“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” – Alan Cohen
The start of a new term often sees teachers, parents and students discuss the opportunity to have a ‘fresh start’. I have been considering this over the last few weeks and have come to the personal belief that this is not necessarily an accurate statement. If we are to say that it is a complete new beginning, then we run the risk of ignoring what has come before. Instead, it is important to recognise what has preceded, what lessons have been taught and what experiences have been had. In short, we must take stock of where we currently find ourselves before beginning the journey afresh.
As American author and speaker ‘Zig’ Ziglar stated, “We cannot start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending”.
This is a wonderful notion and easy to encourage our students and children to consider, but showing them the actions required to fulfil the sentiment may be required.
In his article, Getting Rid of Yesterday: How to Start Your Day Fresh, Donald Latumahina considers the following steps key to being able to make use of new opportunities and new beginnings.
1. Take time to evaluate your day
The purpose of this thinking time is not to regret how bad your day was... This won’t do you any good. Instead, the purpose is to extract lessons which you can bring to the following day.
2. Ask the right questions to extract lessons
To extract the lessons, you should ask the right questions. There are basically two questions you should ask:
What have you done well? There should be some things you have done well. What are they and how did you do them? What can you do to make sure that you can continue doing them well or even better?
What have you done wrong? Usually there are also some things that do not go as expected. What are they and how could they happen? What can you do to improve yourself and avoid the same mistakes in the future?
3. Make a commitment to apply the lessons
After you extract the lessons, you should make a commitment to apply them. To do so, find some actionable things you can do to apply the lessons.
4. Close your day
After you have spent the time to think about the day and extract the lessons, make a decision to close the day. You should close the door to the past day so that you can start your new day fresh.
5. Bring only the lessons to the next day and nothing else
After you close a day, you should not bring anything out of it to the next day except for the lessons you extract. These lessons deal with things you can do something about. They deal with the present, not the past.
Somerset College presents new opportunities, new lessons and new experiences every day. It is a vibrant place filled with enthusiasm and energy and never is this more noticeable than at the start of a new term. We all look forward to seeing how students will embrace these chances.
In 2022, the Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship cemented itself as a key event in the College calendar. The two-day festival is supported by a programme of year-long activities including the Fireside Chat Series, the Parent Entrepreneurship Program and the regular class visits conducted by our Entrepreneur in Residence, Baden U’Ren. These initiatives and the Festival itself are made possible by the tireless work of the Entrepreneurship Committee. I thank them for their continued passion and support. I particularly thank our Headmaster, Mr Craig Bassingthwaighte for his leadership of all our entrepreneurial initiatives.
The Celebration of Entrepreneurship is about igniting futures through student led activations. These activations include:
The aim of each of these opportunities is to facilitate students bringing together the skills learnt in Mathematics, Science, English, Design, the Arts and Humanities to solve real problems in our community.
Highlights of the 2022 Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship Festival include:
In summary, the benefits of the Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship for our students are best described by a visitor to the Festival:
“I would like to say how impressed I was with the Year 9 student’s stalls this year. I felt that they all took it very seriously and were focussed on running their stall just like a commercial entity. They were very polite, respectful, and all were hard working in maintaining cleanliness, safety and good business ethics. I was also very impressed with their stall layouts this year – they were well-planned and well presented. I can see the bar being raised and am very much looking forward to what they can produce next year. I can see they’re learning the difference between excellent and poor customer service. Kudos to all the teachers – job well done. I must say the Loaded Donuts were decadent, delicious and very well priced and I shouldn’t have been eating them, but I couldn’t resist!!!!"
Thank you to the Somerset community for embracing the Celebration of Entrepreneurship and the wonderful opportunities it provides for our students.
For the first time Somerset Parents' and Friends' Association hosted the inaugural Celebration of Fatherhood on a clear and warm Saturday, 10 September.
A fantastic turn-out of more than 80 fathers and 130 children registered, with approximately 60 mums joining as well.
Our Deputy Headmaster, Mr Nicholas Brice, was the MC for the day and beautiful weather was in our favour. Percy the musician was fabulous as he set the carnival tone from the outset and this was supported by children’s entertainers Sparky Doodah and Wonder Woman who helped with creating amazing balloon sculptures. Somerset Football coach Maarten de Kruijf is also to be thanked for organising the father versus child matches, as these were well attended and very much enjoyed. But, the ‘hit’ of the day was the interhouse Tug-o-War where Andrews were the inaugural winners.
Sincere thanks are extended to Dr Bob Bourke (ESI Eye Specialist Institute) who sponsored the musician, photographer and the sound, and Imra Smith (Wings Real Estate) who sponsored the children’s entertainer.
Following the event, a father of the College stated that “It was a heartfelt event which was supportive of the Somerset community and further enhanced the wonderful culture”.
Consequently, congratulations are extended to Sonam Dezongpa-Bathols (President of the P&F) for creating this unique initiative and to all of the P&F team who fashioned and supported the event both on the day and in the weeks leading up.
We look forward to this becoming an annual event and celebrating once again next year!
This year the Somerset College Alumni Association celebrated the Annual Alumni Awards at the Home of the Arts in Surfers Paradise on the 14 of September. Nominees and guests shared a wonderful night of reunion, celebration and awards.
On behalf of the Alumni Association we wish to congratulate the winners of this year’s awards:
A huge thank you to everyone for your continued support for the Somerset Alumni Association.
The Year 6 Taste of Asia Day is the next best thing to being there!
The last day of Term Three saw the Year 6 vicinity transformed into a little Asia. The colours of students and adults in stunning costumes, the red lanterns hanging from the Quad balcony and the decorations in each room/country were bright and inviting. Smells wafted around the College as thousands of dumplings and curries with roti bread were being cooked ready for mouth watering customers.
The Holi Colour Run – a celebration of spring - at the end of the day was a whole lot of fun and students went home for the September holidays as colours of the rainbow.
The Year 6 teachers would like to thank these people in particular for running an activity for our students and enabling them to experience something so authentic:
We also appreciate the help of Martin in our Ray Kitchen for enabling the feeding of about 150 people at lunchtime within the standards required. We also appreciate the Grounds Staff and Mrs Sherry Wilson for the set up required for such a big day.
Every now and then, amongst the business that is Somerset College it is important to stop and reflect on the opportunities that we can create together. Year 6 ‘A Taste of Asia Day’ was one of those days. We are grateful.
In Mandarin recently we have been celebrating and learning all about the Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhōng qiū jié), also known as the Moon Festival!
Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated each year on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, this is a date when the full moon will be at its biggest and brightest. The festival celebrates the story of Hou Yi, Chang e and the Potion of Immortality as well as many other traditions. Students have been exploring how the festival is celebrated and things you might see during this festival which include eating delicious Mooncakes and lighting lanterns. In class, students participated in several activities to learn about these traditions and tried eating traditional mooncakes (we had some Risk Takers trying something new for the first time!)
Some of our students were fortunate to experience a story telling by a parent from our community, as well as witness how Chinese Mooncakes are made using a special mould. Students then created their very own Jade Rabbit lanterns that will be hung to decorate our Year 1 and 2 eating area.
For parents wishing to explore this festival further with their children, the Netflix movie Over the Moon follows some of the mythical stories of this festival and how it is celebrated within families.
中秋节快乐 – Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Nine Somerset College students travelled to Griffith University for one of the highlights of the Mathematical calendar - the 2022 QAMT Gold Coast District Year 7 and 8 Maths quiz. Eight qualifying teams from across the southern Gold Coast feasted on a bounty of computations and didactic deductions designed to differentiate.
The teams comprised of talented Year 7 and 8 Mathematicians and the quiz is structured into five rounds, comprising of both individual and team questions. Round One was Estimation with questions like; Estimate how many service stations there were in Queensland in 2020 (Answer 1450). Round Two, Speed, followed quickly behind with 12 mental arithmetic (no calculator) problems for the team to complete in two-minutes. For example, Sarah buys an apple costing $1.20 and a sushi roll costing $2.30. If there is a 2% fee for paying by card, what is the total cost? (Answer $3.57).
Round Three was Written Problems, with five problems for each team member to solve in 15 minutes. For example; A student had a mean (average) mark of 8 for their six maths exams. If their marks on the first four tests were 10, 5, 7 and 8, what could they have scored on the last two tests? (Answer Any two numbers that add to 18). Round Four was split into Individual questions, for example; What is 80 as a product of primes? (Answer; 2×2×2×2×5). The last round was General Knowledge; Three famous mathematicians were Archimedes, Euclid and Pythagoras. Who was born first? (Answer; Pythagoras 570 BCE, Euclid 300 BCE, Archimedes 287 BCE).
When all the scores were tallied, the Somerset I team came out on top with 36 points and Somerset II just edged out Hillcrest for second place, finishing on 33 points. The Somerset I team therefore go through to the state finals in Brisbane, where they will proudly represent the southern Gold Coast. The finals take place at the University of Queensland in October and will incorporate a Maths activity event.
Congratulations go to all the team members; Team 1- winner of Round 1 and Round 2, Oscar Credland Ballantyne, Tony Xia, Harry Georgeson. Team 2- Runner - up Round 1 and Round 2, Trishi Shivikumar, Nicole Yuan, Ruhara Mapabandara. Reserves and third place in round 1, Malcom Chan, Roger Hua, Kenshin Tateno. Fourth place in round 1, Team 4, Jack Walker, Dylan Aspinall, Charlotte Kemp.
Griffith University ran the quiz extremely well and must be thanked for the hosting of the event. My thanks also go to all the parents who attended the evening, as well as Mrs Wright for her leadership in coaching and coordinating the teams.
During the school holidays Somerset Netball was represented by two teams at the Queensland Primary State Netball cup held in Bundaberg. Our Championship team came out winners with our Development squad an impressive fifth.
Teams from all over the state travelled to Bundaberg for two full days of Netball. There was a total of over 50 teams entered into the competition.
Somerset A team entered the Championship division, Somerset B team entered the Development division.
Both teams played seven games on day one, in hot and dusty conditions. Each topped their pools after Day 1, meaning the A team were playing for best in state. The B team were looking to finish in the Top 8 of their division.
Raring to go with some warm-up dancing and team talks from coaches, the girls hit Day 2, running. The A team had to finish Top 4 to make the play offs. The B team were looking for as many wins as possible.
The B team performed to a high standard consistently, in all games, coming down to just one or two goals either for or against. They secured their final game by one point to finish fifth in this top division for development players. It was an extremely emotional end with 10 extremely exhausted but exhilarated players and a coach so thrilled seeing the major improvement from these girls.
The A team had a hiccup on their way to play offs in the form of Coorparoo State School, last year’s champions. We met them on Day 1 in the pool games and came away with the win. Coorparoo's talk must have fired-up the team who then came out determined to beat us, which they did. The team lifted their heads and went on to win the rest of their games, meaning a second place finish in this pool and progression to the semi-finals.
We met St Andrew’s Peregian Springs in the semi-finals. Tunnels of loud Somerset supporters were formed, for players to run through. The game was won in a nail biter, leading the team to the final. The final was a battle of the Gold Coast after Oxenford State School took out Coorparoo in their semi-final.
Somerset dug deep in an extremely physical encounter, with the girls defending their hearts out and really putting their bodies on the line. Coach Chantrel Thrupp made use of the rolling subs to keep the legs as fresh as possible.
The final whistle blew with six goals each. Extra time went two minutes each way with quick change at half time. As the clock ticked, it appeared to be deadlocked once more. As the buzzer went, Somerset was awarded a penalty in the goal circle, meaning pass or shot. Brianna Peardon stepped up; the crowd held their collective breath. She shot the goal. We won. The look on the players’ faces when they realised that they were best in the state was priceless.
A massive congratulations to all players involved and a heartfelt thank you to the parent support network.
With seven athletes winning a Gold Medal, two athletes winning Silver and two athletes winning Bronze, Somerset College came seventh on the Medal Tally at the Rowing Queensland Schools’ State Championships, held at Bucca Weir from September 17 to 19 2022. We had 38 athletes travel to Bundaberg to race against 47 other schools from around the state. This was a return to numbers not seen for five years. The weekend's races were set to be the toughest competition the athletes were up against, so far this year.
For three terms coaches Olivia Sina, Rod Morrison and Peer Richards have been preparing the rowing athletes for the State Championships. With years of expertise and the ability to get the best out of every athlete it is hard to imagine that the athletes would have found any success without their dedication and guidance.
Five Spartan athletes represented the South Coast region in the Inter-regional Quad. Callum Miles was selected in the Under 17 Boys Quad, Georgia Daly and Eliza Strong were selected in the Open Girls Quad and Thomas Gray and Callum McClure were selected to row in the Open Boys Quad with Head Coach Peer Richards coaching the Open Boys Quad. The Open Boys won Gold to finish the first day of competition with a golden moment and set up a successful weekend for Somerset College.
It has been 11 years since Somerset College has won Gold in a Year 8 Boys event, winning Gold in the Quad in 2011. This year saw Angus Riddle rewrite the history books with a Gold Medal in the Single Scull, Bronze in the Double Scull with Byron Taylor and once again a Gold in the Year 8 Boys Quad with Angus and Byron joined by Michael Zeng, Benji Strong and Coxed by Zoe Benson.
Georgia Daly and Eliza Strong were initially hesitant to take on the Year 11 Schoolgirl Pair event as it represents the most challenging boat to row in the competition. With the patience to master moving such a difficult boat and the determination to get a result, it was a highlight for the whole programme to see them win a Silver Medal, and achieve something the Senior Girls in the programme have worked so hard towards.
The Rowing Queensland School State Championships return to Bucca Weir next year and there is no doubt that the Spartan athletes will be inspired and motivated by this years’ results to take on the best in the state and yet again find success.
Somerset Spartans Football Club Presentation was held at the season's end in Term Three, along with the first edition of the Football Celebration.
The 2022 was a very successful season for our Football Club, with a total number of 100 Junior School students and 14 Senior School students. With a total of 12 teams playing in the FQ South Coast ALDI Miniroos competition and one team in the FQ South Coast competition.
Congratulations to our Under 16 Girls that reached for the second year in a row the finals. Unfortunately, we lost in the Semi-Final.
On Saturday September 3 we organised the end of the Football Club season with our annual Football Club Presentation day. At the presentation all students received their team photo and Football Club medal. For the Under 6, 7, 8 and 9 we had Marty the Spartan helping us present.
Thank you to former Socceroo Michael Thwaite who assisted us with the presentations for the Under 10, 11 and 12. Thank you to our students, coaches, volunteers, parents, supporters and sponsors for the great season. We hope to see you all back next year!
On the final day of Term Three, Somerset Football organised the first edition of Somerset’s Football Celebration. The celebration is our moment to thank the First XI Students and Staff for the Football Season. At the start of the celebration, we played football matches. We had invited the First XI Alumni students to make a First XI Alumni team. They played games versus a combined boys and girls First XI 2022 team and our Staff Football team. Our Football staff played also versus our First XI 2022 students. The Alumni side won both games and won the first edition of our Football Celebration. It was great welcoming back our former students.
At the end of the celebration, we presented our students with awards.
Thank you all for attending the celebration. We are looking forward to the second edition next year!
For any questions about Football and Futsal, please contact our Head of Football and Futsal Maarten De Kruijf.
Type on the line above then press the Enter/Return key to submit a new search query