Voice : Our primary instrument of influence

Mr Tom Batty
School Principal

Voice : Our primary instrument of influence

As a young boy, I would head out to play in nearby gardens and alleys with instruction from my mum that I remain in ‘earshot’. As I would later tease, this gave a good deal of latitude to my childhood roaming. From conversation with those met on these early ramblings, to the humour of  playgrounds and learning of classrooms, songs of the football terraces, heated political debates in the White Horse, wise words of pulpit sermons, quietly told history of  Māori on the marae, recess bustle of school common room and excited morning proclamations of boys eager to share ideas, I have become aware of the power of voice in connecting all that which goes on in our  heads with that which we observe and those we observe it with. Never is this more evident than when friends regather after time apart enriched by the presence of new acquaintances.

Carried on hot northerly winds, the start of the school year brought the excited chatter and keen embrace that accompany a return home. Good summer weather along costal paths ensured tales of long balmy days were shared amidst smiles and suntans by boys and staff alike. For all fortunate to have spent time on leave, the extensive good works of those who had not was immediately apparent. From emerging student precinct to renovated boarders’ dining room, the toil and fruits of our outstanding Maintenance and Grounds staff were evident to all.

Nowhere was the place more abuzz than on the Hill, where the 99 returning boys, their families and staff, with good voice, made warm welcome for the 57 new boarders who also now call Scotch home. Bags packed in China, Singapore, Yarrawonga, the USA, Hong Kong, the Tiwi Islands, Hay, Kuwait, Mildura, Hamilton, Townsville, Orbost, Darwin, Saudi Arabia, Murtoa, the United Kingdom and the Sunshine Coast were unpacked in School, McMeckan and Arthur Robinson Houses in celebration of the proud Scotch tradition of openness and diversity. That School House is home to three brothers and five (other) boys who share the same grandfather (a sixth is a day boy), offers palpable evidence of the strong familial ties and stories which provide foundation to our Village on the Hill.

In distant chambers of authority, from funding deadlocks for southern walls in Washington to heated Medevac dispute in Canberra, via circular Brexit bombast in Westminster, reminders were sent that voice remains the primary instrument of influence in our liberal democracy. That the growing presence of social media is, perhaps, shifting the emphasis of ‘debate’ from the rational to the popular, heightens  the significance of soundbites and our corresponding need, as educators, to rally the forces of reason in both projection and interpretation of voice.

Recent years have seen a number of initiatives empowering Scotch boys (and hence Scotch) through their voice. In 2016, the Diversity and Acceptance Group formed, and renewed emphasis was placed on the Respectful Relations programme. Year 12s came together in the Geoffrey McComas Theatre to discuss homophobia: how it manifested at Scotch and what to do about it. Senior boys carried discussions through the Houses of the Upper School and Form Classes of the Middle School. Last year, similar gatherings took place on the matter of respectful relations with women and such conversations continue this year. In 2014 and 2017, respectively, the Big Ideas lecture series was launched in Years 11 and 8, to confront boys with ideas and actions that have shaped, and continue to shape, the world, and stimulate discussion for tutor and form groups and beyond. Senior School prefects have led conversations in the Junior School, on the impact of boys’ voice, while the Student Representative Council has led with the theme, ‘See Something do Something’, and school-wide focus has been given to ‘Don’t be a Bystander’.

 As a boys’ school, Scotch can reflect, plan and act with intentionality to offer boys and parents an experience crafted to best prepare each boy to find his voice in meeting the challenges and grasping the opportunities of the age. As relational learners, boys ‘learn’ their teachers before their subjects, and we develop programmes that nurture an engaged community, abuzz with activity borne on interaction and the sharing of story and passions. In such environment, boys can feel free to find their voice, ask difficult questions and offer opinions; they can take their time, listen and develop at their own pace, and act en masse with the energy and purpose of shared voice.

To such end, this year, in accordance with our accreditation as a Safe School with the Australian Childhood Foundation, we will be facilitating all Scotch boys in the articulation of their own clear statements of the behaviour they expect of themselves and those around them. In Senior School tutor and form groups and Junior School classrooms, boys will form, refine and articulate their own expectations.

In addition, this year will yield a number of fruits born of shared voice and our ongoing work to make the School all it can be for each boy and the community it serves.

With continuing realisation of the masterplan and its place in our educational strategy, 2019 will see the completion of the new Keon Cohen Cafeteria/Dining Hall and surrounding Student Precinct, forming a home for boys and a marketplace of conversation and engagement. To similar effect for Old Boys, new homes for Archives and OSCA will be established along Morrison Street. Forward momentum will continue with initial works to replace the ‘Back Blocks’ of School and McMeckan Houses with new boarders’ and staff accommodation, and to establish a  Parent/Welcome Centre in the heart of the Hill, while plans to surround the new Student Precinct with House Rooms for each House take more concrete form.

Under the leadership of Head of Middle School, Katrina Stalker, we will embed our new Middle School structure of Operations, Transition and 17 Form Teachers as the first point of contact for boys, parents and staff. With direction from Dr Peter Coutis (Director of Research, Teaching and Learning), we will launch the Teacher Action Research and Career Development programme across both Senior and Junior Schools to entrench professional research, collaboration and personal development in the practice of our School.

Initiatives in the Junior School include embedding the use of technology in the curriculum and classroom, and the new one-to-one iPad programme across Years 4, 5 and 6. There will be further work around the theme, ‘Developing Curiosity and Creativity’, blending science, technology and mathematics in boys’ learning, and a review of the House and Peer Support programmes.

Seeking to break the shackles of the mandated curriculum, blunt the unwieldly instrument of age level classification and provide greater opportunity for teachers to share - and boys to explore - passions, this year sees the launch of the Cross Age Elective pilot in Years 9 and 10. While across the Senior School, restructuring of the oversight and management of School Operations (those matters beyond ‘routine’ care and delivery of curricula) gathers pace, with the creation of new roles at Middle School, Upper School and Senior School levels.

The year will see the implementation of a new Drugs programme across Years 7-12 that has been developed by School Psychologists, Nick Clark and Lara Silkoff. The emphasis of the programme is to help boys make informed and safe decisions, particularly relating to alcohol, cannabis and other drugs of dependence, gaming, gambling and other addictions associated with electronic devices, and partying.

We will advance the good works of the Respectful Relations programme, continue to develop the use of young Old Boys as academic mentors working alongside teachers, roll out a new school-wide Learning Management System (CANVAS) and host an International Boys’ Schools Coalition regional conference.

In addition, in all we do, we will continue, with strong voice, to embed our foundational teaching and learning principle: The inherent dignity and value of each person; and foundational teaching and learning question: How did the world evolve to be as it is and how might it be made to evolve for the greater good?

The authority of voice, the bonds built through conversation and the far reaching implications of its absence, or regulation, were powerfully put in an observation by Paul Hasluck (later Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck, KG, GCMG, GCVO, 17th Governor-General of Australia) following tours of north-west Australia in the 1930s, that not one non-indigenous person had been found who could speak an indigenous language.

As Sir Paul suggested, shared voice and the language on which it is premised, is a necessary condition for an equality built upon respect for the value and dignity of each person. Perhaps for sufficiency in a world of instant and ubiquitous connection, where qualification, logic and experience borne of time in the field can be ransomed by modern day snake-oil sellers promising easy quick solutions, it is wise to add Joseph Campbell’s advice, to listen when someone is speaking, not to the words, but to what is talking. That, in the absence of open-minded discourse, the lived environment contracts and in the ensuing echo chamber the only voice heard is our own.