Scotch College

From the Principal

Curriculum initiatives
Preparing Scotch Collegians for their future

In recent years there have been a number of curriculum initiatives at Scotch, undertaken with the collective aim of further improving the preparation of Scotch Collegians for their futures.

It has been said that the only predictable aspect of the future is its unpredictability. In response to this we have sought to emphasise the skills and learning tools which boys will need to excel in their changing world.

While staff have taken up the challenges presented by these initiatives and made a great commitment to their professional develoment via many outside agencies, the school has been active in bringing leading educators to the campus.

Earlier this year Dr Julia Atkin spent several extraordinarily busy days talking with groups of staff, both in the senior and junior schools. Dr Atkin is regarded as an international expert in learning theory and many parents enjoyed her humorous and informative lecture on the work she had presented to staff.

More recently, during the first three weeks of term two, Professor Richard Kimbell has been 'in residence' as a guest of the Scotch Foundation. Professor Kimbell is the first Professor of Technology at the University of London and has been a leading figure in the establishment of Design and Technology as a compulsory component of the school curriculum in Great Britain. Our own staff, in tracking these developments, introduced Design and Technology (TDP) into the curriculum in 1994.

Professor Kimbell has worked tirelessly with many individuals and groups of staff to provide further inspiration to the quest of developing our technology curriculum over the next few years.

His outstanding presentation to members of the Scotch Foundation illustrated the three dimensions of the challenge that technology offers: the intellectual challenge of developing creative solutions to problems; the practical challenge of making the solution, and making it work and the emotional challenge of reconciling conflicting values and priorities in the design and production process.

We thank the Scotch Foundation for their sponsorship of Professor Kimbell as the sixth Foundation Fellow to have visited Scotch, for he has made an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this important curriculum area.

While there have been matters with which the school has taken issue with the Board of Studies over recent years, we work closely with the Board and are pleased to be one of the schools involved in trialing the Victorian Student Assessment Monitor (VSAM).

This computer-managed assessment package has been developed to provide a state-wide assessment of year seven and year nine students in English and Mathematics.

While there is opposition to the 'league table' published earlier this year and the achievement index on which it was based, it is now understood it was the state government that decided school specific data would be published in the Herald Sun and not the Board of Studies, as was stated in the last edition of Great Scot.

Reviewing the VCE

The establishment by the State Minister for Education of a committee to review the VCE was greeted with enthusiasm by many sectors of the educational community. The VCE has brought many changes and benefits to senior secondary schooling, but there have been aspects of its implementation that have caused disquiet.

The committee under the chairmanship of Professor Kwong Lee Dow, recently visited Scotch to receive first hand, the perspectives of students, parents and staff. This was a unique opportunity for the school, and we are grateful to the committee for the time spent with us.

For all the criticism of the VCE, we should be mindful that it has enabled the delivery of an excellent education. The experience of three Scotch Collegians act as a testimony.

Yi-Ren Ng, presently in Year 12, has been awarded a scholarship to take up a place at Stanford University in the USA. The structure of the VCE has allowed Yi-Ren to undertake an unusual combination of extension studies and units 3 and 4.

Teruma Naito, Vice Captain of School in 1995, has been awarded a place to study law at Kings College, London. Lastly, Andrew Pritchard, Class of '94, is studying at the University of Michigan but was one of five out of five thousand incoming students exempted from the first year compulsory English course, on the basis of his placement tests. Our assertion is that the VCE provides an education of international standing.

Mr Ian Savage, Acting Principal