in causes bigger than oneself ; appreciation of what excellence really looks like , what it takes to pursue it , and the vulnerability inherent in such pursuit ; and capacity to see actions through others ’ frames of reference .
Primary to such commitment is ensuring Scotch remains a safe environment for the boys . The School is in the final year of three of its accreditation as a Safe School by the Australian Childhood Foundation . Whilst the process of reaccreditation is , and has been , ongoing , it will take formal form in September and October .
Building on recent developments in promoting enterprise at Scotch – including the introduction of the Year 9 / 10 Scotch Enterprise Programme elective , the forming of the Enterprise Club , a growing focus on coding and algorithms , and robotics , and the introduction of VCE Systems Engineering – we are giving considered thought to the development of a syllabus for a comprehensive enterprise course .
Extending such entrepreneurial intent to our dayto-day craft , and drawing on our work during periods of remote instruction , we will be seeking to contrive for boys and teachers , ready and intelligent online access to live and recorded lessons and resources .
Recent years have seen considerable progress made in the digitisation and intelligent storage of school records . This will continue over the months ahead , alongside a broader push to digitise practice across the School .
We will take a fresh look at matters of sustainability at the School , considering how current and future practice and developments might evolve in keeping with our aspirations , good management and responsibilities , as both school and community partner .
Developing our physical environment in harmony with our educational aspirations has been at the heart of our efforts this past decade . The summer vacation saw final touches put to the St Andrew ’ s Square plaza around the Keon-Cohen Dining Hall , the provision of two new House Rooms in the westerly corners of the Quadrangle , and the completion of preliminary works on the ground floor of the Languages and Culture Centre in preparation for the opening of the final four ( of the current incarnation ) House Rooms at the beginning of 2022 . Planning continues for the development of accommodation facilities in School and McMeckan boarding houses and for the Michael Robinson Centre for Mathematics that current planning will , in due course , have occupy the southern flank of St Andrew ’ s Square .
In the Junior School , as boys and staff enjoy and explore new possibilities in the refurbished Harbig Library , growth of the boys will be considered through encounters to promote respect , fairness , equity , diversity , compassion and excellence . Amidst the broader curriculum , focus will be maintained on creativity and curiosity , competencies with digital technologies and poetry .
Across the School , we will continue targeted support for boys requiring additional literacy and numeracy support as a consequence of the disruption to learning caused by COVID-19 .
The Teacher Action Research and Career Development Programme , which sees staff collaborate in teams on projects of personal professional interest to the benefit of the boys , returns from its 2020 COVID hiatus , with first round projects to be presented at the end of the year .
The International Special Interest Group on Relational Teaching and Learning , established in partnership with the Crescent School in Toronto and with support from Dr Michael Reichert and the International Boys ’ Schools Coalition , will reconvene . Twenty-eight schools across eight countries will divide into clusters to share and develop their relational practice and expertise , including use of the relational learning situational judgment test , developed by Scotch , Crescent and Michael Reichert .
Similarly , the Scotch Educational Reading Group will again have staff gathering to discuss seminal articles on educational theory and how they might inform future initiatives at the School .
Term 1 will see inaugural participation of all staff in our new Staff Experience and Engagement Survey , designed in partnership with Professor James Tognolini , Director Educational Measurement and Assessment Hub at the University of Sydney . The survey has been constructed to report on experience of , and engagement with , the workplace and staff wellbeing , and will be administered triennially .
The Year 12 mentoring programme , developed last year to support boys learning remotely , will be offered again this year , as further support for academic subject advice , general health guidance , post-Scotch pathways and broad pastoral care .
And , of course , around ovals , courts and riverbanks , the boys will be resplendent in their new sporting uniforms !
All such initiatives are designed to better connect boys to each other , the world they are inheriting and those with whom they will share it ; to better empower them to connect economic and social enterprise ; to better enable them to see that the quality of their lives is intrinsically connected to the quality of lives all around them , near and far ; to see my breath seek its rightful place with the stars , with everyone else who breathes . Sincerity , Carol Ann Duffy www . scotch . vic . edu . au Great Scot 7