Scotch College

No debating it - this was a marvellous tour

There was more than the usual air of excitement at Melbourne Airport on the evening of 3 December.

Alongside all the normal hustle and bustle of international departures, the Malaysian Airlines check-in counter buzzed with the excitement of 21 Scotch students, one parent doctor and three staff members about to embark on a long-anticipated overseas adventure.

Ms Suzette Boyd, head of library and information services and teacher in charge of debating, assisted by Ms Rachel Kerr and Mr David Brown, led a 14-day debating tour that took us through London, Cambridge, the Cotswolds, Oxford and Paris. The boys took part in debates against Eton College in Windsor, The Leys School and St Mary’s in Cambridge and Dulwich College in London.

We debated in British Parliamentary style, tackling internationally significant topics such as “This House would dissolve the Commonwealth” and “This House would rather live in Australia than England”.

When we weren’t debating we were busy soaking up the sights and sounds of England and France. The northern hemisphere winter provided a magical backdrop as we viewed London from the heights of the London Eye, strolled through Hyde Park, browsed in Harrods and took in the Regent Street Christmas lights. Paris also provided many highlights, but the one for which we could never have planned was standing atop the Arc de Triomphe as the Eiffel Tour burst forth with a magnificent pre-Christmas light show.

Andrew Trinh (debating captain 2006) reports that Scotch debating has a new look leadership structure for 2006 – kneeling (L–R): Robert Pallot (training), Ashish Sharma (exhibition debates); Back row (L–R): Tom Sutherland (administration) Nick Tam, (mentoring), Andrew Trinh (captain), Adam Chong, (administration), Jeremy Leung (public relations)

While our debating and sightseeing kept us busy during the day, the evening was theatre time. We took in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations in Stratford-upon-Avon, a satire on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in Oxford, the musical We Will Rock You in London’s West End, as well as the Moulin Rouge as our grand finale in Paris. We were also lucky enough to time our trip so as to see the new release Harry Potter film in London and the film version of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Lewis’ hometown of Oxford.

So it was with a tinge of regret and a fair dose of exhaustion that we boarded our flight home after two weeks of action-packed travel. All the parents were eagerly awaiting their sons’ return as we finally made our way through the international arrivals gate. Now I’m not sure if it was just my imagination, but were the smiles of parents with boys who had Harrods shopping bags in their hands just that little bit broader?

Rachel Kerr
Deputy Head of Library