Just when we thought we were through the worst of Covid, the Victorian Government's snap lockdown has reminded us that we are not yet clear of the effects of this pandemic.
However, it feels like we are now old hands at managing the impact of Covid. As soon as we had confirmation that the lockdown would go ahead yesterday, we mobilised our plans to re-introduce our hybrid learning method.
Where students are unable to attend Scots in person, at home learning is being supported by our hybrid model that may include Microsoft Teams to connect over video, use of Seesaw in the Junior School and Schoolbox (Scotty) in the Senior School.
We have prioritised offering Boarding places to Year 11 and Year 12 students. For other families who are interested in their Senior School student entering Boarding there may still be places available for the remainder of the Lockdown period. Please register your interest, for a place in the Boarding House by calling the school on 02 6022 0000.
Thank you to all our families and staff who have gone the extra mile to ensure our students' education continues uninterrupted.
Let's all hope the Lockdown is not extended beyond these seven days.
From the Head of Senior School - Kelly McKay
Year 10 students have had a busy two weeks participating in a range of Careers activities. In their LM Program they are also hearing from all senior teachers about the many options they have in making subject selections for next year. I’d like to encourage all parents to make a time to meet with our staff prior to making selections to ensure that your child has all of the information they need prior to making selections.
Congratulations to our Open Girls Football Team for its dominant win over Xavier High School in the Grand Final last week. It was great to see so many students and families there to support the girls. We wish them all the best for their next round on 9 June.
Also a hearty congratulations to everyone involved in the production of Matilda. It was an amazing show and was certainly enjoyed by not only family members but all those who came along for the community matinee on the Thursday.
We have had a number of families contact us because of missing blazers. Can I ask all parents to check their child’s blazer to ensure they have brought home the correct one? We also have some unnamed blazers at the office along with many other items that made their way back to school following camp.
Many thanks to our Year Parents who will next week begin their trial of Scotty. Scotty is our schools name for the new Schoolbox Learning Management System. A reminder that next term all parents will have access to our Scotty and this group is going to troubleshoot and navigate their way around the program to ensure we have everything in place for next term.
I look forward to seeing many of you at our Ag Launch this afternoon.
From the Head of Junior School - Matthew Boundy
Australian Early Development Census In the last few weeks of Term 2, our Kindergarten students will be taking part in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). This is a nationwide census/survey of early childhood development held once every three years. The AEDC is an Australian Government initiative run by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment and includes all children in their first year of full-time school. Mrs Byrt and Mrs Parker have completed online training to facilitate the collection of data and we look forward to contributing to the national snapshot of childhood development.
Life @ Scots - Positive Behaviour Model Over the past 12 months, the school has worked hard to review it’s behaviour policies and how we as a school support and encourage positive behaviour, while responding appropriately to negative behaviour. There are two key elements to this approach:
The Respect Triangle - setting clear expectations across the whole school that all students must show respect to self, others and the environment.
The Four-Tier Response model - The diagram below highlights the four-tier model of intervention that we now follow in response to negative behaviours. This clearly outlines how different levels of behaviour are dealt with and the likely consequences associated with each.
Work with the Year 5 and 6 students has begun to help students understand this model, as well as provide feedback on the appropriateness of interventions and how common issues can be dealt with in a fair and reasonable way. Early indications are that our students have a very good understanding of both the behaviours expected and consequences associated with poor behaviour or decision making.
While this model provides clarity around our response to issues in the classroom and playground, each individual case must be looked at carefully, to ensure all factors have been considered.
Junior School Waste Initiative Recently, the Year 3 and 4 students embarked on an ambitious project to improve our waste management across the Junior School through their Unit of Inquiry work. This has lead to much discussion in our community and as a result, we are currently reviewing the program and how we can address the concerns of parents. An update will be provided shortly once this feedback has been given to the students and we work towards a better solution.
From our Chaplain - Rev Beth Bear
More than a word: Reconciliation takes Action
Yiradhu marang! That means g’day in Wiradjuri language, which has been spoken by the people who walked the ground beneath our feet for more than 60 000 years.
This week is National Reconciliation Week (NRW), where we celebrate the culture and custodianship of First Nations peoples, and reflect on how we are going at addressing the injustice that continues to affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Jesus worked towards reconciliation, bringing people together, through his life and through his death. We follow his example to continue working toward reconciliation.
Following Jesus’ example, in Chapel at Scots we always try to put our faith and values into action. Twelve months ago, we formed a working group to create a Scots Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Students, staff, parents and community members from the pre-school, junior and senior school all contributed to this process, and we are proud to say our RAP was accepted and published by Reconciliation Australia in March. This week we celebrated the launch of our RAP with a renewed commitment to action. The RAP is on our website under “acknowledgement of country” and also linked here. We encourage everyone to choose one action to which they will commit and check our social media to see Scots NRW highlights!
Guwayu – see you later!
I am off on maternity leave until the end of the year. Thank you everyone for your prayers and well-wishes as we welcome baby bear #2. I’ll still be checking emails and can forward on whatever enquiries you have while I’m away.
A Whisky & Gin Affair gala event
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
Pipe Band news with Tom Mewett
2021 Queensland Pipe Band Championships
Pipe Band competition was back in a big way last Sunday with over 9000 people attending the most recent contest held in Ipswitch, Queensland, which was appropriately titled: The Gathering. One of the hallmark events featured in The Gathering was the 2021 Queensland Pipe Band Championships. After conquering a Sydney contest the previous weekend, a small group of pipers and drummers from The Scots School Albury once again joined the ranks of Sydney-based pipe band, the St Mary's Band Club, to take on some very polished Queensland outfits. Liam Nicolson, Johnny Coe, Damon Wright, Lachie Coe, and former Scots Albury Student Maddie Hedderwick helped steer St Mary's to a fantastic victory in the Grade 3 competition to claim the title of Queensland Champions after putting forward two very polished musical performances throughout the day. A huge congratulations to the Scots Albury contingent on their contribution to the big win. A fantastic reward for countless hours of hard work.
Get Your Act Together: An Advanced Performance Workshop Intensive
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.
From the Head of Sport - Dave Smith
Senior School Athletics Carnival
Winners: Robertson House
Age Champions:
18 Years: Tia Frazer and Sean Flanagan 17 Years: Abi Wilkinson and Bailey Adams 16 Years: Ali Jackson and Charles Ledger 15 Years: Emmy Williams and Will Maguire 14 Years: Lily Harrison and Magnus McGregor 12/13 Years: Sara Butko and Mac Clifford
Basketball Camp
Scots is holding its first Basketball Academy camp during the next school holidays. Please use the link below for details and registration.
In the Albury Netball Association’s Autumn competition, Scots has had seven teams battling away every Monday night since February. Five teams have made the semi-finals for Monday 31 May: Scots Thunderbirds (Year 12s) coached by Ms Rae, Scots Fever (Year 11s) coached by Mrs McGhee, Scots Vixens (Year 10s) coached by Ms Davies, Scots Magpies (Years 8/9) coached by Mrs Byrt, Scots Swifts (Year 8s) coached by Ms Toohey.
Congratulations to all players and coaches on a great season and good luck to these teams for your matches on Monday night. - Head of Netball, Alley McGhee
AFL
U15 Girls AFL Gala Day On Tuesday 4 May, The Scots School Albury hosted the U15 Girls AFL Gala Day. Our team of 21 girls from years 7 - 9 represented the school with pride and displayed a high level of sportsmanship. For many of our players this was their first opportunity to represent the school in AFL, after a large number of training sessions in both 2020 and 2021.
The girls started the day very strongly, winning both their pool matches against James Fallon High School and Albury High School by a couple of goals. This resulted in the Junior Team ending up top of their pool and lead to them progressing to the Semi Final against Trinity Anglican College.
During this final match of the day the girls demonstrated a high level of skill and determination, however, they were unable to walk away victorious in a low scoring close match. The team were all proud of their achievements on the day and pleased to have finally experienced a couple of games of AFL.
Senior Girls AFL Gala Day
On Wednesday the 12th of May the School hosted yet another Gala Day, this time for the Seniors Girls. This day was hugely successful with our squad of 22 girls from Years 10 - 12 winning all three games played on the day against Albury High School, James Fallon High School and Billabong High School to progress into the Grand Final played at Lavington Sports Ground on Wednesday 19 May.
At the Grand Final against Xavier High School for the Ross Henshaw Shield, the team came home with a fantastic win. The final score was 36 – 19 with goals from Ava Cofield, Lara Diffey, Laura Cook and Maddi Brown and best on to Jemima Dunstan, Ali Jackson & Tia Frazer. The team will now progress to the Southern NSW AFL Gala Day on Wednesday 9 June @ Lavington Sports Ground.
Well done to everyone who played, what an amazing effort and we are looking forward to the next round!
A special thanks for training and support of the team’s development goes to Graeme and Liz Cook and all of the student helpers
Thomas Hartshorn
U15 Boys AFL Gala Day
Scots took a squad of 24 boys, ranging from Years 7 to 9, to the Aussie Rules Gala Day at Xavier HS on Tuesday. We were extremely lucky to have the coaching services of parent Peter Dean, who prepared the boys extremely well in the lead up to the day. This included a specially scheduled training session the morning before. The first game was against Albury High which proved to be a very even matchup. After playing well and leading early in the match, the Scots boys found themselves trailing early in the second half. Despite dominating territory and peppering the goals in the last few minutes of the match, the Two-Blues ended up going down by 10 points.
Final Score: Scots: 2.4.16 lost to Albury HS 4.2.26
Goals: Will Dickins and Alex Smythe Best: Charlie James, Harvey Correll, Harry Dean.
Game 2 was against Billabong HS and the boys showed they were determined not to fall into the same trap as the last game, dominating from start to finish. The teamwork and pressure were excellent in a great all-round performance.
Final Score: Scots: 5.6.36 d Billabong HS 0.2.2.
Goals: Oscar Clelland, Alex Smythe 2, Will Dickins 1. Best: Alex Smythe, Drew Cameron, Oscar Clelland, Fred Jackson.
Having watched St Paul’s play in their earlier games, this matchup always looked the most challenging and it proved to be the case. The strong and skillful opposition team jumped the Scots boys and they soon found themselves three goals down. However, from midway through the first half, both teams only added one goal each which showed the fighting spirit and determination of our boys.
Final Score: Scots 1.0.6 lost to St Paul’s Walla 4.6.30
Goals: Alex Smythe 1. Best: Harry Dean, Will Dickins, Harry Harrington, Billy Butko.
The final game saw the boys finish the day with a comprehensive win over James Fallon HS, kicking four goals in the first half and then five straight in the second. A number of the Year 7 boys had strong games and showed that the future of footy at Scots is bright.
Final Score: Scots 9.2.56 d JFHS 3.2.20
Goals: Oscar Clelland 4, Will Dickins 2, Fred Jackson, Alex Smythe, Magnus McGregor 1. Best: Magnus McGregor, Harry Dean, Alex Smythe, Oscar Clelland.
Overall, the boys had a successful and enjoyable day, having played some great team football across the four matches. Peter was able to pass on lots of footy wisdom to them as well which will no doubt help them improve their own games going forward. A big thank you to Peter for giving up his time to coach the boys and also to Steven Scott who was our goal umpire for the day.
Senior Boys AFL Gala Day A squad of 21 Year 9-12 boys represented Scots at the Senior Football Gala Day on Wednesday. Injuries and the school production reduced our numbers prior to the carnival, meaning Year 9 boys Oscar Clelland and Harvey Correll received a late call up to fill the team.
Game 1 was a very closely fought affair against Billabong HS. Our opponents kicked the only goal of the first half but scoring increased significantly after half time. It was literally goal for goal until the final seconds of the match when Alex Newman slotted one home to give Scots a 2-point victory. The Scots defence led by co-captain Joel Cook and full back Alex Tremonti kept the team in the match with some superb play, especially in the first half.
Final Score: Scots 3.4.22 d Billabong HS 3.2.20
Goals: Riley McGillivray, Tom Sparks, Alex Newman. Best: Sean Flanagan, Joel Cook, Billy Dunstan, Will Devere
Game 2 saw the Scots boys continue their momentum from the earlier game and comfortably defeat St Paul’s College. Final Score: Scots 7.2. 44 do St Paul’s 1.0.6
Goals: Hamish Watson, Lewis Schubert 2, Alex Newman, Sean Flanagan, Fraser Bennett. Best: Tom Sparks, Baxter Golden, Joel Cook, Billy Dunstan
Game 3 was another big win against James Fallon HS. Final Score: Scots 10.2 62 d JFHS 1.0.6
Goals: Sean Flanagan 5, Riley McGillivray 2, Fraser Bennett, Oscar Clelland, Tom Newman. Best: Sean Flanagan, Max Bennett, Will Devere.
The boys went into Game 4 against Albury HS knowing that a win would see them through to join the Scots girls in next week’s Grand Final. Unfortunately, our opponents got the jump on us, and even though the boys fought the game out valiantly, Albury High were simply too strong.
Final Score: Scots 1.0.6 lost to AHS 6.2.38
Goals: Riley McGillivray 1. Best: Billy Dunstan, Alex Tremonti, Tom Sparks
Overall, the young Scots team put up a tremendous effort on the day, narrowly missing progression through to the GF stage. They played strongly, but fairly in all matches and wore the Two Blues jumper with pride. Thank you to injured players Charles Ledger and Kai Taylor for their assistance on the day, as well as to parents Scott Angel and Kath Heath and our Head of Sport, Dave Smith.
In the Albury Netball Association’s Autumn competition, Scots has had seven teams battling away every Monday night since February. Five teams have made the semi-finals for Monday 31 May: Scots Thunderbirds (Year 12s) coached by Ms Rae, Scots Fever (Year 11s) coached by Mrs McGhee, Scots Vixens (Year 10s) coached by Ms Davies, Scots Magpies (Years 8/9) coached by Mrs Byrt, Scots Swifts (Year 8s) coached by Ms Toohey.
