Scotch College, Adelaide
Scotch College is an independent, Uniting Church, co-educational, day and boarding school, the bulk being in Torrens Park with a nearby junior school campus in Mitcham, inner-southern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.
Founded in 1919 out of the earlier Kyre College, and incorporated under an Act of Parliament in 1922, Scotch currently caters for approximately 1,000 students including more than 100 boarders in Years 7 to 12.
Scotch College is affiliated with the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools' Association, the Junior School Heads Association of Australia, the Independent Schools Sport Association and the Independent Girls' Schools Sport Association.
On 4 September 2014, it was announced that John Newton would become the Principal from January 2015 for 5 years. He was previously headmaster of Taunton School in the UK. In 2021, he announced his upcoming retirement.
History
Scotch College was founded as a Presbyterian school for boys, a niche that was not served in South Australia previously.In the late 19th Century, there were several attempts to found a Presbyterian boys school in South Australia. At the time, Presbyterianism was the fifth largest religion in the colony, after Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, Congregationalism, and Methodism. Only 5–10% of the colony's inhabitants belonged to that denomination. Many of the larger denominations already had private schools, such as St Peter's College and Pulteney Grammar School, and Prince Alfred College. Although Scotch College, Melbourne had been successfully running as a Presbyterian boys school in Victoria since 1851, funding shortages prevented the funding of a South Australian Presbyterian school until later. One reason for the delay was that early funds raised for Scotch College were diverted to found the University of Adelaide instead.
In 1902, Kyre College, which would eventually become Scotch College, was founded by David Henry Hollidge in Malvern and in 1903 moved to Unley Park. The first classes were held in a rented house. The school grew quickly and prospered until about 1913, after which enrolments declined as a result of an agricultural downturn and eventually World War I. Nearly 250 affiliates of Kyre College fought in the war. The Kyre College logo was oval in shape, coloured blue and gold, with a central shield containing images of a book, a lamp, a beehive, and crossed cricket bats, separated by a Christian cross. Above the shield was the Lion Rampant that would become the mascot of Scotch College. Similarly, blue and gold would become the Scotch College school colours.
In the meantime, the idea of founding an independent Presbyterian boys school remained popular, and funding was finally secured after the War after persistent leadership and fundraising by John Seymour, a Presbyterian minister, who also helped to found Presbyterian Ladies College, now Seymour College. According to the College's 1922 incorporation, the initial funds were provided by "members of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia and of the South Australian Caledonian Society and of the Lothian Club, Adelaide, and by other persons interested in providing a college for boys of Scotch parentage and descent."
In 1918, Kyre College became Scotch College and first operated under that name in 1919. The re-formed school was initially called Kyre Scotch College. An enduring legend associated with the College is that it was founded in the memory of the "Sons of Scotland who fought and died in The Great War of 1914–1918". The first headmaster was Norman Gratton, previously a Presbyterian Church elder, and the College officially incorporated under an Act of Parliament in 1922. The following excerpts from the 1922 Scotch College, Adelaide, Incorporation Act describe the College's initial purpose:
Scotch College, Adelaide, is founded for the purpose of providing education for boys of Scotch parentage and descent in South Australia, and such other boys as shall be admitted to the College, and of providing religious instruction for its scholars according to the religious belief of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
The fundamental principle of the College is that no religious instruction shall be imparted thereat which shall in any way contravene the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
The founding Chairman was Henry Darnley Naylor, an English born, Cambridge-educated classics scholar, described by the Australian Dictionary of Biography as "an uncommonly stimulating teacher... left a lifelong mark on his students, morally and socially as well as intellectually."
In 1920, the College moved to the current location of the Middle and Senior School campus in Torrens Park, formerly the property of Sir Robert Richard Torrens, Sir Walter Walton Hughes, and Robert Barr Smith. The new location allowed Scotch to become the first school in South Australia to have a fully operational farm on campus for the purposes of agricultural education.
During World War II, the property was used by the United States Army and then the Royal Australian Air Force as No. 4 Embarkation Depot, and the school was forced to move to Birralee, Belair and Brierly Lodge from May 1942 to February 1944. "Gratton House", now the Middle School, was built as a memorial to 57 Old Collegians who were killed in World War II.
Scotch recruited Charles Fisher, who had previously been a master at Harrow School and the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, to be its third Headmaster. Fisher has been described as:
a conservative... a manager rather than a thinker. Despite personal optimism, he was pessimistic about encouraging young people to think independently when so many were obviously destined to work in hierarchical institutions. His rather bland desire for his school was that it should balance the development of individuality with the inculcation of attitudes and skills useful to the community, the nation and the world.
Fisher served as headmaster from 1962 to 1969. The Australian Dictionary of Biography described that "he transformed , economically and educationally, by adding a new junior school, science laboratories and a chapel, and by instituting a comprehensive outdoor programme and making strong staff appointments." At the end of 1965 the junior school was instituted as a separate school from the senior College. In 1968, construction of the College Chapel was completed. Previously, students had walked to Hawthorn Presbyterian Church for religious services. The College acquired the lease to Goose Island in 1966, and has incorporated trips there as part of Outdoor Education since. The college further expanded its outdoor and environmental education with the acquisition of its Kyre Campus on Kangaroo Island in 2004, which was included in the curriculum until 2019.
In 1972, the College became co-educational under the reformist Headmaster Philip Roff, and the Middle School was founded the following year. Initially the Middle School consisted of years 7 and 8; in 2002 Year 9 was added to the Middle School. In 1977, the Presbyterian Church of Australia merged with the Methodist and Congregational churches to form the Uniting Church of Australia and Scotch College changed its religious affiliation accordingly. Today, the College is administered by a Council of Governors in connection with the Uniting Church in Australia. The school maintains its church affiliation, but religion plays a significantly diminished role in school life compared to the Presbyterian era, in line with broader social trends and the secularisation of Australian culture since the 1960s.
Margaret Simons, profiling Penny Wong, who attended the school in the first half of the 1980s, described the culture of the school at that time in the following way:
According to Wong, when she was there the school reflected a particularly Adelaide form of liberalism. The deputy principal at that time was Diana Hill, later president of UNICEF Australia and the wife of Robert Hill ... Diana Hill had been at the school since 1977, when girls were still a minority. She pushed Scotch to change the uniforms, language and facilities to make the environment more welcoming for girls and female staff, as well as advocating for a shift from a 'blokey' sports-oriented culture to one that valued academic excellence as well.
Scotch College, in Wong's experience, was less concerned with privilege and more with 'classic liberalism' or 'Steele Hall liberalism'
In 1993, the College introduced the requirement for all students to use laptop computers, beginning with Year 7. Since 1999, all students have used laptops.
In 1995, Scotch founded a preschool on the Mitcham campus, to be housed in what was formerly the chaplain's residence.
Since at least 2003, Scotch has participated in the Yalari scholarship programme, which offers scholarships to students from indigenous communities to attend the College.
The school's current alma mater was composed in 2007 by Anthony Hubmayer and a group of staff and students. It is set to the tune of the Scottish melody Highland Cathedral.
Scotch College has adopted various "positive education" programs and principles from US psychologist and educator Martin Seligman as part of the school's overall education offering. In 2011, Scotch became the first school in South Australia to formally implement positive psychology programs as part of the school's curriculum. As of 2017, Scotch was a member of the Positive Education Schools Association.
As of 2014, 28% of Middle- and Senior School students participated in rowing. In 2015, both the boys' and girls' First XIII rowing teams won the Head of the River rowing race, the first time in 20 years that the boys had won. The boys had last won in 1995, the girls in 2001.
In September 2019, Scotch announced a $AUD 26M "wellbeing hub" to be completed by 2022.