Scotch College

Sports and achievements

Sports Day

This year the Junior School Sports were held on Saturday 18 November. After days of rain the skies cleared just before the commencement and an extremely large crowd turned out to be part of a very special occasion in the yearly programme of the Junior School. All boys performed with great enthusiasm and the House spirit was clearly evident, with Healey House the clear winner. The day had a real carnival atmosphere, with the Parents' Association setting up numerous tents to supply parents and boys with a host of food, drinks and badged goods.

The success of the day was ensured with the wonderful organisation of the Head of Junior School Sport, Mr Peter Hawkins, who, with the assistance of all the staff, had the day running exactly to schedule.

This year, for the first time, Year level champions were announced.

Congratulations are extended to the following boys:

Year 3: 1st Sandy Buchanan, 2nd Oliver Dredge, 3rd Thomas Naughton

Year 4: 1st Henry Peters, 2nd Alexander Zielke, 3rd Matthew Hildebrandt

Year 5: 1st Edward Whitehead, 2nd James Foster, 3rd William England

Year 6: 1st Ben Kao, 2nd David Heaton, 3rd Hamish Dick

Academic achievements

One of our Year 6 students, James Barton, has been placed first in South East Asia in this year's Singapore Maths Olympiad. This competition is just one of the many activities currently being used to fully cater for and extend our talented students. James was a recipient of a recent scholarship to the Senior School for 1998, and epitomises the 'total education' that Scotch College presents to all its boys. As well as being a gifted student, James is also a keen athlete, having won the State triple jump and 100 metre relay for his age group. He is also an accomplished musician, currently working on Grade 4 saxophone as well as being one of the Junior School leaders. One of the most impressive aspects of all this attention that has been bestowed upon James is the wonderful way in which he has received it, always acting with humility, whilst maintaining his friendly and caring approach towards his friends.

We have also recently received notification of the results from the University of New South Wales Primary Schools Maths Competition. This competition involves over 300,000 students and provides a comprehensive evaluation of Mathematical skills. These results are quite outstanding and reflect the enormous amount of effort being put in by the teaching staff. As a trial this year we entered 30 boys from each of the year levels from Years 3 - 6.

10 boys were awarded High Distinctions (Top 1%)

50 were awarded Distinctions (Top 10%), 38 were awarded Credits (Next 20%)

This equates to over 80% of the boys involved being placed in the top 30% of the State, a most impressive achievement. Year 6 boys performed particularly well and had a norm of over 25% above the state average.

At the Australian Maths Olympiad we know that 5 of our boys achieved maximum scores.

This all follows on from the pleasing results received last term when we entered boys in the University of NSW English competition. Analysis of the results of these various tests is assisting us to evaluate teaching content and effectiveness as well as giving the boys feedback as to their proficiency in particular subject areas.

Academic achievements and curriculum development are indeed strong and reflect the continuing attitude at the Junior School to strive for excellence in all that is done.