Great Scot May 2020 Great Scot 159_MAY 2020_ONLINE_V3 | Page 54

FOUNDATION
THE NEW HUB OF
SCOTCH TAKES SHAPE
MR TIM SHEARER ('85)
DIRECTOR OF
DEVELOPMENT,
FOUNDATION EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
BELOW: SATURA 1956
— SADLY NUMBER 4
CAME TRUE!
NOT ‘FORTY YEARS ON’ …
RATHER, SIXTY!
Scotch continues to be a busy place, even in the
constrained and exceptional circumstances of the effects
of the coronavirus on our community, and the absence of
boys and most staff from the campus. The Keon-Cohen
Dining Hall is now completed, and works are continuing
on the Archives Museum and OSCA House Project
(incorporating the Scotch Shop), while other renovation
projects are well under way or are about to commence
in earnest.
For more than 60 years the School has been
aware of the need to provide better dining facilities for
our students on the Senior School campus. The old
Tuckshop, designed in 1919 and used since the original
Senior School buildings were completed in 1922, has
done sterling service, and for generations of boys and
staff it has been an institution – as have the staff who
have served in it.
This month, however, Scotch has moved into a new
era, despite the regrettable postponement of the official
opening of the Keon-Cohen Dining Hall to a date later
in the year. In no time at all, this magnificent centre will
cater for our students and staff in a spacious, light-filled
environment, with ample seating and modern facilities
providing healthy and nutritious options for boys and
staff alike. It will also serve as a social hub for students,
surrounded as it will soon be by new House Home
Rooms. With both indoor and outdoor seating and eating
areas, the Dining Hall and St Andrew’s Square precinct
will become another major School focal point.
Here at Scotch, we have been well aware that the last
few years have seen extraordinary development at the
School, and the boys and staff have had to withstand the
noise and inconvenience of substantial building works,
and the impact this has brought to bear on teaching and
learning. To their credit, they have accommodated this
with considerable flexibility, a practical mindset and an
eye, no doubt, on the delicious fare that awaited them
when tools were finally downed!
One of the things we are most looking forward to is
being able to open up the Keon-Cohen Dining Hall after
hours to our community to share and enjoy all it has to
offer. This will also enable legions of Old Boys who have
gone before to finally experience a very different kind of
Scotch culinary experience from the one they had while
at school – albeit one which was many decades in
the making.
We take this opportunity to thank all those whose
generosity has enabled this momentous project to
come to fruition. The magnificent Hawthorn campus
that we see today is essentially the result of the ongoing
philanthropy and foresight of successive generations of
the Scotch community. Special thanks are extended to
those whose philanthropy in this instance has enabled
the Keon-Cohen Dining Hall to transform a rather tired,
outdated corner of the School into a vital new hub. It is
a legacy from which all Scotch boys stand to benefit in
perpetuity, and on behalf of the Scotch Family, we thank
you most sincerely.