Scotch College

Turning a Hill into a home

For any young boy, approaching a big school like Scotch for the first time can be a daunting experience. That experience can be doubly daunting if it’s to be his home as well as his school for up to six years.

But for Scotch’s 50-odd new boarders, the school has plenty of ways of making this new school life happy - to become ‘Harry Potter - minus the magic’ - as one newspaper described it in an interview with three Scotch boarders.

It starts in October with an orientation day for new boarders, when they meet key people, learn the details and the routines, tour the Hill and meet their future schoolmates.

After October, lots more information flows to the new boys and their parents. There’s a parents’ network, created by the Boarders’ Parents’ Association; and Head of Boarding, Doug Galbraith even sends each boy a Christmas card!

Fast forward to the day before the school year starts. Most new boys and their families arrive, and the Principal, the school house captains, and Tim Byrnes, Overseas Student Contact Officer, greet the new arrivals. They enjoy lunch then families depart, and for the boys the rest of the day is free. Soon there are orientation tours of the neighbourhood and to see Melbourne’s ‘essential services’, such as the MCG and the tennis centre.

Back at the Hill, each new boy is assigned a ‘big brother’ (not in the ‘1984’ sense!) - an older boy to help him settle in and make sure he’s happy. At school, pastoral care is also provided by the boys’ form teachers and tutors. Geoff Wemyss and David Greenwood (heads of Year 9 and 10 respectively) regularly come to the Hill to help with maths, and new Head of English, David Greenwood is a Hill resident.

There is a weekend at Scotch’s Cowes camp, where team spirit builds and new friendships are made. Later there is a home weekend.

Leaving home, perhaps for the first time, is never easy. But mentoring, friendship and pastoral care are helping to turn the Hill into a home for Scotch’s new boarders.