Great Scot - The Scotch Family Magazine - Issue 151 September 2017 GreatScot_Internal_Sept_2017_FA | Page 36

Senior School Senior School News ABOVE: SCOTCH BOYS AT THE BALLARAT SPECIALIST SCHOOL. Challenging, rewarding time at Ballarat Over five days in May, nine Year 11 Scotch boys travelled to the Ballarat Specialist School, in the first year of a partnership between the two schools. We stayed on the school’s farm campus together, and made daily trips between this accommodation and the main school. During the week, boys worked closely together in classrooms with boys and girls from Prep to Year 12 with mild to complex physical and mental disabilities, as well as with many dedicated teaching and support staff. The school’s Captains, Matt and Robbie, took all the Scotch boys on a tour of the farm campus, and one boy every day got to stay at the campus and try out different things there, such as woodwork, and work at the campus cafe. We participated in activities with some of the school’s older students in the afternoons, such as bowling and go-karting, and ate at the school’s commercial cafe, run by students, on our final day. We engaged in many activities with the kids at the school campus, which, while including helping out with maths and English, also included walks around Ballarat, bike riding and jujitsu. We all found it immensely rewarding, and at times challenging, working with children often our own age or younger, who had dreams and interests the same as our own, but lived very different lifestyles due to the range of their disabilities. The older students were particularly accommodating, and even on the first few days we were forming friendships with the students, who seemed to all of us the same as ourselves in personality and outlook. The experience of living together on the farm campus also taught us essential life skills, such as budgeting, and the friendships we formed over our cooking will not be forgotten quickly. We would like to thank Senior Teacher Matt Gannon and the amazing staff and students for accommodating us so generously, and allowing us to come into classes to see the awesome work taking place at the school. Next year, our Year 11 students will have an opportunity to work with the Ballarat Specialist School as a part of the Year 11 Immersion Program. For more information on the program, please contact TIC Year 11 Immersion, Mr Michael Waugh: [email protected] MAXIM CHIRMULEY – YEAR 11 34 “We all found it immensely rewarding, and at times challenging, working with children often our own age or younger, who had dreams and interests the same as our own, but lived very different lifestyles due to the range of their disabilities.” Great Scot Number 151 – September 2017