Gordonstoun - Ethos

Ethos

In the beginning 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 seen 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. There is a high emphasis on military discipline and physical education, particularly outdoor activities such as seamanship and mountaineering. The school has had a 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). Physical education and challenging outdoor activities are still practised, but cold showers and punishment runs are now, reportedly, a thing of the past.

The school defines its ethos 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 pupil exchanges to the different schools within the association. Additionally there is a chance to join one of the annual international service projects which take pupils abroad to help a foreign community, for instance there has been projects to build schools in Africa, build wells in Thailand and help orphans in Romania.

• Challenge

Hahn believed that an important part of education was to challenge a person and take them out of their areas of familiarity and comfort, improving a person’s ability to deal with difficult situations. The school requires that every pupil takes part in a series of outdoor programmes particularly expeditions in the Cairngorms and sailing training on the school's 80-foot vessel, Ocean Spirit.

• Responsibility

Forming part of the school’s general education, responsibility is instilled into the pupils through giving opportunities of leadership roles and allowing more freedoms as the pupils progress through the years.

• Service

Hahn believed 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.” The idea of service at the school is thought to encourage students to gain a feeling of responsibility to aid other people and is implemented in creating an array of services that every student becomes apart of (see below).

Gordonstoun offers a series of grants, drawing on its investments and other funds from which the school can draw upon in order to support pupils who are unable to pay the full fees. In the academic year 2009/10 the school is providing financial support for 163 pupils including 11 with 100% fee coverage and 95 with 50% fee reduction. In order to make this easier the school is now a registered charity: Scottish charity number SC037867.