Scotch College

A commitment to service

For a moment I would like you to compare Scotch College with any other organisation that operates in the public arena.

These organisations operate in ever evolving and highly competitive markets and are ultimately accountable to their investors. They are managed by Boards, often comprised of highly skilled people from varying backgrounds. They are constantly grappling with new technologies. They charge fees for their services and are highly dependent upon their staff in order that they deliver a return over the long term to their investors.

In the ever changing environment in which they operate organisations are forced to make cost benefit decisions about the level of services that they offer and the fees that they charge. In an educational sense the Scotch College Council deals with this conundrum on an annual basis. And, just as the fees charged by many organisations attract media controversy from time to time, so too do the tuition fees charged by independent schools like Scotch.

The School’s educational philosophy has evolved over 156 years. Dr Gordon Donaldson deserves specific praise for the way that he has driven, and indeed enhanced, the School’s programs over his 25 years at the helm. His commitment to the Scotch ideals has been nothing short of outstanding and the entire Scotch Family thanks him and his family for their wonderful service to the School. Further tributes to Dr Donaldson appear elsewhere in this edition of Great Scot. We now look forward to welcoming the 9th Principal of Scotch, Mr Tom Batty, in the second half of next year and thank Vice Principal, Mr Ian Savage, in advance for his vital role in ensuring that a smooth transition occurs.

We understand that educating a boy at Scotch is a very significant decision for families. The School is committed to providing the best possible service to the students, and in turn, their parents. Scotch provides a highly professional, dedicated and well resourced teaching and administrative staff. The quality of our staff is fundamental to the success of our School. To attract and keep the best staff the School needs to appropriately reward them. This is particularly significant when one considers the integral role they play in delivering our broad range of curricular and co-curricular activities. In addition to the School providing a broad and stimulating range of curricular and co-curricular programs for our boys, Scotch provides outstanding teaching and learning facilities by any measureable standard. Our approach to education is holistic. We seek to educate the mind, the body and the spirit; we recognise no two boys are the same and that the School has to cater for the individual needs of all of our boys. This is an intensive process pursued by a passionate and dedicated staff. It is also an expensive process

2008 Budget

At its meeting in August 2007 the Scotch Council reviewed and adopted the School’s budget for 2008. In so doing the fees payable by parents for the forthcoming year were set. The Commonwealth and Victorian Government recurrent grants are not included in this process. When these amounts are received by the School they are directly paid to parents in the form of a credit on their school account. Any variations to these Government subsidies directly impact the final amount that Scotch parents pay. It is worth noting that this is not the case at all independent Schools in Australia. It is also important to note that both Commonwealth and Victorian Government subsidies apply only to Australian resident students.

The School Council appreciates the commitment that Scotch parents make when they elect to send their boys to Scotch. The School Council understands that parents commit their time, emotional energy and their income when they elect to invest with Scotch for their boys’ education. We share parents’ long term hopes and aspirations for their boys, Ultimately our goal is for every parent and every boy to be satisfied with the return on their investment.