Scotch College

Junior School in action

Year Five Gold rush

Students from Year Five have concluded their General Studies this year with work on the topic of Gold. Students have examined the topic of Gold from an historical aspect and focussed on developing their understanding of the Victorian gold rush, the life of the digger and the activities and events on the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s.

There have been many highlights with this topic of Gold. One most surely has been the ongoing activity of the boys and their daily experiences as they take on the role and life of a digger on the Victorian goldfields. The scene has been set around the time of the discovery and development of the Ballarat gold diggings. This involvement has been generated with an across the year level approach of an engaging gold activity simulation.

Each student has been given some pounds of currency and it has been up to him to amass as large an estate as possible. The acquisition of gold, cash, property and assets are vital in the success of the digger on the goldfields. The simulation setting, which allows the boys to experience a diverse range of gold panning, gold cradling and gold mining activities, has proven to be very popular.

Vocabulary development and understanding of a great deal of gold terminology has added to the enjoyment and value of the gold simulation. Visits by the boys to Gregory's Gully, Carson's Creek, Mt Mason and Webster's Waterfall have provided further benefits and dangers.

Near the end of the Gold unit all boys and staff travelled to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat for a first hand experience of a 'real life' gold setting. The day was a great success, the boys impressing the staff with their knowledge of the Red Hill diggings, the life of a digger and gold mining techniques. The old hands from Sovereign Hill impressed the boys with their ability to find gold in pans that appeared to be devoid of the yellow metal.

Unfortunately, the Gold unit concluded with the assay price crashing, which left many of the young gold panners and miners just as they were at the start of the 'Gold Simulation' and the unit.

Cross Age tutoring

1999 has seen the introduction of cross age activities between the Junior and Senior schools. 3N has had an exciting time with their partners 7F and all the activities have been very successful, thanks to the guidance and stimulation given by the older boys.

Many areas of the curriculum have been covered. Partners have read favourite books to each other and followed up by writing and publishing picture story books of their own. They have played maths games and taken part in problem solving. The boys researched a famous person, whom they interviewed before the video camera. Year 7 have also performed some wonderfully creative skits in front of an appreciative Grade 3 audience.

Some exciting science activities have been enjoyed. The planets have been studied, papier mache models made and a joint excursion to the new Planetarium organised. Another highlight was the Year 3 visit to the Senior School Science Laboratories to experiment with heat. This inspired many Grade 3 boys to demonstrate simple experiments to the class during Science lessons.

The Year 3 boys are very appreciative of the efforts of the Year 7 boys and the Senior School teachers involved in organising all the activities.

Celebrating Goethe's 250th Birthday

Christopher Robson and Andrew Hardeman were the Grade 5 winners of the Junior School German poetry competition this year. They, along with Daniel Hui and Hamish Morgan (Grade 6), represented the school at the regional final, which this year was held in the Cardinal Pavilion in the Senior School. All four boys performed admirably against top quality opposition, and Christopher was able to qualify for the state final by winning his section. The Robson children have been familiar faces in this competition and very successful ones at that.

The Association of German Teachers of Victoria (AGTV) organized the statewide final to be on Saturday, August 28th, an extremely important day of celebration on the German calendar. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, probably Germany's greatest poet and playwright was born on this day in 1749, causing celebrations all around the world to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth. The Austrian Club in Heidelberg is a fitting venue for the final of such a competition, steeped in tradition, proud of its heritage, enabling everyone to hear and see all things German or Austrian, a real immersion experience.

Grade 5 and 6 students were required to recite their poem from the previous competition, followed by a compulsory poem. The Grade 6 trophy was won by a boy from Bayswater South P.S. and the Grade 5 trophy was to head triumphantly to Scotch College. Christopher competed against 23 other students from all over Victoria, and believe it or not was the only boy! His pronunciation, expression and overall enthusiasm throughout was exceptional and he thoroughly deserved his success.

This was the second time we have had a state champion in this competition. Otto Henkell was our winner in the Grade 6 competition a few years ago.

I thank and congratulate all those boys who competed this year, and would love to see even more participants in our school competition next year.

Family Day

On Saturday 20th October the Annual Inter house and Junior Primary athletics and Family Day was held on the Senior School main oval.

The weather was at Melbourne's Spring best, with bright blue sunny skies and the smell of a freshly cut grass track. The main oval was looking its finest with a large crowd in attendance and lots of action off the track with the cake stalls, BBQ and other activities. Before this day all boys in years 3 - 6 had competed in field event competitions that consisted of shot put, long jump, high jump and a vortex ball throw. Sandy Buchanan (year 5A, Bradshaw House) set a new school record in the Under 10 Shot Put with a throw of 9.2cm.

The Family Day carnival consists of track events with once again all boys competing in 100m, 200m, 80m hurdles and 4 x 100m relay. There are also events over 400m, 800m and 1500m. One of the highlights of the meeting was the 8 x 100m relay which had the 2 fastest runners from each year level. In a close race, Campbell greeted the judges first.

A special feature of this day is when the Junior Primary boys (years prep - 2) join the rest of the school to compete in their events. The boys compete in 4 teams; red rockets, blue battleships, gold arrows and green go-carts. In these four teams they compete in slalom races, 50m sprints, hurdles, tunnel ball and shuttle relays. The little brothers and sisters was also a keenly contested event.

At the completion of the day's events the Head of Junior School, Mr Guy Mason, together with Mrs Bronwyn Cramond, the President of the JSPA, presented the following trophies:

The NL Emerson Cup for field events - Bradshaw

The JF Rusden Cup for track events - Healey

The Marshall baton for relay events - Campbell

The WT Davies Challenge Cup for the overall winning house - Healey

Bike Education

During Term Four all the Year 4 classes have been participating in a Bicycle Education Programme. We commenced the unit with a performance from Bruce Hargraves called 'Riding Through Time'. He talked about the history of bikes and showed the boys a 'bone-shaker' bike and a Penny Farthing. We also talked about 'Mulga Bills Bicycle' poem by A. B. Paterson.

Before the boys commenced the programme their bikes and helmets were all inspected by parents who have been trained in the Bicycle Education Programme run by Vic Roads.

Each parent helper has participated in a two day course to learn all about the programme.

Clint from The Melbourne Bicycle Centre showed each class how to change a tyre, repair a tube, how to use their gears and how to care for their bike. He also gave everyone a little puncture repair kit.

During the programme each class brought their bike to school for one week and rode for one and a half hours each day. The boys progressed through a series of activities concerning road safety, awareness of road signs, rules, stopping, riding in pairs and circuit work. At the conclusion of the programme all boys were assessed and then they enjoyed a long bike ride through the Scotch College grounds.

The programme ran extremely well due to the dedicated work from all the parents who enabled the boys to work in small groups. Their assistance was greatly appreciated by the Year four teachers and boys.

Our next unit of work has been about Aborigines. We were lucky to have a performance by Raymond Mow who is an expert Didgeridoo player. He spent time with each class making didgeridoos and teaching the boys the techniques in how to play these unusual instruments. Everyone has since decorated their instruments and continue to practise their breathing techniques which assist them with playing. This was a very enjoyable day for all concerned.