Kingston academy of literature.

= Kingston academy of literature = by Sofie Cosme

Founded in 1953 by Henry and Heather Kingston, Kingston Academy is a perfect school for students in grades 7-12 that have a fond love of literature. Located in Haslibrg-Goldern, a village in Canton Bern Switzerland this location makes for the perfect place to ski. We want to build a better future and raise a group of amazing writers, that’s why our motto is “Kingston, pour un Avenir Meilleur.”  which translates to  Kingston, for a better future.

History
Kingston academy was originally founded by heather and Henry Kingston they built this school because growing up they could never afford school let alone boarding school and they never wanted anyone to experience that. but Henry and Heather's daughter Anastasia had founded a school called the apple valley school, which was located in Newcastle England. But when Henry and heather tragically died in a car crash, Anastasia took it upon herself to abandon the apple valley school and take over Kingston academy. From there Anastasia completely rebuilt the academy into a new high-tech school, and she made it into what it is today.

Application and tuition
Here at Kingston, we want to make this accessible to all students that want to go here. That is why if your parents/guardians make under 100,000 USD you get in for free, this includes all fees, boarding, flights, trips, transportation, etc. the average tuition for day students is about 20,00 or 25,000 USD for international students. That is without financial aid or any scholarships, which are available for international students. For boarding students, the tuition is  40,000 or 45,000 USD for international students. The reason that boarding is more expensive is that at Kingston we cover every student and every amenity, from plane flights and other transportation to sports equipment and uniforms.

Uniforms and dress code
At Kingston, we do require uniforms, the reason we have them is not to stop students but to make sure that every student can look professional. On Wednesday we do not require uniforms and the students can dress however they want. The dress code is quite simple, we do not allow students to wear clothing with profanity, things with relation to gangs, or clothes with drugs, guns, alcohol, etc. on Mondays students are allowed to wear hoodies instead of the normal sweaters. We allowed students to mix and match different uniforms so none of them are gender organized. See below for pictures of the uniform.

Campus life
We have 2 separate campuses one for sports and one for academics and housing. On the academic campus, we have one main building that has most of the classrooms. All of the buildings are named after famous authors, the main building is named after Shakespeare. In Shakespeare, there are 6 floors. The Shakespeare building includes the 5 core classes and the AP versions of them. There are 2 other buildings that also have classrooms. The dormitories are named after James  Baldwin, there are 3 separate dorms. One for girls, one for boys, and one for non-binary people. There is also the jane Auston building that has all of the alternative classes like art, culinary, chemistry, etc. the dining hall is not named after anyone but it has a more food court-type vibe. There are a ton of different restaurants to choose from and 2 stories of seating. On the sports campus, there are mostly indoor fields because of how much snow is usually on campus. there are buses that can take you from the sport to the academic campus. The academic and sports campuses both have health offices. On the sports, the campus is also where the ski mountain is.

Student life

The general school day goes from when classes begin which is at 9:30 am to when classes end at 4:30 pm. Students of all grades get to choose their own classes experts for the 4 core classes of math/science and  English/history/history students are also required to take a language class, they get to choose from, English, German, Spanish, French, and Mandarin. Students who are fluent in any of these languages are not allowed to take the classes. Students also have an array of sports to choose from. Those sports are… alpine skiing, equestrian, football, soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, dance, cheerleading, lacrosse, ice hockey, volleyball, wrestling, track and field, cross country, Frisbee, tennis, and rowing. There is an hour-long lunch and an hour-long free period after that. Sports practice is either early in the morning or after school, sometimes both. Once a week on Wednesday students get out of classes and get to go skiing for the rest of the day.

Mental health
At Kingston we care about students’ mental health, we try to make it feel like home and are making a better attempt to stop students from developing bad mental health. Here on campus, we have 6 therapists and 3 counselors that are always open for students to talk to them. If a student is in a mental health crisis and needs to be sent home the school will do so, this does not affect their grades and if the student is up for it they can do classes online from home. If the student can not be sent home for any reason or does not want to go home we have 2 separate programs, one is where the student can not attend classes or can just do them online or the student can be transferred to a separate dorm where they are with a therapist and or counselor at all times. If the student is up for it they can still do sports and participate in out-of-school trips.

Off-campus trips
Once every six months, there is a big trip that usually goes to either the Guggenheim museum of art in new York, the metropolitan museum of art in new York, or the hermitage museum of art in st. Peters burg Russia. Also, once a year students get to go to a tropical island most commonly Bora-Bora or Fiji. all trips are optional.