Awards put Scots among Australia’s best

As we prepare to celebrate our first live musical production since Covid, as shared by email yesterday, I’m delighted to announce that Scots has been recognised with an Excellence Award in the category of Best Co-Curricular Program in the 2021 Australian Education Awards.

With the quality of our musical productions about to be displayed once again, the award is a timely reminder of all the additional activities students enjoy at Scots. We also received our fourth consecutive excellence award in the category of Regional School of the Year. These accolades are welcome recognition of the school’s innovative curriculum and co-curricular activities; its pursuit of excellence, of academic rigour and its system of values.

I’ve always felt our Co-curricular program is something that really sets us apart from other schools. The depth and breadth of activities we offer is nothing short of amazing and I thank all the teachers, coaches, and parents who have played a role as team manager, coach or supporter for their efforts.

The program, which is divided broadly into the four categories of Service Learning, STEM & Innovation, Sport and the Arts, encompasses more than 50 individual and group activities. Most of these are offered in a variety of age categories from Kindergarten to Year 12 and focus on developing fundamental skills acquisition in the Junior School for higher level involvement in the Senior School. There are far too many activities to list here, but the wide range of activities allows students to find something they love.

We have all played our part in earning the Regional School of the Year award. Together, we weathered a year of pandemic uncertainty last year, but we came through stronger, more resilient and more prepared than ever. Our new $500,000 Agriculture Learning Space, our swift move to online learning during Covid and a hybrid version implemented to accommodate the closure of the Victorian/NSW border, coupled with an online Co-curricular Challenge, our award-winning boarding house and exceptional teachers clearly contributed to the award wins.

While we await the announcement of the overall winner, at a Gala Awards night in Sydney in August, we can celebrate this wonderful acknowledgement of excellence bestowed upon our school and our co-curricular program.

Matilda

Tonight is the opening night of our Showcase Musical, Matilda.

We had our performance for the community yesterday and more than 600 guests from schools, aged care facilities and community groups enjoyed the splendour of a well-run musical - for which we are renowned. 

Congratulations to the cast and crew on such a fine performance. I know they will be eager to put on three more amazing shows: opening night tonight, a matinee tomorrow and the closing night performance in the evening. There are still some limited seats available. Book at https://www.trybooking.com/BQN...

Study groups and camp

At Scots, we are leaders in innovating ways to support our Year 12 students in their HSC endeavours and from next week, we will start the first of our after-school Year 12 study sessions. Then in the July school holidays, we will offer a two-day camp for Year 12 students to be run by a specialist third party organisation, Art of Smart. It will be a bespoke program for Year 12s that will look at study skills, prep, subject specific skills and wellbeing. 

Our Head of Senior School Kelly McKay has more detail in her newsletter section. 

Music Masterclass

In another innovation, this time in the area of music, The Scots School Albury is partnering with Murray River Fine Music to present an advanced masterclass for vocal, violin and piano students in the July school holidays.

Aptly titled Get Your Act Together: An Advanced Performance Workshop Intensive, the three-day program will feature Merlyn Quaife AM (soprano), Kaori Sparks (violin) and our own Helena Kernaghan (piano). The event runs from 4pm Friday 9 July to 4pm Sunday 11 July at Scots. 

This will be a must-attend for all advanced musicians who are looking to take their craft to the next level. It will cater mainly to Year 11 and 12 students as well as high-achieving younger students. Scots students will be given priority entry and then it will be opened up to students from other schools. See more information in this newsletter. Registrations open next week.

SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge

Thanks to our Head of Technology and Innovation, Brad Murphy, Scots has won a $20,000 grant to run the The International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge here at the school in the September school holidays. 

As part of a mission team, participating students will literally design spacecraft, navigate to another planet, land their vehicle, build a planetary habitat, and explore a new planet to find resources in order to sustain human life.  Students will learn from subject matter experts including astronauts, scientists and engineers who are directly involved in ongoing missions as they compete with other teams for the best mission design. 

See more information about the program later in this newsletter

A Whisky & Gin Affair gala event

Tickets are selling fast for our premier social event of the year, the Whisky & Gin Affair gala event on Saturday 5 June at the Entertainment Centre.

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

Car raffle

Every student should by now have taken home their tickets in the Senior Study Centre fundraising car raffle. If your son or daughter hasn’t brought them home, please check with them or contact reception at the school. Every family has been allocated two tickets. We hope you will either purchase the tickets yourself, or encourage family and friends to support the fundraiser. Tickets need to be returned along with the credit card form as no cash is being accepted. 

If you would like additional tickets to purchase or sell, please get in touch with reception in the Senior School. 

Tonight is the opening night of Matilda. The matinee yesterday was a huge success and we welcomed a number of residential care residents and local school students to this performance. I look forward to seeing many families over this weekend and would like to congratulate all staff, cast and musicians for this wonderful production.

Week 4 began with our blitz on uniform. It has been pleasing to see the majority of students improve in this area. Lunchtime uniform detentions have been implemented and parents will be contacted if their child does not wear the Scots uniform with pride and does not attend detention. We of course prefer to not have to implement such punitive measures and hope that our approach will result in a permanent improvement.

Next week will see the beginning of our HSC Prep Sessions. These will take place on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week and will run from 7-9pm. Day students are encouraged to attend these sessions and the Year 12 Prep session on that evening will be in A4 unless specified otherwise by the HSC teacher. Please see below for the outline of the next two weeks.

These holidays will be very busy with much on offer. We have a Basketball Camp running as well as the Music Masterclass. Year 12 students will receive information next week regarding a HSC Study Camp. This will run on 5 and 6 July (Monday and Tuesday of the third week of the holidays). It will be on site and also residential with students staying in the boarding house. While this is not compulsory, we strongly urge all of our HSC students to make use of these two days, which will focus on revision and study techniques, examination strategies and focused subject sessions. We also will have a wellbeing focus in the evening. All parents of Year 12 students will receive detailed information on this next week.

NAPLAN was completed this week. Well done to all Year 7 and 9 students who approached this very studiously. If your child missed one of the tests, there will be catch-ups completed early next week and they will miss classes when this occurs.

Our Section Leaders have spent a great deal of time developing the Learning Mentor sessions for this term which have a focus on respectful relationships. This has been shared with parents but please do not hesitate to contact Ms Forward or Mr Barrows should you have any further questions.

Finally, congratulations to the Senior Girls Football Team which has made it through to the Grand Final to be held at Lavington Sports Ground on Wednesday 19 May at 5pm. The girls defeated Albury High, James Fallon High and Billabong High very convincingly. We strongly encourage parents and families to join us to cheer on the girls.

World Maths Day - a team effort! 

On Wednesday 5 May, the Junior School participated in a range of activities celebrating all things mathematical. One key component was our involvement in the Mathletics World Maths Day Challenge. All classes participated, with many buddies supporting the younger students and impressively, every class got into the top 200 in the world (out of an estimated 9000 schools who participated). Mathletics, along with other online learning tools such as Essential Assessment, Reading Eggs and more, continue to provide engaging and creative ways for our students to hone their skills and help target their learning needs both in the classroom and at home. If you’d like any more information on these resources and how you can access them, please contact your classroom teacher. 

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea

With over 120 adults and almost 200 students in attendance, our Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea was a huge success. We hope all our mothers, grandmothers and special friends had a lovely afternoon and were able to walk away with a special memento from the event.

Life @ Scots - Year Parent Meetings and NAPLAN

As many of you know, our Year Parents play a vital role in supporting school life through welcoming new families, arranging social events outside of school and connecting families via WhatsApp. As well as this, they meet twice a term with Mr Boundy to provide feedback to the school and direct future programs and initiatives. At last week's meeting, the Year Parents discussed:
Car Parking - support for parking on campus. Reminders need to be given that parents are not to use this space in the morning and must only turn left when exiting the school grounds.
Uniform - Mr Boundy shared the new ‘active’ leggings which will be available for Year 5/6 students in the near future. This provides another option to the current PE shorts and tracksuit pants. Once rolled out, the school will investigate their use in younger levels.
Holiday Program - TheirCare have confirmed that they will operate a holiday program in the June/July holidays for Scots students in the Junior School. Information regarding registration and programming will be available shortly.
Parent and Friends Committee - with planning for this year’s school carnival on the horizon, the school is keen to relaunch a ‘P and F’ committee. Please look out for information inviting parents to help out with either fair or to be members of the committee. 
Parent Workshops - the school is keen to support parents by providing opportunities for discussion around important matters that affect our children as they grow and develop. The feedback focused on having targeted sessions, focused on developmental stages and the issues most relevant to them. Some topics of interest included technology and social media, wellbeing and mental health, resilience and the schools positive behaviour approach. We look forward to providing these sessions in the near future.
We would like to thank the Year Parents for everything they do and providing the glue that helps keep the school community so well connected.

Over Week 4 and 5, our Year 3 and 5 students will be completing NAPLAN assessments. With test sessions spaced out to accommodate our busy co-curricular schedule, we have been very pleased with how students have approached these tasks, giving it their best and taking it all in their stride. While controversial in some quarters, NAPLAN provides the school with some valuable feedback regarding student progress that can be viewed alongside our regular internal assessment procedures. Results for NAPLAN will be available to parents and the school in Term 3. 

Matilda! 

This amazing musical, which is the combined brilliance of Roald Dahl and Australia’s own Tim Minchin, has been meticulously planned, rehearsed and performed by the Scots staff and students. A spectacular such as this cannot happen without the commitment of an amazing team and with too many to mention individually, I want to thank everyone who has been involved with it. When planning began for this, we were in the midst of one of the world’s worst pandemics. When the school committed to the performance dates and rehearsal schedule, we didn’t even know if we would be able to sing and dance together on stage. But the risk has well and truly paid off! Good luck to our Year 5 and 6 students who have given so much of their time and energy to this project. You are all so talented and should be incredibly proud of what you have achieved together with your Senior School peers. And always remember: ‘Even if you're little you can do a lot, you mustn't let a little thing like little stop you!’ 

What is Spiritual Wellbeing?

Wellbeing is something for which we all strive but is sometimes hard to define. The student leaders along with the wellbeing staff encourage their peers to invest in themselves so that they are equipped to deal with all the ups and downs that are yet to come. My role in the mix is to ask the question: “What exactly is spiritual wellbeing?”. It’s a state that we can access through spiritual practice or spiritual discipline, which is a skill like any other. Being able to find stillness and peace is something you can practice, just like kicking a footy, factoring an equation, speaking French or playing the violin. We can strengthen those connections for spiritual wellbeing, so when we need them, the path is already carved out, we just have to walk it. It is important to note that Chapel at Scots isn’t just for those who identify as Christian. Anyone can, and everyone should be able to access the spiritual wellbeing that this space is meant to provide. 

There are three particular skills that Chapel gives us the space to practise:

Feeling connected – with others, with yourself, with that ‘something more’. 

Feeling peaceful – accessing that still, quiet space inside where you don’t worry about the past or the future, but your mind is free to recharge your energy. 

Feeling purposeful – challenging yourself to contribute to the world in a way you find meaningful. 

That is spiritual wellbeing. Feeling connected, peaceful, and purposeful. I encourage our whole community to make the most of the time we have to practise those three skills for yourself; and then when life’s ups and downs happen, the path to deal with them is already laid out.

Tonight is opening night of Matilda and after such a wonderful show for the community matinee yesterday, you would be mad to miss it!

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

Scots will celebrate National Boarding Week with a range of activities throughout the week to highlight life in our award-winning Boarding House.

Our Boarding House leaders Zach Hetherington and Hayley Whitehill will take over the school Instagram account on Monday to post stories and photos of boarders and boarding life. Junior school students will visit the boarding house with their class throughout the week to tour the houses and ask questions about what it's like to live there.

And on Thursday, 20 May, we will throw open the doors to all our Scots Community in an Open House running from 3.30pm to 5pm. This is an opportunity for parents and families to look through the boarding houses and talk to Head of Girls Boarding Elsa Kilgour and Head of Boarding Neale Poole. Afternoon tea will be provided and boarders will provide some entertainment and run some fun activities during the afternoon.

On Friday, there will be a hotly contested Boarders versus Day students dodgeball competition in the Indoor Sports Centre at lunch time. 

We would like to invite our Scots community to the opening of Stage One and Stage Two of our Agricultural Learning Space on Friday, 28 May at 5pm. Families are invited to tour the Ag space ahead of the opening and join us for food and drinks while we recognise the members of our community who have supported the project. 

Come and see our senior student plant trials, market garden and our new poultry palace, with its 20 cute residents!

A trybooking link for registration and further details will be communicated via the app next week. 

Dress like a farmer day next Friday, 28 May, will highlight the Agricultural Learning Space and importance of agriculture in our school community. Come dressed in your favourite farmer outfit, but still make sure you are dressed appropriately for school activities. Agriculture students will be collecting a gold coin donation at the gates in the morning. All funds raised will go towards the Agriculture facilities. 

Ag Skills Young Farmer Challenge's Leon Carter will help our ag students run carnival-style activities at lunch time, including guess the number of seeds in the jar and farmer relays. Be in the running for prizes. The canteen also will serve chicken parmis at lunch time and details about the lunch will be communicated next week.

‘Young Engineers’ Robotics and Engineering Camp

During the Easter Holidays, The Scots School Albury hosted a Robotics and Engineering Camp run by an organisation called 'Young Engineers'. There were more than 60 students, from Years 1-8, from Scots and many other schools in the district. The camps were run in Tamworth and Wagga Wagga before our event, but ours sold out first and had the highest attendance, showing the great appetite for this sort of event in our region.  The workshops were an exciting way for students to learn engineering and robotics in a hands-on and practical environment where they had to use the 4 Cs of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.

During the workshops, students learned theoretical knowledge in software and mechanical engineering combined with learning applications of Mathematics and Science. They followed design processes and built working machines using Lego®, interfacing them with motors, lights, and sensors which involved coding for automation. Students were also exposed to electronics components, building various electrical circuits using sensors, LEDs, and motors. They also looked at and applied the use of renewable energy sources like solar panels. All students in attendance were very well engaged in the activities and should be proud of their accomplishments. The ‘Young Engineers’ who ran the classes were asked to identify students from our school who they felt stood out by demonstrating great focus, perseverance, and determination in solving problems during the Robotics and Engineering Camp.

The students who were recognised in this way were: Benjamin Shiao, Year 4, Finella Donald, Year 5; Saxon Coffey, Year 5; William Gibson, Year 5; Gabriella Tecksingani, Year 6.

Congratulations to these five students and well done to all students who attended. 

 

Don't miss the Scots School's social event of the year - 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.

The event has the promise of becoming a feature on our social calendar - 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, this is a great way to bring our Scots community of parents and alumni together to enjoy good food and beverages, good music and great company. 

Tickets are available 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.

The Scots 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.

If you are unable to attend the evening you can still participate by sponsoring one of the bottles of whisky that will be tasted on the night. Tickets are available on Trybooking at https://www.trybooking.com/BQSTB 

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.

International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge, September 20–25, 2021

Thanks to our Head of Technology and Innovation, Brad Murphy, Scots has been awarded a $20,000 grant to run the The International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge here at the school in the September school holidays. 

For more than a half-century, Space Exploration has been an inspirational force in our society toward the development and application of science and engineering.  The International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge gives students an incredible opportunity to participate in space exploration themselves - virtually. As part of a mission team, students will literally design spacecraft, navigate to another planet, land their vehicle, build a planetary habitat, and explore a new planet to find resources in order to sustain human life.  Students will learn from subject matter experts including astronauts, scientists and engineers who are directly involved in ongoing missions as they compete with other teams for the best mission design. 

Lessons on topics ranging from planetary science to spacecraft systems, orbital mechanics to robotic exploration, bring all aspects of space exploration to an understandable level for young students, who learn by doing and creating with these concepts themselves.  The outcome of this program is to inspire young explorers to pursue STEM subjects in school and ultimately enable them to join the international community of scientists and engineers working on the space frontier. 

The first lesson will be given by former NASA astronaut, Dr. Gregory Chamitoff, who will discuss the vision of space exploration and share his experiences from living and working in space. The second lesson will introduce students to the Space Teams competition and explain the structure of the program. For the 2021 challenge, students will be journeying to a rogue planet, called Vulcan, that is passing through our solar system. Upon visiting Vulcan, they will be exploring the planet for resources that could potentially allow their base to sustain human life indefinitely. The activity for this lesson is to become familiar with the design software, called SpaceCRAFT, by virtually exploring the solar system.  SpaceCRAFT provides a high fidelity simulation of the universe, including real planetary data from NASA/JPL and correct physics for models of space and planetary environments.

SpaceCRAFT is a Virtual Reality (VR)/ 2D compatible “space simulation” environment designed to enable users to collaborate, design, evaluate and experience the technology for future operations in Space. In effect enabling everyone to contribute to humanity’s future in space.  For a promotional video of the event click here: (432) Space Teams Introduction - YouTube

More details will be available soon.

Our library is a valuable haven for students wanting to read quietly or do some extra study before and after school each day. As shared previously, we have monitored the patronage of students throughout the week and noted very low usage on Fridays, so we have decided to bring forward the closing time to 3.30pm on Friday afternoons. This change comes into effect today. 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 today. 

The Scots School Albury is partnering with Murray River Fine Music to present an advanced masterclass for vocal, violin and piano students in the July school holidays. Aptly titled Get Your Act Together: An Advanced Performance Workshop Intensive, the three-day program will feature Merlyn Quaife AM (soprano), Kaori Sparks (violin) and our own Helena Kernaghan (piano). The event runs from 4pm Friday 9 July to 4pm Sunday 11 July at Scots. 

Merlyn Quaife: A performer of great versatility, the distinguished soprano Merlyn Quaife continues to perform opera, oratorio, Lieder, chamber music and contemporary music to great acclaim throughout Australia and Europe. She has also performed as soloist with the Singapore Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Voronesz Philharmonic in Russia. Merlyn has appeared with all the State Opera Companies in roles ranging from the bel canto Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor to the minimalist Chiang Ch’ing in Nixon in China. She has performed with all the Symphony Australia orchestras, featured in repertoire of every conceivable style from Handel to Ligeti, as well as recorded a number of CDs including Aria for John Edward Eyre by David Lumsdaine which won her a Sounds Australia Award.

Kaori Sparks: Kaori studied violin under Hiroshi Nishida, Robert Davidovich and Katsuya Matsubara; violin-piano duo with Georgi Badev, and chamber music with Sandor Nagy and Kalman Berkes. Kaori toured Europe as a member of the Tokyo-Budapest String Quartet, and Tokyo-Budapest Ensemble five times between 2004-2006, under the directorship of concert clarinettist and conductor, Kalman Berkes. She performed at various music festivals including: Zell am See Music Festival (Austria) in 2005-06; Salzburg Open Air Mozart Festival 2005; Budapest Spring Festival 2005-06. She also performed with the Salzburg Festival Orchestra and Hungarian National Orchestra. In 2005 the Tokyo-Budapest Ensemble received sponsorship from the EU Cultural Exchange Committee and held recitals at the Hungarian Embassy and Tsuda Hall in Tokyo. The latter venue saw the world premiere of Hungarian pianist/composer Gyorgy Vukan's Five Jokes. 

Helena Kernaghan: Helena is a gifted and versatile accompanist and in recent times has collaborated with a variety of artists including Dutch thereminist Thorwald Jorgensen, American pianist Donna Coleman, Australian soprano Merlyn Quaife, tenor Shanul Sharma and mezzo Sally-Anne Russell. Some of her earlier performance highlights included performing as soloist in Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques at Government House, a duo piano recital with Will Poskitt of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps at the ABCs Iwaki Auditorium, and soloist in Gerswhin's Rhapsody in Blue with The Opus 21 Big Band. Helena was the founding artistic director for the Albury Chamber Music Festival (2016-2019), where she worked tirelessly to bring Classical music live performance to Albury. Helena has continued her work in this field as artistic director for Murray River Fine Music.

What is included:

-Specialised performance workshops for vocalists, violinists and pianists
-Focus on collaboration with pianists for singers and violinists
-Specialised piano accompanying option for pianists
-Ticket to staff recital on Friday evening 9th July
-Focus on solo repertoire and piano accompanying for piano students
-Opportunities to perform and participate in masterclasses
-Opportunities for one-on-one private coaching from tutors -Performance practice recitals, in front of peers
-Performance preparation strategies; managing performance anxiety
-Culminating concert on Sunday afternoon open to the public (entry by donation)
-Professional Development opportunities for local teachers whose students enrol in the course
-Meals throughout the weekend

Scots students will receive priority entry into the program. Further details will be shared next week and registrations will open very soon.

Year 8 Learning Mentor D is promoting the Big Freeze 7. It is a charity that has been widely supported in the AFL community for several years. We are encouraging students and staff to purchase a Big Freeze 7 beanie online ($20) and wear it on the last day of Term 2 to show your support. For details, go to https://fightmnd.org.au/

Round 2 of NSW Regional Interschool Junior Chess Competition

Last Friday Scots played Border Christian College in the second round of the NSW Regional Interschool Junior Chess Competition and we congratulate our rivals for being too strong on the day in their first year in the competition. Our team, in order of team position,  consisted of Shyam Kugathasan, Oliver Baitch, Hamish Whiteside and Starcia McNulty. We finished the visit to Border Christian College by showing them how to play continuous team chess! 

Chess Club on Friday lunchtimes is currently going well with often 10 or more boards being played. It has been great to see more girls joining the sessions including several Year 12 and Year 10 girls as well as a very keen group of Year 7 boys. We will aim to hold another Inter-house Chess Competition sometime in Term 3 which will allow anyone to represent their house by playing chess within age groups to battle it out for house points.

Chess Club is open for any student whatever their level, including those who are completely new to the game.

Pipe Band Leadership Group

Our Pipe Band leadership group was formally recognised at assembly last week. It was an opportunity to acknowledge our current senior leaders within the band who have held positions for the past six months and also introduce our next generation of young leaders who will take up the leadership mantel when our Year 12s graduate later in the year.

This formal recognition and appointment to a leadership position is a fantastic reward for our leaders who have all demonstrated significant dedication, sacrifice, and above all, commitment to making their fellow band members achieve success. These leaders put in countless hours of extra work to ensure that the band continues to function at a very high level.

Congratulations to our entire leadership team:
Pipe Major  – Dylan Forge  and Liam Nicolson.
Pipe Sergeant – Jonny Coe
Pipe Corporal  – Phoebe Plunkett and Bianca Sparkes
Drum Sergeant – Lachie Coe and Damon Wright
Lead Tenor - Lily Turner Drum Corporal – Tegan Forge 

Scots is proud to support Murray River Fine Music’s 2021 concert launch with this amazing one-off concert on Saturday, 22 May in Chapel Hall.

One of Australia’s most successful and respected singer/songwriters will perform an intimate concert of songs drawn from his vast back catalogue of recordings. 

Lior will be accompanied by the Border Quartet, which includes two of Scots instrumental tutors, Kaori Sparks (violin) and Damien Jones (viola), as well as Scots alumni class of 2017, Caleb Murray (cello).

Lior will present a songwriting workshop for senior elective Music students at Scots on the day before the concert. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to see world class musicians performing live at Scots!

Tickets are limited and selling fast – don’t miss out:  https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=715270& 

For further information about Lior check his website: https://www.lior.com.au