Week 4, Spring Term 2022
Dear Boarding Families
It has been another busy and fruitful fortnight in boarding. Whenever I take the time to reflect on what we have done before penning this blog, I am always amazed at the amount of good experiences that our boys get to have and that they give us.
For example, this fortnight, one of the many things our boys went to was the T20 World Cup at Optus Stadium to see Australia defeat Sri Lanka! This weekend, they are getting on a bus heading to the Boddington Rodeo! This is on top of the various picnics, game nights with other schools, movies and as it warms up, a few beach runs. I know our new Year 10s are particularly loving their new-found freedom to go on Beach Leave for a couple of hours after school when they don’t have sport training. On top of this, we have organised for a group of our Year 11s and 12s to undertake their Recreational Skippers Ticket. We had so many boys who were keen that we had to limit the group to the senior years only. We will offer the course again next year for the Year 10s who missed out this time. Another wonderful opportunity for our boys is our Wednesday afternoon workshop skills classes run by Mr Van Ingen-Kal. Boarders who are interested in improving their woodwork, metalwork or design skills are invited to join Mr V. I have seen how boys make everything from toolboxes to skateboards in the workshop. These practical projects are a great opportunity for those boarders who love to work with their hands but perhaps didn’t choose design and technology as an academic subject at school. Because the Year 12 boys are now coming out of the course, we are quite low in numbers, so I would love for parents to encourage their sons to see me about this. We need a critical mass of boys to keep this course viable.
Our leadership group has made a good start. We are finalising some ideas and preferences for our Boarding Week in 2023 as well as getting our Clash of Clans games started next week. We are also organising the ceremony to introduce our Yr 8s into their senior clans later in November. Lochie Elliot our Captain of Boarding has also made his first speech to the whole Senior School Assembly which was great to see. Another initiative from Lochie is his “Bring a Mate to dinner” idea where all Yr 12 boarders will be encouraged to bring a day boy friend to boarding for an evening. His idea is for the day boy to join the boarder’s routine straight after school, see the boarding house and share dinner and prep with us before being picked up by about 8:30pm. The plan is then to give every year group an opportunity throughout the year to do this. It’s a great way to integrate our day school community into our boarding community and create shared stories. I’m sure that the Middle School day boys can not wait to give this a go so they can finally get to taste Mrs Hannington’s famous afternoon teas!
In our boarding assemblies each fortnight, we do a small but significant thing, which is to highlight some positive affirmations from the week and give credit to our boarders who do the right thing and live our values through their actions. I thought it best to let parents know this as well. We often pick one boy from each Clan who are noted by staff in our duty reports for standing out. This week we had the following boys acknowledged:
Middle School Clan – Joe Purser (Yr 7) For always doing his chores with no fuss, helping others, making sure he does an excellent job and not having to be asked. This week Joe did an excellent job of cleaning the kitchen.
Blair Clan – Jordy Bowden (Yr 10) Jordy has made a fantastic start to boarding with his attitude and his smile is already a feature in our community.
Stirling Clan – Oscar Zheng (Yr 12) Last week during the backyard cricket and barbeque, Oscar did a great job helping out on the barbeque and cooking up a storm for everyone and then cleaning up the barbeque as well. Well done Oscar!
Some big news from boarding with regards to staffing. I am pleased to announce that after a rigorous application and interview process, we are able to announce that Mr Steven Montgomery will be joining our community in 2023 as our Head of Senior Residence for Stirling Clan. Steven is currently a Director of Residence at Aquinas College, where he has worked for the past 6 years running Pinder Boor House, a boarding house of around 60 boys from Year 8- Year 12. Steven has a wealth of experience in boarding and also as a Health and Phys Ed, Outdoor Ed and Humanities teacher. Steven, his wife Paula and their two children Indiana and Logan will be moving onto campus in December or January to begin with us in 2023. We are very excited about the Montgomerys coming to join us at Scotch next year and I realise the importance of our families having security in the knowledge that the process was thorough, but has now concluded. Steven will be joining us on 30th November for our annual Boarding Planning Day where his input into our 2023 plans will be welcomed. We will organise a time for Steven to meet families from Stirling Clan and the wider boarding community as soon as possible where I am sure you would like to welcome him in person.
Finally, I would like to wish all the boys who are going on the Bibbulmun Track next week and the week after all the best. The weather looks good and the landscape is always stunning, where else would you rather be in Spring than outdoors walking in the forests of WA! I will be travelling myself, not on the track, but down to Albany next weekend to host a function with Mr Mecham and the Headmaster. We will also be going to the Albany Show! We would love to see you at our function, please have a look at this link for further information. If you are in the Kojonup area, the Headmaster is also having a lunch with families at the Black Cockatoo Café from 12pm on the way down on Friday and more information can be found here
All the best
Jordan
Middle School Community Projects
The Year 8 Boarders presented their Community Projects during the Showcase on 4th November. The boys have done incredibly well and all came up with their own Community Service ideas. Brodie has raised $1000 for the Cancer Council, where others got involved in cleaning up or helping out Conservations around Western Australia, or Jake creating audio books for kids who might not be able to read yet or another great example from Will volunteering at an elementary school for nearly two weeks during his School Holidays. Declan raised an amazing amount of $2000 for Blaze Aid, please scroll down to see him at the Middle School Assembly.
Middle School Assembly
At the Middle School Assembly we had four 2023 Year 7 Boarders in to introduce themselves to our MS community. Declan had a guest speaker from Blaze Aid come in to accept his cheque for $2000 as a part of his Community Project.
Bagpipe Band
On the left picture you can see Oli, who went down to Bunbury with the Bagpipe band to perform at the Brunswick Show. The right picture shows Wes and Brodie’s their band during their morning practice that they both attend twice a week.
Brodie, Declan and Sim at their Cricket Game
T20 World Cup at Optus Stadium
Some of the Senior Boys went to watch the cricket game in the Optus Stadium. They saw how Australia beat Sri Lanka by 7 Wickets on October 25th.
Ben, Kieran and Joe Cleaning up Around Scotch
Year 11s on Rec Activities in Fremantle On the Weekend
Bobtail Nigel is back in the Lake Claremont Reserve
Boarders Enjoying the Yummy Dessert
Please find the dining hall menu from the past month in the right column. The Churros dessert is definitely a popular one!
Left Picture is Ollie doing some extra homework in the morning and the Right picture is Keion and his Birthday Cake!