From the Head of Middle School

Thank you for your time over the last fortnight as we delivered our three Parent Information Evenings and produced another great Inter-House Swimming Carnival. In what is becoming a well-rehearsed speech, we congratulated Gordon House on winning the Swimming Carnival, 4 straight years now. Thank you for joining us at both of these events.

It is a pared back Thistle article this week as I am conscious of the volume of information we have delivered in a written form since term commenced. I do, however, have three important messages below and seek your support.

Middle School Parent/Teacher Meetings Week 4
This week Middle School Homeroom Teachers have made available time slots for parents to meet with them. The focus of these short 10 minute meetings is pastoral care, 'knowing the boy'. Central to the meeting is the opportunity for you to speak to us about your son, for you to tell us how you feel he is going, how his transition has been, what are his motivations and aspirations, and/or where you feel attention could be directed. If you have had these conversations with us already, there is no obligation to do it all over again. If you have not yet made an online booking, these have closed, however you can still contact your son's Homeroom Teacher directly, via email, to make an alternate arrangement.

Middle School Student Pick Up and Drop Off
Traffic congestion around the College is an ongoing issue for Scotch families and local residents. To help minimise congestion and the frustration of being caught in slow moving lines of traffic can I ask families to consider the following please:

8:10am - 8:30am and 3.00pm - 3:30pm Shenton Road and Stirling Road are inundated. It is not quite downtown Jakarta, but finding an alternative to being on these two roads at this time would be helpful to everyone.
We are really well served by train and bus services, including 4 special Scotch/PLC bus routes. Where possible this is a great travel option to school.
Ride or walk to school, increasingly this is becoming a more popular option.
Consider a drive and walk option: Being dropped off 400m - 500m from school and walking the rest, benefits all parties.
Use the Kiss & Drop off Stirling Road for pick up and drop off, but please no waiting and creating a line-up of cars if your son is not there waiting for you.
The Gooch. The best spot of all. Parking, shade, run the dog, chat to other parents, easy access and exit. This is the preferred pick and drop for Middle School boys, they have good legs, they can get up and back from the Middle School building comfortably now.
The round-a-bout at MacKellar Hall is a Junior School pick and drop point only. We save this location for the little boys. Except - if your son is lugging a double bass, cello or whopping great cricket bag.

Middle School Student Dismissal after Sport
From time to time some sport fixtures finish before the end of the school day. This is often due to the visiting team needing to depart by a certain time or multiple fixtures needing to be scheduled successively on the one pitch or in the pool. In the event of a Home fixture finishing early, Middle School boys will remain with their coach until 3.00pm, when they will be dismissed. For fixtures that extend beyond the end of the day, once the fixture finishes or the team arrives back at school, boys are dismissed. There is no supervision of boys beyond our normal after school pick up duty. Details of fixtures, venues, transport timing including estimated arrival back at school times are always posted on the weekly fixtures schedule via the Sport icon found on home.scotch.wa.edu.au

Finishing off what will be a productive week is the Scotch Parents' Middle School Sundowner, at the Gooch Pavilion on Friday evening. It has always been a lovely evening and the weather once again looks great. I look forward to seeing you either at school or at the Sundowner this week.

Mr Richard Ledger
Head of Middle School