Scotch College, Melbourne

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Scotch College, Melbourne" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Scotch College
Boys
Enrolment	1,890 (P–12)
Houses	Bond, Davidson, Eggleston, Field, Fleming, Forbes, Gilray, Lawson, Littlejohn, Monash, Morrison, Selby-Smith
Colour(s)	Cardinal, gold and blue
Affiliation	Associated Public Schools of Victoria
Website	www.scotch.vic.edu.au

Scotch College is a

.

The college was established in 1851 as The Melbourne Academy in a house in

sesquicentenary

in 2001.

Scotch is a founding member of the

.

An investigation by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2021 found that Scotch is one of Australia's richest schools,^[10] and had the largest financial investment portfolio of any Australian school (valued at the time at more than $144 million).^[11]

History

Scotch College is the oldest surviving secondary school in Victoria. Its foundation was due to the initiative of

, as the first principal. The house was soon outgrown, as was a larger one on the northwest corner of Spring and Little Collins Streets (later the Ulster Family Hotel) and the Church applied to the government for a grant of land. Two acres were reserved for the school on Eastern Hill and substantial new buildings were erected there in 1853. The cost was met partly by a government grant and partly from funds raised by the friends of the school.

Lawson resigned in 1856. Under his successor, Alexander Morrison, the school grew and prospered; it came under the oversight of the newly formed Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859. Morrison had been Rector of St John’s Grammar School, Hamilton, Lanarkshire ^[12]and remained at Scotch for 46 years, during almost all of which time his brother Robert was a master of the college.^[13]: 2 William Still Littlejohn, who took over the school in 1904, served for 29 years, and his successor, Colin Macdonald Gilray, for 19. So, when the school became the first in Victoria to celebrate its centenary, Gilray was only the fourth principal.

Gilray was succeeded in 1953 by R. Selby Smith, an

.

C. O. Healey, who had been Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School since 1951, succeeded Smith. Healey retired in January 1975.

In the following May, P. A. V. Roff, formerly Headmaster of Scotch College, Adelaide, was installed as the seventh principal of the college. Roff's tenure, though a brief seven years, was characterised by an expanding voice for staff in the day-to-day management of the school, the establishment of a Foundation Office at the School under the direction of a Development Officer and the widening of the House System to provide greater depth in pastoral care. His last few years saw the school in dispute over ownership of the school and, for the principal and his school community, it was a time of stress. In 1980 the decision was made to incorporate the school and a new Council was appointed, with representatives from the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, the Old Scotch Collegians' Association and the community at large.

F. G. Donaldson, a vice principal from

, succeeded Roff in 1983. Under his principalship there was a significant building program that created new facilities for the education of boys, the development of ICT for administrative and educational purposes, and enhanced pastoral care of students.

I. Tom Batty was appointed as the ninth principal of Scotch and installed into office on 14 July 2008. Prior to his appointment he was Housemaster of Villiers House, Eton College in the UK. The early years of Batty's tenure saw the introduction of a new House-based pastoral care structure in the Upper School, which began at the start of the 2011 school year.

S. H. Marsh was appointed as the tenth principal of Scotch, commencing his term in January 2023. He was previously the Headmaster of William Clarke College in Sydney.

Name

The School was originally called "The Melbourne Academy", after its location, when it opened in 1851. In its early years it was also known as

• Mr Lawson's Academy – named after the first principal, Robert Lawson
• The Grammar School
• The Scots' College – the college of the Scots
• The Scotch College – the college that is Scottish

For a while all of these names were used concurrently until in the 1860s the usage settled on "The Scotch College", which was later shortened to be simply "Scotch College".^[14]

Coat-of-arms and motto

The School's

• The Burning Bush – the
  Presbyterian Church
  , representing Christian faith.
• A white saltire on a blue background – the flag of Scotland (St Andrew's Cross) representing the School's Scottish heritage.
• The Southern Cross – the
  Southern Cross constellation is a common symbol for Australia
  , representing the School's location and home.
• A crown – representing loyalty to the sovereign and legitimate government.
• A lymphad or birlin – a Scottish heraldic ship with oars in use, thus rowing into the wind, and representing enterprise and perseverance.
• A torch – representing the torch of knowledge and learning.

The motto of the School, shown in Scottish heraldic style in a scroll above the coat-of-arms, is Latin: "Deo Patriae Litteris". Its meaning in English is "For God, For Country, For Learning".^[15]

Principals

Tom Batty commenced his term in 2008 and resigned in mid 2022. His successor, Scott Marsh, commenced his term in 2023.^[16]

Years served	Name
1851–1856	Robert Lawson[4]
1857–1903	Alexander Morrison[17]
1904–1933	William Still Littlejohn[18]
1934–1953	Colin Macdonald Gilray OBE MC[19]
1953–1964	Richard Selby Smith OBE
1965–1974	Colin Oswald Healey OBE TD
1975–1981	Philip Anthony Vere Roff
1983–2007	Francis Gordon Donaldson AM
2008–2022	Ian Thomas Batty
2023–present	Scott Hugh Marsh

Governance and denominational affiliation

Scotch is an incorporated body governed by a Council of seventeen members – who are directors – made up of three groups; Five Presbyterian Church of Victoria nominees (Group A), Five persons (usually Old Boys) nominated by the Old Scotch Collegians' Association (Group B), and seven persons nominated by Council from the community at large (Group C), usually with some connection with the School and the Christian church. All appointments are made annually by the Presbyterian Church from the first of November every year.^[20]

Chairmen of the Council have included

.

In 1977, most congregations of the Australian Presbyterian Church left the church and joined with the Methodist and Congregationalist churches in Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia. The Presbyterian Church of Australia continued with the remaining congregations. In the split, Scotch College, Melbourne was allocated to the Presbyterian Church of Australia by the Handley Commission which was appointed to distribute the assets of the churches, which included an even number of representatives from the Uniting Church and the continuing Presbyterian Church as well as independent commissioners. At the time the Scotch Council unsuccessfully appealed this decision.^[21]

Campuses

• Hawthorn: The school has a single boarding, sporting and academic campus of 27 hectares (67 acres) in suburban Hawthorn.^[22] Sporting facilities include ovals and soccer/rugby fields, two synthetic grass hockey/soccer fields, tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, an indoor diving pool, three gymnasiums, two weights rooms and three squash courts. As the school is situated on the banks of the Yarra River, the school has rowing and boating facilities located within its grounds.^[22]
• Healesville: The school has 80 hectares (198 acres) of forest with a lodge in the hills at Healesville east of Melbourne, used for Class Retreats, as well as Scout and Cadet camps.^[22]
• Phillip Island: The school has an absolute-beach-front residential seaside property at
  Phillip Island, which is the site of a one-week orientation camp for Year 7 students and other camps.^[22]

Boarding

Scotch has been a boarding school since its foundation.^[23] Today the School caters for 160 boarders of whom around 70% are drawn from around Australia and 30% are from overseas.^[24] The boarding precinct is on "The Hill" which overlooks the Senior School at the main Hawthorn campus. There are three boarding houses: School House, McMeckan House and Arthur Robinson House. Both School House and McMeckan House were built as the gift of Anthony Mackie, and his brother and sisters, in memory of their uncle Captain James McMeckan.^[25] Arthur Robinson House is named after a Chairman of the School Council, Sir Arthur Robinson.^[26]

Curriculum

Scotch students study towards the

(ATAR) for university entrance purposes.

Scotch College VCE results 2012-2020^[27]

Year	Rank	Median study score	Scores of 40+ (%)	Cohort size
2012	23	36	26.9	440
2013	22	36	27.0	459
2014	14	36	26.6	451
2015	32	35	22.3	443
2016	28	35	23.9	453
2017	16	36	26.8	439
2018	31	35	21.6	450
2019	24	35	27.2	427
2020	26	35	23.4	432

Extra-curricular activities

Some extra-curricular groups and activities at Scotch are:

• Army Cadet Corps: The Scotch College Cadet Corps was established in 1884, and holds an annual Tattoo. Cadets have weekly activities at the school and participate in camps and bivouacs.^[28][29]
• Pipe Band: The Scotch College
  ANZAC Day March to the Shrine of Remembrance. It is the current national champion in the Juvenile grade.^[30][31] The pipe band performed on stage with Sir Paul McCartney on 5 and 6 December 2017, during his One on One tour. Sir Paul famously autographed the vellum of the bass drum on stage.^[32]
• Military Band: The Military Band performs at school, and in public including in the annual
  ANZAC Day March to the Shrine of Remembrance and on overseas tours. All members of the band are also members of the Australian Army Cadet Corps.^[33]
• 1st Hawthorn (Scotch College) Scout Group: Scotch has its own Scout Group, established in 1926, that is part of Scouts Australia. The Scout Group meets regularly each Thursday at the school and participate in off-campus activities such as camps.[34]
• Sports First Aid: A Wednesday afternoon service that boys can choose to undertake to gain advanced training in first aid. Members of the service learn valuable skills such as CPR and soft and hard tissue injury management. Members help the Scotch College community by regularly attending Saturday mornings to treat any injuries suffered during sport matches. An annual camp is held at Cowes where boys practice the skills they have learned.^[35]
• Debating: Scotch regularly participates in debating, competing in the Debaters Association of Victoria Schools Competition. Each season, the school hosts the Hawthorn region of the Schools Competition. In 2008 the First Debating Team were the State A Grade runners-up, while the school was also runner up in the State British Parliamentary Debating Competition.^[36] Scotch debaters have recently toured the United Kingdom participating in inter-school debating tournaments.^[37][38] In 2009, Scotch won the inaugural Monash Viewpoint Economics Debate.^[39] In 2010, Scotch made Victorian debating history when it won the A Grade (Year 12), B Grade (Year 11) and C Grade (Year 10) State Grand Finals in the DAV (Debaters Association of Victoria) Debating Competition.^[40][41]

Sport

Australian Rules Football

between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar

Scotch College competes in the Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) league in Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Cricket, Cross Country, Australian Rules Football, Hockey, Rowing, Rugby, Soccer, Squash, Swimming and Diving, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball and Water Polo.

In addition to the APS competition, Scotch competes in a number of other sporting competitions, including:

• Henley Royal Regatta: In 2017 the first crew went to Henley Royal Regatta after winning the Head of the River and Australian Rowing Championships. They won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, becoming the first Victorian crew ever to win it and the third Australian crew.^[42] In 2019 the first crew again made the final of the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, coming second to Eton College.^[43]
• Cordner–Eggleston Cup: This Cup is contested each year by the first football teams of Scotch and
  Australian Rules Football, which was played between the two schools on 7 August 1858, which ended in a 1–1 draw and is today commemorated by a statue depicting the game outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[44][45]

  Main article: Cordner–Eggleston Cup
• The Batty Shield: This Shield is contested between the first cricket teams of Scotch and Eton College. The Shield was inaugurated in 2008 after a number of cricket tours between the schools, and is named after the ninth principal of Scotch who was previously a Housemaster at Eton, Mr I. Tom Batty.^[46][47]
• The Tait Cup: This Cup is contested between the first cricket teams of Scotch and Geelong Grammar School and commemorates the links between the schools back to their first cricket match in 1855.^[48]
• The John Roe Shield: This Shield is contested between the first soccer teams of Scotch and
  Saint Peter's College, Adelaide.^[49]
• The Colin Bell Trophy: This Trophy is contested between the first Rugby teams of Scotch and Melbourne Grammar School which recognises the first schoolboy game of Rugby played in Victoria in 1932.^[50]

APS Premierships

Scotch has won the following APS premierships:^[51]

• Athletics (19) – 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1919, 1935, 1940, 1942, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978
• Badminton (10) – 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
• Basketball (3) – 1991, 1995, 2016
• Cricket (32) – 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1911, 1915, 1922, 1928, 1938, 1941, 1942, 1945, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1964, 1973, 1978, 1981, 1987, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2012, 2017, 2019
• Cross Country (10) – 1992, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2021
• Football (36) – 1891, 1892, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1900, 1901, 1906, 1911, 1913, 1916, 1930, 1932, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1989, 1996, 2006
• Futsal (3) – 2016, 2017, 2024
• Hockey (10) – 1992, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009
• Rowing (47) – 1868, 1869, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1879, 1881, 1884, 1891, 1892, 1899, 1900, 1907, 1908, 1919, 1921, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1941, 1946, 1951, 1952, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 *less participation, 2022, 2023
• Soccer (3) – 1992, 1994, 2016
• Swimming (8) – 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
• Swimming & Diving* (3) – 1999, 2000, 2001
• Table Tennis – 2003
• Tennis (4) – 1988, 1989, 2019, 2021
• Volleyball (2) – 2012, 2022
• Water Polo (3) – 2004, 2011, 2012

*From 1998 until 2013, swimming and diving events were awarded as a single premiership.

Alumni

Alumni of Scotch College are known as Old Boys or Old Collegians, and automatically become members of the School's alumni association, the Old Scotch Collegians' Association (OSCA).^[52]

Studies over the years have found that Scotch College had more alumni mentioned in Who's Who in Australia (a listing of notable Australians) than any other school.^{[53][54][55][56]} In 2010 The Age reported that Scotch College "has educated more of Australia's most honoured and influential citizens than any other school in the nation", based on research that revealed its alumni had received more top (Companion) Order of Australia honours than any other school.^[57] Although knighthoods are no longer bestowed in Australia, at least 71 Scotch College alumni have been knighted.^[58]

Alumni of Scotch College include

• Three
  Sir Ninian Stephen and Peter Hollingworth
• Prime Minister of Australia Sir George Reid
• Four Justices of the
  Sir Ninian Stephen
• Eight State Premiers of four States –
  John Cain (Vic), Jeff Kennett (Vic), Sir Harry Lawson (Vic), John MacPherson (Vic), Sir George Reid (NSW), William Shiels (Vic) and Vaiben Louis Solomon
  (SA)
• Chief of the Australian Defence Force General Peter Gration
• The
  eponyms of two Universities – Monash University named after Sir John Monash (who features on the Australian $100 note) and Murdoch University named after Sir Walter Murdoch
• Ten University
  Sir George Paton and David Penington of the University of Melbourne; Peter Darvall and Raymond Martin of Monash University; Sir Walter Murdoch of the University of Western Australia; and Sir Zelman Cowen of the University of Queensland and University of New England
• Psychiatrist and former prisoner of war Dr John Cade AO who discovered lithium for the treatment of bipolar disorder^[59]
• Two
  Sir Ian McLennan and Sir James Balderstone
• Governor of Victoria Sir Henry Winneke
• Economist and founding Chief Editor of the International Monetary Fund Allan G B Fisher
• Three times Olympic Gold Medalist Drew Ginn
• Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia Sir Harold Knight
• Alistair Knox (1912 –1980) – mudbrick house designer and builder
• Captain Robert Little, highest scoring Australian fighter ace in World War I
• Player and Head Coach of the
  Australian National Rugby Union Team Ewen McKenzie
• World number 1 and two times
  Wimbledon singles tennis champion Gerald Patterson
• Actor Jesse Spencer
• Singer-songwriter John Williamson
• Australian moral philosopher and Laureate Professor Peter Singer
• Attorney-General of Australia under the
  Albanese Government Mark Dreyfus
• Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs of Australia under the
  Albanese Government Andrew Giles

Images of Hawthorn campus

• 
  The Quadrangle at the school's current Hawthorn site (2009)
• 
  The Junior School (shown 2012) was the first part of the school to move to the current Hawthorn site
• 
  The

  weeping elm

  in The Quadrangle (2009)
• 
  The elms of Monash Drive, named after Sir John Monash (2009)
• 
  Looking into the indoor swimming pool in the Glenn Centre from the Meares Oval (2012)
• 
  The

  Burning Bush

  sculpture is in the Old Scotch Square (2012)
• 
  The Shergold Building is part of the Junior School
• 
  The "Mother and Son" sculpture
• 
  The James Forbes Academy overlooking the Main Oval and the Littlejohn Chapel in the distance (2019)
• 
  Keon-Cohen dining hall – the student tuck shop
• 
  Spencer Centre for Design and Technology

See also

• List of schools in Victoria, Australia
• List of high schools in Victoria
• Victorian Certificate of Education

References

Further reading

• Stuart Gerstman and James Mitchell, Visions of Boyhood - Scotch College in Pictures, Hardie Grant Books, 2007,
  ISBN 978-1-74066-565-0
• Stephen Matthews, The Pipes and Drums: Scotch College Melbourne - A History, Scotch College Pipes and Drums Auxiliary, 2007,
  ISBN 978-0-646-48090-9
• James Mitchell, A Deepening Roar - Scotch College, Melbourne, 1851-2001, Allen & Unwin, 2001,
  ISBN 1-86508-576-6
• Desmond Zwar, The Soul of a School, Macmillan, 1982,
  ISBN 0-333-33840-5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scotch College Melbourne.

• Official website
• Scotch College, 1970-1975 website
• Encyclopedia of Melbourne website
• Organ Historical Trust of Australia web-page on Scotch College's Memorial Hall organ