In this issue

Families may have seen their students sporting their new ‘Spirit’ badges on their College ties or shirt collars.  Are you wondering what the story is behind the badge?

Each year, the College’s Year 12 leadership group decides on a theme or a legacy of what they’d like to foster in their final year of schooling.  Deciding upon a theme is not always an easy task.  It has to be something that is meaningful to the group and there is a great deal of thought behind how they can encourage and support the rest of the school to embrace and embody their chosen theme.

This year’s theme is ‘Spirit’, which also happens to be one of the College values.  Throughout the term, our Prefects and Leaders have visited each year level to talk to students about what it means to have ‘spirit’.   It is their aim to have students of all different backgrounds show pride in their school.  As a leadership group, they believed one of the best ways to improve spirit in the College was to teach the war cries to the younger students.  The College war cries have a special way of uniting the school to share and enthusiastically display the pride each student has to belong to SCOTS PGC.

The ‘Spirit’ badge serves as a daily reminder to our students about what it means to be a SCOTS PGC student and the collective spirit and pride within our community.

This coming Wednesday, 8 September, our rugby players will take to Briggs Oval for their final match of the year in the Darling Downs Super Schools Cup.  For some players, this will be the first time playing on Briggs Oval and for many of our seniors, it will be their last time playing for the College.

We’d love to see as many SCOTS PGC families lining the oval for our last match of 2021 as we take on the boys from St. Marys, Toowoomba.  Game times are as follows:

Under 13s | 2:00pm

Under 15s | 3:00pm

Opens | 4:00pm

We hope to see you there!

Mr Tom Bradbury | Assistant Director of Co-Curricular Activities

Warwick Senior Teen Hockey Finals

After 15 rounds of competition, the Senior Mixed Hockey Team booked their ticket straight to the Grand Final on the back of their 2 draws and 13 wins. In the round games, the team amassed 85 goals and conceded just 25 to their opponents.

Going into the game as favourites the team had some added pressure with Schools Cup Finals looming the following day. Despite warnings to be on their toes and respect their opponents, the pressure became very evident in the opening minutes when an enthusiastic and greatly improved Blue Team scored first. This seemed to jolt the SCOTS Team into action but not quite enough – as they still weren’t hitting their passes and looked a little sluggish at times. To add insult to injury, the Blue Team scored a second to make the task even more difficult to overcome.

To the credit of our mixed bag of young and old, experienced and inexperienced, SCOTS stayed in the fight to the death and in fact clawed back a goal with about 6 minutes to spare, which led to a tense period of concerted attack.

All players contributed to the performance and never gave up, but the end came and they were left wondering a little about what went wrong? Even the Blue Team were surprised at their performance which was an exceptional one indeed.

In the final presentations for the match and the season, I am pleased to share that Rosalie Mauch was named the Most Improved Player for the season which was a very well deserved award. Player of the Final honours went to Emma Bradbury, who truly earned this award with a dominant and dogged performance in the midfield to defend and attack when she could.

I would like to thank all the players and the parents for their support of the team and the competition over the 17 weeks of the season. This has been a most enjoyable coaching role and we look forward to building our Hockey Program further into the future.

QCIS Athletics

Well, what can I say? Last Friday was amazing! With several students out due to illness and injury, the team in attendance really stepped up and showed immense school spirit to fill in for dozens of events.

With that said, we did not only fill spaces we won events and accumulated points throughout the day, which led to fantastic results across several age groups and ultimately the Aggregate and the Percentage trophies coming our way.

Congratulations to all students for their wonderful effort – particularly our record breakers.

I’d also like to acknowledge the following age groups pennant winners, where we won 6 out of 18 pennants.

Girls – 13 years, Boys – 11 years, 12 years, 13 years, 15 years and the Opens.

We also finished second in three other age groups – Boys and Girls 14 years and the Girls 16 years, whilst the Boys 16 years finished third.

With all events for the year now completed, we will be scanning the results thoroughly to finalise our Colours Awards as per last year’s process. This will take some time as there are a lot more results to filter through, with the events completed exceeding last year (the only 2020 event being the College Carnivals). These will be reviewed and published as soon as practicable (hopefully before the holidays) so that families may be able to double-check my analysis and ask questions as required.

Again, congratulations to all participants and well done to the team for achieving the treble accolades of winners in the Border District, Warwick All Schools and QCIS events all in one year. This is something we have not been able to achieve for many years!

Darling Downs Schools Cup Hockey

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, SCOTS PGC returned to the Darling Downs Schools Cup Hockey after some years of absence.

The boys took to the turf on Wednesday and despite the lack of time as an all-male unit, they came together quite well. Each and every member of our squad contributed to our success.

The team faced St Mary’s (0-2 loss), Harristown SHS (3-0 win), St Joseph’s (0-2 loss) and Centenary Heights SHS (0-0 draw) in all their pool games. The boys finished third in their Pool which was a great result with a team of first-timers, juniors, seniors and everything in between.

Noah Page was lucky enough to be ‘Johnny on the Spot’, to score in our only win of the day. He was able to achieve this with the efforts of the young men behind him. Samuel Bourke was our most talented player and after an injury the night before, he managed to pull it together and showed his tenacity throughout every game. Seniors, Ewan McFarland, Seb Christensen and Darcy Brennan did us proud with great patience and persistent toil across the park. These young men have left a great legacy of inclusion and respect for their teammates that we hope will pervade the team for years to come. Nicholas McGahan took a few for the team with several hits to his feet and never gave up in both attack and defence. Young guns, Tanner Henley, Lachlan Nolan, William Angus and Rory Farrell never gave up and demonstrated that the future looks bright for our team. The fight these lads showed was tenacious and with the seniors as their role models, we can only go up from here. Finally, James Bourke the custodian at the back truly is a gutsy and talented young man – It takes great courage to stand in goal and take shot after shot, not knowing where it may or may not be coming from, but James is always in it to the death.  Although small in stature, he always manages to stand tall in the goal box in the face of adversity. We can’t wait to see how this young man develops over the coming years.

With all that said, the boys went on to the playoff for the 5th and 6th position where they faced Downlands College. The star-studded line-up from Downlands consisted of several current and recent Queensland representatives so it was always going to be a big ask. The boys acquitted themselves well going down 4-0 but with their heads held high.

On Thursday, the girls returned to the fray after an extended absence from the tournament as well. The girls finished fourth in their pool after a draw, two losses and a win. The girls went down 3-1 to eventual champions, The Glennie School in a tenacious affair. They drew nil-all against St Joseph’s College, lost 2-0 to Concordia and defeated Harristown SHS 2-1.

Their greatest challenge came in the Crossover Final for the 7th and 8th Playoff against former champions, Fairholme College. The girls fought hard in this match which see-sawed back and forth with both teams unable to penetrate the defence of the other. The game came to an end at nil-all and a penalty shootout ensued.

Fairholme drew first blood with two straight conversions whilst we were down with two missed attempts. Fairholme then missed their next two whilst we converted ours to make it two goals each with a shot to come from both teams in the regulation attempts. Both teams converted their final attempts and we were into sudden death. Fairholme stepped up and took on Krystal Petersen in the box for SCOTS. Krystal held her nerve and the shot was sprayed wide. Emma Bradbury stepped up for our next shot and on the whistle approached the keeper first jinking left then right, then striking the ball but the keeper got a touch and Emma had to take a second strike which found the back of the box with a resounding thump and winning us the game and sealing 7th place.

Throughout the day all players improved their teamwork and individual skills with the shootout a very tangible example of this.

Captain Millie Groves, led by example with dogged defence and some jinking runs through the middle. At the end of the day, Emma Bradbury finished as the third-highest goal scorer with 4 goals, complemented by her runs in general play and superb service to forward players. Jekeira Major played like a veteran despite being relatively new to the sport – her calmly slotted penalty corner was just one example of this. Briana Groves, Abbey Petersen proved we have some depth and talent to come with their persistence throughout the day. Jacoba de Jager, Rosalie Mauch and Sophie Poole were ever ready and keen to improve; they never gave up and tried new things all the time to better themselves. Niamh Fender was the least experienced of the team but did not show it with her never give up attitude and continuous improvement across the day.

We look forward to seeing all these girls back next year as we have no seniors in the team and with the promising performance this year, we would hope that can only improve in the years to come.

SCOTS 7s Carnival

Tomorrow we’ll be hosting our annual SCOTS 7s on Briggs and Dunning  Ovals, with schools from across the region descending upon the College for a massive day of schoolboy and schoolgirl Rugby 7s. If you’re around, we’d love to see some extra SCOTS PGC support on the sidelines! Our canteen would also love some extra helpers.

College Tennis Championships

In 2021, we would like to reinstate the previously contested College Tennis Championships to the College Calendar in an attempt to re-establish this beautiful sport within our Community.

The proposed competition structure:

12 years and Under Girls Singles (1 Set Tiebreak)

12 years and Under Boys Singles (1 Set Tiebreak)

15 years and Under Girls Singles (1 Set Tiebreak)

15 years and Under Boys Singles (1 Set Tiebreak)

Open Student Girls Singles (1 Set Tiebreak)

Open Student Boys Singles (1 Set Tiebreak)

Open Students Mixed Doubles (All ages may form a mixed doubles pairing of their choice) (1 Set Tiebreak)

Proposed dates: October 9-10, 2021 – End of Week 1 Term 4 – (EOI’s / Nominations close on September 1, 2021)

All Nominations to Tom Bradbury via email: tom.bradbury@scotspgc.com.au

***Competition will be dependent upon nominations received***

SCOTS Junior Touch Competition – Term 4

It’s coming back in Term 4, pending support. Our very popular Junior Touch Competition is hoping to return next term. Year 10 and Year 11 students have been asked to assist in coaching and refereeing. We need their assistance to be able to proceed, so stay tuned as to how, when and where to sign up for the competition.

Upcoming Events

• SCOTS 7s – Saturday 4 September – Briggs and Dunning Ovals
• SCOTS Junior Touch Competition – Term 4

Last weekend we had a number of students who represented Warwick and District Netball at the annual Inter-District Carnival.

This carnival provides netballers from far and wide with the opportunity to play competitively against one other.  Congratulations to the following students who enjoyed a wonderful couple of days on the court:

Hannah Bourke – Under 11s & Shooter of the Final
Bridie Hutchinson – Under 12s
Amira Duffy – Under 13s & Centre court player of the Final
Alexandra Rickert – Under 16s
Holly Naughten – Opens & Under 11s Coach

During Wednesday’s Open Morning, we launched our Little SCOTS – Transition to Prep program.  The initial part of the program involved an information session for parents and carers, while children familiarised themselves with the Prep environment.

Little SCOTS is an experience designed to prepare young children for the transition to Prep, ahead of them starting school. Children are invited to join our Prep class for several hours once a week (for six weeks) during Term 4. The experience is open to all children preparing to enter Prep the following year, not just those enrolled at the College.

If you know of families who are still considering their Prep options for 2022, please encourage them to come along and check out Little SCOTS.  

Please call Wendy Whittaker (Director of Admissions) 07 4666 9808  or email enrolments@scotspgc.com.au for more information

The Junior and Middle schools movie night is only a week away!

Families are welcome, so bring your blanket and chairs, sit down and enjoy pizza, popcorn and a drink (4 types of pizzas including Vegetarian and Gluten-Free).
Details are below:

Please click on the link to book your ticket https://events.humanitix.com/p-and-f-jam-movie-night
Bookings close Thursday morning (9 September)

Ms Amy Woodgate | Head of Junior and Middle Schools

The power of books was on show across the College last week as we celebrated Book Week and this year’s theme of ‘Old World, New Worlds, Other Worlds’.  Our Book Week dress-up day on Friday 27 August began with our Year 1 students leading the Junior School Assembly and sharing their performance of one of this year’s shortlisted books, ‘There’s no such thing’ by Heidi McKinnon.  Their love for the story was truly evident in their performance and it was wonderful to see some of our youngest learners confident to perform in front of their peers and share the story.  They were so confident, in fact, that they were called upon for an encore performance in front of our Middle and Senior School Book Week Assembly later in the day.  Our older students thoroughly enjoyed the play, with many also getting into the spirit of the day and dressing up as some of their favourite literary characters.

The Junior School Assembly concluded with each Junior School class (and staff) showcasing their Book Week outfits from their favourite stories.  Whether it was a beloved princess, or a wizard from Hogwarts, FBI agents, sports stars, Gangsta Grannies, Wimpy Kids or Cats in the Hat, the smile on each of their faces as they were presented to the audience clearly showed their love of the character and the book, which is what Book Week is all about.

A good book is not only enjoyable to read, it has the ability to transport you to another world, explore a different realm or learn about a time or culture you have never experienced before.  Reading is one of the best ways to foster imagination.  It allows us to build up and expand our knowledge and be open to new ideas and possibilities.  We get to explore language, play with vocabulary and look for ways to connect it to our own experiences.  We get to dream, to learn and to imagine.

Although seemingly easier when we are younger, imagination is important whether we are 5 or 55 years old.  Imagination encourages creativity and innovation and helps move us towards new discoveries and understanding.  The World Literacy Foundation proposes that this can all begin with a good book that pushes us to engage in imaginative thinking.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article title, ‘We need imagination now more than ever’, authors Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller propose that the uncertainty of the world in which we now live requires new attitudes and behaviours, with imagination a necessity to build future success and create the solutions to problems we may not have previously encountered.  Imagination is the ability to be creative, evolve and develop models for things that may not exist yet.  It is a crucial factor in creating new opportunities and finding new paths to travel, something incredibly important as we continue to navigate the ongoing impact of the global pandemic.

The authors acknowledge, however, that imagination is one of the hardest things to focus on when we are under pressure.  It is easier to fall back to the status quo, to go with the tried and true and to not take a creative risk when that may be exactly what is required.  Making time for reflection, asking open-ended questions, being curious, seeking out the unexpected and encouraging experimentation are all ways to develop imagination and be open to creative ideas.  They are also all things that a good book can foster.  There is, in fact, scientific evidence to prove the power of reading to broaden our imagination and foster creativity and innovative thinking.  Reading actually stimulates the brain and quite literally opens our minds up to new concepts and possibilities.

As Confucius said,  ‘No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.’ We need to ensure we make time and encourage our boys and girls to settle in with a good book and let their imagination take them to old worlds, new worlds and other worlds.