Oscar winner Tilda Swinton's children are growing up with NO exams and learn how to build canoes and cook onions instead
- Tilda Swinton's children Xavier and Honor attend Drumduan Upper School
- 17-year-olds having 'art-based education' thanks to Steiner school system
- Swinton, who won best supporting actress in 2008, says they are 'happy'
- £7,500-a-year independent school offers craft-based and physical activities
Tilda Swinton, 54, who won an Oscar for her role in Michael Clayton, sends her 17-year-old twins Xavier and Honor to Drumduan Upper School in Moray
The children of Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton are growing up with an 'art-based education' which sees them learn how to build canoes and caramelise onions instead of taking exams.
Swinton, 54, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Michael Clayton, sends her 17-year-old twins Xavier and Honor to Drumduan Upper School in Moray in the Scottish Highlands.
The £7,500-a-year independent school for 14 to 18-year-olds, which was co-founded by Swinton and Ian Sutherland McCook two years ago, offers academic study through a mixture of physical coordination, athletic skills, music and artistic work.
It means that instead of being tested and graded, students learn core subjects such as maths, English and science in original ways and regularly enjoy activities such as canoeing, hiking, snowboarding and mountain biking.
The curriculum is based on the radical Steiner education system, which encourages children's creativity, spirituality and morality.
Swinton, who has since split from her children's father John Byrne, said Xavier and Honor are 'happy and inspired' with their schooling, with her son wanting to eventually become a commercial pilot.
She told The Observer: 'There's no grading, not testing at all.
'My children are now 17, and they will go through this school without any tests at any time, so it's incredibly art-based, practical learning.
'For example, they learn their science by building a Canadian canoe, or making a knife, or caramelising onions. And they're all happy 17-year-olds. I can't believe it – happy and inspired.'
According to Drumduan's website, pupils learn academic subjects such as maths, English, physics, chemistry and geography but lessons are balanced with craft-based subjects and outdoor activities.
There are no hierarchies at the school, which has an emphasis on celebrating individualism, and pupils are encouraged to document their work 'to their own best intellectual and artistic standard.'
Swinton, who lived with Byrne and her new partner Sandro Kopp in the same house for some time, has always insisted her children are 'very happy'.
In an interview with the Mail last year, she said: 'My children have more to teach me about being relaxed than I can ever teach them.
Swinton, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Michael Clayton, is allowing her children to grow up with an 'art-based education', which sees them learn how to build canoes and caramelise onions
The £7,500-a-year Drumduan Upper School in Moray in the Scottish Highlands (pictured) for 14 to 18-year-olds offers academic study through a mixture of physical coordination, athletic skills, music and artistic work
Swinton, who has since split from her children's father John Byrne (together above in 2004), said Xavier and Honor are 'happy and inspired' with their schooling, with her son wanting to become a commercial pilot
'They are very balanced and very easy to be around. They are into life and are very happy children. They are at ease in the world. Which is nice.
'We are a close-knit family. We laugh and enjoy each other's company. Dancing is a passion in our household and we do it as often as we can.
'We do it in a way that is totally insane and absolutely not to be witnessed by anybody. But we have the best time.'
Despite being born in England and travelling around the world for her Hollywood career, Swinton has chosen to settle with her family in Scotland – after she fell in love with it in her 20s.
She said: 'I am not English, I am Scottish.
'I went to boarding school in England, so I associate poor England with going back to school and it is less attractive to me.
'There's something about being Scottish,' she says. 'You can't find a Scottish person who won't burst into tears when they hear the bagpipes.
'Even if they're in Beverly Hills. I live in the far north of Scotland, which is so beautiful. And where my family live is a very beautiful sort of semi-wilderness that really suits us.'
Swinton created a bridge between her life as a film actress and her life in the remote Highlands by setting up her own film festival, renting a ballroom in Nairn to screen films.
And to bring art-house cinema to the most remote parts of Scotland she and a group of volunteers mounted a mobile cinema screen on a truck and drove it around the countryside.
She later co-founded Drumduan with Mr Sutherland McCook – a fellow parent with children at the nearby Moray Steiner School.
Swinton has been dating Sandro Kopp (pictured together in New York in November 2014) for several years
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