Year 10: Winter Term 2019
We have now come to the end of the Winter term and Year 10 academic year. Next term the boys start Year 11. The boys have selected the courses that they want to do, and my expectations are therefore that they will seriously focus on the subjects they have chosen. It is noticeable from the boy’s room selections, that boys have often chosen room mates who they perceive to be hard working.
As the boys are becoming men it is pleasing to see from my position that they are starting to think less about putting themselves first. They are starting to emerge from the “grunt phase” and have mature conversations. Most are avoiding confrontation with staff by accepting “fair cop” and apologising while the situation is still a mole hill. Many parents who may not have seen their son for a long time may be in for a pleasant surprise when they come home for the holidays. That said, parents may also notice that they are developing independence rapidly and hold viewpoints that may differ to theirs.
Football dominated the earlier part of the term, and I would like to commend Raquell bin Rashid who won the best and fairest for a very successful Year 10 A side, and Andrew Steel who won the coaches award for Year 10 Cs. In the Boarder’s Footy tipping competition Mr Hales finished 7th, which was the best of the Year 10 group, narrowly pipping Brenton Macauley (my football advisor), who went rogue in the last week. While only a few played Badminton, Rugby, or Hockey, hockey goal-keeper Kye McCreery was a “gun for hire” as he seemed to not only playing for the Year 10’s and his club side, but also filling a hole for the 3rd XI and a more senior club side.
Recently we have had the Athletics season. Sport during this time is voluntary. From my viewpoint it is interesting to see who is putting in and who is going to Claremont. I commend those boys who had a crack. There were several that went down to training and may not have represented the school. They have earned “mana”. That said we had a number of boys who did represent the school at both Quads and Inters including: James Holtham, Raquell bin Rashid, Muddy Sgro, Max Mead, and Darcy O’Halloran. Scotch won the Inters and I urge all boys to find at least one event they can target.
Next term the new Year 11’s have the opportunity to walk the next section of the Bibbulmun track. This section is from Palings Road near Manjimup to Northcliffe and is happening between 10-15 November. There is core group of 8 boys who have signed up for this.
Last term Haig Mactaggart took the opportunity to go on exchange to a school close to San Francisco. This term his exchangee, Gabe Dias, came to Scotch. It was evident that Gabe took full advantage of his opportunity. He is a third baseman in Baseball back home, but certainly enjoyed playing Football, and was even promoted to the Year 10 B team. Gabe enjoyed his stay, particularly the trip to Rottnest and was very grateful to the Mactaggart family who hosted him. (He was also very complimentary about the Scotch teachers and staff.)
In Year 10, recreational activities are haphazard. There were two socials with girl’s schools on the same weekend (one on the Friday and one on the Saturday). One was well attended and was “OK” while the other attracted a handful of boys but was described as a “great night” based on the number of phone numbers they got. Recently thanks to James Holtham’s initiative, a large group went to the movie “IT: Chapter 2”, and on the last night of the term we went to Allegro’s Restaurant to farewell Andrew Steel.
In the final week, the boys who did their expeditions last holidays got a week off, while the rest did their expeditions. I wish all families a good holiday and a well-earned break. As a Geography teacher, I’m aware that for many of the farming families need the right amount of rain and the lack of frosts at this time is critical to the final outcome. To you, I say to you “Kia Kaha”.