Great Scot December 2019 Great Scot 158_December_ONLINE | Page 5

THE CLASS OF 2019 VALEDICTORY DINNER: SADNESS MINGLED WITH JOYFUL EXPECTATION OF GREATER FREEDOM AND OPPORTUNITIES TO BE SEIZED
The right of parents to choose the education
for their children is supported by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. School independence
is an assertion of freedom to decide what form that
education will take, and to offer that education to all
who see it as meeting the needs of their children.
Scotch College has used its independence to provide
a curriculum and an educational environment that
has proven its exceptional worth over the years. While
there are constant demands to conform to government-
imposed curricula, Mr Batty made clear to the parents
and boys at the Valedictory Dinner that Scotch’s
independence enables the School to adapt to externally
imposed pressures in a wide variety of ways, with
its own subjects and courses, pastoral and learning
support, professional development of teachers, and an
enormous range of co-curricular and extracurricular
activities.
It is worth adding here that Mr Batty’s role as
Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International
Boys’ Schools Coalition (with its membership of some
270 schools across 13 countries) provides him with
exceptional insight into the ingredients of educational
success.
The School Council, too, takes advantage of
this freedom by supporting the Principal’s plans for
resourcing innovation in teaching and learning, and by
constructing new facilities and campus improvements
that continue to lift the quality of a Scotch education,
implementing the best ideas that Australian schooling
can offer.
In recent times, educational innovations include a
focus on building teaching skills and improving boys’
outcomes through a professional development action
research program, the reshaped pastoral care model
for the Middle School, with teachers following their
year group from Year 7 to Year 8, the program using
young Old Boys as ‘learning guides’, and exploration
of a Centre for Enterprise to develop boys’ ability to
identify and develop solutions to difficult problems,
and then to successfully take ideas to the marketplace.
The new Keon-Cohen Dining Hall, to be opened
next year, we hope will become a focal point not
merely for boys to build friendships but for staff and
boys to engage more readily in informal learning
relationships.
Scotch College has been fortunate that its
independence, educational freedom, traditions and
values, enable it to adapt readily to rapid changes
in society, technology, and expectations. The
School Council, Principal and staff all treasure the
independence and freedom that underpin Scotch’s
success.
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
5