By Jon Drury | Head of Russian Sevenoaks School
Sevenoaks School Exchange with Kitezh 2013
Jon Drury, Sixth Form Divisional Head and Head of Russian at Sevenoaks School took some of his students to visit Kitezh in Russia for the first time in 2012. They received so much from that first experience that he decided to take another group there in 2013.
He writes: "We returned to Kitezh in April for a second time, after a successful visit in 2012. It is an inspiring place. Our eleven L6 pupils lived in families for four days, and integrated fully into the quite unique life of the community. Through a number of seminars, our pupils were able to gain a deep understanding of the ideology that underpins the work of Kitezh, and their vision of how best to develop and support the children there. We saw first-hand many aspects of this, especially their hierarchy of social roles, and the use of their own local currency to reward hard work and planning.
There was, of course, plenty of time for fun and laughter, and a physically demanding but hugely rewarding volunteer project, when we helped dismantle the wooden frame of their ‘summer canteen’, which had collapsed under the weight of the winter’s snow. There was a big concert, morning exercises, folk dancing and games, English lessons and plenty of socialising with our hosts.
The Kitezhans are some of the friendliest Russians I have met, and we are looking forward to furthering our relationship in the coming years. Our students were part of the Sevenoaks Sixth Form Russian group who successfully raised £4,000 through a sponsored Santa Run in December 2012, some of the proceeds of which were used to fund a visit of four Kitezh orphans to Sevenoaks in June this year. And we are already discussing our third trip to Kitezh in 2014...
Kitezh to Sevenoaks June 2013
From 2 June to 10 June Sevenoaks hosted four orphans and a foster parent from the village of Kitezh. We were looking forward to reciprocating their warm hospitality in England!
Part of the ethos of Kitezh is allowing such children to develop and gain confidence through overcoming challenges. There was plenty of scope for this during their stay with us as they learned how to rock climb in the Sennocke Centre, completed a three hour treetop adventure at ‘Go Ape!’ at Leeds Castle, and overcame their fears of various rides at ‘Thorpe Park’ as they joined a Y10 Physics trip! They also spent time in school, shadowing pupils and helping in Russian classes. Other days were spent in Cambridge, London and Brighton. It was a magical week, that these four young people will never ever forget, and it is certainly something that we will be looking to repeat in the future."
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