The Scots College

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For other schools with a similar name see Scots College.

The Scots College
Utinam Patribus Nostris Digni Simus (Latin:"O that we may be worthy of our forefathers")[1]
Established	1893[2]
School Type	Independent, Single-sex, Day and Boarding
Denomination	Presbyterian
Slogan	"Establishing the individual, developing the leader"[3]
Key People	Dr Ian Lambert (Principal) Rev Dr Archibald Gilchrist (Founder) Rev. Conrad Nixon (Chaplain) Mr Simon Fraser (Chairman)
School Fees	AU$13,020–23,404 p.a (Day) AU$28,320–41,252 p.a (Boarding)[4]
Location	Bellevue Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	33°52′31″S 151°15′12″E / -33.87528, 151.25333Coordinates: 33°52′31″S 151°15′12″E / -33.87528, 151.25333
Enrolment	~1,600 (K–12)[5]
Employees	~205[5]
Colours	Gold and Blue
Homepage	www.tsc.nsw.edu.au

The Scots College is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Bellevue Hill, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Established in 1896 at Brighton-Le-Sands,^[1] Scots has a non-selective enrolment policy^[6] and currently caters for approximately 1600 students from Kindergarten to Year 12, including 240 boarders from Years 4 to 12.^[2] Students attend Scots from all regions of the greater metropolitan area and New South Wales country regions.^[5]

The college is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA),^[7] the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA),^[8] the Australian Boarding Schools' Association (ABSA),^[2] the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference,^[9] and is a founding member of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales (AAGPS).^[10]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Lady Robinson's Beach 1.2 Early days at Bellevue Hill 1.3 1914 to 1955 1.4 1968 1.5 Subsequent history 2 Principals 3 Facilities 4 Pipes and drums 5 Sport 6 Scots.NET and Scoogle 7 House system 7.1 Boarding houses 7.2 Day houses 8 Notable alumni 9 Associated schools 10 References 11 Further reading 12 See also 13 External links

[edit] History

The College was formed in 1893 by three men, the Rev Dr Archibald Gilchrist (formerly a solicitor), Rev Dr Wiliam Marcus "Dill" (Fighting Mac) Macky and Rev Arthur Aspinall. Gilchrist devised the school motto of "Utinam Patribus Nostris Digni Simus", which may be translated from Latin as "O that we may be worthy of our forefathers".

The Rev Arthur Aspinall, who became the first Principal, was minister to the Forbes Parish from 1874 to 1887. An educated man himself, with a love of learning, he saw the need to educate the sons of the pastoralists of the area. His dream was for a boarding school in Sydney to which these very isolated farming families could send their children. Ms Lillyan MacDonald of the Church Records and Historical Society (Uniting Church in Australia, NSW Synod) writes:

“	From Dr Prentis I have learnt that a Forbes influence has pervaded Scots College for more than a century through the sons of Forbes District farming families, especially the related families of Aspinall, Strahorn and Martel.	”
	— Lillyan MacDonald, Personal communication

The Presbyterian Church was not happy with the proposal to start the school. Rev Aspinall became the guarantor, advancing the capital required, while the possibility of starting the school was still a matter of bitter contention within the Church hierarchy. Thus Scots opened as a private enterprise. Once the school was established and functioning, the Church Assembly saw no reason to continue to oppose the idea of the school. In 1906 Rev Aspinall sold the college to the Church for seven thousand pounds and so it became part of the Presbyterian education system in New South Wales.

[edit] Lady Robinson's Beach

The College was originally established at Lady Robinson Beach, now renamed Brighton-Le-Sands, near the shores of Botany Bay. The initial school building was the modified, de-licenced New Brighton Hotel on The Grand Parade, near Bay Street. The renovations to the hotel were done by Rev Aspinall's brother, Albert Aspinall. The first Principal, the Rev Aspinall, remained in this position until his retirement in 1913. The school was officially opened 28 January 1893 by the Governor of New South Wales, the Rt. Hon. Victor Albert George, Earl of Jersey. Villiers Street, Rockdale was named in honour of this occasion. There were 25 boarders and ten day students.

The period when the school opened was a time of depression. The first few years for the school were difficult. There were 55 boys enrolled at the school when, in 1895, (soon after a racecourse had opened nearby) the school moved to its current location in Bellevue Hill.

[edit] Early days at Bellevue Hill

The school occupied St Killians, the former home of Judge Josephson. Before he retired Rev Aspinall had added new buildings to the school and developed playing fields. The school was still surrounded by many areas of bushland which caught fire on hot summer days. Lessons would be cancelled so that the students could assist in the fire-fighting. The Rev Aspinall was a stern Principal who dealt harshly with misdemeanours. Often his acerbic tongue and brilliant use of words produced ridicule more intimidating than any of his physical punishments. But he was also capable of empathy. Some promising students were educated for free when economic constraints within a family seemed likely to result in a student being withdrawn from the school.

[edit] 1914 to 1955

James Bee, a New Zealander, continued the growth and expansion of the college. When he retired in 1934 there were 450 enrolled students. This is quite remarkable considering that the 1930's Great Depression was not yet over.

Alexander Knox Anderson saw the Depression end only to be followed four years later by World War II. During World War II, the school and its student body relocated to a purpose-built campus at Bathurst, to the west of the Great Dividing Range. This was due to the proximity of the Bellevue Hill campus to the coast, and the fear of Japanese naval bombardment, a fear justified in May 1942 with the Japanese mini-sub attack on Sydney Harbour.

The Bathurst campus remained part of the school for a short period after the war, before splintering off and becoming the independent The Scots School, Bathurst.

[edit] 1968

The 75th Anniversary celebrations were held 3-10 May. The 1200 students at the College and past students had much to celebrate for many former students had achieved success. In 1968 Dr Robert Naumann was Professor of Nuclear Physics at Princeton University in the United States of America. The Guest-of-Honour at the celebrations, the oldest known student in 1968, was Dr Ed Spark, a Dental Surgeon who had attended the school in 1894 at Lady Robinson Beach.

[edit] Subsequent history

In 1979, a fire gutted most of the school's Main Building, resulting in a major reconstruction and renovation of school facilities.

In 1988, the school opened its outdoor education campus, 'Glengarry', in the Kangaroo Valley. Attending Glengarry is compulsory for all Year 9 boys, who live on-site in one of four dorms for six months. The year group is split into two intakes, that attend in terms 1 and 2, and terms 3 and 4 respectively.

Glengarry has faced controversy due to it's potentially hazardous outdoor curriculum. It has had a total of two fatalities, both occurring to Scots College students during Parent/Son hikes. ^[11]

Most of the Council members are elected by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia in New South Wales.

[edit] Principals

Period	Details
1892–1913	Rev Arthur Aspinall
1914–1934	James Bee
1935–1955	Alexander Knox Anderson
1955–1967	A. E. McLucas
1967–c.1979	Guthrie Wilson
c.1979–1993	Graeme Renney[12]
1993–2006	Dr Robert Iles
2007–Present	Dr Ian Lambert

[edit] Facilities

The campus consists of three ovals (Kirkland Oval; Fairfax Oval, which is used primarily by the Pipes and Drums as a parade ground, and Scots Main), four general class buildings and due to new classrooms to the Prep there are now 12 portable classrooms, five boarding houses, a 25m Swimming pool, a gymnasium, grandstands, tennis courts, basketball courts (indoor and outdoor) and the school amphitheatre.

The general class buildings are the Centenary Centre (Music, languages, and economics/business), the Senior Studies Block (Science, PDHPE and Mathematics), Scots Main (English, Religious Studies, Design and Technology, Visual Arts) and the Stevenson Building (Stevenson Library, History and Geography).

The Stevenson Building also houses the Year 12 Common room, the Black Watch Tuckshop-Cafe, the Prefects' Room, the College Shop, and the school's two main function rooms (the Founders' Room and the Old Boys' Union Room). Scots Main houses the Auditorium and main school administration, whilst the Centenary Centre contains the school's primary Lecture room, the Coote Theatre and various music facilities and musical instruments.

The college quadrangle has recently finished reconstruction to provide additional change rooms and wheelchair accessible facilities such as an elevator for the Main Building. A new Mathematics/Science building is under planning and completion is expected at around Easter 2008. In 2007 the new "Ginahgulla" classrooms were completed. These classrooms house years five and six located at the Senior campus, Victoria Rd.

[edit] Pipes and drums

As a testament to its Scottish heritage, the school has a well-known pipe band: The Scots College Pipes & Drums Band, established in 1900. The original band consisted of five members - boys who had joined the cadets as pipers. There are now over 230 boys in the band, making it the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.^{[citation needed]} In 1931 the band was granted permission to wear the tartan of the Black Watch regiment. The band's royal patron was formerly the Queen Mother. Traditionally, the Scots Pipes and Drums Band leads the annual ANZAC Day parade through Sydney. At the 2006 Australian Pipe band Championships, the Drum Corps won the Juvenile Drum Corp title, and the band as a whole earned a respectable third place.^{[citation needed]} These results are the Band's best placings at a National Championships.

[edit] Sport

This section does not cite any references or sources. (February 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Sport has traditionally played a large role in the college and is an important part of the curriculum. The college competes in the AAGPS competition and has had notable success across a number of sports. Scots GPS premierships occurred in the following years:

• Athletics (Senior): 1894, 1936, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1958, 1959, 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1975
• Basketball (1sts): 1985, 1986, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004
• Cricket (1sts): 1943(u), 1954 (u), 1948, 1953, 1957, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1984 and 1989
• Rugby union (1sts): 1948, 1949, 1959, 1978, 1987 and 1993
• Rowing (1st VIII): 1946, 1962, 1965 and 1979
• Rowing (1st IV): 1946, 1971 and 1978
• Swimming (Senior): 2002 and 2004
• Rifle Shooting (1sts): 1938, 1939, 1980, 1981 and 1983^[13]

[edit] Scots.NET and Scoogle

In 2000, Scots introduced Scots.NET, a set of dynamically controlled sites allowing students to access resources and research materials online, on the college's latest twin ISDN connection.

Scots.NET now also incorporates all day-to-day school administration functions, including rolls, detentions, homework merits and demerits, behavioural reports, school report releases, discipline records, subject selection, student timetables, assessment marks, attendance records, subject resources, SCOOGLE (an advanced subject forum server based on a combination of Open Source course management technologies, allowing students and teachers to communicate easily online and transfer documents and information), and software not usually available at home. In addition to student accounts, Scots.NET also features parental accounts. These allow students' parents to gain access to school publications (such as the The Clansman newsletter, which has recently ceased to appear in any but electronic form; academic and pastoral reports; assessment marks; academic documentation; school publications; and so forth. A feature of Scots.NET is that students and parents are able to access Scots.NET from any computer with internet access.

As part of this shift towards electronic learning, Scots has digital projectors, speaker systems and DVD/VCR systems in the majority of its classrooms and halls, in order to better facilitate media presentations by staff and students.

In 2006 Scoogle, a more upgraded version of Scots.NET became available and was trialed in some courses primarily as a homework receive/upload system. In 2007 Scots.net was taken down from the internet and Scoogle was fully integrated and being used in every course for assessment information, task uploads, study resources, a basic instant messenger for teacher-student communications which did not fully materialise, and also still having all the older features of the outdated Scots.NET under the new system.

[edit] House system

As with most Australian schools, The Scots College utilises a house system. Scots has 13 student houses, of which 5 are boarding houses. Each year the houses participate in multiple academic and sporting competitions, spread across the school year, and are awarded points according to their placings. This point system determines the winner of the House Championship each year (announced at a final assembly). The day boy houses contain between 90 and 95 students each, whilst the boarding houses have between 50 and 65 apiece.

[edit] Boarding houses

The school's five boarding houses are named Macintyre, Kirkland, Aspinall, Fairfax and Royle.

Macintyre House is located by the Macintyre tennis courts and contains the College clinic. The house contains all the Year 7 boarders who go to other boarding houses after Year 7 and does not compete in any house competitions.

Kirkland House is located next to the gym, and its jersey blue and white. Motto: Strength of character through character and good sense.

Aspinall House is located between the Chapel and the dining hall, its house jersey is mostly white with a little dark green and it is named after former principle Arthur Aspinall. Motto: Honour before honours.

Fairfax house is situated on the hill above Kirkland oval and the Ginagulla classrooms. Because it is on a hill the boys in the house sometimes call it "The House on the Hill". Motto: Steadfast and United.

Royle house is located across the road from Macintyre house and the Macintyre tennis courts, and its house jersey is dark green and blue. Motto: Not merely for ourselves.

[edit] Day houses

In addition to the boarding houses, the school has 8 day boy houses- James Bee, Fraser, Anderson, Macky, Bruce, Armstrong, Gilchrist and Brandt. They are listed here by age:

• James Bee House is one of the two oldest day boy houses, formed in 1936 and named after Mr. James Bee, headmaster for twenty years (1914-1934). The house badge is based on his initials. In recent years, James Bee has consistently come second to Gilchrist House, with the exception of 2002 in which it secured the House Championship over its traditional rival. James Bee House has "Red Nose Day" as its charity and has raised well over $30000 for this worthwhile charity over the last 4 years. Colours: Black. Motto: Opera Optima ("Best Effort").
• Armstrong House was formed in 1936 as a day boy house. It is named after Dr. G. Armstrong, a founding College Councillor and Deputy College Chairman. Its crest is the College's rampant lion and the letter A in gold on a red background. Colours: Red and Gold. Motto: Striving for Excellence.
• Anderson House was formed in 1947, and named after Mr. A.K. Anderson, Headmaster from 1935 to 1955. The crest is based on the New South Wales floral emblem, the Waratah. Colours: Yellow, Red and White. Motto: Truth, Courage, Compassion.
• Brandt House was also formed in 1947. It is named for Rev. D.F. Brandt, Chairman of the College Council from 1927 to 1936. The house crest displays four sections displaying a castle, the lion rampant, an open book and the house initials. Colours: Royal Blue. Motto: "Fortune favours the brave".
• Gilchrist House was formed in 1986. It was named after the Rev. Dr. A. Gilchrist, one of the most influential College Founders. In recent years, Gilchrist has been consistent winner of the House Championship (excepting a 2002 victory to James Bee and a 2000 victory to Bruce). The badge and motto are based on those of the Gilchrist Clan. Colours: Red, Green and White. Motto: Fortis et Fidus ("Brave and Faithful")
• Bruce House was formed in 1986 and named after Rev. Dr. D. Bruce (Chairman of the College Council from 1902 to 1905. The house selected a new badge in 1991, based on the belt that traditionally surrounds Scottish clan badges with the College's rampant lion in the centre. Colours: Royal Blue and White. Motto: Strength and Unity.
• Fraser House was also formed in 1986. It was named after Mr H.J. Fraser, Chairman of the College Council from 1969 to 1977. The crest and motto are based on those of the Fraser clan, with the buck's head in the centre. Colours: Light Green and White. Motto: Je Suis Pret ("I'm Ready!")
• Macky House, like Bruce, Fraser and Gilchrist, was founded in 1986. It was named after Rev. Dr. W.M.D. Macky, one of the founders and the first Chairman of the College Council (1893-1901). The open book and sword-bearing arm of the crest are based on the house motto. Colours: Blue, Green and White. Motto: With Strong Arm and Mind.

[edit] Notable alumni

Main article: List of notable Old Boys of The Scots College (Sydney)

Former students of The Scots College are known as Old Boys, or alternatively Old Scotsmen, and may elect to join the school's alumni association, The Scots College Old Boys' Union (OBU). The OBU was formed in 1900, and today supports the school with financial assistance, whilst working to facilitate communication and interaction between the College and its Old Boys through events and activities, such as alumni and sporting reunions. Reunions are also held in various states of Australia and overseas.^[14]

Amongst the schools notable alumni are Dr. Peter Jensen, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney,^[15] Admiral Sir David James Martin AO, former Governor of New South Wales,^[16] Hon. Peter McCallum Dowding S.C., former Premier of Western Australia,^[17] and Graeme Milbourne Clark AC AO, pioneer of the multiple-channel cochlear implant.^[18]

[edit] Associated schools

There are currently only three other Presbyterian schools in New South Wales:

• Scots' sister school, the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon
• The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale
• The Scots School, Bathurst

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Sherington, G. and Prentis, M. 1993. Scots to the Fore: A History of The Scots College Sydney 1893-1993.. Hale & Iremonger, Sydney. ISBN 0868065005.
• Andrew, Phillipa A (1997) Built To Last: the stories of John and Thomas Aspinall and their descendants. Privately Published.

ISBN/ISSN 0 646 34463 3: available in the library of The Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney, State Library of New South Wales and in the library of The Scots College.

• Church Records and Historical Society (Uniting Church of Australia, NSW Synod), Parramatta
• Garrett, J and Farr, L W (1964) Camden College: A Centenary History
• Geeves, Phillip and Jervis, J (1986) Rockdale: its beginning and development Revised Edition
• Historical Society of New South Wales
• Joy, William (29 April 1968) Daily Telegraph, Sydney: "How three fighting Scots founded a great school" (commemorating the 75th anniversary of the school)-includes photo of Rev Aspinall and his wife
• Munro May (1961) In Old Aspinall's Day
• Prentis, Malcolm A Biographical Register of Presbyterian Ministers in NSW, 1866-1885, Church Heritage Vol 6 No3
• Prentis, M and Sherrington, G (1994) History of Scots College
• White, C A The Challenge of the Years Plate 29 "The Scots College"

[edit] See also

• List of non-government schools in New South Wales
• List of boarding schools
• History of Brighton-le-Sands, New South Wales
• List of pipe bands
• Lawrence Campbell Oratory Competition

[edit] External links

• The Scots College website
• ScotsCricket.com.au, the Scots cricket website
• AAGPS Website
• Students nearly beaten to death: SMH April 12, 2006

v • d • e Members of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales, Australia Newington College · Shore School · St Ignatius' College · St Joseph's College · Sydney Boys High School · Sydney Grammar School · The Armidale School · The King's School · The Scots College

v • d • e Presbyterian Church of Australia Schools Belgrave Heights Christian School • Covenant College, Canberra • Fairholme College • King's College, Warrnambool • Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney • Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale • Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne • St. Andrew's Christian College • Scotch College, Melbourne • The Scots College • The Scots School, Bathurst