The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

Welcome back from the Easter break. I trust you found time to reflect and relax during this important time for the Christian calendar.

Congratulations to all of the boys who recently completed the summer PSA and JPSSA sporting calendar. Your participation and level of sportsmanship is very much appreciated by everyone involved at the College. Special congratulations must go out to Mr (CJ) Jackson (Coach) and Mr Mecham (Assistant Coach) and of course our boys of the First V Basketball team who took out this year's Blackwood Cup. The last time we held this was in 2012, so well done to the team and the many mums, dads and other family members who came each Saturday to cheer the boys - it makes a real difference and I know how much they appreciate your support and love.

In this, my last newsletter for Summer Term, I would like to share some exciting news with regards to the College's capital master plan.

Just last week we received the exciting news that the College's planning application for the new teaching and learning facility had been given the green light by the relevant planning authorities. This means it is now full steam ahead to commence the building process.

The new facility will provide Scotch with a state of the art teaching and learning facility on the Senior School Campus. This facility will cater for our extensive and ever-expanding Mathematics, Business and Commerce courses. When complete, the facility will provide 15 teaching spaces, a flexible learning centre, a dedicated lecture theatre, staff resource centre and numerous interconnected informal internal and external learning spaces. As with the existing Science, Design and Technology Centre, the street profile will be three-storey, and the inward facing profile will be two-storey at the oval level. Ultimately the building will be connected to the Middle School via the underpass.

Completion of this exciting new facility will allow us to plan for the demolition of a significant part of the current 'M' block in order to provide the Senior School boys with more passive and open recreational space.

Student movement between the North and South campuses will require modification to allow for the construction phase. Construction is envisaged to be complete in October 2019. Over the coming months we will inform the community as to all new arrangements and plans.

Not only will this new building provide state of the art teaching and learning spaces, but it will continue to position Scotch as a leader in the field of Mathematics and Business. The building will also provide the local community with an iconic educational facility, further enhancing Scotch's reputation as a leading school, locally, nationally and globally.

Following are some of our architect's impressions of the new facility, including floor plans.

T&L-01

T&L-02

T&L-03

T&L-04

T&L-05

T&L-06

T&L-07

This is truly a great way to finish off the term, and we look forward to this next phase of growth at Scotch College.

Have a great break and I look forward to seeing everyone back refreshed and ready to commence Autumn Term.

Dr A J O'Connell
Headmaster