AN EXCITING FINISH TO THE TERM

It is hard to imagine a busier time in a school than in what lies ahead in the next four weeks. Book Week has been celebrated in grand style in all three sub-schools and it was my privilege to read a delightful story to Mrs Webster's Year 1 class. Dr O'Connell read the same story to Mrs Gray's Year 1 class and by all reports was a great hit so I felt a great deal of pressure on my performance. Next week we start the mentoring of the 'big boys' of the Junior School. I am looking forward to working with my group of Year 5 boys as they work towards their PYP Exhibition.

The Year 10 boys have been highly responsible in submitting their MYP Personal Projects on schedule and in a few weeks they will be assessed and on full display to our community in the Showcase on September 20, just before we all head off to the River Cruise to celebrate the end of the MYP journey. Of course, prior to that we have the Middle Years' Tom Sawyer production that is guaranteed to be a great success.

In the meantime the Year 11 boys are preparing for their end of year examinations. The Year 12 boys are preparing for their final internal assessments and all this in the midst of the end of winter sports and preparing for another exciting season of athletics. Apart from the courses run by ATARextra that are starting next week, our wonderful Old Scotch Collegians are continuing to support the Year 12s with the 'Targeted Tuition' programme that brings our young OSC to assist in the boys' preparation for these examinations. Mrs Coffey has an excellent rapport with our recent leavers and facilitates a great mutually beneficial service. Mr Tyrrell has recently tapped into Mrs Coffey's expertise and the Targeted Tuition programme as he extends the BRC hours to accommodate boys who would like to use that facility and Mrs Coffey finds recent OSC boys who can be accessed if they have queries. The comments from the boys, when asked through a survey if this would be a library service they would use, included: 'Awesome idea'; 'This is a really useful initiative'; 'Brilliant idea, love it!'; 'This is a really great initiative!'; 'Some good things happening from the support staff at the library'.

Our parents can rest assured that all of our boys are in good hands with so much available to support the boys throughout their learning journey at Scotch.

Jan Skidmore

Director of Teaching and Learning