The Year 9 Rottnest Camp

The Year 9 Rottnest Pastoral Care Camp took place in Week 5 of Summer Term. For our Year 9 students it is a seminal week in their journey to the summit of the hill.

The week represents a significant Rite of Passage for students at the College. During the four days, House groups are paired together and experience a range of activities that include Ecology, Snorkelling, History and Art. Relationships and bonds are developed and strengthened, and values and expectations are reinforced through teamwork and challenges where students are placed outside of their comfort zone. We learn what it means to be a Stuart House Stag, a Ferguson House Falcon or a Lion of Alexander and develop a strong identity to a community that will be there for life.

Students also spend time planning for the future and set out what they would like to achieve in their time at the College in a letter to their Year 12 self. In Year 9 Wellbeing lessons, the focus in the lead-up to the camp centres on developing a sense of belonging to their House group. The uniqueness of our experience-based curriculum is that it provides students with the opportunity to strengthen connections with their House peers and develop essential skills in the process.

These experiences are facilitated by and shared with their Head of House and it is events such as this camp, combined with the day-to-day contact, that creates strong connections between home and school. At the heart of pastoral care at Scotch is a commitment to ‘Knowing the Boy’. We strive to understand each young man’s context and each House Head gains a sense of who each student is through shared experiences. This is what enables the provision of individualised care and this, in turn, means that each student can get the most out of their time at the College.

Mr

Gareth Williams

Deputy Head of Senior School (Pastoral Care)