At a Speech Day during his time as Chairman of the Council of The Scots School, Campbell Alexander, remarked that “the British may have had the empire on which the sun never set, but at Scots we have the empire where the mortar never sets”. During his time as Chairman, two headmasters, Michael Aikman and John Hunter, presided over a building boom at Scots that has not been matched since, and was one of the notable periods of the history of the School.
Michael Aikman was a sportsman, having been in the Australian Olympic rowing team at Melbourne in 1956. He attended Geelong College and Ormond College at Melbourne University before joining the staff of Camberwell High School in 1956. Appointments as Senior Chemistry Teacher at Scotch College in Melbourne and Trinity Grammar in Sydney followed before he was appointed to The Scots School from the beginning of 1966.
In his Annual Report for Speech Day in 1965, John Bulkeley reported that enrolments at the start of that year had stood at 129. Twelve months later, Michael Aikman took over a school of 95 boys. Photo albums donated to the Betty Ives Archives Centre from early in Mr Aikman’s career reveal a school that was in desperate need of attention. In an oral history interview in 1979, Mr Aikman noted that the School Council had tried to encourage enrolments by reducing the fees, but that resulted in less money for maintenance and facilities, and when he took over, the school was in a downward spiral.
Discipline was also a problem. Mr Aikman, in the oral history interview, said he had to go over the top to improve the boys’ behaviour. When he travelled around the school’s feeder areas, he was being told by Old Boys and past parents that they would not send their boys to it. He understood that he had a year to turn it around or the Trustees of the Church would close it.
Backed by a new and dynamic council, and with support from Mr R. K. Yorston, the Chairman of Trustees of the Presbyterian Church, Michael Aikman began by spreading 1,000 gallons (about 3785 litres) of paint around the school, and laying 500 square yards of floor tiles. Planning also commenced for a new Science building and an extension to Cooerwull House. Both of these were opened in 1967 and paid for with money advanced by the Church. The Library was also reorganised with Mrs Davidson appointed as the first librarian, and the collection catalogued using the Dewey Decimal System.
By the end of 1967, enrolments had gone up again to 142. In 1968, the peak number previously set of 160 boys in 1961 was exceeded for the first time with 165 enrolments. The confidence that the Council and the Trustees of the Church had in the future of the School was proved right. That year, construction began on another boarding house that would, in time, become New House, then Bulkeley House. The foundation stone for a purpose-built library was laid in October 1969.
A building appeal was launched to fund further expansion. This resulted in the construction of the Thompson House Cottage—although the boarding house would be a project for John Hunter. The Kennel was relocated to its present site of Ives House in 1972 to make way for the construction of an Assembly Hall that would also serve as a gymnasium. When Michael Aikman resigned at the end of 1973 to become Headmaster of Haileybury College in Melbourne, this project had stalled because an inflation crisis in the national economy had forced building prices way over the budget.
A contribution that Michael Aikman made to the school was to appoint a number of staff who went on to have long careers at Scots. A look at the Staff List for 1973 includes Graeme Cook (Agriculture), Ian Pike and Bob Craine (Science), George Falconer (Geography), Bruce Holmes (English), Laurie Lynch, Bill Parmenter, Grant Wood, and, of course, John Hunter. Frank Clayton, Howard Davoll and Don Wiburd were retained from earlier years. High standards were expected from the Scots staff, and Michael Aikman, in a time before staff unionisation, did not keep on staff who he felt were not meeting his criteria.
When Michael Aikman left at the end of 1973, he left a school with a record high enrolment of 230 boys. There were a number of new buildings and a school that was in much better physical shape than it had been. Boys from his time comment that he earned their respect by the work he did to lift Scots out of the state it had fallen into. Morale amongst both staff and boys was high.
There was one sad episode. In 1972, David Atley, who had recently completed his Higher School Certificate, was killed in a car accident. Because David had been a keen member of the Cadet Corps, his family donated the Sword of Honour that was presented to the best C.U.O. in the unit from 1973 until 2018. It now forms the centrepiece of the Cadet Unit exhibit in The Scots Museum.
Mr Andrew Maher
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