Council Strong enrolments for 2025 and beyond

Mr Tim Wiese Chair of Council

Like many such bodies, the Scotch Council takes a recess over Christmas and New Year so members can enjoy a break and spend time with friends and family.

I hope you all had similar opportunity for a period of rest and refreshment. With the return of students, the College has again burst into life, and the Council members have resumed their duties in overseeing the governance of the College.

I’m pleased to welcome a new member to Council, Mr Ben Macnamara. He is a former Scotch student (OSC 1996), having attended as a boarding student with strong regional ties to the WA wheatbelt. Ben is a current Scotch parent, with a son in Year 7 and (hopefully) a future enrolment to come. Many will know Ben as CEO of CBH Group, having joined them in 2014 in a senior operations role, becoming COO in 2020. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a Chartered Accountant. Prior to working in agribusiness, Ben had 10 years as an associate director for professional services firm PwC, and then joined Gresham Advisory Partners, an independent advisory and funds management firm. I look forward to working with him.

Council has also renewed the terms of two members of Council in Mr Alan Murray and Mr Roy Kelley (OAM). While we need to refresh and renew Council periodically with new members as needs arise, I’m very pleased to be able to retain members of this calibre.

Alan is Deputy Chair of Council, and Chair of the Risk Committee. He recently retired from practicing law with King & Wood Mallesons where he specialised in corporate and resources work. Alan is a past parent and proud OSC, also representing Council on the OSC committee.

Council was privileged to have Roy Kelley join us following his retirement after a long career as an educator, culminating in an 11 year term as Headmaster at Melbourne Grammar School. Roy’s contributions to Scotch are many, with his experience and perspective providing guidance and wisdom to any conversation.

Enrolments at Scotch are very strong, at or close to capacity in most year groups. Confirmed numbers are already high for 2025 and beyond. This is a great position for the College to be in, and is a strong indicator of how Scotch and its academic, pastoral and co-curricular programmes are perceived in the wider community. Council takes great care when setting fees to balance the desire to keep the impost on parents to a minimum, while maintaining our wide range of programmes for students, and retaining and rewarding our valuable staff. By necessity, we must strive to create and reserve a surplus of funds for current and future capital expenditure, as well as ensuring we continue to attract and retain quality staff through competitive salaries and conditions. Salaries is the College’s most significant expenditure item making up approximately 70% of our recurrent expenditure. It’s fair to say that at present enrolment levels, we would like to be producing a greater surplus than we are currently seeing. Higher expenses are putting pressure on many household and business budgets at the moment and Scotch is no exception. We are actively looking for areas where we can achieve efficiencies.

As students and parents, you will not see any change to the quality of the programmes delivered, but by 2025, we expect real improvements to the bottom line.

Capital expenditure is to be modest, but impactful. The Junior School Landscaping project is on track to be finished at the end of Summer Term. It will improve physical links between the Junior and Middle Schools and contains some fantastic new outside learning and play spaces. We are currently embarked on a bottom up review of the Masterplan. While still to be finalised, it will have a strong focus on refurbishment of existing structures, with M-block to be first in line. This building is a historic one, for decades being the face of ‘the School on the Hill’. Works are expected to commence in 2025.

Lastly, I wish the Headmaster a fulfilling sabbatical, to be commenced in autumn term. Mr Brad Gill, Head of Middle School, is to assume the Headmaster’s role in Alec’s absence. It demonstrates great resilience in the strength of our leadership team to have staff willing and able to step into the Headmaster’s role. I thank Brad in advance and look forward to Alec’s return, refreshed and with some new learnings.