Scotch College

Senior School Update

A mind-broadening art experience

Words: Mark Mason

Year 8 art students got their heads around an almost bewildering array of different art media when they visited the North Fitzroy School of Art and Artist Community during term 1.

Among the fascinating art forms they tried were stencil art, clay animation, sculpting, puppetry, poetry and songwriting. It was a feast for the senses and a mind-broadening experience in art forms that were new to most of the students.

Best of all the day was fun, and a great opportunity to see a group of artists at work, and to challenge the boys’ thinking and their creative responses. It was also an excellent introduction to art media which can be developed during class work back at School.

Year 7 Art students can’t hide their fun

Year 7 students recently changed identities as they made magnificent masks in Art. Can you guess who is who?

Survey focuses on parent satisfaction with Scotch activities

Scotch has received hundreds of responses to the School’s biggest-ever parents’ survey.

Forms were mailed to all current parents of Scotch Junior and Senior School students early in term 2, and the School is most grateful to parents who completed responses on line or mailed survey forms.

The survey’s emphasis was on parent satisfaction with a range of School activities. Key areas covered were academic and co-curricular programs, life and living skills, student management, leadership and communication. As well as expressing opinions about what the School offers, parents were asked to assess the importance – to them and to their son(s) – of these offerings. They were also invited to provide more detailed responses to any issue raised in the survey.

Director of Educational Research and Development Dr Syd Boydell says the survey provided an unprecedented opportunity for parents to provide feedback on the way the School operates.

‘The results will certainly give the School a most comprehensive insight into what parents think of its activities,’ Dr Boydell said. ‘They will highlight what Scotch does well and point to any areas where a stronger focus is required.

‘The ideal of “parents as partners” – which was really the motivation for undertaking this survey – embraces honest, open and shared communication. Through this survey, Scotch sought to open channels of communication that some parents might previously have been reluctant to explore.

‘The primary goal is for us all to share in improving boys’ learning, in the broadest possible sense,’ Dr Boydell said.

A summary of the survey’s findings is scheduled to appear in the September issue of Great Scot.

Intensive training for staff while boys head for holidays

Words: Syd Boydell, Head of Education Research

The boys may have headed happily off for their summer holidays on Friday 8 December, but right through the next week Senior School staff were still hard at work.

On the Monday and the Tuesday nearly all the teaching staff and many of the support staff worked their way through a 16-hour, level 2 first-aid course. They learned about heart attacks (and what to do!), strokes, burns, breaks, blisters, bites, diabetic episodes, epileptic attacks, Epi Pens, asthma attacks and more. There were practical sessions on manikins, bandaging sessions, scenarios to evaluate, and even an exam at the end. (They all passed!)

On the Wednesday, most departments participated in workshops. Some evaluated new initiatives introduced during 2006, some planned new courses for 2007 and 2008, some ran workshops on equipment (in particular, hand-held GPS receivers), some were IT-focused, and others were forward-focused (planning the curriculum for a possible new building).

On Thursday there was our end-of-year chapel service, followed by staff farewells to those retiring, moving on, or simply lucky enough to gain some long-service leave. The final formal activity of the day was the staff Christmas lunch, at which we were delighted to be joined by retired staff, many looking years younger than when they worked here!

Informal work for many staff continued the next day and into the following week, as all the complex organisation for a smoothly functioning school in 2007 – curriculum and organisational structures – was tidied up and put in place.