SOCIETIES & SERVICES

DEBATING

Lachlan Norcott & Sam Wake Co-Captains of Debating

SCOTCH COLLEGE has been exceptionally strong in Debating over the past few years. However, due to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, many competitions were and Heath Muller (Year 11, Ross) were selected to train in the 2020 State Debating Squad. They joined a 12-student squad who trained three times a week for three weeks before the State Team was selected. Ben and Heath were chosen for the four-person team unfortunately cancelled, which left the and represented both the College and avenues for debating severely limited. State at the National Competition held This did not stop several Debating in December. successes and a growing culture of support and enjoyment from the wider College. Ben, Heath, Oscar Clements (Year 11, Alexander) and Terry Zhou (Year 11, Cameron), participated in the British After their victory in the Senior Parliamentary Debating Competition, up to debate this year. The programme Inter-House Debating competition, which saw debates carried out between saw older, more experienced Debating St Andrews faced an all-star staff four teams of two. Teams had to debate students mentor younger students and debating team on the topic: ‘Scotch against the opposing two sides on a support them to feel confident going into College prepares boys for life’, with topic, as well as prove to the adjudicator their first debates. staff challenging the College’s motto. why their points were the most relevant Memorial Hall was at capacity as the throughout the debate. Ben and Heath Problem solving, public speaking skills two teams argued their case. Eventually, won the competition for the second and the ability to be confident and the staff team convinced the adjudicators year running. decisive under pressure; these are the that the College fails to prepare boys for life due to the immense support provided that rarely exists later in life. To create unity throughout the College and prepare the younger students to excel at public speaking and debating, skills that are integral to debating and will stand any person in good stead for the future. It is the Debating programme at Scotch that makes us sure that Scotch Outside of Scotch, Sam Wake (Year 12, a Middle School Debating programme does, in fact, prepare students for life. Brisbane), Ben Scott (Year 11, Ross) was run for the younger boys who signed

The programme saw older, more experienced debating students mentor younger students.

Xavier Dry speaking at the Senior Inter-House Debating grand final between Alexander House and St Andrews House

SECOND ROW: John Townsley, Harry Coggan, James Winch, Caden Hart, of Debating), William Steinberg Mrs Mia Sullivan (Coach), Ms Gabriel Hodgson (Middle School Head (Senior School Head of Debating), Sam Wake, Ms Marie Grech (Coach), (Coach), Mr Brendan Zani (Coach), Lachlan Norcott, Miss Kate Gooding FRONT ROW: Ashley Edgar, Miss Caitlin Collins (Coach), Mrs Dawn Scaife

Benjamin Scott, Henry Vaughan, Oscar Clements, Guy Teissier Banjo Harold, Lloyd Easton, Heath Smyth, Toren Edwards, Benjamin Edgar, FOURTH ROW: Lachlan Teissier, Tane Croon-Hargrave, Beau Luscombe, Montandon, Harry Frodsham, Ben Marris Alastair Walker, Pearson Chambel, Milan Narula, Heath Muller, Julien THIRD ROW: Isaac Oddy, Xavier Dry, Julius Kain, Fletcher O’Connell,

Mrs Karen Woods (Coach) Mrs Robyn Bose (Coach), Mrs Courtney Ellis (Coach), Codi Cook, Jack Douglas, Yan Zhou, Mrs Amanda Beckett (Coach), ABSENT: Abel Algie, Oliver Barrett, Billy Chambers, Darcy Cocking, Debating

DUKE OF EDINBURGH

Mrs Louise Lilford Duke of Edinburgh Award Leader

In 2020, our Duke of Edinburgh participant registrations continued to grow.

CURRENTLY, WE HAVE 122 STUDENTS actively pursuing bronze or silver awards and 10 boys working their way through a gold award. Forty-two students completed their awards this year.

COVID-19 brought about a few challenges in all sections of the award. The Duke of Edinburgh office quickly offered suggestions for students to continue their Voluntary Service, Skills and Physical Recreation. With the soup kitchen unable to operate, several students continued to cook soup at home, bringing it into school once a week. Some took on learning a new language or learning to code online and many boys began running to stay physically fit. Technology supported us as students uploaded videos and photos as evidence of their activities. For the weeks that the College was working purely online, we set up a Teams group for Duke of Edinburgh. Boys posted ideas on how to continue working on the award and we held meetings for students with queries and concerns.

Fortunately, we did not need to concern ourselves with Adventurous Journeys being cancelled. Students were able to attend Moray Camps and their Year 10 Expeditions, which encompassed preparation and training, a practice journey and a qualifying journey. The Abrolhos Islands Adventurous Journey was cancelled but will be held in April 2021, which will assist our gold participants.

We are grateful that our boys enjoyed success in the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme thanks to the many Scotch staff who were able to assist them in an assessor role. Each boy’s journey was monitored and checked to allow them to develop new skills and enjoy new experiences.

Some took on learning a new language.

Duke of Edinburgh

FRONT ROW: James Bennett, Jarvis Banfield, Aidan McKie, Will Partridge, Arad Rad, Charlie Radici, Jack Rigg, Xavier Houston, Rupert Arbuckle SECOND ROW: Mr David Kyle (Award Leader), Max De Nardi, Kalani Locke, Mederic Gide, Richard Walton, Hugh Mitchell, Remi Brossard, Curtis Sciano, Julius Kain, Mrs Louise Lilford (Award Leader) THIRD ROW: Nicholas Verryn, Connor Smith, Thomas Sounness, Jim Allan, Oliver Cropp-Chobanne, Tobias Evans, Hamish Gooch FOURTH ROW: Max Shervington, Bailey Thomson, Isaac Gold, Gianni Kain, Matthew Steinepreis, Matthew Robson, Simon Arnott, Thomas Delroy ABSENT: Oliver Barrett, Christiaan Buys, Oliver Constantine, Geordie Hamilton, Yan Zhou

INDIGENOUS NETWORK

Mr Richard Ledger & Mr CJ Jackson Indigenous Programme Coordinators

Year 12s Sam Wolf and Daniel O’Meara with West Coast Eagles’ Alicia Jans

This year, eight Year 12 Indigenous boys graduated from Scotch College – our largest group in recent years.

THESE BOYS take off on a range of pathways next year, including studying medicine, law, art and business at university or taking on electrical, mechanical and carpentry apprenticeships across the state. Each student has made a significant contribution, not just to the Scotch College Indigenous Network, but to the College as a whole and we wish them all the best in the next phase of their learning. The COVID-19-driven return to hometowns and communities earlier in the year proved that distance learning was a viable option for short-term absences. We also had the chance to see into the home and community lives of many of the boys. An enduring image is of Nic Chi in Year 7 sitting under a tree working on his laptop with a backdrop of spinifex grass and the blue water of Beagle Bay behind him. It was not just a reminder of the vastness and the beauty of our land, but of the journey that some of our boys undertake to come to Perth for school.

Highlights this year included another great NAIDOC Week full of activity and ceremony, Patrick Eastough’s (Year 12) interview of Daniel O’Meara at Senior School Assembly and Sam Wolf and Reuben Westerman’s academic awards at the Madalah Future Footprints graduation ceremony.

As the year finished, the second half of the Indigenous mural in Middle School was finished adding a large freshwater fish that, along with the existing tortoise, presents a neat link with the wildlife of Galbamannup (Lake Claremont).

Indigenous Network

FRONT ROW: Craig Souey, Alexander Wolf, Samuel Wolf, Reuben Westerman, Mr Richard Ledger (Head of Middle School), Mr CJ Jackson (Indigenous Students’ Mentor), Daniel O’Meara, Kevin Laidlaw, Tyrelle Manado, Jonus Williams SECOND ROW: Benjamin Stack, Dallmyn Kelly, Christopher Pickett, Jaylan Tolentino, Timothy Jorda, Brandon Wright, Keion Mongoo, Cooper Matera, Nicholas Chi THIRD ROW: Jarrod Hoyer, Kaymus Brierly, Jaezari Wynne, Jahlil Hajinoor-Fuller, Sean Bonney, Jett Sibosado, Jamayden Chong, Brenton Macauley, Raquell Bin Rashid FOURTH ROW: Ahmad Sgro, Jyrone White, Ashlin Hall, William Wolf, Brooke Milner, Jedd Simmons, Dardayne Russie ABSENT: Elijsha Blackburn, Phillip Pitt, Azhar Sgro, Keilan Simpson, Jensen Westerman

LIBRARY

Mr Brad Tyrrell Dean of Information and Learning Technology

WHEN THE JUNIOR and Middle School boys arrived in the Library this year, they discovered we had rearranged everything to create a combined Junior-Middle space where everyone could access the whole Library, rather than being directed into largely separate sub-school areas. The Junior School boys loved expanding into the beanbag area and having Junior Fiction and picture books in their reading space, along with all the new Little Pipers’ books that they could share.

On Monday mornings Ms Lisa Perriam and Mr Warwick Norman performed stories and songs to 0–3-year-old children, their parents and grandparents in our wonderful Little Pipers’ Loving Literacy sessions. The fun did not stop during the COVID-19 lockdown; the Library team worked together to bring our songs, stories and crafts to families via videos and activities on our Little Pipers LibGuide. Preparing everything for Book Week is exhausting but with this year’s engaging ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’ theme, the Junior School boys were able to ‘go wild’ in their costume parade whilst watching the staff pantomime of The Wildest Book Week Ever. Mr Norman had two teams in this year’s Readers’ Challenge, who spent most of the year preparing their reads for the quiz at Methodist Ladies’ College, and Ms Grech’s Creative Writing Club entered numerous writing competitions including the Make Your Own Story Book Competition for Book Week.

The Middle School Books ’n’ Bros Book Club continued to be oversubscribed with Jurassic Park, Stormbreaker, Good Omens, Secret Runners of New York, Ship of Smoke and Steel and The Martian being big hits this year. Along with our Dungeons and Dragons co-curricular club, lunchtimes continued to be dominated by loud, but beloved, games and activities.

With the move to remote learning at the end of Summer Term, the Senior Library (Bunning Resource Centre) staff shifted their focus to supporting students accessing and using digital resources. This included research assistance with databases and sourcing electronic articles, accessing eBooks and audiobooks for recreational reading, and providing software support for Turnitin, ClickView and Office 365.

Our student book club also ran online during this period, which

Alexander Haynes (Year 1) enjoying the Book Week Parade; Brandon Wu (Year 3) with his favourite book

helped keep us all connected. Sadly, this year our first group of members are graduating Year 12. They have been active participants and we will miss them. This year’s titles included The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, The Last Wish, Jurassic Park and The Martian.

We continued to refine our MyReading software in the Senior Library, enabling students to quickly identify books that they would want to read while promoting reading for pleasure. Years 9 and 10 students completed a survey on their genre and topic preferences and personal interests. Staff then populated a personalised digital bookshelf for each boy.

In Spring Term, the Junior Middle Library staff created bookshelves for the Year 6 boys, with the aim of utilising MyReading throughout the Middle and Senior Schools.

UN YOUTH

Sam Wake Year 11

UN YOUTH AUSTRALIA is a national youth-led organisation that aims to empower and educate young Australians. Every year they run competitions, seminars and conferences that focus on international affairs, the role of the United Nations and the importance of young leaders in making a difference. The organisation is run exclusively by volunteers aged 16–25 who produce events for over 15,000 people.

In recent years Scotch College has been heavily involved, with students participating and excelling in different areas. However, due to COVID-19, many of the state conferences and day-long workshops were rendered impossible and as a result, the number of UN Youth competitions and events were significantly fewer this year.

As restrictions eased, UN Youth was able to hold the Evatt Diplomacy Competition for 2020. The competition is a mock United Nations Security Council where participants must represent a nationstate. Students debate, negotiate and reach consensus with other teams representing other countries to reach strategic goals for their own country. The subject of the debate can vary depending on the resolutions given, ranging from conflicts in the Middle East to terrorism in the Balkan States and police brutality across the globe. The teams are judged for how effective they are at pursuing their state’s interests and can pursue these goals in a variety of ways, through pushing amendments, making strategic alliances or using their country’s influence in the chamber.

This year, Scotch fielded one team in the competition comprising Lachlan Norcott (Year 12, Anderson) and myself. The competition saw over 320 students from Western Australia compete and more than 1,500 students nationally. After a preliminary round representing Tunisia and semi-final as the United Kingdom, we qualified for the grand final. There we had to represent the interests of St Vincent and the Grenadines, a small island nation in the Caribbean. In the final we had three resolutions, the first being the contentious topic of Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and Palestinian territory and the last condemned the United States, Nigeria and China for the recent increase in police brutality. As expected, the debate was at times heated and exciting to be a part of. After six hours of debate Lachlan and I were fortunate to win the state competition for the third time in Scotch’s history, qualifying for the national round to be held online in December.

UN Youth provides opportunities unlike any other to young people across Australia. I have been involved with the organisation extensively during my time at the College and it has certainly shaped my experience here. Students can either pursue competition and debate or simply engage in workshops and fun, engaging activities. I strongly encourage all younger students to participate as it is truly a great experience.

UN Youth

FRONT ROW: Jolyon Harrison-Murray, Oscar Clements, Sam Wake, Pearson Chambel, Heath Muller BACK ROW: Mr Brendan Zani, Benjamin Scott, Toren Edwards, Lloyd Easton, Lachlan Norcott