We have had an annual tradition in Kairos since our first Winter Kaleidoscope to create a collaborative art piece for the occasion, involving the entire school. This year we invited our pupils to play with our school logo in any way they chose. Lacking the self-conscious inhibitions of adults, their boundless creativity sparked ideas of a myriad redesigns of our logo that (we believe) are exquisitely beautiful. From a jellyfish to a planet to a flower, from a journey up a mountain to an elephant to a sunset over the sea, our logo became revitalised into a new unique creation in every pupil’s imagination.

In the vibrant tapestry of childhood imagination, even the simplest of visuals can be transformed into a playground of ideas. Such is the case with our school logo — a seemingly straightforward image that, when seen through the eyes of our children, becomes a canvas for many interpretations in this kaleidoscopic journey. 

The idea of our logo originated when I discovered a beautifully circular stone on a beach in the December holidays of 2010, just before opening the school that momentous January of 2011. The circle has evolved in our thinking over these ensuing years, now in a burnt orange colour, which reminds us of much of the soil of South Africa. A black line approximates the outline of the circle. There is a sense of movement in the image, a process in play.

We wish the image to be evocative. We hope it invites multiple interpretations depending on who you are. And we hope our market of parents and children out there share our fondness for this sort of openness of interpretation. Indeed there is not “one right answer” as to the meaning of our logo, just as there should not be “one right answer” to the questions teachers pose to their pupils in classes around the world.

In this light, we invited our pupils to re-interpret our school logo in any way they chose.

Our Kairos orange, a colour often associated with energy and enthusiasm, served as a catalyst  of creativity for our young pupils. Lacking the self-conscious inhibitions of adults, their boundless creativity sparked ideas of a myriad redesigns of our logo that (we believe) are exquisitely beautiful. From a jellyfish to a planet, from a journey up a mountain to an elephant, our logo became revitalised into a new unique creation in every pupil’s imagination.

We hope you agree our whole school artwork this year was one of our most successful yet. We feel it conveys our lived ideal of harmony. These varied reinterpretations of our logo serve as a visual representation of the kaleidoscope of souls which is our blessedly diverse school community. Just as a kaleidoscope pieces together fragments to create a mesmerising whole, our students' unique viewpoints meld to form a tapestry of unity.

~ Headmonster Marc