Charles’s Colditz in kilts? These days it’s all yoga mats and mindfulness!

For decades, Gordonstoun forged a reputation for tough love. But now the ultimate school of hard knocks is taking a much softer approach...

IN the soothing half-light of a yoga studio, a voice suggests ever so gently: ‘For two minutes, I want you to try to relax.’ Pliant teenagers, eyes closed, bend like willow saplings then rest in silence. Beyond the giant feature windows of the warm studio, the wintry expanse of the Gordonstoun estate offers an unappealing contrast to this snug scene of inner mindfulness. Yoga. Whoever imagined that the school once renowned for its chilly early-morning runs and even chillier showers would offer such a touchy-feely alternative start to the day?

Has this 85-year-old educational establishment, which famously toughened up an already pretty flinty Prince Philip and almost broke his eldest son – or so legend has it – with its proprietary blend of physical and mental ‘conditioning’, gone soft in its dotage?

Battle-hardened alumni may watch with surprise as these students – chakras neatly aligned – feast through the day on blueberries and muesli, snacks of oranges and hot chocolate and brownies and dishes of beef fajitas with avocado salad or salmon with dauphinoise potatoes.

At times, they may throw a ball around outside or try juggling or slackline (low-level tightrope walking), then practise some newfangled memory techniques. It is a wonder they have any time left for classes.

Changed days indeed, one might be tempted to say. Except, strictly speaking, this isn’t a school day and some of this intake are not even Gordonstoun pupils. But they are here to learn. Many are panicking after posting less than inspiring results in their mock GCSE exams and they are desperate for help.

Gordonstoun believes salvation lies in a new week-long residential revision course which, it claims, will offer a distillation of its traditional brand of holistic mind and body training – along with the odd modern twist. After a successful mini-trial last Easter, this year the Speyside institution is throwing open its doors for many more to have a taste.

‘We know how important exam performance is – it’s your ticket to the future,’ said Lisa Kerr, the school’s first female principal, as she explains how the course will work. ‘We thought it would be interesting to see if the Gordonstoun approach could be applied to revision.

‘We know from more than 80 years of educating young people that the best way to educate them is to have this really broad approach and to intersperse learning with physical activity and other kinds of cerebral stimulation. We trialled it last year and got the most extraordinary results.’

It is true that the 12 students who paid the £1,500 fee each to act as guinea pigs managed, on average, to improve their mock exam results by at least one grade and, in some cases, by two.

But anyone thinking they can roll up the tree-lined driveway through the 200acre grounds and simply relax while their brains are somehow pampered to success are likely to have a rude awakening. the notoriously tough curriculum, including days of hiking and camping in the Scottish wilderness, propounded by the school’s founder Dr Kurt Hahn, is still very much in force.

‘[Hahn] thought education should be about much more than what you did in the classroom,’ Miss Kerr said. ‘He brought together boys from a whole range of backgrounds; he had the young Duke of Edinburgh here at the same time as children of local fisher families and exposed them to a unique kind of education that wasn’t just about the classroom but was also about being in the hills, being on the sea, challenging yourself and, crucially, being of service to others. this idea has permeated all the way through Gordonstoun and we are as true to that ethos now as we were then.’

that may be a strangely comforting thought to those who like to view Gordonstoun as the ultimate school of hard knocks – a mythology doubtless fed by its portrayal in an episode of the popular Netflix drama, the Crown, which depicted an unhappy, bullied Prince Charles struggling with cross-country runs, shabby dormitories and hostile classmates.

the prince himself is said to have described the boarding school during his time there in the 1970s as ‘Colditz in kilts’.

But, just as it disputes whether this is an accurate picture of the sensitive young Charles’s experiences, the school claims its ‘active body, active mind’ approach to education has always been more nuanced than the drama suggests. Poor old Charles may not have enjoyed it much, but