Scotch College

Old Scotch – a fine spirit!

’Spirit can not be seen, or tasted, or heard, but it can be felt and we all react to it and inwardly feel it’

The Scotch family and the Old Boys in particular enter a very exciting and important period, now that Tom Batty has commenced as our ninth Principal.

The air of excitement and anticipation is evident, and is providing a renewed vigour through all aspects of OSCA.

Milestone events such as the Sesquicentenary of Football, held in early August, the 92nd Annual Dinner and the upcoming performance of Les Misérables in the James Forbes Academy, provide a significant presence and foundation around which OSCA operates. The success of the Old Scotch Football Club this season coupled with the eagerness and vibrancy of our newest, and at this stage, smallest club – the cycling club – bodes well for the future.

OSCA has taken a lead role in the ownership, protection and enhancement of the archives of the school, to enable them to become a key historical record of the past, accessible to all and the foundation for the future.

Geoff Tolson (’39) succinctly linked the school’s heritage and the spirit that is Scotch College in a paper delivered in 1992. In part, Geoff said: ‘Scotch College has built its heritage through things we take for granted today, which have in fact been handed down to us by previous generations of boys, staff and Old Boys. These events have created traditions at Scotch, all of which we have inherited and fostered ... These have translated over the years of existence into the spirit of the school. Spirit can not be seen, or tasted, or heard, but it can be felt and we all react to it and inwardly feel it’.

This spirit today is being blended with a high level of excitement and enthusiasm, as we combine the rich and full traditions of the past with the excitement generated through Tom Batty’s arrival, and we mould ourselves into an Old Boys’ group for the next five years, in anticipation of our 100th anniversary.

It is this spirit of Scotch that is the basis of OSCA’s determination to substantially enhance the understanding of the school’s heritage and underlying spirit, to allow current and future students to improve their education and better understand 157 years of history.

The knowledge of the Scotch Family, and the place that family takes in continuing that spirit and heritage as these boys move through the school, is essential. In a short time each of these students will become Old Boys of the school.

I hope you will all support our determination to revive our heritage and make it a focal point for the school in years to come.

I look forward to seeing you at an OSCA function in the near future. GS