2020 saw the inaugural Connect to Create initiative. Constrained by COVID travel restrictions and unable to compete in interschool  programmes, the decision was taken to look within our school for new opportunities for our students that would provide an additional layer of challenge and stimulation for young, eager minds. The programme was launched with a view to further strengthening our cross campus connections and provide opportunities for both young and old students to collaborate around common areas of interest.  

As part of the IB Diploma CAS Project (Creativity, Action Service), Year 11 boys plan, organise and deliver a series of workshops to like-minded Junior School boys with a view to presenting a showcase of their work at the end of the course.The Senior boys quickly see that pitching their level of instruction, pacing the lesson and also managing behaviour and output, are huge learning opportunities that give them new understandings and demand that they reflect, evaluate and adapt.  Their flexibility and increasing levels of patience is evident and the younger students always respond with enthusiasm and relish at the prospect of learning from such wonderful role models.

Our Junior School students have benefitted from workshops in Debating, Drones, 3D printing, Philosophy, Music and Creative Writing, among many other topics. The most profound reflection has been that both sets of students learn form one another, grow new respect for each other and better understand the whole journey of a Scotch boy. We are already looking forward to running this programme again in 2023 and beyond.