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

From the Head of Middle School

Did you attend the Scottish Banquet on Saturday evening? This bi annual event is held by the Pipe Band Parent Support Group and as was the case last Saturday another brilliant evening. Whilst it was a night of dining and dancing and an abundance of kilts, it is also fun look back at some of the Scottish culture that forms part of our history. If you have the chance to attend one of these banquets in your time at Scotch I can assure you it will be an enjoyable evening.

Looking at other cultures, particularly those we live or intersect with is important. Last week I spent 3 days in the remote Aboriginal community of Barunga in the Northern Territory. Barunga community is about 80 kilometres south and east of Katherine on the Arnhem Land Road and has 80 students in K-Year 10 in its school. During the day myself and the 2 other visiting teachers worked in the classes with the students and their teachers and in the afternoon, we kicked the footy, walked the community and helped the students with words and music for songs they were writing for the forthcoming Barunga Festival. At night we slept beneath the stars in swags.

The purpose of the visit was to identify an Indigenous community that would be interested in an annual student exchange visit: ie a group of 12-16 Scotch boys living, learning and working in the community for a week and then playing key role in helping host a reciprocal visit to Perth from that community. The opportunity to immerse into an indigenous community and the region's geography and to explore the connection between these two aspects for a week would be a rich learning opportunity for our students.

We all have our own values, lifestyle and culture. Last week was a reminder about the richness to be found in experiencing someone else's values, lifestyle and culture. An Indigenous Community exchange opportunity is a project we will continue to develop and hopefully make available for Middle School boys from 2019.

Mr Richard Ledger
Head of Middle School