The Middle School and Junior School Relationship

We welcome Mr John Stewart, our new Head of Junior School into the College this week. The relationships between Junior and Middle School will always remain a strong link at Scotch. The Year 5 & 6 JPSSA Sports connects both schools, common facilities such as Mackellar Hall and the play spaces join us, shared teachers in areas such as Music and joint performances including the Junior Middle School Autumn Concert have us working closely with each other throughout the year. The most important connection however is in our brief: to help transition boys from Year 5, to Year 6, from the PYP into the MYP, into adolescence and into the cohort of boys they will remain with for the next six years. For these reasons Junior and Middle School will always have a strong, interconnected, working relationship between the two campuses.

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting and listening to Celia Lashlie - a popular speaker, writer and educator in the areas of boys' education and adolescent development. Celia wrote the book 'He'll Be OK.' She has a colourful presence on stage and is always entertaining with stories and personal anecdotes about boys and clever prompts that help us reconsider how we interact with boys and students. One comment resonated with me both as a teacher of boys and as a dad: " When he says it out aloud, says what he is thinking, then not only do we know what he is thinking, he knows what he is thinking too. Until then it is often only a feeling or unclarified thought."

It was great reminder that we need to wait, to make our boys respond. Too often we fill in a boy's thinking time with answer options, or pick the first hand up. Our oral language is and will remain one of the most powerful learning mechanisms we have. It is important that we give our boys and sons the opportunity and the time to develop and use it.

Mr Richard Ledger

Head of Middle School