ANZAC day was a memorable way to start the week. It was a day when old and young recognised those who paved the path of freedom for both Australians and New Zealanders. I am always incredibly proud to see so many people turn out to remember those who sacrificed so much.

Usually, our students, pipe band and staff would have marched down Dean Street along with other district schools and service clubs, veterans and bands but this year school groups were not permitted due to Covid restrictions. 

So it was heartwarming when our Pipe Band was invited to represent the school in the Dean Street March, and at numerous marches and dawn services throughout the district.

Our 2nd 23rd Battalion Student Ambassador Lily Turner laid a wreath on behalf of The Scots School and Battalion at the 10am service at Monument Hill. Lily and I also laid a wreath on behalf of School and Battalion at the service at The Commercial Club Albury.

I am always moved at these Anzac ceremonies, and I was very proud of Lily and Billy, our wonderful bugler, who represented Scots so beautifully.

Then on Monday, we held our annual ANZAC Day Service in Chapel Hall in front of representatives of the 2nd 23rd Battalion local RSL Branch and invited guests.  Following the service the students, staff and guests were able lay a sprig of rosemary at the two remembrance walls at the school. 

Matilda

We are just two weeks away from Curtain Up for our Showcase musical Matilda. I have been lucky enough to catch some of the rehearsals so I know we are going to be in for a great show.

It will be our director, Liz Heitmeyer’s 14th Showcase Musical which is really quite an achievement. More than 120 students are involved in the production, including all Year 5 and Year 6 students and most of our Year 12s. We have student musicians in the pit orchestra, as part of the backstage crew and as ushers on the night. In order to provide the exciting opportunity of a stage performance to a broader range of students, the cast differs slightly at each performance: the Thursday Matinee and Saturday Showcase will feature: Mya Player as Matilda, Cove Taylor as Bruce, Millie Wilkerson as Lavender and the Year 6 and Year 12 Chorus. The Friday Showcase and Saturday Matinee will feature: Saraya Essop as Matilda,  Billy Paffen as Bruce, Patience Joss as Lavender, and the Year 5 and Year 12 Chorus.

Tickets are now on sale. Don’t miss out. Book at https://www.trybooking.com/BQNOM

Design for Deep Learning

It was good to meet parents who were able to attend our Design for Deep Learning workshop and information session on Tuesday this week. I am passionate about the benefits Design for Deep Learning will bring our students and staff by underpinning what we do in the classrooms by adding clarity and purpose to our curriculum. Design for Deep Learning integrates academic skills with personal and social capabilities and gives priorities to those capabilities and dispositions that support whole-school learning and living. 

For those who weren’t able to make it, I have included the link to the powerpoint presentation here.

ATAR Medal winner

During the holidays, I had the honour of presenting the Class of 2020 ATAR Medal to Luke Marsh. Luke is currently studying a double degree in Mathematical Sciences and Applied Data Analytics at ANU in Canberra. When he completes his studies he hopes to work in the data science field, mathematically modelling financial and practical situations.

Fundraising Car Raffle

Our architect has been engaged and we are now in the midst of Design for our Senior Study Centre. Our amazing new facility is only made possible through the generosity of our community. There will be several fundraising opportunities in the coming months, but the first one is our Car Raffle. Every Scots family will have a 1-in-1000 chance to win a new car when they purchase a ticket in our Senior Study Centre fundraising car raffle with the grand prize of the award-winning compact SUV, the new Subaru XV 2.0i All Wheel Drive.

Scots will offer only 1000 tickets at $100 each and draw the raffle in October. Even if you miss out on the grand prize, there are some other exciting prizes. Second prize is $1000 off your school fees or a $500 gift voucher, third prize is a 1-night luxury stay at Circa Albury and fourth prize is a full car detail at Baker Motors Albury.

The limited-ticket fundraiser is the brainchild of Scots Foundation members, in partnership with Baker Motors, and all proceeds will go towards construction of the $2m Senior Study Centre. We will be asking our families to help with sale of the tickets. Tickets will be allocated to every family and sent home with students but also will be available at the Senior School Reception and at major school events such as Matilda.

A Whisky & Gin Affair gala event

Who needs an excuse to dress up and celebrate? Well, we are providing just the event with A Whisky & Gin Affair gala event on Saturday 5 June at the Entertainment Centre.

The whisky and gin tasting evening will feature live music, fine dining celebrating local chefs using regional seasonal produce and high end refreshments from our generous whisky and gin suppliers, Corowa Distilling Co. and Essence of Harrogate.

I believe the event has the promise of becoming our social Event of the Year for parents - an annual fundraising event with a focus (this year) on raising funds for the construction of our Senior Study Centre.

After so many events and social occasions were cancelled last year, we thought this was a great way to bring our Scots community of parents and alumni together to enjoy good food and beverages, good music and great company. 

We are offering tickets in three categories for gin and whisky tastings: Whisky Worshipper: for guests who want to taste four different varieties of whisky; Gin Junkie: for guests who want to taste four different varieties of gin; and Best of Both: for guests who want to taste two samples of whisky and two of gin.

Our pipe band will give an authentic Scottish feel to the evening and there’s even a growing number of people who are electing to wear Highland Dress! It has all the hallmarks of being a fun night.

Tickets are available on Trybooking at https://www.trybooking.com/BQSTB 

It is hard to believe we have been back two weeks already! The school is abuzz with excitement for our upcoming production of Matilda and tickets are selling fast. Staff and students have been working hard and it is sure to be an amazing night of musical theatre.

Congratulations to all students for their participation in the Cross Country yesterday. We were blessed with a beautiful day and it was pleasing to see so many out there on the track.

Somehow our students are also involved in a multitude of other learning activities. Last week we had Years 7 to 10 students involved in the Da Vinci Decathlon. Our Year 9/10 team came second overall. Our students performed very well coming first in Science, Ideation, Engineering and Cartography. We placed second in English, Creative Producers and Legacy. Finally, we placed third in Art/poetry, Maths and Code-breaking. Well done to all teams on this day and a huge thankyou to Ms Ward for her efforts in coaching and organising the day.

The coming weeks will see students participating in a wide range of Sporting events. We shall keep Facebook updated with all of these efforts and celebrate them in our next newsletter. 
Year 12 Parent Teacher interviews are this Monday. I look forward to seeing you all there as we pass the half-way mark of the HSC year.

You have received emails from our Section Leaders updating you on the focus of ‘Respectful Relationships’ in our Learning Mentor program this term. We continue to link all of our programs and approaches to our Respect Triangle and if any parents have any questions, I encourage you to make contact with the school.
Finally, I would like to ask parents to support us in our insistence that the winter uniform is worn correctly by all of our students. Respect for self is a key part of our Respect Triangle and the wearing of the Scots uniform proudly is an important expectation. We will be making contact with families in the coming weeks if students do not meet these expectations.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Year Parents in the Senior School. There have been a range of events planned so far this year and I know they regularly provide updates to families. I will be meeting with the secondary Year Parents again next week.

Student Wellbeing - the role of The Resilience Project in the Junior School

Parents and staff had the opportunity this week to hear from Hugh van Cuylenburg, the founder of The Resilience Project. For a number of years, this program has been the cornerstone of the wellbeing program of the Junior School. The message is simple; practice gratitude, empathy and mindfulness (GEM) everyday, and you will lead a happier and more fulfilled life. And this is exactly what the students and staff aim to achieve through the use of The Resilience Project student journals, teacher planning diaries and daily wellbeing sessions. This, together with a focus on respect for self, others and the environment, ensures that students are given many opportunities to develop resilience through the ‘GEM’ everyday. 

Hugh also had some important messages for parents. As a parent of young children himself, he acknowledged that parenting must be the single hardest ‘job’ in the world. Along with our children, we as parents are likely to make mistakes all the time. There is no rule book! He also warned against the ‘if and then’ model of happiness that is a trap for many in today’s society. This idea that ‘if’ I acquire object A (e.g. a new car), ‘then’ this will make me happier. But of course, we all know that this gratitude is short lived and will be surpassed by the next version, update or model that comes our way. 

To learn more about The Resilience Project and the message Hugh has for parents and children alike, you can view the webinar via the link below, or read his book ‘Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness’. 

Video (available till 11th May): The Resilience Project
Book: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness

Parent Carparking update

Thanks to all parents who have used and provided feedback on our trial use of the internal carpark on Young Street. The trial has been a great success, with 15 to 20 families regularly using the space to collect their children on a daily basis, taking pressure off our kiss and drop zone. This arrangement will now continue and the school will work to provide clearer signage to give directions to drivers in the near future.

Great Sports! 

This term has kicked off with a huge range of sports on offer for students across all ages. A big congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 students who participated in the Paul Kelly Cup last week, many hitting the field for the first time. We wish Millie Wilkerson all the best as she represents the region in the state netball trials in Sydney in the coming weeks. This week, we all participated in the school cross country event, including not one but two races! It was great to see our senior students leading a house challenge race, encouraging participation and fitness for all. And with our after-school activities for AFL, netball, basketball, tennis, hockey and more continuing, there has never been a better time to get involved in sport in the Junior School. Thanks to all those staff and parents who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure our students have these amazing opportunities. 

Along with Year 5 students, Arisha and Saraya, we have set up a prayer space in the green room at the back of the Chapel Hall. All students and staff can use this room. There are some couches, a candle and some prayer rugs. Arisha and Saraya are pointing to where you’ll find the prayer rugs in the photo. The bench/mirror is the west wall. There is a sink to wash before praying in the room too. You are welcome to use this room any time. Check with Rev Bear if you need to know where to find the light switch or have any other questions or suggestions. If you are doing Ramadan at the moment, let me or your teacher/LM know so we can support you.

Our library is a valuable haven for students wanting to read quietly or do some extra study before and after school each day. But after monitoring the patronage of students throughout the week and noting very low usage on Fridays, it’s been decided to bring forward the closing time to 3.30pm on Friday afternoons. The first Friday that the library will close at 3.30pm is Friday, 14 May. This means our library is available from 8.30am to 5.30pm from Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 3.30pm on Friday from 14 May. 

On the first week back of term we went to the Lavington Footy stadium and played in the Paul Kelly Cup. There was a girls team and a boys team. We all caught a bus from school and had our hearts set on, hopefully, winning. We got there and there were a few teams warming up. We found our grandstand and got our boots on and ran out onto the field. The field was cut into four games so it wasn't a full ground. We started warming up with a few kicks and played markers up with multiple balls. It was really fun. 

The boys unfortunately went the whole day without a win. The girls team were a little more successful making the semi final game. A great day was had by all students. By Rollo and Annabel

Year 7 STEM Project days

In the last week of Term 1, Year 7 students undertook two days of a STEM-based project. On the first day they went on excursions to three facilities: the Albury Water Treatment Plant, the Wastewater (Sewerage) Treatment Plant,and Wonga Wetlands. At the first venue, students were shown how our potable water is obtained, treated and distributed to Albury City. They were specifically shown how the huge filters are constructed, using layers of pebbles, coarse sand, and fine sand. 

Then, students went to the Wastewater Treatment Plant to see how our wastewater is treated and at Wonga Wetlands, students collected water from a number of sources and then tested the samples for water quality including turbidity, pH, and salinity. The excursions where not only a worthy learning experience, but they helped prepare students for the laboratory-based Science and Engineering task on the second day.

For the laboratory-based project, students worked in small groups to design a filter – following the design thinking process – to engineer a filter and treat water from the school dam. Students had to follow the scientific method to design and build three iterations of their filter with a focus on one chosen independent variable. The filter was made from a 1.25 litre plastic bottle and layers of pebbles, coarse sand and fine sand. Some groups chose to measure the effect of changing the layer order on the quality of water filtering; other groups tried changing the relative thicknesses of the layers or taking out one layer at a time. The quality of water was measured before and after the filtering, including turbidity, salinity, pH and nitrate levels.
As part of the measuring process students had to use basic mathematics to determine water volume and to ensure a fair test by controlling the mass of each material.

Students then chose their best filter and presented it live via Zoom to David Grover, a representative from the University of Sydney!
David was provided with criteria to judge the filters which included: the students’ explanation of how the filter worked, evidence of filter effectiveness, and an explanation of why the filter they presented was the best one.
All students should be proud of their engagement in the task and all groups produced working filters. David commended all students on their presentations but made special mention of Amara Steele’s presentation, which he said was one of the strongest.

Of the 15 groups which presented, two were awarded best all-round filter and presentation. Students in these groups were: Sasha, Sara, Bailey, Cameron, Phoebe, Ruby, Angus and Mac.
Well done to all students involved on an excellent effort.
I’d like to also thank the teachers involved: Asher Baker and Josh Bear for their excellent hands-on involvement in the project over the two days of excursions and filter building, as well as Dale Zawertailo, Chris Mitchell, Sonia Hetherington, Stephanie McNamara, and Leesa Clift for their excellent assistance.

ANZAC Day

On Sunday The Scots School Albury Pipe Band proudly paid tribute to our brave servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that we enjoy the freedoms we experience every day.
It's been two years since the band has been able to gather and march in force on ANZAC Day and it was a wonderful experience for band members to be able to participate in services all across the Riverina region to help make the occasion a very special one.
In addition to the traditional Dean Street ANZAC Day march, members of the Pipe Band performed at various dawn services and parades in Corowa, Albury, Walla Walla, Burrumbuttock, and Henty in what was a very busy but very special day for the band.
With two years of recruitment and development, the band had a significant number of pipers and drummers making their ANZAC Day debut. Congratulations to all of these talented young musicians and a special mention to Year 5 piper Saxon Coffey for completing his first-ever performance with the Pipe Band.
ANZAC Day always provides a wonderful opportunity to welcome Pipe Band alumni back into the fold to march alongside current students. A warm welcome back and a big thank you to the following alumni for their contributions and support throughout the day:
Jess Coe - Class of 2011
Maddie Hedderwick - Class of 2015
Tahnee Olsson - Class of 2016
Tim Koschitzke - Class of 2017
Kyle Blane Brown - Class of 2018
Sebastian Turner - Class of 2018
Charlotte Delbridge - Class of 2020
Special thanks to Ms Asher Baker for being the band chaperone for the day and to Tahnee for driving the bus.

Maclean Highland Gathering
 
While most of us were enjoying some well-deserved time off over the Easter weekend, a pair of Scots Albury Pipe Band members were busy competing in solo piping and drumming events at the 116th Maclean Highland Gathering.
Liam Nicolson and Damon Wright made the journey to Maclean in northern NSW to compete in a variety of solo events and enjoyed some fantastic success.
Liam was crowned overall C-grade champion winning the McKenzie Macpherson memorial trophy.
He was first in the Restricted Piobaireachd, first in the March Strathspey and Reel event, second in Hornpipe and Jig, and also took out the Lachlan McCabe Memorial under-18 event winning himself a special engraved Sgain Dubh (Scottish dagger).
Damon made his debut competing in A-grade, the premier solo snare drumming grade in Australia. He finished second overall in A-grade with first place in the Hornpipe and Jig event and second place in the March, Strathspey, and Reel.
Congratulations to both boys for their amazing results. A great reward for hours of preparation and hard work.

 

 

Females in Tennis Development Camp: WodongaTennis Australia is excited to be holding a Females in Tennis Development Camp in Wodonga on Sunday May 2 for girls aged 10 to 14. This new stream of Females in Tennis Camps are a nationwide initiative created by Tennis Australia’s Performance team. Wodonga will host one of 25 camps due to be run across Australia and we invite girls from all around the region to attend. The day will include both on court and off court activities, plus an information session available for parents. Themes: Exploring a key stroke in the women’s game; Connection: team, fun and friends; Parent session: ‘What girls are looking for from sport’. There is no cost for players and all you’ll need is a racquet!