In this issue

Ms Amanda Hall | Head of Junior School

Welcome to the Junior School!

Our Junior School teachers put in a massive amount of time and effort preparing their classrooms and programs ready for every new school year. Our Junior School classrooms are also a reflection of the personalities of our dedicated, caring and passionate teachers. During conversations with each teacher this week it was realised that each and every day the teachers in front of our Junior School students bring over 135 years of collective teaching experience.  If you haven’t had the chance to say ‘hi’ to your child’s teacher as yet, here’s a quick introduction to our wonderful Junior School staff and a taste of some of the inviting spaces our students walk into each day.

Welcome to the 2023 year… we’re excited for the adventure that awaits in Junior School!

Prep | Ms Maxine Woodbridge

How long have you been teaching?

I’ve been teaching for 6 years with experience in the UK and here in Warwick.

How long have you been at SCOTS PGC College?

This is my second term at SCOTS PGC and I am loving every minute!

What is your favourite thing about teaching?

Hearing the funny things the students say. I love that no day is the same and is always an adventure.

Year 1 | Mrs Sharyn Bomford

How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching for 16 years.

How long have you been at SCOTS PGC College?

My entire teaching career of 16 years.

What is your favourite thing about teaching?

Making a mess and seeing big ideas come to life.

Year 2 | Mrs Bernie Bourke

How long have you been teaching?

For a long while, locally.

How long have you been at SCOTS PGC College?

I have been teaching at SCOTS PGC for 8 years.

What is your favourite thing about teaching?

It is a privilege to be part of a child’s learning journey in partnership with parents.

Year 3 | Mrs Michelle Brown

How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching for almost 45 years.

How long have you been at SCOTS PGC College?

I started at SCOTS in 2001 and have worked her ever since.

What is your favourite thing about teaching?

It is always the kids and seeing them reach their full potential.

Year 4 | Mr Peter Campbell

How long have you been teaching?

I’ve been teaching for 23 years.

How long have you been at SCOTS PGC College?

13 years

What is your favourite thing about teaching?

The kids

Year 5 | Mrs Julie Gander

How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching for 18 years.

How long have you been at SCOTS PGC College?

I have always taught at SCOTS, so 18 years.

What is your favourite thing about teaching?

Getting to play with the kids.

Ms Amy Woodgate | Director of Girls’ Boarding and Head of Middle School

Welcome to Year 7!

Once again this year, we have welcomed over 30 new students to Year 7 at the College, with more than 25% of the cohort being boarding students.  Some of our Year 7 students have been with us since Prep or joined the College during Junior School.  Those that have joined us this year come from various schools in the local area as well as from as far as the Northern Territory, north western Queensland, Cape York and everywhere in between.

During the first two weeks of Year 7, these students are engaged in our Year 7 Transition Program.  The goal of the Program is to promote a positive transition experience for all of our new and continuing students.  They get to spend time getting to know one another, the staff and our College.

The objectives of the program are:

• A sense of belonging for all students in Middle School
• A positive connection to peers for both new and continuing students
• Identification of character strengths, interests and learning styles
• Establishment of individual goals
• An understanding of our College values
• A familiarity with the College campus, routines and expectations
• Getting to know key staff and ways of accessing support
• The development of a Year 7 community of both Day and Boarding students

A significant component of the Year 7 Transition Program each year is the visit from Character Builders for a team building and leadership day.  This year’s program with Character Builders was once again an enjoyable and rewarding experience for our students.  They spent time working together in groups developing their leadership and collaboration skills.  They also focused on how they can recognize and use their character strengths and the strengths of others to develop a positive and connected community.

A focus for the day was STEP UP, STEP BACK and ENCOURAGE.  Through the activities, the students were asked to look for opportunities to step up and take the lead, step back and let others shine and encourage all to be their best.  Ending the day with a session called ‘Big Ups’ is always a highlight as students show their vulnerability and publicly recognize the character strengths and positive qualities they’ve noticed in other students.  It is always lovely to see the smiles on the faces of those students who have been identified by staff or their peers who may not have actually realised the positive impact they have had on others who recognise their strengths.

The Year 7s will begin their regular timetable on Monday and we look forward to what these students will achieve individually and as a group throughout the year.

Mr Richard Dobrenov | Deputy Principal and Head of Senior School

Finding and Exploring Your Passion

Last Wednesday, our Year 9 students were fortunate to hear a presentation from Olympic 400m sprinter Steven Solomon, who spoke to them about finding and exploring your passion.  Steven used the metaphor of a 400m race to present his message and broke each section down into segments of 100m.

During the first 100m of finding and exploring your passion, Steven encouraged the students to try different subjects, sports, and activities without specialising in any one area.  This allows you to find what you enjoy and what you are good at. As a teen, Steven dreamt of becoming a Wallaby and tried a number of different sports like tennis, cricket, soccer and swimming before settling on athletics. The second 100m is where you find your position within your chosen field. It took Steven three and a half years to find out that 400m was his ideal distance for him, after pursuing the 100m and 200m events. The third 100m segment is where you learn from failures and develop perseverance, and the final segment is about taking those lessons from your shortcomings and training purposefully to be your best.

Steven also stressed the important difference between exercise and training.  Exercise is what you do for fun, whilst training is planned, segmented, and has key goals in mind.  He also stressed the need to persevere in anything we do when things start to become difficult.  One of his anaerobic training sessions involves sprinting on a spin bike for 2 minutes and then resting for a minute….20 times!  Steve claims that after the 4^th set, his brain is saying things like, “that’s enough, you trained really hard yesterday, give yourself a break today,” and this is what tests his perseverance.  The ability to push through when things are tough and persevere is crucial to success in every venture both inside and outside the classroom.

Steven’s presentation was well received and hopefully inspires our students to push through when things become challenging and to set goals and train purposefully to get there.

An introduction to our Leaders…

Over the last week, we’ve had the privilege and honour of hosting some special assemblies to recognise and introduce our leaders and captains to our College community.  Last Friday, at our Leadership Induction ceremony, our 2023 College Captains, Vice Captains, Prefects, Clan and Boarding Captains were officially sworn in, in front of their family, friends and peers.  This was a very special ceremony with a sense of occasion that set the tone for the year ahead.  Here’s a link to the video in case you missed seeing it on our Facebook and Instagram pages:

Congratulations to our following College leaders:

• Bridget Hardy and William Auger | College Captains
• Alexis Zerner and Mitchell Twidale | Vice Captains

• Jessica Angus | Prefect
• Emma Bradbury | Prefect
• Abby Brown | Prefect
• Fraser Collins | Prefect
• Daniel Hughes | Prefect
• Charlotte Kielly | Prefect
• Percy Kruger | Prefect
• Lachlan Naughten | Prefect
• Sophie Poole | Prefect
• Hamish Swift | Prefect
• Bryce Zerner | Prefect

• Jesse Bohm | Cameron Clan Captain
• Paul Costello | Leslie Clan Captain
• Luke Stephenson | Macinnes Clan Captain
• Ruby Noller | Mackay Clan Captain

• Makybe Edwards | Girls’ Boarding Captain
• Adrian Titus | Boys’ Boarding Captain
• Alivia Sharples | Girls’ Boarding Vice-Captain
• Hank Zammit Boys’ | Boarding Vice-Captain

Mr Tom Bradbury | Director of Co-Curricular Activities

New Co-Curricular Staffing and Structure

Welcome back to the 2023 school year and an action-packed Term 1 full of co-curricular activities and representative trials.

This year, I take on the role full-time as the Director of Co-Curricular Activities (no longer in an acting capacity) and Miss Alexis Carey has been appointed to the role of Sports Co-ordinator.

Below you will find a flow chart of the co-curricular departments within the school and the personnel responsible for these areas. Please feel free to use this as a guide when contacting staff regarding activities, we do ask you to always include Miss Carey or myself in your enquiries to ensure replies are attended to as soon as we can.

New Equestrian Coach

A new equestrian coach has been engaged: Miss Stephanie Pejkovic joins the team. She comes to us with a wealth of experience and a passion to assist Mrs Rachel Bruynto build the Equestrian Centre in a direction that could be beneficial to all stakeholders.  We welcome Stephanie to our team!

We are continuing to refine the operations of the Equestrian Centre and over the coming months, we aim to improve service delivery for our riders and all involved. Private specialist coaches have been retained and will always strive to offer these for our students to access.

Cricket

This week we have been running trials to select our First XI and Junior XI for participation in the Term 1 T20 competition against Downlands, St Mary’s, TAS and Concordia. Teams will be announced soon and our First XI will be presented their caps at Assembly in Week 3. We look forward to seeing how our teams fair this year. Our first home game is set for Thursday 9 February on Briggs and Dunning Ovals, weather permitting.

Representative Program

Over the course of Term 1, many students will access representative pathways for a wide variety of school sports. Just this week, a number of students attended the Southern Downs 10-12 years Cricket Trials where Amelia Kuhn was successful in gaining selection.  Tim Amos also performed very well and was unlucky not to make the Southern Downs Team.

Next week we have Border District Summer Trials for our U15 and Open age students in Touch and Cricket along with the fast-approaching Darling Downs Trials and Border District Winter Trials to be held in Warwick.

Nominations for all Representative Pathways were called for at the beginning of school via our surveys; however, if you missed these and are an athlete of some significant skills in your chosen sport, please enquire with Miss Carey as to the best options for your potential participation.

Term 1 Arranmore Activities

Arranmore activities will commence next week, in the most part, with communications going out to families in the coming days for those who have nominated to participate.

Futsal Success

Over the recent school holidays our Futsal Captain, Krystal Petersen, was off in Sydney representing Queensland West at the National Junior Club Futsal Titles. At these titles, Krystal played in goal for the maroons and helped take the team to the semi-finals. At the conclusion of the championships, Krystal was named in the U16 All-Star Team of the championships. We congratulate Krystal on her performance and continued success in this arena.

Campdrafting Success

Again, SCOTS PGC students were certainly not sitting idle over the holidays with several getting out and about at campdrafts around the traps.

We had around 10 of our students compete at Tenterfield Campdraft just before the commencement of school, with some great success.

Toby Usher was the winner of the Juvenile category (of approximately 60 competitors), with Georgia Mulcahy placing fourth.

Amelia Weier was second in the Junior category (of approximately 40 competitors).

These are fantastic results in some quality and big fields. Congratulations to Toby, Georgia and Amelia on fantastic results and to our students on their endeavours at this event.

Futsal for the Young Ones!

In 2023, as an extension of our Junior Sport Competition offerings, we will be kicking off the SCOTS PGC Junior Futsal Competition open to students from across the College and wider community in the age groups of U8, U10 and U12. This will be limited to 6 teams in each competition with team and individual registrations welcome via our registration portal. A maximum of 8 players on each team will see 48 players able to participate in this mixed competition. Teams require equal female to male players to register.

Register here by February 6, 2023. The competition commences on Friday 10 February.

2023 Captains of Co-Curricular Activities

This past week we inducted our leaders across the school, and are pleased to once again acknowledge our Co-Curricular leaders below. Congratulations to all on your appointments and best wishes for a big year ahead.

Ms Amy Woodgate | Director of Girls’ Boarding and Head of Middle School &  Mr David Marriott | Director of Boys’ Boarding 

Welcome, welcome, welcome…

The SCOTS PGC boarding houses are alive and thriving now that the 2023 school year has commenced. We are pleased to share that all of our boarders are now back at their ‘home away home’ in both the girls’ and boys’ residential facilities.

Already, the year has been filled with many new experiences for both new and returning students, with new friendships formed, new routines put into place and new boarding staff joining our team.

We would particularly like to congratulate the Boarding Captains for 2023, Makybe, Alivia, Adrian and Hank for their support, leadership, and friendly manner in welcoming all the boarders on Travel Day and during the first week. All these young adults, and several other long-time boarders across various year levels, proved to be very helpful to staff and new students during the initial days of boarding. This respectful approach truly demonstrates the positive spirit of boarding at SCOTS PGC.

As we progress toward the end of Week 2 of the term, our regular weekday boarding routines are beginning to fall into place. Our boarders are already looking forward to another combined weekend activity of swimming, sports and games at the Locke St Campus on Saturday.

Boarding Parent Meeting

We were pleased to host our first Teams meeting with boarding parents last night. Many parents, from all parts of QLD, NSW, SA and the NT, joined us for the online chat, question and answer time, and information sharing. It was an exercise that proved most valuable for all involved as many topics specific to boarding were covered. Importantly, it also fostered that feeling of connection which is so important for all involved with boarding, especially parents and boarding staff. We look forward to your attendance at the next Teams meeting.

Alexis Zerner & Emma Bradbury | Publications Prefects

Welcome to 2023! We are elated to be back on campus and cannot wait to fill you in on all our adventures around SCOTS PGC!

To begin the new year, we would like to introduce the 2023 College Captains, Bridget Hardy and William Auger. Emma and I asked them questions, covering their plans for the year to fun facts about themselves. Before I progress, if you are interested in the School Publications Portfolio, please contact Emma at emma.bradbury@scotspgc.com.au, or myself at alexis.zerner@scotspgc.com.au

Now to business,

Question 1 – What legacy would you like to leave behind as the 2023 College Captains?

Will: I want the legacy of the class of 2023 to leave a lasting impact on the wider community, further enhancing the College’s reputation in Warwick and giving back to those who support and reside in our town. I would like to show the town the kind of amazing people who constitute the SCOTS PGC College.

Bridget: For 2023, we want our leadership team to strive to create our own legacy which promotes the College values. We hope to have the Junior, Middle and Senior Schools become more integrated – we already have plans for this by assigning our Prefects to junior classes for 2023. We also hope to uphold the spirit of the College by bringing back the ‘fire’ in our College song, prayer and war cries.

Question 2 – What has been your favourite memory at SCOTS?

Will: My favourite memory is playing ‘Goodnight Village’ (an acting game) in our last Grade 10 drama lesson before I left the class for Physics.

Bridget: My favourite memory was definitely Year 11 camp!!

Question 3 – What are you most looking forward to in 2023?

Will: I am looking forward to winning the rugby grand final for a change!

Bridget: I’m looking forward to our cardinal the most, as well as all of the ‘lasts’ we will experience this year.

Question 4 – What is your favourite movie?

Will: Gran Torino

Bridget: Love Actually

Question 5 – If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Will: I’d go to England because I would like to visit where my family came from and take my Grannie back to the ‘motherland’. I’d also like to go to England as I’m tired of being so hot.

Bridget: If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to London and Italy during the summer.

Question 6 – What year did you come to SCOTS PGC College?

Will: I started school at Scots in 2018, starting Year 7.

Bridget: I came to the college in 2018, when I was in Year 7.

Question 7 – What is your favourite part of the College campus?

Will: I think the paths because they lead me to my friends, my classes, and most importantly, the dining hall.

Bridget: My favourite part of the College is definitely the Archive Centre. The history and the ‘archives’ that are found in the Archive Centre from the beginning of Scots College and PGC are incredible!

Question 8 – Do you have any funny stories from your time at school?

Will: I think it was when Hannah Myer was announcing the male College Captain and said Will Angus instead of Will Auger.

Bridget: This one is more embarrassing then funny, but in Year 9, I participated in the 100-metre sprint. As I took off, my legs gave way and I face-planted in front of the whole school. It’s definitely funny to think about now, but not so much at the time.

Question 9 (and most importantly) – Would you rather be trapped in a room with 10 horse-sized chickens or 100 chicken-sized horses?

Will: Ten horse-sized chickens as I would ride them and fly away, I think that would be cool.

Bridget: I would rather be trapped in a room with 100 chicken-sized horses!

Thank you for your time, Will and Bridget. We hope you have a fabulous year and cannot wait to see how you flourish this year.

Thank you for reading, we hope you have had an amazing beginning to 2023!

Mr Kyle Thompson | Principal

I have spent a bit of time recently learning about regenerative agriculture. This has resonated with me in regard to the similarities in starting a new year at SCOTS PGC; fitting I think based on our setting and our demographic.

So how is this so? Both involve growth, learning, and progress, and both require a supportive environment, diverse experiences, and the right resources. Both are about building tenacity, fostering self-sufficiency, and creating a sustainable future.

Just like regenerative agriculture, the start of a new school year is an opportunity to rebuild and revitalise. Just as regenerative agriculture focuses on rebuilding the health and fertility of the soil, the start of a new school year focuses on rebuilding the health and vitality of our students’ minds.

One of the key principles of regenerative agriculture is the use of cover crops. Cover crops are planted in between cash crops to provide a protective layer over the soil, preventing erosion and promoting healthy microorganisms. This is similar to the way that students are provided with a safe and nurturing environment at SCOTS PGC, where they can learn and grow. Cover crops provide the soil with the necessary nutrients and microorganisms that it needs to rejuvenate, just as a supportive learning environment provides students with the resources they need to excel.

Another important aspect of regenerative agriculture is crop rotation. This involves switching up the types of crops that are grown in a given field each year. This practice helps to prevent pests and diseases from becoming too prevalent in a specific crop, and also helps to replenish the soil with different nutrients. This is similar to how students are exposed to a variety of subjects and experiences in school, which allows them to explore different interests and skills. Crop rotation provides the soil with the necessary diversity to thrive, just as a well-rounded education at SCOTS provides students with the opportunity to discover their passions and talents.

In addition to these practices, regenerative agriculture also emphasises the use of compost and other organic materials to enrich the soil. This is similar to how students are provided with the necessary resources in school, such as textbooks and technology, which help them to learn and grow. Compost and other organic materials provide the soil with the necessary nutrients and microorganisms that it needs to rejuvenate, just as resources provided to students help them to achieve their best.

Just as regenerative agriculture creates a self-sustaining system where the soil is able to regenerate itself over time, a SCOTS PGC education system encourages students to become self-sufficient learners, who are able to take responsibility for their own progress. A self-sustaining system provides the soil with the necessary resilience to thrive, just as self-sufficient learners are able to adapt and grow in any situation.

In regenerative agriculture, farmers work to create a healthier and more productive food system. In the same way, our school works to create a brighter future for our students. By embracing the regenerative approach, farmers can create a sustainable food system that benefits the environment and the economy, just as SCOTS strives to create a sustainable education system that benefits our students and the community.

An holistic approach in agriculture is not just about growing crops, but it’s about creating a whole ecosystem. In the same way, starting a new school year is not just about learning subjects, but it’s about creating a whole community. In a regenerative farm, farmers work together to create a sustainable ecosystem, in the same way, at SCOTS, teachers, students, and families work together to create a sustainable community.

So welcome to the 2023 school year as we work together to develop the learning and growth of our students utilising all we have at SCOTS PGC  – great staff, great families and great kids – surely the right mix to ensure a bumper crop of young people for the community and the future.