insideKENT Magazine Issue 36 - March 2015 | Page 131
EDUCATION
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
A Round Square weekend
One weekend in January, teenagers from six countries around Europe converged on all-girls independent
day and boarding school, Cobham Hall, in Kent, for an environmentally themed Round Square conference.
Conference delegates, aged between 13 and 14 years, spent the weekend listening to keynote speakers,
held student led discussion forums, and participated in environmentally focussed projects including
constructing a greenhouse in the school grounds from used two-litre plastic fizzy drink bottles.
In their own right, these activities were
commendable and valuable to young minds, but
the weekend went far beyond this; these simple
undertakings formed a structure, which allowed
something much more profound to occur. For it
is while they are nailing together the greenhouse,
building solar-powered windmills, discussing
ways in which they might reduce their energy
consumption and wrapping up the day with a
disco, that bonds formed between these young
people who were, moments ago, strangers. Over
the relatively short space of a weekend, an
element of transcendence enveloped the group
and, as they dealt with issues of universal
importance, the superficiality that can plague the
early teens melted away.
“It’s more about what you’re doing; it’s
more about the environment than about you, so
you forget all of the things you don’t like about
yourself,” said Cobham Hall Year 9 student,
Isabelle. Another, Zara, commented: "I realised
that it’s nice to be yourself sometimes; I think in
the disco everyone was just themselves, and it
was really nice.”
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It is these realisations, which make Round Square
schools, like Cobham Hall, so great. The Round
Square network is worldwide (operating over six
continents), and each year several gatherings
like this are held in the different geographical
regions challenging young people to look beyond
themselves to discover the truth behind the
motto: “there is more in you than you think”.
www.cobhamhall.com