The Scots College's identity as a Presbyterian, non-selective, holistic educator of boys owes a great deal to the intellectual genealogy of its founder. The Reverend A. A. Aspinall's mentor was the great Presbyterian clergyman, politician and nation-builder Reverend John Dunmore Lang, who was in turn the disciple of one of Scotland's most influential 19th century churchmen, Reverend Professor Thomas Chalmers. A brilliant philosopher, political economist and preacher, Chalmers held the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and the Chair of Theology at the University of Edinburgh.

​A group of staff and Senior boys had the privilege last Thursday 12 May of hearing the scholar who occupies the same Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. Professor John Haldane, one of the most respected moral philosophers in the world, delivered a special address on Thomas Chalmers and the Scottish tradition of moral philosophy. He explained the vital role of moral philosophy in integrating the disparate disciplines, exploring several pressing contemporary issues such as healthcare, economics and the future of the welfare state through its lens.

Along with the group of boys attending the annual St Andrews Summer School in June and July, the College is delighted to be hosting a number of guest academics and admissions representatives from the University of St Andrews across 2016, reminding us of our rich intellectual heritage and exploring opportunities for boys and staff to study at Scotland's oldest (and one of the UK's finest) universities. For more information or to discuss your interest in St Andrews please contact Dr Hugh Chilton at h.chilton@tsc.nsw.edu.au.

Scots is a unique school in many respects, not least in having a Research Centre supporting staff and students engaged in research-led practice and connecting the College to the best insights into boys' education. Over 40 staff members from across the College gathered for the ScotsResearch Open Afternoon last Friday to discuss their research journeys and to explore further areas of development. Staff had the opportunity to watch an interview with the Principal, Dr Ian PM Lambert, on his own research journey, and to see the scope of ways in which research is critical to enriching the quality of our educational enterprise. As detailed in the ScotsResearch Report coming very soon, focus areas for 2016 include embedding experiential education across the curriculum, action research with the International Boys' Schools Coalition, expanding the new Master Teacher Fellowship program, furthering research partnership projects on the Indigenous Education program and the Glengarry experience with the Australian Catholic University, and further engaging boys, families and old boys in the College's heritage and traditions.

The College enjoys a range of disciplinary and pedagogic research programs underway at the College and with leading researchers at Australian universities and an increased number of staff involved in higher degrees by research. World-leading academics are regularly visiting the College to work with students and staff, and there is great enthusiasm for public research-related events such as ScotsIdeas and the Clark Lectures. The marks of an enriched scholarly and professional culture abound. Research at Scots already makes the College a unique place in Australia: this rising tide of brilliant teaching and research connections promises to make it all the more so in years to come.
For more information about ScotsResearch, come and speak with us in the Research Office.

On Thursday 12 November, ScotsIdeas, with the Institute for Business and Economics, welcomed Professor Paul Williams, Research Professor of Marketplace Theology and Leadership at Regent College, Vancouver, for a special Business Breakfast on Ethics and Leadership.

Professor Williams trained as an economist at the University of Oxford and worked in economic consulting for several years before undertaking theological training at Regent College. He then returned to the marketplace, working as an economic advisor for major international corporations and government agencies. In his most recent role before coming to Regent College, he served as Chief Economist and Head of International Research for DTZ Holdings, an international real estate consulting and investment banking group headquartered in London, UK. His key clients included JP Morgan, MetLife, Pirelli, Prudential, GE Capital, the Government of Estonia, and the Spanish Social Security Agency. Professor Williams has written numerous articles on Christian faith and the marketplace. His research interests include capitalism and globalization, the theology of public discipleship, marketplace mission, and workplace spirituality. 

Professor Williams addressed such questions as whether markets are moral, how theology has shaped economic thought, and the consequences of the Global Financial Crisis, in a discussion moderated by Economics teacher Mr Stephen Thompson. Professor Williams also met with a number of College staff to further our thinking about the nature of leadership and vocation in a Presbyterian school.

Over 200 members of The Scots College community and friends were treated to a stimulating evening at the 2015 Clark Lectures last Thursday, the centrepiece of the two week visit to the College from the eminent historian Professor David Bebbington, of the University of Stirling in Scotland. Professor Bebbington delivered a masterful overview of the development of higher education in Europe since the 12th century, connecting this story in seven acts to changing expressions of Christianity. He raised some critical questions about the nature of contemporary education at schools and universities, particularly the consequences of teaching young people functional skills without helping them think through the big questions of life: Why are we here? What is our purpose? What is right and wrong? What makes life worth living?

In many ways these questions lie at the heart of what we aim to do at Scots, as we challenge young men to develop brave hearts and bold minds, to seek and pursue what is good with all their might. Through programs like The Clark Lecture Series, ScotsIdeas, student university pathways, and a number of cooperative research programs, the Research Centre aims to help us as a College in 'lifting our gaze' and thinking harder about how the big questions shape our daily educational mission.

For more information about the annual Clark Lecture Series please visit clarklectures.org.

On Thursday 14 May a full Coote Theatre enjoyed hearing distinguished athletes, doctors and coaches reflect on the relationship between sport and holistic development at Sports Science: A ScotsIdeas Demonstration and Discussion. Drawing on the College’s extensive sports science research links with major universities and sporting programs, Mr Tenzing Tsewang, Director of Sports Science, brought together an exceptional panel which included: Dr John Orchard, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney and physician for top teams including Cricket NSW and the Blues State of Origin team; Dr Carmel Harrington, Managing Director of Sleep for Health and Honorary Research Fellow at the Children's Hospital Westmead; Dr Stephen Cobley, Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences at the University of Sydney; and Mr Brian Smith, Director of Rugby at Scots, a Wallaby in the 1986 Bledisloe Cup and 1987 World Cup, and a highly experienced coach. 

The panel discussed the questions guests had submitted on such topics as the relationship between sport and academic performance, the sleep needs of young people, the challenges and opportunities for boys keen on pursuing a career in sport or sport-related industries (including the growth of ‘big data’ analysis in coaching), and the importance of ‘playing the long game’ in looking after your body and not over-training. 

Guests at the evening also enjoyed the opportunity to see the College’s first-class sports science facilities and hear from researchers and students about the way research (often by Scots boys using their own maturation data) is shaping our approach to injury management, the relationship between body and brain, and the nature of adolescent development.

To watch footage of this ScotsIdeas event please follow this link: 

For more information about research in sports science, please see here.

We look forward to our final ScotsIdeas event in Term 4, ‘Well May We Say…: An evening of great Australian speeches’. We also invite you to join us at the annual Clark Lectures in August, featuring distinguished historian Professor David Bebbington. 

Scots seeks to be a place where teachers bring to the classroom deep knowledge of their discipline and deliberate reflection on their approach to teaching boys, drawing on and contributing to the best of pedagogical and discipline specific research. A number of staff at the College are engaged in 'action research', where the lines between theory and practice are broken down and teachers work collaboratively to design interventions in their own classrooms or programs. In the latest Research Bite, Dr Sarah Zitner, an accomplished artist (whose work includes the much loved statue of a Scots boy outside Aspinall House), formerly a lecturer in art theory and practice at the University of New South Wales and now a visual arts teacher at The Scots College, reflects on her own journey to bring together academic and artistic worlds, as well as recent experimentation with collaborative teaching practice in visual arts classrooms. See here for other Research Bites profiling staff research at The Scots College.

The Research Centre's 2014 Annual Report has just been released. It shares exciting news from the wide range of research and partnership activities in the life of The Scots College across 2014. Highlights include:

• the first cohort of Scots graduates to achieve the Diploma of Tertiary Preparation through the University of Sydney - the first Australian Year 12 cohort to matriculate straight into undergraduate programs
• collaborative research studies with UNSW into motivation and music and Raffles Institute in Singapore on the relationship between sport and academic performance
• the Scots-University of Sydney Masters of Education (Leadership and Management) cohort who graduated in 2014 after an amazing 2 week learning experience at Cambridge University
• action research into boys' literacy, the reasons men go into teaching, how to create creative classrooms
• the inaugural Scots Distinguished Professorial Fellowship with Professor John G. Stackhouse, Jr.

It also features information about new research projects in the College over the next 2 years, including:

• a Master Teacher project exploring the ways teachers become experts and opportunities for greater teacher mentoring
• ongoing research in K-12 Sports Science
• a major longitudinal study of the impact of the Glengarry experience
• development of faith and learning resources for the 2020 classroom
• a study of the paths of Scots graduates as they transition to university

Please enjoy reading it here.

On Thursday 17th July The Scots College welcomed leading academic and theologian Dr Darrell Bock to deliver a lecture on the Jewish background of Jesus Christ. Dr Bock is currently Executive Director of Cultural Engagement and Senior Research Profession of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in the US. He is a leading international scholar of theology and has written over thirty books on topics related to the Bible, including the New York Times bestselling Breaking the Da Vinci Code and a new book entitled Truth Matters: Confident Faith in a Confusing World written specifically for students thinking about the place of faith and truth in the University. Dr Bock joined us as a guest of the Centre for Public Christianity, and as one of a number of public and academic speaking engagements during his visit to Australia.

Over 50 students and staff gathered from Year 11 Studies of Religion and Years 10 and 11 Theology to hear Dr Bock speak. He addressed the presence and use of cultural script, evidence for Jesus’ Jewish heritage before providing a cultural historical context for his identity and life. Students were invited to converse with Dr Bock following the lecture and responded with insightful and reflective questions. This was a unique opportunity for students to engage with matters of faith: to be challenged in their understanding of Christian values in a context of intellectual rigor and excellence.