Scotch College, Perth
Scotch College, is an independent Uniting Church primary and secondary school for boys, located in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne, Western Australia. It has both day and boarding students.
Founded in 1897 by the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the school caters for approximately 1,900 boys from early learning, through pre-kindergarten to Year 12. The school has undertaken the International Baccalaureate's Primary Years and Middle Years programmes since 2003; and offers the Diploma Programme for year 11 and 12 students. The school continues to run the state education WACE course and VET.
In 2023, Scotch College launched Scotch Global. As a branch of the College, Scotch Global primarily offers online education to students of all genders. Scotch Global's offerings are split into three streams: Connect, Thrive and Accelerate. Connect programmes offer access to private education from home, including the Australian Curriculum from Years 6 to 10 and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in the final years of high school. The Thrive stream offers extension and enrichment courses. The Accelerate stream offers career development for secondary school students and graduates.
The school is a member of the Public Schools Association, the Junior School Heads Association of Australia, and is a member of Round Square Schools.
Scotch College spreads over a large campus in Swanbourne. It also has an outdoor education centre in Dwellingup. The campus in Swanbourne consists of a senior school for years 9 to 12, a junior school for early learning pre-kindergarten to Year 5, and middle school for years 6 to 8. Also located on campus are playing fields spanning 15 hectares, and boarding facilities for 160 students.
History
Foundation
Scotch College owes its foundations to a conversation at an 1896 dinner party, where the parent of a 12-year-old boy, Jane Alexander, wife of William Alexander, MLC, complained that there was an absence of a Presbyterian school for boys in Perth. She offered David Ross, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Western Australia, £500 to establish Scotch College. The announcement of the college came on Monday 4 January 1897, in the form of an advertisement. The advertisement included the first location of the school, Shearer Memorial Hall, which is now the Perth Trades Hall. When founded, the school was originally named The Alexander Scotch College. The school would later shorten its name to Scotch College in 1908 for banking purposes.In 1905, the college became a founding school of the Public Schools Association, showing it to be by that time a well regarded independent school, and entitling it to take part in the most competitive schoolboy sporting competition in Western Australia.
World War One to World War Two
During World War I, 475 boys enlisted to defend the empire as part of the Allied forces. This number represented over 50% of all Scotch alumni at the time. A roll of honour is present in Collegians House, the current administration building, featuring the names of all past Scotch College boys who had volunteered to fight.In 1939, the Head Masters' Conference approached the Commonwealth Government for financial assistance due to low staff salaries, the standard of the school's science facilities and the lack of money the school possessed. When gifts of money to the school became tax deductible in 1954, people found they had more incentive to donate to schools. This led to Scotch, among other schools around Australia, beginning fundraising appeals within the school community.
Post war
Even before donations were made tax deductible, an appeal to fund a memorial for past boys who served in the Second World War raised £9,000 by 1950. When the school's council, the town in which Scotch resides in, inquired about the cost for a memorial hall to sit 650 people, they were shocked to discover it would cost around £30,000. A fete organised in 1953 raised £2,500. Another fete was arranged and appeals to both past students and parents increased the total raised to £17,500. Despite lack of funds, David Brisbane, a council member since 1945, laid the foundation stone for the hall in early 1957. Although donations to schools over £1 had been tax-deductible since 1954, it was not until January 1957 that the Taxation Department informed the school that all donations towards the new Scotch College Building Fund would be tax-deductible. The appeal committee launched a major appeal raising £23,000 for the Memorial Hall.The Memorial Hall was opened by Sir Charles Gairdner, Governor of Western Australia at the time, on 19 October 1957, the same year as the school's Diamond Jubilee. The opening led to a further £30,000 in promised donations, although the actual amount received was below this figure. Eventually the cost of the hall led to the school having to be provided a £25,000 overdraft from the ASB Bank; this led to an increase in school fees. The total cost of the Memorial Hall was £48,864 and the appeal raised £45,700. Gordon Gooch, who has a sports pavilion at the school named after him, met the shortfall.
1970 to 1990
In 1971, after observing the May 1968 French riots, a group of Year 12 boys organised a "schoolboy strike" on the regulations of hair length, after the issue had been simmering for several months. The strike involved 60 boys refusing to return to class after the lunch bell, despite threat of expulsion, which led the headmaster to arrange an assembly for all boys after having a psycho. The ringleader of the strike, Cary Kallis informed the Nine Network newsroom to announce the strike. However, Kallis informed several boys which led to news of the strike quickly spreading around the school. After being threatened by a teacher with expulsion, Kallis quickly called Channel Nine again, pretending to be a teacher, by saying "The strike has been cancelled and the boys have been disciplined". As mentioned above, the strike still went ahead.In 1984, Scotch acquired Moray, the school's outdoor education centre where students would be able to attend camps. This was purchased after the school had considered, for over a decade, the possibility of acquiring a site for a school camp. The Parents' Association gave support to the project and the school purchased the property through a mortgagee sale for $220,000. It was named Moray after a province in Scotland where Clan Murray originated.
The Scotch College foundation was established in 1986, when Judge Robert Keall was chairman of the college. The foundation raised $1.1 million within six months to partly fund a new Physical Education Centre. Robert Keall opened the $2.25 million centre on 29 March 1988.
1990 on
In 2007, the school built the Dickinson Centre, named after Scotch's previous headmaster, the late W. R. Dickinson, for assemblies and other functions. In June 2009, the school opened a Science, Design and Technology building next to the school chapel. Designed by Taylor Robinson architects, the new facility marks the completion of the first stage of the school's Master Plan. A memorial service was held for the late W. R. Dickinson, the fifth headmaster of Scotch College, on 10 May 2006. A pavilion was erected on the Scotch playing fields, and the School and Pipe Band formed a guard of honour for the Dickinson family members and the funeral cortege as they arrived. In 2015, a new middle school campus was opened along with library facilities and gallery. Memorial Hall was refurbished in 2017 with a new Heritage Centre that houses the school's archival collection. In February 2019, the school's PC Anderson Chapel was refurbished and rededicated with the appointment of two new college chaplains.In May 2017, Scotch College announced the banning of phones on campus during school. This decision was made to remove lunchtime distractions and encourage more face to face discussions among the students.
Schools
Scotch College has many schools and facilities.- The brand new School of Mathematics and Commerce. This is the newest addition to the school.
- School of Design, Technology and Sciences. Built in 2011, this building houses facilities for production of handmades. The building also houses the school's science department. The building has many design flaws which include no natural light in many spaces of the building.
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
- Department of Language Acquisition. The school offers studies in French, Indonesian and Spanish.
- Department of Performing Arts
- Department of Media and Visual Arts
- Department of Language and Literature
- Department of Physical Education
Student facilities
The college has an academic support department which provides assistance to students in the classroom and during exams.
Headmasters
Curriculum
Scotch offers a wide range of subjects in its academic curriculum. All students in years 8 to 10 study one language other than English – either French or Indonesian – through the International Baccalaureate's Middle Years Programme. In Year 8, boys undertake a community project.Scotch awards several scholarships based on academic merit to students, but under agreed PSA rules no member schools may award sports scholarships. Entrance scholarships at Scotch are based on the results of scholarship examinations. In Year 11 there are two scholarships open to sons of former alumni as well as the WR Dickinson Scholarship. To be considered, boys must have several references and nominations from the staff and are required to sit an interview and submit a copy of their resume.