Scotch College

Scotch is a part of who you are

The OSCA vision statement encapsulates the broad aims of the Association, ‘that OSCA will be valued for the contribution it makes to Old Boys and their families, to the School and to the Community’.

The specific theme underpinning OSCA activities this year is ‘Connecting and reconnecting’.

This involves trying to reach out to those Old Boys who have lost touch and who don’t become involved; to those who have walked away and who don’t see the magnificent enhancements which are now in place to ensure Scotch remains a pre-eminent school; and to those who – perhaps – don’t share the sense of pride in belonging that many continue to feel about Scotch.

If you’ve been a student at Scotch – or a parent – Scotch is part of who you are: it’s like an invisible tattoo, and you can’t wash it off. Naturally, some will deny the importance of the School in the make-up of who they are today. For many others the Scotch bug bites deep and hard – there is an underlying love and continuing respect for the Scotch spirit.

The more we examine other similar schools and their alumni activities, the more we appreciate the remarkable strength and affinity between Old Boys and Scotch.

The strength of the School, the Scotch Family and Old Scotch is in its people. For Old Boys, the strength and affinity they feel come in large part from:

• the memories they hold
• the inheritance they were granted by former generations, and
• the legacy they pass on to future generations
• To help foster and maintain this valuable underpinning of emotional support for the School, OSCA has established the Heritage Club. Its aims are:
• to support the preservation, collection, and management of the cultural heritage of Scotch College
• to promote access to the collection of historical memorabilia, documents and records, and
• to assist in raising funds to ensure the collections are appropriately cared for and displayed

Through OSCA and the Heritage Club a vision is forming that Scotch will soon have a more formal archive and museum, to help clarify Scotch’s role and place in the educational and general history of Melbourne and Australia.

To make significant achievements requires a team effort. The OSCA Council is made up of men who get their hands dirty; men who have built and run businesses, who know what it’s like on the frontline of commerce – they are men from the coalface.

We would like to see more Old Boys ‘connect and re-connect’ with their old School: to see what it has become, to see what feels the same but also what feels different. If you’d like to see what has changed, or if you have any contributions and thoughts to make about the operation of OSCA please get in touch.