NAIDOC Week

Food, basketball, dancing, art, a smoking ceremony and a moving guest speaker filled the College during NAIDOC Week this year.

In MacKellar Hall Junior School boys danced to the didgeridoo and outside on the grass Early Learning students helped produce a sand mandala. Middle and Senior School boys ate kangaroo-based dishes whilst our Scotch College Indigenous Network (SCIN) scored two wins in staff versus students basketball games at Scotch and PLC.

On the final day, with local Noongar elder Neville Collard standing by, Senior School boys marched through the smoking ceremony and sat spellbound at Assembly as West Coast Eagles Women’s player Alicia Janz told her story as a young talented Indigenous sports woman. As applause filled the Dickinson Centre, we were left with a question: would we, as a group of young men and as a school community, stand with Alicia and recognise and protect Indigenous culture in Australia?

Therein lies our annual challenge following NAIDOC Week: how do we sustain the engagement and deepen the knowledge with regard to Indigenous culture, history and our connection to Indigenous people and not leave this connection to a one week, once a year moment?

The colours, tastes and stories of NAIDOC Week are always fascinating, but they need to be seen as a reminder, as an invitation to explore, understand, support and respect Indigenous culture. As this year’s NAIDOC theme underscored, Australia always was and always will be the home of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.

Sean Bonney, Year 10, raising the Aboriginal Flag for the NAIDOC Week Marching and Assembly, photograph: Pixel Poetry

Middle School barbeque lunch

Year 12 students (left to right) Kevin Laidlaw, Jonus Williams, Sam Wolf, Daniel O’Meara and Tyrelle Manado with West Coast Eagles’ Alicia Janz and Noongar elder Neville Collard, photograph: Pixel Poetry

Mrs Maria Hodges New Head of Junior School

Our junior students welcomed our new Head of Junior School with some very important questions.

What made you choose to come to Scotch? – Lachy, Pre-Primary It was a tricky choice because I loved my old school and the children there, but I just knew that I was matched to Scotch College and this was where I needed to be. After meeting Headmaster Dr Alec O’Connell and touring the Junior School I had no doubt that my future was with the Scotch community. Plus, I look better in burgundy!

What will you do with the school? – James, Year 5 I am planning to work with the other leaders to continue to make Scotch a school that provides you with a world-class education, so you achieve your absolute best, and prepares you for your adult life. All of this while having lots of fun and enjoying learning, as being a kid is a wonderful time. What have you done recently with your school Wesley College? – Hamish, Year 5 There are so many things but one thing that I am very proud of and I know the children have absolutely loved is the scientist-inresidence programme that was introduced a few years ago. This programme is where real working scientists come in and work with the children over a period of time to teach them about their expert areas of science.

Do you like dogs or cats? – Konrad, Year 5 This is such an easy question as I currently have living with me three dogs (a dalmatian, Maltese poodle and choodle) and five cats. Yes, eight animals which is crazy! Now five of these belong to my daughters and will be moving into their new homes at the end of the year but I think you can safely say that I like both dogs and cats.

What qualities do you have that you think could benefit Scotch College? – James A, Year 4 I love to laugh and tell jokes. I’m not going to promise that my jokes are always funny, but I do like making children laugh.

What are your favourite hobbies and what do you like to do in your spare time? – James B, Year 4 Anything with my family is something I enjoy doing. On the weekends my husband and I like to go for beach walks and find good coffee spots. I love to cook, catch a good movie or find some quiet time to read. You are also likely to bump into me at Claremont Quarter as shopping is my favourite sport!

What was your favourite subject when you were in school? – Sam, Year 4 I really loved Mathematics and Economics. It really helped to have amazing teachers and I think my favourite subject changed over time depending on the teachers I had and how much fun they made learning.

Can you tell me about where you are from? – Class 3L Well I was born in Sydney to a fifth-generation Australian father and a Greek-born and raised mother. We moved to Perth when I was very young. I grew up in Perth and although I have done a lot of travelling I would say Perth is the best place in the world to live.

Can you please tell me a bit about why you started teaching? – Class 3L I always thought I wanted to teach but because I loved Economics and Mathematics, I decided to study Business at university. After working in this field for a few years I couldn’t stop thinking about teaching, so I went back to university and the rest, as they say, is history. I absolutely love the energy and excitement of seeing children learn and I don’t believe there is any career more worthwhile than investing in our future generations.

How old are you? – Bryn, Pre-Primary Now, Bryn, I am going to share a very important fact with you… You should never ask a lady her age! I will give you a clue though, I celebrated a big birthday not too long ago and it wasn’t my 21st!

Ms Penny Hooper Acting Head of Junior School

A great deal is to be gained from healthy interactions with others. Interactions form the basis of connecting, competing, sharing, learning and understanding. Whilst the usual scope of interacting has not always been possible given phase restrictions, the Junior School students have made the most of the opportunities available.

Opportunities for student interaction included competitions such as the Inter House Cross Country and Athletics. The manner in which the students participated and their level of camaraderie was exceptional this year. There was a lovely combination of rivalry and sportsmanship; dealing with both winning and losing are key aspects of healthy interactions.

We heard some wonderful presentations from our Year 5s at our Speakers’ Challenge and we also ran a Spelling Bee competition. The University of New South Wales’ International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) competitions in Science, Mathematics and English have been open to all boys, especially those in our Extension and Enrichment programmes, and participation levels have been healthy. Additional opportunities came through the Tournament of Minds, Philosothon and Challengeopolis competitions and involved exchanges across sub-schools, sister schools and other Independent Schools.

In the realm of creativity, our positive connection with non-profit arts organisation FORM has enabled the Pre-Kindergarten students (Monday and Tuesday group) and our Year 2s to enjoy artist-in-residence programmes. These saw students expanding their learning at both Bush and Beach School. The interactions and exploration which takes place complements the Primary Years Programme of Inquiry. Similarly, Years 3 and 4 boys have travelled to PLC and enjoyed the chance to interact with the girls as well as undertaking Science, Mathematics and Technology lessons.

Throughout the year, we have continued to build our mindfulness and enhance our appreciation of all students and their contributions to our community. We acknowledge the students and their commitment to serving their peers as part of the commissioning ceremonies. Here we paid tribute to the work done by the boys in office during Semester 1 whilst swearing in our new representatives.

Some of the wonderful celebrations and events held throughout the term included World Environment Day and our charity drives to fundraise for those less fortunate than us. Our continued use of pastoral care times, strategically scheduled throughout the day, help students to regulate, reflect and readjust so that they are ready to access the curriculum. This year, we expanded the Yoga programme and had all students from Pre-Primary to Year 5 participate in sessions on a weekly basis for a full term. These skills have been transferred into our daily classroom practice.

Our last and often most cherished interaction is with our older students across the school. Mentor programmes, buddy groups, Service programmes and the leadership partnerships all encourage healthy interactions within our school. It is always lovely to have the older boys join in and support the Junior School. Each of those older boys should know that our younger students see you as their heroes. Thank you for contributing to our learning.

Year 2s Lucas Robaina Chacon and Neo Pentony at Beach School; Gordon House winning the Junior School Inter House Athletics

Service in the Junior School

Learning through Service is a key tenet of the International Baccalaureate programme, allowing students to engage with real-world issues firsthand, by immersing themselves in problem solving, innovative thought and giving back to the community.

In the Junior School we believe strongly in the value of encouraging our students to contribute to the greater good through various whole-school Service initiatives. One of our big initiatives launched this year is collecting bottle caps for recycling. Did you know that when putting bottles in your yellow-lidded recycling bin, not only should they be clean and empty, but lid-free too? So, where do the lids go? They are a different type of plastic to the material used to create drink bottles and milk cartons; hence they are preferably kept out of the recycling stream.

In the Junior School, however, we found a new purpose for them: the creation of prosthetic limbs through 3D printing and Envision Hands. Students of all ages have been collecting and bringing in their bottle caps for months now, which are sorted and prepared by Sustainability Captains, Environment Club participants and volunteers for drop off. Some students have even approached local cafes and asked them to put aside bottle caps to add to our collection, creating a real community approach to the process.

Another area of Service is the Soldier Letter Project (SLP) – a letter writing initiative between Year 5 students at Scotch and French airmen and women involved in airstrikes in Syria, while based in Jordan. In its fourth year, the SLP is a wonderful way for students to create international links purely for the purpose of making someone’s day brighter. It is community involvement on a global scale!

July saw us receive a box of letters from the French airbase addressed to all the boys who participated last year, now in Year 6. Although delayed by COVID-19, the return parcel from our friends at the BAP H5 airbase was full of pictures, gifts and warm responses of gratitude for the time taken by our boys to write French letters to strangers, in order to let them know we are thinking of them.

Ambassadors to both France and Australia in Jordan were involved in shipping the letters to us through diplomatic channels. It is an initiative that we hope to continue for many years, bringing communities together on both sides of the world.

Ms Carolyn Vinton

Modern Languages Teacher

Ryan Hasslacher at Bush School

Little Pipers

Little Pipers is a thriving community-based programme run by our Junior School and Junior Middle (JM) Library staff. There are two sessions offered every week during school term.

On Mondays our 45-minute programme Loving Literacy combines Baby Rhyme Time (a set of rhymes that we all singalong and move to) with Toddler Tales (where picture books are read to the children in between rhymes). These are followed by a craft activity that helps develop fine motor skills. The Loving Literacy programme is run by JM Library Technician Lisa Perriam and myself. The aim is to offer early interactions with rhyme, movement, literature and fine motor skill development, all targeted to the ages between birth and four years.

The other session is held on a Thursday morning. In Inquiring Minds all activities are run by our Early Learning teachers who offer the local community an insight into the Teaching and Learning programme delivered at our Early Learning Centre. These sessions include Art (Sam Lock), Physical Education (Rebecca Vincent), Music (Katrina Pollock), Bush School (Rebecca Sayers and Anna Clancy), French (Simona Carniello), Pre-Kindergarten Inquiry (Tracey O’Shea) and Kindergarten Inquiry Opportunities (Olivia Harnwell).

COVID-19 threw up new challenges to our programme this year, as we had to adapt to an online programme that still offered our loyal Little Pipers community an opportunity to engage with Literacy and Inquiry. A special thanks to all of the teachers who helped make that possible, as well as some of the behind-thescenes staff involved in an online programme, including Dean of Information and Learning Technology Brad Tyrell, Acting Deputy Head of Junior School and ILT Integration Specialist Amanda Ritchie, Alumni and Marketing Officer Cass Macgowan, Information and Learning Technology Office Coordinator Linda Gauld and Junior School Secretary Josephine Fink.

Mr Warwick Norman

Junior School Dean of Teaching and Learning

Mr Richard Ledger Head of Middle School

The second half of a year always seems to go faster than the first half. Is it psychological, is it because we try to do more, or is it an approaching end date becoming clearer?

The stop and start nature of our first semester might have had something to do with it this year. The making up for lost time and an appreciation for what we have as a school community has contributed to an actionpacked, seize the moment type of term. There were all the regular highlights, however, the big innovation was the move to an online delivery of our Student Led Conference in Week 3. Your feedback on the success of these indicates that this is likely to be a format we continue to offer in the years to come.

Winter Term was such an impressive schedule of opportunity and engagement. In quick succession Middle School students celebrated NAIDOC Week, our Year 6s and their teachers delivered yet another amazing Science Fair accompanied by some hairraising activity in Year 7 and 8 during a parallel Science Week. R U OK? Week followed, which was brilliantly set up with several days of an inhouse yogi running meditation and relaxation sessions for classes. Languages Week slipped in behind R U OK? Week with a workshop by Neil Coyne, a Noongar man from Northam who remarkably balances a guest speaking career on Indigenous culture with a professional wrestling career. His mix of stories was fascinating. Winter Sport was completed, as was our emerging Philosothon event, bigger and more exciting than ever and now a permanent fixture on our calendar.

For the last three years we have finished Winter Term with the Highland Games and they did not disappoint. Bales of hay flying around the track, boys in kilts on the 60-metre dash, tug of war and Mr Wayne Ramsay as our Chieftain for the day. It was a real celebratory atmosphere and a great conclusion to the term

One of the key messages that emerged throughout Winter Term was the theme of ‘we are responsible’. Reverend Justine Wall presented a captivating spoken word video in Chapel that really made you think. If the history of the earth was reduced to a 24-hour timespan, then human habitation and all that we have been, all that we have learnt, and importantly all that we have done, using the same time scale, is contained to just three seconds.

This was an incredible realisation of human presence in the timeline of our planet. As we look at the air, the water and the environment we share and our impact in such a short period of time, it draws into sharp focus the message that to make it to a fourth second, as an entire global collective and also as one of the nine billion individuals, we need to be thinking about the planet more so than we are.

As sobering as this message is, there is a steady commitment to sustainability happening as evidenced in Middle School. The purple recycling bin installed as a part of last year’s Community Project has overflowed this term with boys bringing plastic recyclables in from home whilst the Year 7 students’ Walk for Water raised serious awareness about the impact of climate change on the most basic of human needs.

Most students spend two years in Middle School, some spend three. One of the culminating events of Middle School, and a concluding task of the Middle Years Programme, is the Year 8 Community Project. In another article you will read more about this year’s Community Project, however, it is pleasing to say that of the 160 individual projects that boys devised and delivered this year, 96 of them focused on the environment.

When we think about the ‘we are responsible’ theme, it is heartening to see our young boys enthusiastically assuming this responsibility.

Alex Everett at Science Fair; Ryan Dent with his hypothesis

Year 6

Science Fair is a much-anticipated event on the Year 6 calendar.

It is an interdisciplinary unit that culminates skills from Mathematics and Science where the boys use their data processing skills to formulate tables and graphs of their findings and present their data and research in the iWork app Numbers.

The main aim of Science Fair is to provide students with an opportunity to carry out an investigation and gain firsthand experience of working through the steps of the scientific method. The experiments can be very simple, as long as there is one independent variable to be changed and one dependent variable that can be measured.

At the end of Autumn Term, the Year 6 boys undertook a number of immersion activities, encouraging them to generate a scientific question to research. Led by Middle School Science Coordinator Toby Robinson, the boys observed the chemical reaction of ‘elephant toothpaste’ being made, calculated the amount of swing time on a pendulum and monitored the way capillaries react to dye in celery. These sessions were engaging, instigating further discussion and leading into potential questions to choose as topics of research for Science Fair 2020.

Parents and our Scotch community were invited to view the Year 6 showcase of final posters, Numbers presentations and written reports on 19 August 2020. An inaugural highlight of Science Fair was the secret ballot of parent votes electing the most informative and interesting experiments. Congratulations to Science Fair winner Jack Ashby; class winners James Stephan (6.1), Zeke Ritchie (6.2), Erik van de Veire (6.3) and Jack Mayo (6.4); and the Toby Robinson Award of Scientific Inquiry winners Luca Niardone and Andrew Katsambanis.

Congratulations to all of our budding scientists who researched a number of interesting questions including: • Does the colour of light affect a plant’s growth? – Jack Ashby • What brand of bubble gum produces the biggest bubbles? – James Stephan • What effect does the weight of a bat have on the distance a cricket ball travels? – Zeke Ritchie • Does the size of a boat affect the weight it can hold? – Erik van de Veire • An investigation to explore the effects of different drinks and liquids on tooth enamel – Jack Mayo • Do different temperatures of water affect the time a bath bomb takes to dissolve? – Luca Niardone • Geotropism: how does light affect the growth of plants? – Andrew Katsamabanis The iLearn theme throughout Winter Term in Year 7 has been water – Earth’s lifeblood. The students were amazed when they learned that approximately one billion people worldwide do not have access to clean water.

We are all so lucky here within the Scotch College community where we simply turn on the tap at home or school and know we will have clean and cheap water.

There were significant lightbulb moments for many of the students when we discussed the secondary and tertiary implications of not having access to clean water. The most significant of these was when students heard the plight of many young girls who spend a significant amount of time everyday walking for water for their families. This was time away from school and therefore an education. This can become cyclical as, when these young girls become mothers, they do not have a formal education they can pass onto their own children.

This has a huge impact on the educational development of their children as the first, and possibly most significant, teachers a person will have in their lives are their own parents. A lot of students realised the importance of their own parents, and especially their mothers, in their development. There were a lot of appreciative nods from the boys when the penny dropped about how important their parents are and how much they actually do for them.

In Mathematics this term, students have been exploring linear functions and they applied this mathematical understanding to their Walk for Water fundraiser for Water Aid Australia, which provides clean water to communities around the world.

Through the boys’ great fundraising initiative and sporting prowess they have raised over $2,000. Walk for Water is another great example of how Scotch College students are caring and principled members of our international community.

Mr Peter Tresise Year 7 Coordinator

Clockwise: Joshua Swan and Ronan Leishman making cat toys; James Bain and David Walton with their baked goods; Ben Langdon, James Davidson and Benjamin Barnes with their comfort crosses; Tane Croon-Hargrave at the Cat Haven; Max Thorpe with rubbish collected from South Cottesloe Beach

Year 8

This year the Year 8 Community Project took a different turn to what was originally expected. It has been a tough year and the needs of our community have been greater than ever. It was with this in mind that our boys put their thinking caps on and found creative ways to help those in need.

We saw a greater emphasis on service opportunities that adhered to our new social distancing practices. Projects involved letter writing with our isolated elderly population and the provision of care packages including crosswords and homemade conserves; helping the homeless with drives to gather blankets and personal items for those living on the streets; sporting equipment for remote communities; and efforts to rehabilitate and clean up local environments.

Other interesting projects included making handmade toys and collecting over 1,000 donated items for the Cat Haven; designing watering stations for koalas impacted by recent bushfires; and making palm-sized wooden comfort crosses to offer solace to victims of bushfires and mental illness. At a time when the demand on systems supporting our increasing homeless population was at an all-time high, one of the biggest offerings this year was the provision of meals for the homeless. As well as literally hundreds of home-cooked nutritious meals distributed to the homeless via the Salvation Army, boys prepared main meals, snacks and handy breakfast packs for Uniting Church WA’s homeless centre, The Tranby Centre.

As an inquiry project, one of the key components of the Community Project is reflection. The boys are asked to reflect on what they learnt about service learning, their recipient and themselves throughout the process. Taking part not only in research and action, the reflection component of this project facilitates significant personal growth opportunities for our students as they become positively contributing active citizens.

The Year 8s should be very proud of their efforts and we look forward to seeing their projects showcased.

Mrs Tracey FitzPatrick

Year 8 Coordinator

Mr Peter Burt Head of Senior School

We pride ourselves on the leadership shown by our students at Scotch College.

The vertical House system in the Senior School, which has been a feature of our pastoral care programme for decades, allows the senior boys to work with and mentor younger students.

The Year 12 students take responsibility for many of the activities that occur within groups each morning, whether or not they are in an official House or School position. Likewise, our Year 11 cohort has taken responsibility for overseeing featured activities in Mentor time, including leading a group discussion for Men’s Health Week. It is a strength of the College that provides invaluable opportunities for these senior students, whilst building a natural connection between them and the Year 9 and 10 boys. This is important as they are able to form strong bonds across the year groups and the younger students often seek guidance and advice from the older member of their House.

I was recently listening to an address from our 1st XVIII Coach Steve Malaxos where he mentioned the strength of the bond between students across Year 11 and 12 and how important it was for the team. Having had the privilege of seeing the school musical We Will Rock You and then speaking with members of the cast and crew afterwards, this same bond was also evident. Students from younger year groups shared the importance of the connection they have with the senior boys and the leadership these boys provide them.

This year that student leadership has been particularly important, with some activities being postponed and others cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. Our Year 12 cohort have led from the front and also encouraged others to take that responsibility. This was evident through our short period of remote learning, either side of the April holidays, with different online competitions and activities set up for the boys to participate in. A large number of students also supported the service activities, from both a School and a House perspective. In Winter Term the House Singing competition again gave boys the opportunity to be involved in a whole House activity, providing leadership experiences for the senior boys as they led their Houses under the theme of ‘Kings and Queens’. With a number of adjustments to the dates, context and venue of these presentations due to the ongoing restrictions, the senior boys were required to navigate their Houses through a range of scenarios, and they did this well.

These leadership opportunities continued in Winter Term with Year 11 students encouraged to apply for House positions. The boys applying then presented to their whole House and also underwent an interview process. Obviously not everyone can be successful in being appointed to a position, but much of the learning in these situations comes from working through the process and, for many, stepping beyond their comfort zone to put themselves forward. They did this with the support of our staff and their peers, and this is very important as there are leadership opportunities available for all Year 12 students, not just those holding an official position. These may exist in co-curricular pursuits, upon requests from staff to assist at points of need, through initiative and care for others, or through House or Mentor groups organising teams for the Staff Trophy, or assisting younger students in their House.

Leadership opportunities also exist across the sub-schools, with our Year 2 and 12 Get Togethers remaining a popular event on the calendar. The senior students obviously enjoy the chance to work with our Junior School boys and the latter see it as a highlight. They look up to the Year 12s and work with them on a challenge before sharing a meal together.

Leadership is often about putting others before yourself, reading a situation and intervening for the benefit of the group as a whole, or individuals who need support. Our formal leadership programme, led by Year 11 and 12 Coordinator Mark Gale, provides a framework for the boys to work within. It allows them to develop their skills based on a number of varied practical activities, mixed with some theoretical work and importantly, a focus on reflection and growth. It is a programme we are proud of and we believe it sets up our Year 12 cohort well for the challenges they will face as leaders of the school.