Soumia Lamont and Giulia Provenzano (Year 12 students) have been short-listed in the John Locke Institute Global Essay Competition, held by the University of Oxford.
The competition is highly competitive, with some 4,000 submissions from 101 countries. The categories have set questions and include History, Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Psychology, and Theology. There is also a Junior category for younger students. The John Locke Institute website has the details.
The John Locke Institute Global Essay Competition is highly prestigious. Students who receive a ‘Commendation’ are encouraged to include that award when they submit their university applications, and when applying for a scholarship, a job or an internship.
This is only the second year that a Somerset student has entered the competition. Last year, Clare Hong (Class of 2020) wrote a Philosophy essay and was awarded a ‘High Commendation’, placing her in the top five per cent.
In the 2021 competition, Soumia addressed the Law question on the problem of the presumption of innocence and public censure. Soumia interpreted the problem as one of jurisprudence and an ethical dilemma, which matched her studies in the subject of Philosophy & Reason.
Giulia’s essay was an introspection on moral philosophy and delved into whether one ought to ascribe to hedonistic act utilitarianism, as proposed by Jeremy Bentham, or Immanuel Kant’s deontological ethics.
Oxford University announced that Soumia’s and Giulia’s essays were among the 400 short-listed submissions. This means their essays are in the top 10% and will be awarded some form of commendation. The short-listing also means the following.
The essays will be further assessed and is eligible for either a prize or a high commendation.
The student is eligible for a £500 scholarship for Oxford University’s prestigious Humanities Conference at Radley College, in Oxford, this August.
The short-listed student is invited to Annual Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner, at which the prize winners will be announced. This will be held in Oxford University in September.
The grand-prize winner receives a $10,000 USD scholarship to attend one or more of the John Locke Institute’s summer schools or gap-year programmes, held at Oxford University.
Soumia’s and Giulia’s essays can be read on Schoolbox at the Dead Philosophers Club’s library of amazing essays.
On Saturday two intrepid Somerset College teams set out on 48km version of the Kokoda Challenge.
The teams had, throughout the year completed a number of training hikes in the National Park trails that comprise most of the route for the challenge.
The students also completed the fundraising component with our Kokoda fairy floss stand.
Part of the aim of the Kokoda Challenge is to support the charity work of the foundation while trying in some small way to replicate the challenge of the WWII diggers who traversed the Kokoda track in PNG.
The requisite for successful completion is that all members must finish together. The principle of not leaving a mate behind was most evident as the teams supported their colleagues with positivity.
I haven’t done the PNG Kokoda but Ive done lots of tough school camp hikes and this event was one of the toughest events Ive ever experienced. The mental and physical challenge the students experienced was enough to make a grown man cry ( almost ).
The terrain is unforgiving, the uphills are relentless and the downhills that follow are even worse (on the knees). This is done knowing that much of the event will be completed in the dark and cold.
Both teams started with a 12-13 hr race plan and performed beyond expectations.
The teachers felt comfortable with that race pace plan but when the gun sounded, of course Somerset students responded to any other school groups passing with an increase in pace.
The students sustained these bursts of pace and encouraged their poor teachers to keep up.
Congratulations to Somerset College 2 who finished in 8hr 58min to claim eighth position and Somerset College 1 who completed the event with relative ease, finishing in 10hr 35min in 26th place from 158 competing teams.
Mr Sayer and Mr Gasmier are nursing very sore joints, blisters and a new respect for the event. The students on the other hand I suspect are all looking forward to an attempt at the 96km event in the future.
Much thanks must go to our support crew led by Jacqui Sina, Emma Easther and parents, Maeve Halloran, Helen Aleman, Katy Osborne, Brendan Crowley, Michelle Andrewartha and Peter and Monica Macrossan who kept us fed and hydrated throughout the journey.
Welcome to the Fully Booked Bistro – Where good friends and great books come together!
While the benefits of reading are well known, one of the challenges all educators face is getting reluctant students interested in reading for pleasure. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of finding the perfect book.
With this in mind, we decided to treat our Year 4 students to ‘book tasting’ sessions during their Information Literacy lessons in Term Two. The KIP was transformed into the ‘Fully Booked Bistro’ and students were escorted by the ‘wait staff’ to themed tables where they sampled a selection of books from a particular genre for around 15 minutes before moving on to the next table. At the end of the activity, all students had read a little from each of the nine selected genres:
The students thoroughly enjoyed the event, which covered the, ‘How we express ourselves’ transdisciplinary theme in the IB Primary Years Programme.
The most popular genres sampled by the students were graphic novels and non-fiction and just like a restaurant, students left reviews about their favourite books in our online library catalogue to recommend their favourite genres to other students.
The Somerset Rowing Committee hosted another successful Trivia Night in the Great Hall on Friday night with the Somerset community getting behind the event.
It was great to see the crowd participate in the Trivia 50’s themed night with the winners going to two tables of Junior School parents led by Jodi Hunt the Pink Ladies certainly rocked it. The Trivia winners of the night came down to a tie with the teachers table organised by Corina Jeflea and one of Justine Cirocco’s tables comprising of the Lakis, Jacksons, Rostas, Marks and Chesters. After a tightly contested paper aeroplane competition between Venita Rostas and Tom Betts, the teachers took away the wining honour, congratulations.
The Trivia Night is a major fundraiser for the College rowers with proceeds going towards purchasing boats, oars and other equipment for the rowers. Thanks to the generosity of the Somerset College business community and the rowing families, there were fantastic prizes from stays at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Chemist Warehouse Vouchers and Baskets, Fireshaper Voucher, SILK Laser Clinic Voucher, the many fabulous baskets from the Strong’s, accommodation from the Daly’s and the Tasmania’s Central Highlands accommodation form the Butlers. Thanks to all those who purchased the great auction items, the night raised many thousands of dollars, which will go to providing more equipment for the rowers.
I would like to extend a massive thank you to the Rowing President Simon Strong and the Rowing Committee who assisted with the excellent organisation of the night.
Thank you to all the businesses for their generous donations. We ask that, when possible, the Somerset community support the following businesses who support Somerset College.
On Tuesday 15 June, the Year 10 Economics students were treated to the amazing stories told from Mr Bassingthwaite, Mrs McLaughlin and Mr Kemp about their journey working overseas before coming to Somerset.
Mrs McLaughlin first talked about her trip working around the world. She started in England where she was born, however moved to Hong Kong to pursue her rugby and to escape the English weather. She then travelled to Singapore where she worked at an international school and had her first child.
We then moved onto Mr Kemp who informed us as well about working in England. He worked at Dulwich College which is a prestigious boys boarding school and allowed him to travel around the rest of Europe easily.
Finally, Mr Bassingthwaite spoke to us about his time in the United States at one of the most famous schools in the world, with amazing facilities including hockey rinks, indoor tennis courts and a golf course just to name a few (not to mention having the infamous ‘Ford’ children attending there). He then moved to England where his children attended St Anne’s before coming back to Australia to become headmaster at Somerset College.
We appreciate all three teachers for taking their time from their schedules to come and inform us with their past experiences. This information will be greatly used for our upcoming assignment which entails of providing an answer whether or not to work in another country.
In IAS we were given a ‘clay tablet’ that the Sumerians used to write on using the cuneiform language but, instead of clay, it was a shortbread dough.
We learned about how cuneiform impacted on the lifestyles and situations of the Sumerians. For example, it might be used for trading when they had to trade for different products, such as crops and materials, in which they would need to write down the number of crops they had for harvesting. They might have also used Cuneiform for writing down their laws and rules, daily events and even astronomy. Cuneiform was created because it was the easiest and most effective way to communicate in writing, by using symbols, made up from the wedge-shaped symbol. ‘Cuneus’ means wedge in Latin. We made the wedge-shaped symbols by using the side angle of a chopstick. We wrote some cuneiform symbols on our tablet and in the end, had a reward to eat them!
A big thank you to our Chef Furlong for recreating a Sumerian Clay tablet for us to experiment with the cuneiform system.
Each Year, Bond University offers the two day Year 12 Business Extension Program to give young people an insight into university life. In 2021, six Somerset students participated in the programme and achieved some excellent results.
Of particular note are the outcomes achieved by the following students:
Congratulations to these young people!
As a result of their efforts, these students receive:
In Term Two, selected students in Year 12 were invited to participate in the Bond University Mathematics Extension programme. The programme was conducted over two days during the school holidays, 15 and 16 April.
The academic component of the programme involved students learning how to use the R programme (most for the first time) and then applying their knowledge of matrices to solve a problem using R. The programme was pitched at a high level and students displayed resilience and adaptability. The following students were awarded a Credit Certificate.
Congratulations to Xenia who achieved a High Distinction and was also awarded a $5000 Bursary to Bond University.
Professor Bruce Vanstone and Professor Steve Stern (who ran the academic component of the programme) reported to me that they were genuinely very impressed by all the students from Somerset College.
Congratulations to these students.
Year 9 Language and Literature students competed against each other in our Inaugural Party Plan competition, earlier this year. The process became a fun way of engaging students in revision activities prior to sitting NAPLAN. Each core class had to answer as many questions as they could, and the class that answered the most questions with accuracy, won the Pizza and Ice-cream party.
Year 7, answered a total of 25,622 questions, with the winning class being 7.3. However, I would like to acknowledge the achievement of individual students who competed.
In order to achieve students needed to complete:
Bronze - 800 points approximately three hours of revision
Silver - 1,400 points and six hours of revision
Gold - 2,000 points approximately nine hours
Paul Yun – 2,200 points
Liza Khan – 2,650 points
Olivia Tao - 2,797 points
Livi Budd – 1,330 points
Selina Chen – 1,209 points
Camilla Guthrie – 1,170 points
Chris Sui – 946 points
Former Somerset College student Alex Beck has become Somerset College’s first ever Athletics Olympian after being selected to represent Australia in the 400m at the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan in August. Alex was a student at Somerset College from Prep to Year 12 and was originally encouraged to get involved with the sport when Mr Andrew Halloran (Junior School P.E. Teacher) spotted him and offered to coach him at school. Alex took up the offer and so began his journey to becoming an Olympian.
Alex went on to win many competitions at school and representing Somerset College at APS, South Coast and State Championships. He broke many school records and won the College's most prestigious sports award, the Sara Carrigan Cup in Year 12. Alex is currently working at the College as one of the resident Physiotherapists. He has represented Australia many times as a relay runner at many international competitions, but never at the Olympics. At the age of 29, Alex’s time was running short and after the COVID-19 disruption it was made even more difficult to qualify. Alex teamed up with Somerset’s Head Coach of Athletics, Mark Ladbrook three years ago and has continued to run personal best’s each year since, culminating in winning the Australian Championship and Olympic selection trials in both the 200m and 400m, in April earlier this year.
Alex heads off to Cairns for the Australian Olympic Team holding camp this week and then continues to Tokyo where he will compete in the Qualifying Round of the 400m on Sunday 1 August (11.25am Tokyo time). Somerset College wishes Alex and the rest of the Olympic Team all the best at the Olympic Games and if anyone is interested in any form of sponsorship to help with his training and competition costs, please contact the College for details.
Recently, Somerset Team members Olivia Collins, James Roberts, Leon Shiriyama, Andrew Newling, Matt Flaherty, Tom Nowakowski, Thomas Elliott, Cameron Donavon, Jack Taylor and Tom Gallagher all competed at the Olympic Trials in Adelaide. This meet comes around traditionally once every four years and showcases the best of the best that Australia has to offer. Athletes competing at this meet also have to meet the highest time standards to be eligible for selection on the very limited spots on the Olympic and Junior Teams.
Somerset had great results at this year’s Olympic Trials with Jack Taylor, Thomas Elliot, Tom Gallagher, Olivia Collins, Andrew Newling and Tom Nowakowski all Swimming personal best times.
Stand out performances were recorded by:
The Somerset Swim Club then had three athletes (and a coach) selected on Teams chosen from the Olympic Trials:
Congratulations to all. Also, a big thank you to the Club’s assistant coach Leif Lyons who helped prepare the athletes for the Meet. We wish the athletes well in their preparations for their respective teams and trips away.
Our Spartans are Queensland Cross Country Relay Champions! On Saturday at Nudgee College they took off to race and dominate the 3x3km XC.
Miku, Aspen and Indie won the gold (18 to 19 Years Girls) beating a very strong state high team, as well as Fairholme College, Moreton Bay College, Sheldon College, Somerville House, St Margaret's Anglican School and St Peter's Lutheran College.
Ryan, Cru and Elijah were Runner Up to State High beating BBC and St Peter’s (14yrs Boys).
The event became a wonderful start to their winter holiday.
Congratulations to:
The Year 10 APS Netball Squad is a collective of fun, skill and a love for the game. We are all truly blessed to have the opportunity to train and play in world class facilities, under the guidance and support of amazing coaches.
The Year 10 APS Netball Team is best described through the words of Kadeen Corbin, a 2018 Commonwealth Games Netball Gold Medallist from England, “If you’re really passionate about the game, you’ll always put your best foot forward. Whatever position you’re put in, that’s the passion you have to get the turnovers, to get the shots in and pass the ball to your team-mates. That’s the passion you need to have for the game and the drive you need to succeed. If you’ve got that passion, then you’ll always be there at training and you’ll be a real team player.” Kadeen Corbin, Team England.
Our Squad is comprised of dancers, gymnasts, runners and musicians, with one common element that bonded this team of athletes together - our PASSION and love of the game AND our grit and determination to think, act and play as a winning team which has led us to success. We look forward to the years of APS Netball ahead and enjoying the experiences, wins and fun times that are yet to come.
Spartan Football had a great Term Two. For the first time in History our First XI Girls won the APS Premiership. The Future XI Boys and Girls participated in the Bill Turner and ISSA Cup. We played the 4v4 Lunchtime League and our Football Club teams played their games in the Football Gold Coast competitions.
For the First Time in History the First XI Girls won the APS Premiership. Well done Coaches Steph Opperman and Harry McMaster. Congratulations to all Year 11 and Year 12 girls!
For the Bill Turner Cup, the Under 15 Boys played against King's Christian College. The Spartans had some trouble waking up and Kings had some early goals. Attempts were made to get back in the game but the opponent was too strong. Well done to Alexander Benson for his great saves!
In the ISSA Cup, the Under 14 Boys played their first game verse Emmanuel College. Unfortunately, Leo Razack got injured in the second half. Emmanuel took advantage of this and scored the only goal of the game. We hope you have good recovery Leo! For the second and last game, we had King's Christian College visiting Somerset. King's had the best of the game and defeated us.
It was great having Hamish Peters playing Football for our Spartans. Hamish has been out for the last three years with injuries. Well back on the pitch Hamish!
In the Bill Turner Trophy, the Under 15 Girls got knocked out in the quarter finals by Palm Beach Currumbin State High School. The Girls had a tough challenge playing a very experienced Under 15 side from PBC. Our girls fought hard but PBC scored the most goals.
For the ISSA Cup, the Under 14 Girls played early in Term Two against Kimberley College. The girls won their first game! This gave them confidence for the second game but we had an unlucky loss against Emmanuel College. In our last group game, we played a draw verse King's.
Well done to Havana Lopez scoring both goals! Unfortunately, this was not enough to progress to Round 2. We hope to be back in both cup tournaments next year!
During the Term Two lunchtime, we had Junior and Senior students playing the 4 versus 4 League.
In the Senior School finals, Year 8 boys Alexander Benson, Austin Dover, Will McMonagle and Augustine Charisiou played against Year 8 girls Emily Nickels, Abigail Brinkworth, Pearl Shipley and Sophia O’Leary. Well done to the boy’s team that won the final!
For the Juniors we had the Year 4 students Paxton Stewart, Danny Wang, Oliver Ng and Connor Millar-Martin playing versus the Year 3 students Vaughan Furlong, Henry Pevy, Hugo Hasselle and Edward Hassett. The Year 3s took the victory and can call themselves 4 Versus 4 League winners 2021! We hope to see you all back in 2022.
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