Dear Parents,

The students who were with us for Summer At Doon said their (tearful) goodbyes to each other on June 17th, 2017 and their parents are hearing more about the experiences they have had over the last 15 days. Whilst we updated the school's Facebook page each day with the pictures of the activities, we still couldn't capture everything that they were thinking, feeling and, most importantly, learning about themselves.

Having 54 new students from around the country, and almost half of them girls, was a great opportunity for us as a team of educators to think about the very essence of what we do and how we do it to cause the learning. This was the first time in four years that we took responsibility for delivering the 20 modules focused on Youth Leadership and Global Citizenship. In the past we had outsourced much of the curriculum content but after three year of seeing someone else doing it we knew we were more than ready to do the job.

Having been involved all the way along in the planning, development and rehearsal of this year's Summer At Doon programme, I can say with confidence that what we gave the students was very special. Not only did they get some very well planned workshops from pairs of our teachers and practical experience of service, farming, trekking, rafting, sports, theatre and film-making, but also they got the perception changing experience of living and working with teachers who care deeply about the social, moral and emotional development of the teenagers in their care.