FRIENDS ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN
As an Indian Ocean Rim country, Australia is well positioned to engage with our neighbouring countries across this body of water. This is particularly true of Western Australia and Perth. At Scotch College we have identified that this geographical position provides us with opportunities and also responsibility to assist some of our less economically developed Indian Ocean neighbours.
Tanzania is one of the countries we assist through the work undertaken in Matipwili village - jointly with PLC since 2008. During the recent holiday period a number of Scotch Staff joined a group of architects under the auspices of CEFPI - the Council of Educational Facility Planners International - to visit Tanzania and offer service to both Matipwili village and the Tanzanian government more broadly.
This group visited seven schools in Tanzania including rural primary and secondary schools, large government schools in Dar es Salaam as well as independent schools such as St Jude's in Arusha and the International School, Moshi. The group gained a good insight into the educational facilities available in Tanzania. Overwhelmingly, the facilities in government schools are stretched to beyond their capacity and students struggle to learn. It was heartening to meet some inspirational young people who, despite the hardships, have managed to excel and now want to make a positive and lasting impact in their communities.
Scotch now works in three countries overseas - two of which border the Indian Ocean. While these are significant to the College - and tend to feature prominently in our publications - for the majority of our students, there is a much greater impact on their lives through providing service to the many agencies we support locally. All boys have access to organisations doing wonderful work in Perth and elsewhere in Australia, including in remote communities.
One example of this in the work done at Tranby Day Centre by groups of Year 10 boys on Friday afternoon. The boys who go to Tranby in East Perth assist to run the services for the over 120 homeless people who regularly attend for meals and counseling. Just before the last break, the boys prepared bark to be used for paintings during NAIDOC week. Scotch has been a long-term partner with UnitingCare West, the agency that runs the Tranby Centre.
Joining Round Square
Scotch College has applied to join the Round Square organization. This is a network of over 100 schools around the world who adhere to the philosophy of Kurt Hahn, a prominent educator who established well-known programmes such as Outward Bound, the Duke of Edinburgh Award. He was also instrumental in establishing schools such as Gordonstoun, Atlantic College and the United World College - the first International Schools. Scotch College shares many of the ideals of these institutions. Indeed, the IDEALS acronym used by Round Square - which derives from: Internationalism; Democracy; Environment; Adventure; Leadership; and Service - are the core principals of the Round Square organization and also feature prominently at Scotch. We are a good fit with Round Square.
Membership of Round Square will bring many opportunities to our boys and staff. Perhaps the most significant of these is will be the ability to organize exchange opportunities for boys with other member schools relatively easily. We currently do not offer an exchange programme. Membership will also make available international conference for boys in both Middle and Senior Schools. The 2013 Round Square Conference is being held in St Andrews College in Florida, USA. Boys and staff will also have the opportunity of joining international service tours - in addition to those already offered at Scotch.
Round Square has been around for a long time and proven to be effective in promoting academic excellence within the framework of the IDEALS. Our alignment with this organization will allow us more exposure to international programmes and opportunities for collaboration with schools around the world. Many IB schools are also Round Square schools. Rather than duplicating the role of the International Baccalaureate Organisation, Round Square compliments the IBO programmes by illuminating the cross beams which give strength to Scotch and go a long way towards to 'Preparing Boys For Life'.
For more information on Round Square, please go to: http://www.roundsquare.org
