When the Grade R class first joins Kairos, I start the year with a theme that enables the children to get to know themselves and each other. This year I called the five-week theme You & Me. We explored the human body, different family structures as well as the child’s hopes and dreams. Towards the …
Author Archives: MarcLoon
Kairos Movie Night
To end our term in June, we hosted our annual Kairos Movie Night (the first time we’ve been able to do so since the onset of Covid!) where the juniors watched Ice Age and the seniors watched Despicable Me (titles chosen after a large amount of debate, negotiation and finally a voting process!). This was …
Headmonsterly Hmmm: A Trip to Glasgow
While visiting friends in Glasgow, Scotland, during these past school holidays, I was invited to present Kairos’s model of education to students studying a module on alternative school systems, as part of their Masters in Education Studies at the University of Strathclyde. I enjoyed a rich and engaging discussion over a couple of hours with …
Term 2: Market Day
We have had wonderful and eventful Market Days last term where the pupils from all classes have taken opportunities to offer a homemade item or a service for sale. Every second week, each class takes a turn at centre stage, although everyone is invited to participate if they wish. In the last term, these ranged …
A school for children
Headmonsterly Hmmm 25 August 2021 “What if we prepared schools for children, instead of preparing children for schools? What would that look like?” I resonated with this question popping up on my social media feed the other day — many others did too. Who wouldn’t, right? Yes, why don’t we redesign our schools around the …
Nonviolent Communication at Kairos
Dear friends of Kairos With our move to our new premises in Parkview, we are now able to become more active in our mission to spread the ideals and educational methods of our school to those outside it. One significant example of this is the ideas of Marshall Rosenberg and his conceptualisation of communicating in …
Being Intentional about the Hidden Curriculum
When schooling is a happy and meaningful journey, children go out and have a positive impact in the world. For me this captures much of the essence of Kairos. Education needs to serve society, and this will be achieved if graduates of schools have developed a healthy social conscience, and moreover have acquired the …
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Farewell to our Grade Sevens
Dear Kairosians Last week we enjoyed an exquisite evening of bidding farewell to our wonderful Grade 7s, each of them such sterling representatives of our Kairos School of Inquiry — and yet uniquely so. This occasion was a particularly momentous event for our school, for it included the farewell of the first child who has …
The Value of Secular Ritual
Dear Kairosians Our fantastic team of parents, led by the extraordinary Adi Friedburg, have just pulled off another incredible success of a Halloween-Diwali celebration at Kairos. Thank you very sincerely to Adi and your team. We are so grateful to enjoy such a supportive parent body. It seems a good time to contemplate the significance …
Contemplating the Purpose of School
Dear Kairosians Recently a friend of mine shared on Facebook his belief that schooling of children should be “stopped, possibly even outlawed”. This is a very successful business person, holding a senior position in an international corporate. So I take his opinion seriously, because of his global vantage point, even though I believe he is …