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

From the Head of Middle School

Outdoor Education is front and centre at the start of this term with Year 6 and Year 8 boys involved with the first part of their 2019 programme.  Year 6 boys commence surfing lessons as a precursor to their Outdoor Education Camp to Lancelin later this year and Year 8 boys head to Moray for their week long adventure in the bush.  On the surface, boys see themselves learning or refining skills in surfing, canoeing or the technical skills required to work on the ropes courses.  But below the surface critical skills such as: assessing and mitigating against risks, planning team-based approaches to tasks, developing partnerships, sequencing and perhaps above all, listening are vital skills being repeatedly developed.  These are the transferrable skills we need boys to master and practicing them in an outdoor setting offers concrete, real life contexts to learn them in.

The Outdoor Education Programmes be it at Moray, Lancelin, Ningaloo or Margaret River are full of watershed moments for our boys: safely belaying someone down the climbing wall, swimming out of a capsized canoe or sleeping through a stormy night in a tent you have set up yourself, all help build self-confidence and the shared experiences cement friendships and a sense of team, fundamental attributes to bring back into a classroom setting and for life in general.

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Anzac Day fell during the school holidays and many of the boys learning the bagpipes at Scotch were involved with piping duties at Anzac Day services throughout the metropolitan area, on Rottnest Island and in two southwest country towns.  Middle School was once again invited to represent Scotch College in the Town of Claremont's Anzac Day Service, with Patrick Hayes (8.3) and Tom Gray (8.3) laying a wreath on behalf of the past and present students.

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Boots for Communities

With the start of a new Winter Sport season many boys require the next size in football or hockey boots.  If that leaves you with a pair of last years' boot surplus to family requirements, we would love to take them off your hands and add them to our Boots for Communities collection.  At the Middle School Reception, we have collection bin for spare pairs of boots that will be packaged up and sent to footy loving kids in remote communities.