Scotch College

Junior School leads the way

"Our policy has been, and will continue to be, to provide as many meaningful leadership opportunities as possible for boys of all ages." (Staff Handbook, 2000)

At Junior School Speech Night in December of last year, I was delighted to announce Christopher Robson as the Junior School Captain for 2000.

The Junior School prides itself on the number of leadership opportunities available to boys across all levels of the school and Christopher has certainly made the most of every opportunity presented to him during his first six years at Scotch.

As an 'all-rounder', only time will tell if Christopher follows in the footsteps of the five most recent Senior School Captains, (Tom Cade, 2000; Tim Downing, 1999; Matthew Spargo, 1998; Timothy Paterson, 1997 and Andrew Simm, 1996), all of whom, like Christopher, displayed early signs of leadership during their years in the Junior School.

The successes of these fine young men, highlight the benefit of a P-12 school where the broadness of the curriculum provides not only academic and co-curricular opportunities, but leadership skills which are encouraged and fostered from the earliest of years.

A positive impact

Christopher's appointment has had a positive impact in the Junior School community and best wishes are extended to him from us all for a wonderful year.

We are thrilled to be amongst the first schools in Australia to take delivery of the Macintosh 'iBook' which utilises wireless technology.

This enables the iBook to be used in a variety of settings, allowing boys to log onto the school's network, the Internet and email facilities via a small aerial built into the lap top's monitor.

Year Six has quickly incorporated these computers into their curriculum and it is expected that other year levels will also respond accordingly.

Junior School leaders...leading technology...leading the way into the new millennium.

Mr Guy B Mason, Head of Junior School

iBooks land at the Junior School

Year 6 boys at Scotch College Junior School have been walking around with mystified expressions on their faces in recent days. Since early this term they have had the opportunity to test drive some of the newest technology available - iBooks. These new, portable versions of iMacs, have been made available for the Year Six boys to use. However, the iBooks have one slight difference - an 'Airport' facility.

The Airport facility is new technology, which allows a number of computers to connect to a network without any cabling. This means that boys may access files on the school server or conduct research via the Internet from their own desks. A Base Station, located in the 6P classroom, is the key to the wireless connection. It sends and receives data from each iBook and allows the users to utilise the Junior School network in the same way as the existing computers.

The boys have given the iBooks a warm reception and demonstrated a great appreciation of the opportunity presented to them. They have taken to the new technology with much enthusiasm and look forward to making the best possible use from the iBooks.

Mr Andrew Murdoch, Junior School I/T Co-ordinator

A 'Fussball' Term!

Last term, the Grade Fives' learnt about the German 'Bundesliga' (Soccer).

All boys were given a team from the Bundesliga by having a lucky dip. Some were very lucky as they got Bayern München for their team. Bayern München was one of the best teams in the Bundesliga.

We had to research our team, finding the coach, stadium and writing a biography about a famous player.

By finding the information, we logged onto the internet and went to the Kicker website ( www.kicker.de ).

On the website, we found the latest matches as well as the latest ladder.

We also found pictures of our team, so we printed them out and stuck them on a fresh piece of paper. We wrote a sentence about the picture and that became a page of our Bundesliga book assignment.

Many boys enjoyed this unit in German and we were looking forward to this year when we were to learn about the game itself.

Now in Grade 6!

This term, we have started to learn some rules and skills of the game in German.

Each class has been split into half for one lesson per cycle, 'A' group working on research in the resource centre and 'B' group outside on the basketball court.

Most of us are enjoying this fun and interesting unit.

Benjamin Wong 6P