman conquest). It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western Civilization.
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PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on.
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Trireme (Greek Τριήρεις pl. (Τριήρης sing.)) refers to a class of warships used by the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.
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Sailing is the art of controlling a sailing vessel. By adjusting the rigging, rudder and dagger or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails (main and/or jib) in order to change the direction and speed of a boat.
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In Britain, the term hillwalking or fellwalking is normally used to describe the recreational practice of walking or climbing in hilly or mountainous terrain, generally with the intention of visiting the tops of hills and mountains.
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