Reflecting on 2023 it has yet again been an even busier year at Somerset, another year of growth, a year of building and development and a year of change and momentous announcements.
Talking about announcements, on Founders' Day I announced the retirement of our Headmaster of 16 years Craig Bassingthwaighte, at the end of 2024. That announcement was met with sadness and concern as to how we could continue to build this wonderful College without the leadership and commitment and passion that Craig has given to us over the past 16 years.
Whilst I share this sadness, I ask you to reflect upon the extraordinary contribution Craig has given to Somerset College and the huge legacy he has left. No one, certainly not me, could ask anymore of a Headmaster than Craig has given and certainly he and Kathy have earned the right to enjoy their beautiful family, their gorgeous granddaughters and their shared love of travel.
Sadly we are not just losing Craig, but we are losing Kathy. Kathy is not just a support act for Craig, although I can imagine it may perhaps be a full time job! Kathy is in her own right a wonderful educator and teacher and she has expertly and faithfully served the good of Somerset College and our students since Craig commenced as our Headmaster.
Fortunately we are able to enjoy the leadership and guidance of Craig and Kathy until the end of 2024. That will also allow us as a College community to celebrate their contribution to Somerset College at many joyful events.
The Somerset College Board and myself have regarded the recruitment of the next Headmaster as perhaps the most critical and important decision for the future of Somerset. The recruitment process has been managed by myself and the Board over the course of the last year with the assistance of a well recognised national recruitment company, Fish Nankivell through their lead partner, Kathy McLean.
That recruitment process included a nationwide advertising campaign some four months ago. The interest both nationally and from international applicants was overwhelming. After shortlisting and detailed due diligence with respect to each applicant, rounds of interviews culminated in a unanimous board decision made on the 28 October 2023.
I am not at liberty to formally advise you of the successful applicant at this stage, but I will be in a position to do so on or about 24 November 2023. Let me simply say, the Board is very excited about the appointment which we believe will continue building on the great work of Craig Bassingthwaighte and the successful evolution of Somerset College.
Our main job at this wonderful place is to build people. To build people we do need to build buildings which provide opportunity for extended learning and growth as individuals. As you are well aware, 2023 has been a huge year of building activity on our campus which I know has caused parents and students some inconvenience, but I hope you can regard the inconveniences as minor compared to the benefits that will flow.
A general report on our building programme is as follows:
Construction of a new two-storey junior school building with eight general learning areas, a reader’s room, an atrium/breakout area and additional amenities. Classrooms provided are state of the art and I am happy to report that construction was completed by the end of October and the classes are now happily occupied by many lucky young students.
Refurbishment of the existing early learning precinct building has now commenced and will be completed before the commencement of class next year.
Significant external and internal road upgrades have commenced and once again will be ready for class commencement next year. This work is particularly important for facilitating traffic through the College and will not only make life a lot easier but assist in creating a better urban and pedestrian environment within the College.
Construction of the new carpark providing 196 car bays, with a new playing field (above the carpark) dedicated to multi sports and play time use for all of our students, but also built to a standard to be able to host hockey games to an Olympic standard. This work and the total project is scheduled to be completed by June 2024.
The building work referred to above represents a budget approved by the Board of $30 million. We are on track to deliver the project within the scheduled building time and under our forecast budget of $30 million.
The outcome of the project is exceptional in all of the circumstances. It has been achieved on the back of teamwork between the College and its key consultants.
I want to acknowledge and extend a huge thank you to our Project Management team of One PM Group led by James Davidson. Their professionalism and their commitment is without peer.
I also want to acknowledge those within the College who have sat with me on the key Project Control Group Committee, responsible for this outcome. That committee includes our Headmaster Craig Bassingthwaighte, our Deputy Head Nicholas Brice, our Chief Operating Officer David Thornton, Finance Manager Kylie Sherrington , Head of Junior School Ms Rebecca Collie (Bec) and Dean of Information Technologies Ms Lisa Thomson.
This project outcome reflects the best of Somerset College’s ability to work as a team, overcome huge challenges and deliver results.
Against the backdrop of significant escalation in costs, particularly in labour costs, the Board has worked diligently to minimise the fees increase for 2024. The Board has also noted that comparable schools in our region and throughout the state have delivered tuition fee increases significantly above the 5% fee increase that has now been resolved for 2024. The Board has also resolved that the discount for fees paid annually in advance is increased to 5%.
Talking about the Board, please allow me to acknowledge their support, commitment, expertise and absolute passion for Somerset College, its students, its parents, its staff and the future of Somerset College. All members of the Board contribute their time and their energy on a voluntary basis in good times and in bad.
Whilst accepting a directorship of Somerset College Limited creates a significant commitment and indeed legal responsibility, I can assure you that all members of the Board and myself regard the opportunity to serve Somerset as an honour and a privilege. I recognise and thank my Board members, Deputy Chair Peter Trimble, Chair of Finance Jason Cordner, Chair of Governance Penny Thurnwald, Chair of the Foundation Bede Young, Simon Chan, Amanda Appel, Alisha Swain and Alexander Woodthorpe.
The mission of Somerset College for its students is “personal success and a global outlook”. These words are not just words. These words are not just hope. These words are a commitment from Somerset College to all students, to all parents, to find for each student the opportunity to achieve their own personal success and a global outlook.
Please hold us accountable for that commitment, for that promise.
I trust that when you reflect upon this year that your children are proud of their own personal success.
Somerset College never sleeps, but it will pause and reinvigorate and get off to a flying start in 2024. I wish all of the Somerset community safety, happiness and peace. Please enjoy each moment.
Over the last two weeks, the Year 7s ended 2023 with a billycart-themed bang with the help of Somerset community volunteers.
Time devoted to design and learning the hard lesson of “measure twice, cut once”, the 7s constructed a varied collection of carts.
Nare a finger lost; our sensational speed-freaks travelled to the Sands fields for the race to begin!
In true Spartan fashion, the tenacious teams fared the moisture and mud, competing for victory.
Congratulations to the “Exploding Elmo” for capturing the cup, and the “Bulldozers” for winning the People’s Choice award.
An Interdisciplinary Unit, a component of the MYP, was completed by over 140 very excited Year 7 students this week.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Year 7s, in their corporate attire, were very keen to ‘pitch’ their very own ‘company’ and state why the Judges, a competent group of Year 10/11 Business Studies’ students should choose their company product or service as the best for 2023.
The students only had seven school days to prepare and create a solution for a problem that they had brainstormed in their ‘Think Tank' session in the previous week.
Their ‘business brief’ was to create a company name, logo, mission statement, financial background and a code of conduct outlining human rights for their workers, how to lessen the impact on the environment and what charities they were going to support with this new venture.
These were modelled and taught in different subject classes during Term Three and Four so that the students could then use these skills from IAS, Mathematics, Language and Literature lessons to produce their final presentation.
In teams of four they had to produce slides outlining their Company’s product and policies, and present it to the Judges. Heats were held to choose first, second and third in each Year 7 Class. The winner of each class would then progress to the Grand Final.
Our Judges were Year 10/11 Business studies students who had the very hard task of choosing not only the Heat winners but also first, second and third place winners in the Grand Final, with our Guest Judges - Mrs Ellis and Mr Hoult.
All the Year 7 Teams, dressed in their corporate attire, produced an amazing array of product creations and their presentations were well articulated and very professional.
The Year 7 Teaching Team would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who made this happen and for their immense involvement in ensuring the students had the knowledge and skills to complete this Interdisciplinary Unit of work.
We would also like to thank Mr Damien Coleman, Head of Humanities, for donating our prizes. The Grand Final Judges; Hayeon, Sarah, Mrs Ellis and Mr Hoult. Also the Tech Staff, Events and Logistics staff. A huge thank you to Thomas for organising the TV’s to display the company logos.
A BIG ‘thank you’ to all the Year 7’s who worked very hard together to produce imaginative and creative products and Services and were willing and eager to experience the workings of the Corporate World!
In the final two weeks of school in 2023, Year 8 students took part in an Inter-Disciplinary Unit (IDU) held by the Science and Humanities departments.
These Somersetonian sleuths had to apply scientific strategies and legal lore to investigate the “Murder at Wyangan Creek”.
Through analysis of blood types and splatter, dental imprints, fingerprints and other evidence, our greenhorn gumshoes constructed a legal case to bring the perpetrator/s to justice. On the final Wednesday of the term, a representative group from each house presented their findings to a panel of judges.
Congratulations Franklin and Andrews Houses for having the most compelling arguments and upholding justice in our community.
Today the Year 7’s conducted their annual Rubik’s Cube Challenge.
Five contenders, Hrishi Kadiyala, Nicholas McMonagle, Jamie Chirathivat-Geralds , Harrison Kerr, Fenix Huang and Arjun Rai, displayed great skill in the race against time to win the Rubrik’s Cube Challenge for 2023.
This year’s champion is Fenix Huang in an amazing time of 11secs!!
Second place was Arjun Rai in a time of 41secs.
Third was Harrison Kerr in a time of 56secs.
A great effort by all our finalists who were cheered on by an enthusiastic Year 7 cohort.
I wonder if anyone in Year 7 will break Fenix’s record in 2024?
Year 7 Team
After three days if Futsal, the Under 9 Boys are the winners of the 2023 School Futsal Titles with our Under 10 Girls and Under 11 Boys, runners up.
Coach Ryan
Working with the Under 9s was a blast not only for myself and the players, but for those watching the spectacle they put on across all three days. These players have established themselves as a competitive and disciplined team on court showing they can use flair and technique to their advantage.
They faced tough competition against Peregian Beach College in the semi, a top team from the Sunshine Coast who they lost to on the second day. The loss meant a greater effort was required to win win, which they did, to set the tone for a fantastic final.
Well done to Zach Sanders, Edmund Lee, Hunter Sharples, Denham Barry, Sam Thompson, Thomas Chudzinski, Lachlan Watkins, and Leo Chen.
It is great to see all your hard work paying off!
Coach Kydra
Entering the last and final stage of the school titles, on the back of success in Rounds 1 and 2, the Under 10 boys were ready to play. Friday's fixtures proved tough, with Game 1 delivering a nail-biting loss to Gold Coast rivals, St Andrews.
The second fixture would be a grand-final rematch against Mary MacKillop, with the opposition playing a highly disciplined brand of Futsal and ultimately coming away with the win. The second day saw standout performances from Jakub Pitura between the posts along with trademark creativity from Oliver Moir. The weekend's final fixture would see a local rivalry play out between Somerset and King's Christian College.
Saving the best 'til last, our Spartans sealed a convincing 8 to 3 win; a result of the entire team rising to the occasion. Sion Kim, Ethan Kelly Correa, and Kai Edgley provided considerable value through their quick ball movement, whilst Jesse Kim and Louis Hodge did well to slow the oppositions attack. The boy’s perseverance was rewarded with a plethora of goals to Knox Black amongst others.
Well done to all involved! The teams focus now turns to the Johnny Warren Cup at the end of the month.
Coach Jonno
Day one saw the first game being Somerset Green verse Somerset Blue. A truly entertaining game in which the game was tied 2-all with a couple of minutes to go. Somerset Green winning the game narrowly 3 to 2 late on. Following an incredible start, Somerset Green finished their first day strong with two convincing wins.
Day two, an intense day which saw the main goal to try and help Somerset Blue reach the finals. Coming up against Peregian, a very good Sunshine Coast based school team. Both teams met the former champions. Somerset Green narrowly losing 7 to 5 in a neck and neck game, only to have been beaten with a couple of minutes to go. Somerset blue faced Peregian later, although the boys went down 2-nil early on, they scaled an incredible comeback to 3 to 2 right at the death. The game ended 3-all, a deserved result for their amazing efforts. Unfortunately, the day didn’t end as hoped, Somerset blue getting knocked out by Stretton.
Day three, finals day! Somerset Green having progressed through, came up against King's Pimpama. Having beaten them in the group stage, the boys needed to be focused. A great team display saw them win comfortably, moving onto the final against Peregian. Peregian was too strong in the Grand Final, deservingly winning the game which led Somerset to be runners up.
It was a brilliant effort and I am proud of both teams who showed great intensity and resilience at all moments during the tournament. The organisation and focus before, during and after games were always spot on, a big thanks to Under 10 Coach Kydra for always supporting the group on and off the pitch.
Under 11 Blue: James Baumfield, Alex Pourre, Andrew Blatchford, Vaughan Furlong, Hugo Hasselle, Edward Hassett, Josh Thompson and Danny Wang.
Under 11 Green: Max Bowden, Paxton Stewart, Harper Loon, Connor Millar-Martin, Zhander Griffiths, Oliver Ng, Benedict Thompson, Izaak Barclay and Henry Pevy
Coach Sean
Through winning the Stage 1 and Stage 2 earlier this year, our Under 10 Girls Futsal Team entered Stage 3 of the School Futsal Titles which saw the young Futsal players challenge themselves through the three day, seven games tournament.
On Day 1, our girls played two games, both versus Under 11 teams. It was a great experience for the young girls to feel the intensive and physical final stage of the AFA Futsal tournament as this is their first year to play. Our girls still managed to score some goals in both games even though they couldn't win them.
On Day 2. The young Spartans played two games against Under 10 teams from Ironside and St Andrews. The games were very intense as both Ironside and St Andrews defeated many other schools in the earlier stages. Our young girls won both games with the score of 3 to 1 and 5 to 3, this was achieved with great teamwork. Our girls finished their group matches versus another two Under 11 teams.
On Day 3, our young girls played the Grand Final against the St Andrews. Unfortunately, we had three players injured from the games on Day 2, our young Spartans still played their best but just not at their full potential. The girls lost the game, but they should still be very proud of themselves for being the Runners Up.
Well Done, Robin Wang, Alex Lee, Chloe Li, Edith Hilbert, Ava Meyers, Scarlett Hasselle, Emma Cordner, Indi Toomey, Mayuko Takahata.
Coach Nigel
A very excited and slightly nervous Spartan Under 11 Girls team started their last stage of the Futsal titles on Friday with one win and two loses. With the hope of better result on the day, the girls were in their results. However, throughout each of the six games, every opposition got tested and in most games the Spartans had the most possession and opportunities. Quality combination plays and the right spirit shown by all players helped the side to finishing fourth. While it was not enough to qualify for finals, overall it was a good performance.
Well done to all the Under 11 Girls on an amazing school Futsal year.
Bronte Butler, Emily Barry, Evie Ladbrook, Mayuko Takahata, Arianna Reading, Luella Zerbst, Audrey Hilbert and Imogen Sounness
We can call 2023 a fantastic year of School Futsal. All our teams that participated in Stage 1 of the Futsal Titles, progression all the way through to last and finals Stage 3. In Stage 3 we versed the best qualified schools from Queensland.
I want to thank our coaching staff for guiding all our students on and off the field into the right directions. Thank you, Parents and Caregivers for all the support during the matches.
We are looking forwards to a new School Futsal Season in 2024!
After a hiatus of a couple of years, the Staff vs Students First XI was back on the calendar this year. This looked like a challenge for the Staff, as the First XI were flushed with confidence after winning the APS premiership.
Despite the fact that my physique is more suited to a robust game of Dungeons and Dragons than cricket, I decided to accept the mantle of Staff captain. Which really only meant that I had to organise the post-match refreshments…
I began to assemble my team in the manner of Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen. I guess that means Peer Richards was my Clint Walker. Actually, I might stop this before I go through the entire cast (and realise that I am more Telly Savalas than Lee Marvin) because I am sure few people reading this know what the heck I’m talking about (the unkind might say that’s not a lot different to my philosophy class).
We enacted Staff prerogative to dispense with the toss (not the first of such random and dubious prerogatives that we invented) and sent the young bravos in. My APS final half time speech about the dangers of hubris – delivered without reference to Classical Greek drama, I am pleased to say – went ignored as the First XI swaggered around the ground, impugning our capacities. They had cause to rue such overconfidence.
For it was to my old trusted warhorses, Damien Healy and Ross Keefer, that I turned. One inswinger, one outswinger. I love that combination ever since my heady days of captaining the Gymea Bay B3s in the early 90s. “Baa-baa” Lamb and “Bags” Muir being the out and in swingers back then. Pressure was immediate applied to their batting line up, and when their skipper and prize bat, Leo Davies, was dismissed off one of Damo’s thunderbolts, we knew we were on. A parade of trundlers followed. Halloran, Richards, Abdou, Neagle, Cowling, Walther; each one was as cagey as the next (well, except for my half-trackers). Secret weapon, and staff debutante, Hayden Volzke bowled some left-arm orthodox – an effective weapon in any team, and was for ours too. Three wickets to him. James Kirk held their innings together, but they could only manage 99 off their 20 overs. There was some grumbling when it was realised that we played with 12 on the field for those 20 overs, but given that I am more obelisk than human, I at least, am happy to let that slide.
With the new format, we played each innings on a different Wednesday, so the next Wednesday it was the Staff’s turn to chase down what was felt to be a surmountable target. Ross Keefer was dismissed early and there was much whooping and other such exuberances. Will McMonagle’s pace did cause a stir amongst the staff ranks I can now admit, after the game. But it was Hayden Volzke again that stood up and with fellow opener Harry Hall (yes, he IS a staff member, students!) gave the staff a very good platform to strike. This we did by chipping away, with our batters falling reasonably steadily. Ash Abdou anchored the latter half of the run chase and Jordan Gaz hit the winning runs. We had 8 balls to spare.
The grumbling did continue after the match where various wild accusations were levelled at me. Such as that I deliberately scheduled the event on a day when the students all were doing fitness testing; and that I organised with the council to have the field mown so that the ball ran faster. I don’t know what echelon of the Illuminati the students think I inhabit, but if I did, then I am pretty sure the air-conditioning in my Commodore would be working.
It was a terrific couple of afternoons. I would like to thank my colleagues who played, my colleagues who umpired (thanks Kate Webb and Russell McGrath), my colleagues who spectated, the parents of the First XI, and the kids themselves. If only you knew how much we love these games…
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