Scotch College, Melbourne


Scotch College is a private, Presbyterian day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The college was established in 1851 as The Melbourne Academy in a house in Spring Street, Melbourne, by the Free [Presbyterian Church of Victoria] at the urging of James Forbes. It is the oldest extant secondary school in Victoria and celebrated its sesquicentenary in 2001.
Scotch is a founding member of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, and is affiliated with the International Boys' Schools Coalition, the Junior School Heads Association of Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools' Association, the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria, and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The School is a member of the Global Alliance of Leading-Edge Schools.
An investigation by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2021 found that Scotch is one of Australia's richest schools, and had the largest financial investment portfolio of any Australian school.
WWW Official Site

History

Scotch College is the oldest surviving secondary school in Victoria. Its foundation was due to the initiative of James Forbes, of the Free Presbyterian Church, who had arrived in 1838 as the first settled Christian minister in what became the colony of Victoria in 1851. It is "the outcome of the old Scottish ideal of education", in which church and school were inextricably connected.
The school opened on 6 October 1851, under the name of the Melbourne Academy in a small house in Spring Street, with Robert Lawson, a Scot from Edinburgh University, as the first principal. The house was soon outgrown, as was a larger one on the northwest corner of Spring and Little Collins Streets and the Church applied to the government for a grant of land. Two acres were reserved for the school on Eastern Hill and substantial new buildings were erected there in 1853. The cost was met partly by a government grant and partly from funds raised by the friends of the school.
Lawson resigned in 1856. Under his successor, Alexander Morrison, the school grew; it came under the oversight of the newly formed Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859. Morrison had been Rector of St John’s Grammar School, Hamilton, Lanarkshireand remained at Scotch for 46 years, during almost all of which time his brother Robert was a master of the college. William Still Littlejohn, who took over the school in 1904, served for 29 years, and his successor, Colin Gilray, for 19.
Gilray was succeeded in 1953 by R. Selby Smith. Smith resigned in 1964 to become the Foundation Dean of Education at Monash University.
C. O. Healey, who had been Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School since 1951, succeeded Smith. Healey retired in January 1975.
In May 1975 P. A. V. Roff, formerly Headmaster of Scotch College, Adelaide, was installed as the seventh principal of the college. Roff's tenure, though a brief seven years, was characterised by an expanding voice for staff in the day-to-day management of the school, the establishment of a Foundation Office at the School and the widening of the house system. His last few years saw the school in dispute over ownership of the school which, for the principal and the school community, was a time of stress. In 1980 the decision was made to incorporate the school and a new council was appointed, with representatives from the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, the Old Scotch Collegians' Association and the community.
F. G. Donaldson, a vice principal from Wallace High School (Northern Ireland), with a PhD in atomic physics from Queen's University Belfast, succeeded Roff in 1983. Under his principalship there was a building program, the development of ICT for administrative and educational purposes, and enhanced pastoral care of students.
I. Tom Batty was appointed as the ninth principal of Scotch and installed into office on 14 July 2008.
It was reported in 2015 that the school had acknowledged claims of historical abuse, offering compensation and apologising to former students.
An announcement of Matthew Leeds as the tenth principal was made in November 2021 but he was terminated in January 2022 before starting in the role, following a complaint alleging misconduct in 2017.
S. H. Marsh was appointed as the tenth principal of Scotch, commencing his term in January 2023.

Name

The School was originally called "The Melbourne Academy", after its location, when it opened in 1851. In its early years it was also known as
  • Mr Lawson's Academy – named after the first principal, Robert Lawson
  • The Grammar School
  • The Scots' College – the college of the Scots
  • The Scotch College – the college that is Scottish
For a while all of these names were used concurrently until in the 1860s the usage settled on "The Scotch College", which was later shortened to be simply "Scotch College".

Coat-of-arms and motto

The School's coat-of-arms features the following elements:
The motto of the School, shown in Scottish heraldic style in a scroll above the coat-of-arms, is Latin: "Deo Patriae Litteris". Its meaning in English is "For God, For Country, For Learning".

Principals

Tom Batty commenced his term in 2008 and resigned in mid 2022. His successor, Scott Marsh, commenced his term in 2023.
Years servedName
1851–1856Robert Lawson
1857–1903Alexander Morrison
1904–1933William Still Littlejohn
1934–1953Colin Macdonald Gilray OBE MC
1953–1964Richard Selby Smith OBE
1965–1974Colin Oswald Healey OBE TD
1975–1981Philip Anthony Vere Roff
1983–2007Francis Gordon Donaldson AM
2008–2022Ian Thomas Batty
2023–presentScott Hugh Marsh

Governance and denominational affiliation

Scotch is an incorporated body governed by a Council of seventeen members – who are directors – made up of three groups; five Presbyterian Church of Victoria nominees, five persons nominated by the Old Scotch Collegians' Association, and seven persons nominated by the Council from the community at large, usually with some connection with the School and the Christian church. All appointments are made annually by the Presbyterian Church from the first of November every year.
Chairmen of the Council have included Sir Arthur Robinson, Sir Archibald Glenn, Sir James Balderstone, Michael Robinson AO, David Crawford AO and David A. Kemp AC.
In 1977, most congregations of the Australian Presbyterian Church left the church and joined with the Methodist and Congregationalist churches in Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia. The Presbyterian Church of Australia continued with the remaining congregations. In the split, Scotch College, Melbourne was allocated to the Presbyterian Church of Australia by the Handley Commission which was appointed to distribute the assets of the churches, which included an even number of representatives from the Uniting Church and the continuing Presbyterian Church as well as independent commissioners. At the time the Scotch Council unsuccessfully appealed this decision.

Campuses

  • Hawthorn: The school has a single boarding, sporting and academic campus of in suburban Hawthorn. Sporting facilities include ovals and soccer/rugby fields, two synthetic grass hockey/soccer fields, tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, an indoor diving pool, three gymnasiums, two weights rooms and three squash courts. The school is situated on the banks of the Yarra River and has rowing and boating facilities located within its grounds.
  • Healesville: The school has of forest with a lodge in the hills at Healesville east of Melbourne, used for Class Retreats, as well as Scout and Cadet camps.
  • Phillip Island: The school has an absolute-beach-front residential seaside property at Cowes on Phillip Island, which is the site of a one-week orientation camp for Year 7 students and other camps.

Boarding

Scotch has been a boarding school since its foundation. Today the School caters for 160 boarders of whom around 70% are drawn from around Australia and 30% are from overseas. The boarding precinct is on "The Hill" which overlooks the Senior School at the main Hawthorn campus. There are three boarding houses: School House, McMeckan House and Arthur Robinson House. Both School House and McMeckan House were built as the gift of Anthony Mackie, and his brother and sisters, in memory of their uncle Captain James McMeckan. Arthur Robinson House is named after a Chairman of the School Council, Sir Arthur Robinson.

Curriculum

Scotch students study towards the Victorian Certificate of Education, which is the main secondary student assessment program in Victoria which ranks students with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank for university entrance purposes.
In 2024, Scotch College produced 10 duces who received a perfect ATAR of 99.95.
YearRankMedian study scoreScores of 40+ Cohort size
2012233626.9440
2013223627.0459
2014143626.6451
2015323522.3443
2016283523.9453
2017163626.8439
2018313521.6450
2019243527.2427
2020263523.4432
2021323420.9459
2022253523.2439
2023413418.4440
2024343422.6437

Extra-curricular activities

Some extra-curricular groups and activities at Scotch are:
  • Army Cadet Corps: The Scotch College Cadet Corps was established in 1884, and holds an annual Tattoo. Cadets have weekly activities at the school and participate in camps and bivouacs.
  • Pipe Band: The Scotch College Pipes and Drums Band was established in 1946 and is one of the oldest school pipe bands in Australia. It wears the Gordon tartan, and competes at national and international competitions and highland festivals. It performs at school and public events including in the annual ANZAC Day March to the Shrine of Remembrance. It is the current national champion in the Juvenile grade. The pipe band performed on stage with Sir Paul McCartney on 5 and 6 December 2017, during his One on One tour. Sir Paul famously autographed the vellum of the bass drum on stage.
  • Military Band: The Military Band performs at school, and in public including in the annual ANZAC Day March to the Shrine of Remembrance and on overseas tours. All members of the band are also members of the Australian Army Cadet Corps.
  • 1st Hawthorn Scout Group: Scotch has its own Scout Group, established in 1926, that is part of Scouts Australia. The Scout Group meets regularly each Thursday at the school and participate in off-campus activities such as camps.
  • Sports First Aid: A Wednesday afternoon service that boys can choose to undertake to gain advanced training in first aid. Members of the service learn valuable skills such as CPR and soft and hard tissue injury management. Members help the Scotch College community by regularly attending Saturday mornings to treat any injuries suffered during sport matches. An annual camp is held at Cowes where boys practice the skills they have learned.
  • Debating: Scotch regularly participates in debating, competing in the Debaters Association of Victoria Schools Competition. Each season, the school hosts the Hawthorn region of the Schools Competition. The earliest DAV success occurred in 1985, with Scotch winning the A Grade competition. In 2008 the First Debating Team were the State A Grade runners-up, while the school was also runner up in the State British Parliamentary Debating Competition. Scotch debaters have recently toured the United Kingdom participating in inter-school debating tournaments. In 2009, Scotch won the inaugural Monash Viewpoint Economics Debate. In 2010, Scotch made Victorian debating history when it won the A Grade, B Grade and C Grade State Grand Finals in the DAV Debating Competition. Scotch again won the State Grand Finals in 2012 for A Grade, in 2014 for D Grade, in 2015 for C Grade, in 2017 for A Grade, in 2019 for B Grade, and in 2022 for B Grade. The school also made grand finals appearances in 2012 for B Grade, in 2016 for B Grade, and in 2019 for C Grade. More recently, Scotch has produced highly successful members of the Victorian Schools Team and the Australian Schools Team, including Max Fan, who won the NSDC competition with Victoria and then captained the Australian team in 2021 at WSDC, and Josh Qin, representing Australia at WSDC 2023.

Sport

Scotch College competes in the Associated Public Schools of Victoria league in athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, cross country, Australian rules football, hockey, rowing, rugby, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and water polo.
In addition to the APS competition, Scotch competes in a number of other sporting competitions, including:

APS Premierships

Scotch has won the following APS premierships:
  • Athletics – 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1919, 1935, 1940, 1942, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978
  • Badminton – 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
  • Basketball – 1991, 1995, 2016
  • Cricket – 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1911, 1915, 1922, 1928, 1938, 1941, 1942, 1945, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1964, 1973, 1978, 1981, 1987, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2012, 2017, 2019
  • Cross Country – 1992, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2021
  • Football – 1891, 1892, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1900, 1901, 1906, 1911, 1913, 1916, 1930, 1932, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1989, 1996, 2006
  • Futsal – 2016, 2017, 2024
  • Hockey – 1992, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2024, 2025
  • Rowing – 1868, 1869, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1879, 1881, 1884, 1891, 1892, 1899, 1900, 1907, 1908, 1919, 1921, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1941, 1946, 1951, 1952, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 *less participation, 2022, 2023, 2025
  • Soccer – 1992, 1994, 2016
  • Swimming – 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
  • Swimming & Diving* – 1999, 2000, 2001
  • Table Tennis – 2003
  • Tennis – 1988, 1989, 2019, 2021
  • Volleyball – 2012, 2022
  • Water Polo – 2004, 2011, 2012
*From 1998 until 2013, swimming and diving events were awarded as a single premiership.

Alumni

Alumni of Scotch College are known as Old Boys or Old Collegians, and automatically become members of the School's alumni association, the Old Scotch Collegians' Association.
Studies over the years have found that Scotch College had more alumni mentioned in Who's Who in Australia than any other school. In 2010 The Age reported that Scotch College "has educated more of Australia's most honoured and influential citizens than any other school in the nation", based on research that revealed its alumni had received more top Order of Australia honours than any other school. Although knighthoods are no longer bestowed in Australia, at least 71 Scotch College alumni have been knighted.
Alumni of Scotch College include