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City to Surf 2009

Scotch College continues the recent trend of being well represented at Perth's biggest sporting community event.

This year's event broke record participation numbers, in addition to featuring the inaugural marathon course.

In total 71 students from the Senior School, Middle School and Junior School, as well as a contingent of staff and parents registered under the College banner to run / walk either the 42.6kms, 12km or 4kms courses. The event helped raise funds for the worthwhile cause that is Activ Foundation.

Some runners met at the College early on Sunday morning to share in the train ride to the starting line and the fun atmosphere of the day.

An additional contribution from the College community saw 13 boys from Keys House, supervised by Head of Boarding Mrs Marilyn Freitag, man one of the drink stations on the Marathon course along Crawley Drive.

With the precedent started last year, once again a well deserved hot dog 'snagger' was on offer at the finishing line, together with refreshments and chocolate treats (which didn't last long) thanks to the efforts of the School Catering staff.

The running results are indicative of some talent amongst the School community with several OSC in Neil Berry ('06), Christian Gerritsen ('08), Tom Kozak ('08), Tom Gatti ('08), all coming in the Top 100. Current Year 12 and Keys boy Tim Lefroy produced a blistering time of 43:48 to come 38th in general field and take 4th line honours for his age category, a superb performance. Tom Wallace was another Keys boy to come in the Top 100, as did Scotch student Alastair Henderson.

Brave staff to run under the Scotch banner included Mr Steve Davey, Mr Liam Sullivan and Ms Anna Simpson. Mr Aaron Gale successfully ran/walked/crawled his first marathon in a time of 4:35mins!

This was a great fun day out for all the staff and students alike.

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2009 Photo Competition Results

Extra! Extra! Read all about it. 2009 Keys Boarding House Photo competition results are in.

Well we were certainly not disappointed with this year's entries, particularly given the high standard set by the inaugural entries last year. The boys proved astute in remembering that the winner from last year was a shot of an old rusted car in the scrub. Not surprisingly therefore there were a staggering number of rusted vans, utes, cars and trucks in the bush. Sorry boys, once bitten, twice shy. Once again Ms Jemma Howard of Jemma Howard photography (www.jemhoward.com.au) proved instrumental in assisting in jugdjing the entries and offering to sponsor the prizes for the boys, freely volunteering her time. There was an interesting array of settings and certainly a common theme with the Year 10 entries featuring many Expedition shots. Everything from Karijini, to Melbourne, to fields of gold to skyscrapers and motor bikes stuck in mud. It is always an enlightening experience to see what the boys get up to during their time away from school and how they so competently exercise their imagination.

The winning entries this year are featured here.

Special mentions were awarded to the following students and staff and received some chocolates to munch on while they plot their revenge for next year:
Mitch Green - (Year 7) as the youngest entrant
Glen Bradshaw - winning Year 8 entry
Chris Stretch - best staff entry

Furthermore, this year's winners were each awarded a superb "Site Unseen" book which is a collection of the top WA tertiary photographic student entries kindly donated by Jemma Howard. The winner was also the lucky recipient of a blown up canvas copy of his photograph (in addition to another copy being placed in the Boarding house), and one day's work experience with Ms Howard. The winners of this year's prize produced remarkable and inspiring pieces that are a pleasure to behold. Judge for yourself:

3rd Prize: Michael O'Meehan - Year 11 Keys
Runner Up: Ryan Mackintosh - Year 10 Keys
Winner: Hamish Ball - Year 12 Keys

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The Neon Lights at the Dance

On Saturday 14 August the Boarders from Scotch got dressed up to take their dates to the Year 11 Dance.

The theme for the night was Neon and the venue was appropriately, and expertly, decorated.

Some were more forthright and willing to be photographed with their lady companions, others preferring to play it cool and harder to find.

Supervising staff and parents were pleased with the behaviour of everyone. By all accounts a good night was had by all.

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Year 11 Boarders 'Go' Karting

Last Sunday 2 August a group of 22 Year 11 Boarders accompanied Mr Lawrence Feldgate and Mr Chris Menage for an afternoon of noise, fuel and burning rubber that would make any rev head blush.

The Cockburn track looked slick on arrival, clearly ready to see what this group of intrepid young men could dish up. The boys were split into 3 teams of 8, with the two staff vying it out for honours in the middle team.

Well, by the look of the "doubled up with laughter" spectators on the side line, it was pretty obvious that there was a large variety of talent. Messrs Mathwin, Godfrey, Harris and McClurg stood out as the proverbial speed demons. Messrs Biglin, Walton and almost made time tick backwards with their cautions approach, and Messrs Riley Brown and J Webster will surely struggle to pass their 'L' plates next year given the talents they dished up (or failed to).

Slowest and most pedestrian like prize however had to go to Mr Fedlgate who despite cries of trickery failed to impress us with his elusive 'Zim' talents yet again! Much fun was had by all. We will return!

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Keys House "Steps Up" for MS

A group of Scotch College boarders recently climbed 53 flights of stairs at Central Park in a bid to raise money for multiple sclerosis (MS) as part of the Enerflex "Step up for MS" challenge. The initiative helped raised a net profit of $130,000 for people living with MS.

Twenty five Keys House students from Years 8 - 12 partook in the "Step up for MS" challenge in the city. The challenge consists of 53 flights or 1096 stairs up.....vertically....with very little air to breath.

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Year 11 Father Son Weekend

Twenty fathers and sons from the Year 11 boarding cohort had an enjoyable overnight retreat at Moray on Sunday 26 April. The aim of the retreat was to take time to catch up informally and enjoy each other's company without the distractions often associated with our busy lives . Pleasingly all who attended visibly enjoyed doing exactly that, particularly the time afforded to engage with each other. Read full story here.

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Purple Army storms Cross Country course

Keys House again won the Inter-House Cross Country event this year, showing that our Boarders have what it takes in the running stakes. In very hot conditions, this year's runners put in a top effort and the Year 12 record was broken for the School. Our very own Tim Lefroy capped off a stellar athletic career at Scotch, smashing the School record of 17:49.13 by almost 13 seconds with a time of 17:36.40. With strong participation vital, the big numbers in Boarding meant that Keys were clear winners at almost 1100 points ahead of Ross House in second place.

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Boarders' Triathlon

Sunday 22 March saw two teams of Boarding students comprising Matt Green, Michael Park, Mats James in one and Tim Lefroy and Peter Young in another face up against a team of 'veterans' in Mr Frusher, Mr Cordner and Mr Menage in the 20th Annual Skilled Triathlon in Fremantle.

Read full story here.

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Year 11 Social

The Year 11 boys hosted 160 students from seven other boarding schools outdoors in the Junior School quad on Saturday 14 March. The theme for the evening was "Summer Dayze" with a groovy invite well prepared by Kam Bin Sallah.

Read full story here.

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Year 11 Bibbulmun Track Trek - Northcliffe to Walpole

Sixteen Year 11 boys trekked from Northcliffe to Walpole for a week in February. They were accompanied on the first four days by Mrs Jenkins and Mr Varndell , and for the last three days by Ms Simpson and Mr Gunter.

The first part of the walk followed the course of the Gardner River as it flows south through a landscape changing from old-growth karri to jarrah woodland and swamplands. As the Scott Coastal Plain became more dominant, so did the scrub vegetation and sandy soils. Boys were grateful to be walking in dry conditions as much of the plain is inundated in the winter months. Top spots were Dog Pool on the Shannon River (leeches notwithstanding) and Lake Maringup at sunrise. Star gazing on Mt Chance was also a highlight. From Broke Inlet, the sand dunes of Mandalay Beach became the biggest physical hurdle of this leg of the track. Wet weather on the last day and a lengthy detour to avoid a fire-ravaged area near Walpole really tested the determination of the group members.

Although relatively seasoned walkers, after having completed 600 km already, some boys suffered from blisters for the whole week. Let's hope they have more blister block next time!