Week 2, Autumn Term 2021
Dear Boarding Families,
I start by sending my thoughts out to our families in the Midwest and Wheatbelt who have suffered damage from Tropical Cyclone Seroja. Conversations that I have had with families in affected areas have spoken of significant damage to roofs and fences and a lot of damage caused by uprooted trees. This has caused some pain for families and also a lot of extra work during the time of seeding, which is one of the busiest times of the year. At last week’s assembly, our Captain of Boarding Brenton Macauley spoke to the whole school about the effects that TC Seroja has had on some of our families and explained that part of our annual fundraising efforts from our annual “Ag Day” will go towards relief for people in affected areas or the service providers who have stepped up to help. If any families in the area have a good idea about where we can focus our help, please let me know.
We had another well-publicised challenge in the past weekend with another COVID lockdown in Perth. On this occasion, due to the late Friday message from The Premier and the short 3 day period of lockdown, we decided to keep our boarding houses open and ride out the lockdown on campus. We had around half of our boys stay with us over the long weekend. I was very happy with the behaviour of our boys and impressed with the dedication and creativity of our staff as we looked to entertain the boys on campus whilst also having to restrict our recreation events to campus. The School’s excellent facilities certainly worked in our favour as we were able to take the boys to the pool and gym on Friday and Saturday as well as have a game of Gaelic football and a game of AFL on ANZAC day. We also had a lovely ANZAC Day service on Sunday with Ollie Wandel giving us a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace and Auld Lang Syne on the bagpipes. James Holtham and Kye McCreery read to us and Rev Gary van Heerden came and helped us conduct the service.
We are currently in the middle of Year 11 and 12 examinations and have been supporting boys through that process. Mr Ninkov and Mr Wood have worked with the boys to create study timetables and accommodate them as much as possible with our academic tutor roster. We will also be looking to hold workshops for our Year 9s in the lead up to their first examinations in Week 10 of this term. We also have a lot of action going on with the Year 10s this week as they go through their course and subject selection process for next year. I hope parents have felt well informed by the recent parent teacher interviews this week and please feel free to follow up with House Heads or Head of Residence if you have any further questions and we can find the right people to ask.
I also wanted to thank parents for a fantastic evening late last term at the Boarding Parent Sundowner. It was a lovely chance to socialise and hear about how the year has begun for families. It was also a chance to debrief about Boarding’s start to the year with our new structure, which has been really positive and the new refurbishment project in the Middle School Boarding House. We are still planning for our Middle School boys to be moving into that newly refurbished residence at the beginning of Winter Term in late July.
Late last term you would have also been sent an email about our approach with Medical appointments and the role of staff. I would like to reiterate that Medical appointments should be made in conjunction with the Medical Centre. Fiona Richmond, our Nurse Manager knows when House Mothers are available to take boys to appointments, which is normally in the morning or the afternoon just after their scheduled shifts. Fiona and her team also know local health providers so we can minimise travel time to and from school. If appointments are not local and not at certain times of the day, it makes it very difficult to staff and we will need to call upon Perth guardians or ask the appointments be scheduled for times that parents are in Perth. This is why it is so important that the Health Centre is involved from the beginning and also important that families and Perth hosts help us to have a smooth and workable system for all our boarders. I hope this clears up some confusion.
I am always available for feedback, as are our Heads of Residence so please feel free to get in touch. We are also always looking for parents to volunteer to join our Boarding Parents Support Group so please get in touch about that too. We have our Ag Day coming up on the 17th June, after seeding, and would love some parent help. We also have big plans for our Ag Day in 2022 so would love some help discussing ideas for that event too. Please keep an eye out for our next meeting, likely to be early June, just before the boys are picked up for the Mid-Term Break.
I wish all families a peaceful weekend.
Jordan
ANZAC DAY SERVICE
More photos can be seen on Vidigami under Boarder Lockdown Weekend at https://au.vidigami.com/scotchwa/albums/2340/media
INTRODUCING OUR NEW INDIGENOUS PROGRAMME CO-ORDINATOR – MICHEAL SPRATT
We would like to introduce you to Micheal Spratt, who has been appointed the new Scotch College Indigenous Student Programme Co-Ordinator.
He is a strong Noongar Yamatji man living in Perth. Indigenous Dancing and playing the Digeridoo are two passions of his and he has been fortunate enough to perform in the UK and Scotland. Micheal attended Wesley College as a Scholarship recipient, so he is very familiar with the PSA School Indigenous Programme, as a student and after graduating, within the programme at Wesley College.
Through this programme Micheal was able to learn and practice his culture with immense pride, whilst also receiving an excellent education. Through his journey at school, he realised the importance of having a strong sense of culture in order to succeed. Micheal’s goal now is to engage with and teach Non-Indigenous people and the younger indigenous generation of leaders about Indigenous Culture, and to convey the message to all Australians that we should be proud of having the oldest living continuing culture in the world.
If you wish to contact Micheal, his details are micheal.spratt@scotch.wa.edu.au or his direct line 9383 6913.
We look forward to having Micheal as part of our Boarding Team.
SCOTCH ON THE ROAD – CORRIGIN – 25 JUNE
BOARDING PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION – Send your entries in!