Initiatives

• Glengarry will stand as the monument for Mr Graeme Renney’s time at Scots. He was concerned about the lack of impact he and teachers were having on the boys, influenced by “four social declines: physical fitness, initiative, skill and compassion.” In finding a solution to these problems, Mr Renney was drawn to the idea of outdoor education. Today, Glengarry is a six month residential program in which Year 9 students experience a range of outdoor activities while continuing their academic studies.
  
  It was Mr Renney’s idea to call the new campus Glengarry from ‘Glen’, Scots Gaelic for valley, and ‘garry’ after nearby Mount Barrengarry. The official opening on 14 May 1989 was performed by Governor Sir David Martin. An area was named ‘Renney Court’ after the Principal, where he expressed the hope that “the boys have the opportunity to find themselves, and establish a set of values and attitudes that will allow them to develop an independence and an understanding of their place in the world.”
  
  Forty-one Year 9 boys spent some time at Glengarry in 1988, but the full operation started in 1989, where the first Intake of 91 boys spent time in Kangaroo Valley.
  
  
• The Principal’s other building project was a four-and-a-half level Resources Centre. Built in 1988, it incorporated a much expanded Stevenson Memorial Library (named after College Councillor Dr Alexander M Stevenson who died in 1963), an audio-visual centre, classrooms, book-room, tuckshop, Prefects’ room, changing room and Founders’ Room for meetings. It was officially opened in 1989.
  
  
• Coote ceased to be a boarding house at the end of 1983 and became staff accommodation. It was later demolished to make way for the ‘new’ and larger Royle House which opened on this site.
  
  
• Mr Renney broadened the curriculum to include language skills, study skills, the reading referral program, and an introduction to politics. Music thrived as both a curricular and extracurricular option. Drama, Debating and Chess, as well as other cultural pursuits, were encouraged as never before while Technics expanded in the late 1980s.