Continuing tradition, our Year 12s walked their Avenue of Honour this week to wrap the end of their Somerset journey.
Pre-Prep to Year 11s lined the Avenue for Somerset's Class of 2022 to stroll for their final time as students.
Parents, siblings, teachers and friends joined the students for the nostalgic event.
At Somerset College we have prided ourselves in the implementing a vibrant pastoral program that aims to develop the social and emotional wellbeing of all our students. Our programmes are backed by scientific research and founded by experts in the field of adolescent development. In 2022 the Somerset experience was further enhanced by the introductory of single sex programs that acknowledge the unique gender-based experiences and challenges uniquely faced.
The Year 7 boys engaged with a 'soft trial' of Glen Gerryn’s Men of Honour X programme. Over the past 10 years, I have been an advocate for boys’ education, and I have had the privilege of watching Glen inspire, motivate, and transform the boys I have pastorally led. For the past 20 years Glen has shared his message of hope with over a million people around the world; engaging with students, parents, teachers, employees, sporting groups and community leaders. Glen’s been invited to speak at TEDx events and on national TV and radio. He’s authored five books and created the ‘Men of Honour’ character development course.
The boys engaged in a series of five workshops which were delivered by experienced staff members and student leaders. The workshops aimed to highlight the power of an individual’s choice. For the 2022 Year 7 programme we chose to explore the areas of Exercise, Nutrition, Relationships, Online Presence, and Masculinity. The boys explored the portrayal of men in society, perpetuated by the media, and the subsequent effects on male identity and behaviour. The evidence-based sessions, all allowed the boys to exercise core skills and cultivate characteristics that are proven to strengthen resilience and good mental health. The workshops also emphasised the power of mentorship from honourable men, something that our boys need and should seek out.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the boys for taking part in the ‘soft release’ of this important programme. They have all played a vital role in pioneering a program that aims to better support the boys in our college. It has been such a pleasure hearing the positive feedback from students, and I hope this will be an effective tool they can utilise as a part of their Somerset journey and beyond.
And of course, no program can run without the generosity and commitment of staff. The following teachers have been acting as positive mentors for the boys. They have not only delivered the program, but they also demonstrated their commitment in ensuring our boys are supported along their journey into being honourable Somerset graduates. On behalf of Year 7, I would like to thank:
I would also like to thank the Year 7 2023 Captains Jake Johnson and Amy Barry for also helping to deliver the programme to the Year 7 boys. It was such a pleasure watching Jake and Amy demonstrate and develop their leadership capacity in a way which was so positively influential to our boys.
The Men of Honour will be 're-designed' with the guidance of Glen Gerryn and the feedback received from students. In 2023 we are hoping to make the program bigger and better than ever.
To conclude I leave with this quote from St Augustine:
“The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave, and not the slave of a single man, but – what is worse – the slave of as many masters as he has vices.”The Year 11s hosted the Year 1s for a Christmas Party in the Common Room.
The Year 11 cohort had all of the Year 1s complete a short questionnaire and the Year 11s then buddied up with a Year 1 friend of the same House and interests.
There were a range of games and activities including Christmas colouring in, Connect Four, the always popular handball and even a jumbo candy cane and bauble home run derby (which turned into a Don Bradman style of cricket).
Within the short space of an hour there were some genuine and really special connections made between our leaders of 2023 and some of our youngest at Somerset College. It was a great experience, and it was very hard to tell who was having more fun – the Year 1s or the Year 11s! Special thanks to all who helped make it a very special occasion.
Year 12s enjoyed a delightful morning tea this week in the Prep space where their schooling journey began, 13 years ago.
A continuing tradition before our Year 12s leave the College, students who have been at Somerset from the beginning visit where it all began.
The group from the Class of 2022 met with their Prep teachers, posed for photos and ate their treats.
The Gold Coast Primary Schools Debating Competition took place for the first time this year, offering students in Year 5 and Year 6 the opportunity to experience an introduction in debating in Junior School.
The inaugural cohort of Year 6 Somerset Debaters involved three teams, all of whom had zero debating experience heading into the competition, but whose passion, dedication and overall enthusiasm wholly made up for it. The competition consists of three rounds – arguing the topics: ‘School uniforms should be banned’; ‘Fairytales set us up for disappointment’ and finally that ‘We should ban pets’. Rather than being a leaderboard-style competition, the Primary Schools debates are more an opportunity to see what debating is all about, and to prepare students for the Gold Coast Debating Competition, which is open to Years 7 to 12.
Often requesting multiple training sessions a week, along with early morning practice debates, our three Somerset Year 6 teams absolutely threw themselves into the preparation process and performed extremely strongly in all three rounds across Term Three and Term Four. Special congratulations to Somerset 6.3 (Ailin Zhao, Lawrence Lee, Angela Sun, Evie Wilson, Liam Hartley, Jackson Smith and Ishan Chauhan) who were undefeated across all three debates! Our other teams also performed extremely well, winning two debates apiece.
The future of the Somerset College Debating Programme looks extremely bright, and we look forward to seeing how these students progress throughout their Senior years!
Our Sustainable Spartans captains headed off to Tangalooma on Moreton Island as part of the ECOMARINES programme, 4 November.
The students have worked all year on projects including clean up Australia day, creating and maintaining our community garden which also services the Bird and Bush.
Year 4 and 5 students completed the Oz Harvest sustainable cooking programme. The captains have also been working on our sustainable lunchbox programme. The Ecomarines programme focused on ocean and waterway sustainability with a presentation in the marine education centre on the many wonders of dolphins including a research project into their blood and it’s healing powers and dolphins bringing gifts to eco rangers. The information centre has many interesting environmental displays which prompted much thinking and discussion around sustainability.
The Somerset Spartans had an outstanding Queensland Schools Athletics Championships recently at the Queensland State Athletics Centre in Brisbane. With more than a dozen students representing Somerset College we had many excellent results overall.
Leading the way was our School Athletics Captain, Lucy Twigg (Year 12) who won her first ever State Title in the 18yrs girls 100m (12.12sec) and then followed it up the next day with another win in the 200m (24.53sec PB). After many years of striving to achieve this goal Lucy ran beautifully to take the sprint double and was also a member of the silver medal winning 4x100m Relay team. Her runs were a wonderful way to finish her school athletics career, whilst juggling the demands of her Year 12 academic studies in her final year at Somerset College. Lucy has been commended for her hard work, discipline and commitment being nothing short of excellent. It will be exciting to see Lucy realise her talent through to the Senior ranks, as she continues her studies at university while striving for Australian representation in the coming years.
Marie Warneke (Year 11) was also outstanding winning the very difficult double of the 400m (55.72sec) and 800m (2.10min) in the 17yrs girls’ events. Marie commenced at Somerset College at the start of the year, relocating from Ballina to pursue her athletics talent and studies. Coaching her this year has been a pleasure and I look forward to assisting her to one day represent Australia and see how fast this super talent can go over 800m.
Kassia Brown (Year 8) performed to her usual high standard and won the 13yrs girls Pole Vault (3.15m) with a very close attempt at 3.60m plus. Kassia has worked very closely with our Somerset Coach Howard Arbuthnot for several years now and the results are really showing. Kassia also qualified through to the 90m Hurdles final after running a great PB in her heat.
Cru Scott (Year 9) successfully won the 15yrs boys 1500m (4.02min) and won silver in the 800m (1.58min). Winning the 1500m was an outstanding achievement for Cru and well deserved after several years of minor placings. He also qualified for the Australian All Schools in December.
Aspen Anderson (Year 10) competed extremely well in the 800m and 1500m 16yrs girls winning silver medals in both events also qualifying for the Australian All Schools Championships in December. Aspen continues to juggle triathlon with her track running and has been extremely successful at both disciplines.
Kenny Ming (Year 10) made his first ever Schools Track State Championship placing an excellent 8th place in the final of the 16yrs boys 800m. Kenny also competed in the 1500m and just missed the final in a gutsy run. Kenny has made vast improvement over the last couple of years and now has his sights on competing at the elite level in the coming years.
Ava Stephens (Year 10) competed in the 16yrs girls 90m Hurdles, 200m and Long Jump. Ava finished 5th in the Hurdles final in (13.80sec PB); 5th in the Final of the 200m (26.2sec PB) and 5th in the Long Jump final. Ava is a very talented multi event athlete, and we are working closely with her towards the Queensland Multi Event Championships in December and the hopefully onto the Australian Championships in February. Her improvement over the past couple of years has been amazing.
Starr Scott was another Year 12 student competing. Starr performed to her usual high standard making the finals of both the 800m and 1500m. Tim Hornsey performed in his first ever State final in the 1500m as did youngster Zac Moir.
Multi event athletes Aidan Mackie 4th in the boys 16yrs 100m hurdles (14.18sec), 10th in the Triple Jump and Rhea Dawson 7th in the 16yrs girls Javelin and 12th in the Discus also performed very well. Willow Truscott competed in her first ever State Final event in the 10yrs girls High Jump and gained some valuable experience of major competitions for the future. Willow is one of the most dedicated athletes in the school and has a very bright future in the sport of athletics.
Many of these athletes have the potential to become international level athletes and it has been a pleasure to work with them over the past three years here at Somerset College. As the Head Coach of Athletics, I have enjoyed watching so many youngsters develop towards their future potential however with the announcement of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games and my growing time coaching multiple international level athletes, I have made the difficult decision to direct my attention into more of the elite and development athletes on the road to 2032 and will be moving on from Somerset College at the end of the year.
This will allow me to pursue my ultimate passion of High-Performance Coaching and I am looking forward to becoming the best coach I can be at this level. I will continue to coach development squads at Somerset College as an Ignition Athletics Club Coach so will still be around if you ever need athletic advice or coaching. I would like to thank everyone at Somerset College who has assisted me with the Athletics programme and hope that it can continue to evolve in the direction it needs to in the future.
All the best for the future.
Recently 13 of our Somerset Tennis Spartans competed at the final Future Stars event held at KDV. A tournament which sees beginner tennis players start the competitive tennis career by playing team-based matches. In all divisions, we were competing to be the top of our pool, and the results did not disappoint.
Our Red and Green ballers kicked things off, with both teams finishing the top of their respective pools. Our red ballers went undefeated, with Evie Kingston not losing a single match, whilst the green ballers only lost one match in all their 15 tiebreaker matches across the day. Outstanding results! Students Ailin Zhao and Evie Kingston both won the Sportsmanship award, as voted by the coaches and fellow payers from other clubs throughout the year. A great way to wrap up a fantastic season of Future Stars.
Following the success of our Green and Red ballers was the Orange ball team. Also competing for the top spot in their pool, Spartan’s Benedict Thompson, Abraham Saffuri, Adam Saffuri, Audrey Hilbert and Ruhara Mapabandara had to bring their A game to what was the strongest Orange ball division of the year. After narrowly beating Helensvale Tennis Club by two points, the team managed to take out the top spot, with Audrey Hilbert also winning the Sportsmanship Award.
This way a great way to end off our Future Stars Season for 2022. We look forward to another great season next year and hopefully we can produce some more great results!
On Thursday 3 and Friday 4 November, 30 of our Spartans competed at the Tennis Queensland Primary Schools Cup trials at Gold Coast Seniors Tennis Club in Miami. After two gruelling days of competitive tennis, our Spartans produced some great results, and some thrilling matches.
In the Red Ball division, two teams competed in both the mixed and all girls division. Fielding the youngest overall teams of the day, some of our Year 1 students had to battle out against students in Year 4. A great challenge for our younger Spartans. The boys managed to go undefeated, finishing in first place after a tightly contested match against The Southport School with Spartan Henry Pevy going undefeated the whole day.
Our girls on the other side of the competition managed to win all their round robin matches, narrowly losing the final by only one point against St Vincent’s. Another exceptional performance by our Spartans and a lot to look forward to in future years.
A special mention goes out to Ava Johnson, Taya Liu, Jack Dew and Dylan Kingston, who were the youngest competitors on the day and displayed some great tennis and sportsmanship. Well done to our Red ball Spartans.
Against some of the best Green ballers in the state, our Green ballers held their ground and put up a great fight. The boys Green ball team placed third, narrowly missing out on the State Finals by a set, whilst the girls manage to finish sixth out of the 12 competing teams. Somerset was the only school in the competition to have both teams in the top half of the draw across all three coloured balls. Students Paxton Stewart Stacey Yang were among the youngest out of the 60 competitors and both managed to prove their tennis excellence on the court by winning majority of the singles and doubles manage.
It is a bright future for Somerset Tennis, and we are already looking forward to another successful year next year at the Primary Schools Cup!
The Somerset Tennis team thanks all parents and players for making this event possible, and to the team at Tennis Queensland for organising and running a great event.
Somerset Spartans Football and Futsal organised several lunchtime competitions this year. Please read below the trophy winners from our Lunchtime activities 2022.
With the fast-growing interest in Futsal, we had to split the Junior and Senior School competition in two separated leagues based. At the interhouse futsal, all five houses play against each other once in the group stage. The houses placed first and second play the Final.
This competition took place during Term One. In the group stage Starkey stayed undefeated in. In the final they were facing Franklin that ended second. Starkey underestimated their opponent and Franklin won the Final with 3-nil!
The Golden Boot winner with 8 goals is Andrew Blatchford. (Franklin, Year 4). Second place with seven goals for Abhiveer Gupta (Laver, Year 4).
This competition took place during Term Three. Big shout out to Laver that had a total of 13 players registered. Laver was each week on full strength with lots of options to choose out. It was not a surprise that they reached the final. But in the final, it was Starkey that played the best and won from Laver with 5 to 2. Well done, Starkey! The Golden Boot winner with 8 goals is Mila Oldfield. (Veivers, Year 5). Shared second place with seven goals for Connor Millar-Martin (Laver, Year 5) and Jackson Smith (Starkey, Year 6).
Inter-House Futsal Competition Seniors, Years 7, 8 and 9: This competition took place during Term Three. All houses are all from a similar level each team. It was very tight I in the group stage. It was Starkey and Veivers that ended both in the top 2. Unfortunately, the Final could not be played. The winner of the competition is going to the group winner Starkey. The Golden Boot winner with 8 goals is Ari Thake. (Starkey, Year 8).
Second place with 7 goals for Emily Nickels (Franklin, Year 9).
This competition took place during term 1. Franklin, Starkey and laver were the teams that dominated the group. It was Starkey and Laver that came as number one and two. In the Final, Starkey played the best and defeated Laver with 3 to 1. The Golden Boot winners with seven goals are Angus Martin (Laver, Year 12) and Peter Osborne (Starkey, Year 12).
During term 1 all students had the change to participate in the Shooting Accuracy Master. Each student has five attempts per week. At the end of the term, we had a winner in the Junior and Senior School. In the Juniors it was Alex Pourre with a total of 31 points. In the Senior School with a total on 25 points, Sophia O’Leary won the competition. Congratulations to both!
This was already the fourth edition of the Lunchtime Street Football. In the Senior School we have four teams playing matches each week. Rylan Kennedy and Tristan Song came out as winners. In the Junior School, with a total of 12 teams. The 12 teams were divided in two groups. At the end of Term Three. The top four from both groups played the knockout finals. The team that that won all their knockout matches were Paxton Stewart and Liam Seymour. Well done to the winners! We hope to see you back next year!
Lunchtime football tennis takes place during Term Four. This is a six-week competition with all students have practice matches in Week 1. After the first week we are heading in the group stage. Same as in Street Football. Football tennis gets played in pairs. In the Semi Finals, Bertrand and Vaughan defeated Benedict and Andrew. And Oliver and Paxton defeated Liam and Max.
In the final, Bertrand and Vaughan took the lead at the start of the game. But Paxton and Oliver had a strong comeback. Paxton Stewart and Oliver Ng become the Champions of Football Tennis in 2022.
For any questions about Football and Futsal, please contact our Head of Football and Futsal.
Paul is a regular attendee at my Friday morning boxing classes. He brings with him a witty sense of humor which certainly keeps me on my toes. His commitment to his overall health and fitness throughout this year, leaving no stone unturned, attending yoga and pilate classes, as well as a regular member in the weights room.
Paul is a true asset and inspiration to our Somerset Gym community.
Type on the line above then press the Enter/Return key to submit a new search query