The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

Enrichment in the Junior School

The first term of 2019 has seen enrichment and extension in the Junior School take on many shapes and forms.

First and foremost on my mind, has been getting into classrooms and getting to know the boys; how they work, what their learning styles and strengths are whilst also assisting with the high levels of differentiation that are taking place. It has been wonderful to work with the boys alongside their classroom teachers and the Academic Support team, allowing every boy to access learning at his own level of ability.

The co- curricular clubs on offer have really broadened opportunities and there are many clubs that cater beautifully for those boys that seek further challenge and enrichment; Chess, Science, Newspaper Club, Passion Project Club, Maths Extension Club to name a few.

For the first time Junior School boys were invited to compete in an Inter-House Philosothon with the Middle School where boys sat in a circle of inquiry and debated topics such as:

Is it more important to help yourself, help your family, help your society, or help the world?"

What would you genetically change about humans to make them a better species?

If a child somehow survived and grew up in the wilderness without any human contact, how "human" would they be without the influence of society and culture?

Is privacy a right?

Topics not for the faint hearted! However, the boys were impressive in their ability to dissect topics, analyse opinions and research, building upon one another's' views, collaborating in circles of inquiry, to produce rich and stimulating discussions. Congratulations to our Junior School competitors Leon Hugo, Jake Cuomo, Logan Herbert, Charlie Warden, Thomas Lovegrove and Anderson Strk-Lingard. Our winning house was Bruce House and the Year 5 Champion Philosopher was Charlie Warden.

Another exciting collaboration with Middle School is the Cluedunnit competition, run by the Law Society of Western Australia. Boys meet weekly to investigate a fictional criminal offence with the goal of identifying the offender. They are given a brief at the commencement of the competition that includes a police statement of facts, witness statements and forensic evidence and students are encouraged to ask the Law Society staff questions about the incident to get further clues/information in order to correctly identify the suspect. Each team prepares and submits its findings in a written or electronic medium. Our super sleuths from Junior School are Jack Mayo, William Macknay, Thomas Lovegrove, Charlie Robinson, Hugo Atkins, Leon Hugo, Logan Herbert, Oliver Campbell, Brendan Chin and Daniel Weustink. They are applying themselves fully to the case and are skilled in the deductions that they are making.

I look forward to overseeing the Da Vinci decathlon and Tournament of the Minds in terms 2 and 3 and value the opportunity to be involved with such creative minds.

img_65621.jpg img_6569.jpg

Mrs Alison Webster
Junior School Enrichment Co-ordinator