Great Scot May 2020 Great Scot 159_MAY 2020_ONLINE_V3 | Page 10

JUNIOR SCHOOL
MR JON ABBOTT
HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL
YOU NEVER
KNOW IF YOU
DON’T HAVE A GO
Normally when I meet with new Scotch families
I share with them a general description of what the
School hopes to achieve for their sons. I boil it down
to three main areas: helping boys to achieve the best
academic outcomes that we can, guiding them to
become fine young men who we can all be proud of,
and helping them to find interests that can grow into
passions. These three themes seem to resonate quite
strongly with parents, and it hopefully confirms that
they have made a good choice of school for their boys.
Helping boys find things that are of interest to
them and then turning these into passions is just
as important as their academic outcomes and their
personal development. Developing a passion, whether
it be in the sporting arena, performing arts, fine arts,
technology, science, debating, the environment or any
other area is very important for our later wellbeing
and enjoyment of life. Finding a pastime that we are
genuinely passionate about can bring a great deal of
meaning to our lives, and also provide us with the
opportunity to experience joy.
We can discover our passions in many ways as we
move through our developing years. We can stumble
across them by good fortune. We might be directed
to them by our parents or another significant adult.
Perhaps we find them by following friends or siblings.
Or maybe there was always an interest from a very
young age that we have been provided opportunity to
allow to flourish.
In our Junior School, one of the ways we help boys
to find their passions is by introducing them to as
many different experiences and activities as we can.
The more things boys try, the more likely they will
find those pastimes that really spark their interest. The
old saying ‘you never know if you don’t have a go’ rings
very true in this case. We explain to the boys that it
is important to give everything a go at least once. It is
not dissimilar to what we do with young children and
food. I used to say to my daughters that they couldn’t
say they didn’t like a food unless they had at least
sampled it.
Another factor in discovering our passions is
that we are far more likely to be attracted to an
activity when the persons who are sharing it with us
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Great Scot Issue 159 – May 2020
demonstrate their passion for it. I fear that, too often
in life, young people who are starting to develop an
interest in an area can have it squashed or dampened
by others. Parents who can’t or won’t support it, friends
who want to ridicule or trivialise it, or an uninspiring
coach, mentor or teacher can all be passion killers. On
the other hand, having supportive and encouraging
parents and friends and a mentor who is not only
inspiring but also exudes a similar passion can be the
sparks to light a fire in young people.
I would like to think our teachers here at Scotch
fall into the latter category: teachers who not only have
a great passion for their field but also a great desire to
share that passion with those under their tutelage. I see
examples of this every day here at Scotch.
I have been fortunate over my lifetime to have had
all of these factors in place at important developmental
stages of my life. I have had parents who would
make significant sacrifices to ensure that my siblings
and I could pursue sporting passions, coaches who
inspired me to believe that I could become a successful
sportsman, and friends who provided encouragement
along the way.
However, there is one particular person who played
a very significant part in my life – my Year 6 teacher,
Mrs Jan Mongan – who shared her passion for learning
and for teaching with our class every day. She inspired
us to develop a lifelong love of learning, and her care
and attention for each child meant that every one of us
felt as if we were the most special student in her class.
As I travelled through that final year of primary
school, I started to develop a desire to become a teacher
like Mrs Mongan. I wanted to have a job where I could
make others feel special and important, just as Mrs
Mongan had done for our class. I feel very fortunate
now to have had such an inspiring mentor who lit a
spark in me to take up a career in teaching.
As I now enjoy another year of teaching I would
like to think that maybe, from all of the children I
have taught or worked with these past 40-odd years,
there might be a handful who may also have decided
to take up the profession of teaching because of a spark
that maybe, in some small way, I might have helped to
kindle.