4 FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Who’s Thinking? `There’s a lot of money to be made in a town with two bosses.’ In the western movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood plays a lone bounty hunter in a lawless border town, a high plains drifter out for a swift buck. He spots that the small civil war being fought between the Rojo and the Hamilton families can only mean chaos, and that means opportunity. Where there is disruption and profound change, we need to think. And <strong>Scotch</strong> has been doing a lot of thinking this year. Faced with the circumstances which you are all familiar with, we decided to review our strategic plan. Despite being only 1 year old, was the plan still relevant for the period from 2021 onwards? What is in? What is out? What hits the spot and what does not? Online learning is in – of course. Everyone is talking about it. 1 in 2 of my junk messages have it somewhere in their titles. WFH is a new TLA. Working from home will be something we need to coach. Some businesses have grabbed this chance already, as have <strong>Scotch</strong> as we shape a working from home module for our senior students. for us when the balloon went up and we all started Zooming. We became the first school in SA to realise the profound need to put Wellbeing at the heart of all we do. That instinct, set of programmes, collection of values, framework of support, and burgeoning research live even more strongly with us today. Wellbeing is the heartbeat of the old and new strategic plan. And err long, we shall build the Wellbeing and Sports Centre. This will be a next generation school building that will house not just the right sports facilities, but a Wellbeing facility. nothing. A 1% change term by term by talented individual colleagues soon adds up. Change can happen because we take a fresh look at an old problem and throw in some ‘what ifs?’ To this end, <strong>Scotch</strong> took the brave decision in September to arrange Think Tank Education Committee, or TTEdCom, a one-day conference with 100 people from both inside and outside the College. Ideas fizzed around the Torrens Park Campus about what changes will happen in education over the next decade, and how we can prepare for, or lead, that change. SCOTCH, WITH SOME HEAT AND LIGHT, MOVED TO BE COEDUCATIONAL IN THE 1970S. I HAVE BEEN PRIVILEGED TO WORK AS A LEADER IN TWO SCHOOLS THAT MADE THAT BRAVE MOVE WELL AHEAD OF THE HERD. Wellbeing and mental health challenges have just gone from the top of everyone’s agenda to almost the only thing. Unless we protect and prepare our people, all great ideas and all possibilities for progress will be lost. We cannot take our humans for granted. I could on, but I can’t help thinking that we need to look further into the future. For me, the art of thinking differently in an organisation is more than just an elite group of eggheads thinking up 10 amazing things before breakfast. It is about a mindset and a culture – something embedded in our history. <strong>Scotch</strong>, with some heat and light, moved to be coeducational in the 1970s. I have been privileged to work as a leader in two schools that made that brave move well ahead of the herd. That innovation at <strong>Scotch</strong> had to be fought for. We had to manage some rocky moments as it bedded down. We adopted laptop technology as a financial as well as a cultural commitment in the 1990s. Technology became part of our habits, routines, conversations and celebrations. Boy, that kicked some goals The aim is to provide a fine pool, set of gyms, sports courts and all the facilities that go with them. Of course. But the WSC is far more than that. We will soon have a location for an educational journey from Year 5 to Year 9, called the Live Well Programme. This is now three years old and coming to maturity. It will equally house areas to support our many and various wellbeing activities and provision. The WSC (still a working title) will write large the centrality of wellbeing in education. We have reinvented the classic sports complex in keeping with the future needs of students, while also creating an educational experience like no other. All this points to a school that is different. We do not innovate awkwardly, or unwillingly. New things are loved and cherished. Crucially, failure is not a bad word. Do it fast, do it honestly, and move on. No worries. We should also be aware that innovation does not mean inventing a new Apple iPhone (or WSC) every year. Innovation happens at a micro level. It can cost Post-It notes proliferated. We split into groups, argued, laughed, questioned, thought big and thought small. We physically distanced, but mentally huddled together and we ended up with more ideas than anyone can have before breakfast. So, we have been thinking, because just as the flowers grow again on KI, beautiful things can emerge from the scorched earth where once chaos reigned. JOHN NEWTON Principal Feature Dr John Newton at the <strong>Scotch</strong> Education Think Tank Conference 5
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