Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland.
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Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland.
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Gordonstoun has an enrolment of around 500 full boarders as well as about 100 day pupils between the ages of 6 and 18.
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Two generations of British royalty were educated at Gordonstoun, including Prince Philip and his son King Charles III.
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British Salem School of Gordonstoun was established in 1934 by Kurt Hahn, a German Jewish educationalist who, after being arbitrarily arrested after the Reichstag fire, fled Nazi Germany.
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Gordonstoun was released and exiled to Britain in the same year through the influence of the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, who was familiar with Hahn's work.
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Gordonstoun was started in a small way and had financial difficulties in its early years.
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Hahn expected Gordonstoun to operate for only a few years, as an example of his vision.
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In June 1940 the school was evacuated and the Gordonstoun estate was taken over by the army for use as barracks.
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Gordonstoun's curriculum emphasises an experiential approach, and built upon the work of educationalists, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Johann Friedrich Herbart and John Dewey.
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Gordonstoun offers a series of grants, drawing on its investments and other funds, to support pupils who are unable to pay the full fees.
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Gordonstoun designed the programme for GCSE students, and it combines revision in English, mathematics and science with periods of gentle exercise and restricted access to electronic devices.
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Entrance to Gordonstoun requires the pupil to pass the Common Entrance Examination.
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The other three are Scottish Cup, North of Scotland Cup and the Scottish Independent Schools Cup where Gordonstoun plays with a mixture of independent and state schools.
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Gordonstoun has a notable fictional alumna: the heroine of Tomb Raider, Lady Lara Croft, was supposed to have attended the school in sixth year; she has been used to advertise it.
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In 2017, Gordonstoun was named as one of the schools being investigated in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry chaired by Lady Smith.
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In 2021 Gordonstoun said at the inquiry that there had been 11 cases of pupil abuse and 82 claims of bullying between students, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Gordonstoun temporarily relocated to Aberdyfi, Wales during World War II, while the British Army used the Gordonstoun estate as barracks.
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