Dear Parents
Welcome back to Summer Term 2015 which marks yet another start to a school year. This week we commenced with 1552 boys; the most students Scotch has ever welcomed back. I have no doubt that if I surveyed staff they would say the break went way too quickly. However, judging from the number of smiling parents I saw on day one, the commencement of school could not have come quick enough! Either way I know how great it is to see all of the returning and new boys breathe life back into Scotch, which minus students is simply a series of buildings in Swanbourne.
Much was accomplished over the break especially by our Facilities staff. Furthermore, as a result of the work of teachers and the administration and ancillary staff, Week 1 went extremely smoothly. Please ensure you read all communication from the College. There were the usual occurrences of students looking for their classrooms and sport buses but that is to be expected until everyone gets back into a routine.
I would also like to thank everyone in our residential community who made their way from all over WA and overseas to be here for the boarding orientation before school officially commenced. This proved to be a great success. Furthermore thank you to our Parents' Association who did such a great job with the Welcome BBQ and respective festivities. Such events are the hallmark of our great community and every year we are fortunate to welcome many new families to Scotch. I sincerely hope all of our new families and staff have settled in and feel welcome.
In commencing this year I would like to leave the boys with one very simple message based on the word effort, which for me is the essence of achieving "personal excellence", one of the things we promote at Scotch.
We hear the term effort used in many statements such as 'He put a lot of effort into finishing the project on time', 'it wasn't easy, but it was worth the 'effort', 'We need to expend extra effort', and 'Our success is due to the combined efforts of many people'.
Quite often the word is used to affirm that a team or individual, while not successful did at least try. If you get an 'A' for effort you are given credit for working hard to do something, even though the result of the work was not successful. For example, over the last few days I watched a number of our boys competing in the JPPSA and PSA and in some cases, even though they didn't win, the team did put in a lot of effort. Counter to this effort resulted in other teams experiencing success. The secret is walking away from anything knowing that you couldn't have put in any more effort.
In the classroom effort is everything. We all know that everyone has varying gifts and abilities, most of which we had no control upon. The one thing we can control is our effort and commitment. What I ask of each boy is to work hard, expend extra effort and through this they can achieve their best, which is the very essence to achieving personal excellence.
Finally, no matter whether or not if you are a new or returning family please come up and say hello whether at school or outside in the community. Once again welcome back and have a great year.
Dr A J O'Connell
Headmaster
