Mrs Crowley has achieved magnificent outcomes for our Senior Classes and guided our transition from the OP to the QCE achieving enormous success in both. She has been a wonderful and spirited member of the College Leadership Team. I am sure that you will join with me in wishing Mrs Crowley and Mr Crowley all the best as Mrs Crowley transitions to a well-deserved retirement.
After consultation with the College Leadership Team and the Board, I have decided to restructure the leadership responsibilities in the Senior School, incorporating changes for the positions of Deputy Headmaster, Head of Senior School and the Dean of Studies.
The Dean of Middle Years position will cease and Mrs Michele Sauer will move to Dean of Studies. I’m sure you will want to congratulate Mrs Sauer on this move and thank her for her significant successes in building the MYP and leading the MYL team. The recent evaluation has been the best ever, the review saying "that if anyone wants to see the MYP in its best practice, simply visit Somerset College." I also extend my thanks and congratulations to Mr Nicholas Brice and Mrs Allison Foster on their new responsibilities.
The following new responsibilities will be in transition in Term Two and in action from the start of Semester Two:
With regret I have accepted the resignation of Mr Greg Dwyer effective 2 April 2021. Mr Dwyer has been a wonderful asset in the Design Department, and we wish him every success as he embarks on his teaching career.
We wish Mr Andrew Wrigley, Mr Jeff Grocott, Mr Greg Juniper, Mr Dallas O’Brien, Ms Marie Morel and Mr Rob Hughes all the best with their leave.
I am delighted to announce the following appointments for next term:
I’m sure you will join me in welcoming Mrs Bisevac, Mrs Bolger and Mrs Burns to Somerset.
I wish you all a safe and happy Easter.
In this position, Nada will be working in the portfolio of legal affairs, justice and corrections. This will involve many visits to Parliament House, working on bills that reflect topical issues of interest to Queensland youth, court visits and other community engagements.
On behalf of the College, I congratulate Nada on achieving this outstanding position!
Our cohort feels so very proud of everyone's efforts in co-ordinating and organising this food drop; knowing that it will put many meals on the table for our homeless and those who are struggling on the Gold Coast.
The students will visit the Crisis Centre next term and will see for themselves how the Centre operates and how it helps those less fortunate than ourselves.
Again, a BIG thank you to all the Junior School families for supporting this very worthy cause.
From the Hayley’s Cupboard Committee, Camilla, Sash, Alena, Natalia, Jade, Gus, Tony, Josh, Dyuthi, Abhiraj, Nic, Zavier, Matthew and Nic V.
Hello, I’m Alana from Junior Band and I play percussion instruments. From my experience, it’s a lot of fun! I really like percussion because instead of staying on one instrument, you get a variety of instruments to play on, and you will not get bored.
We are currently playing eight songs and we are doing well at it. The songs we play are: Aftershock, Adamant, Escapade, Sesame Street Theme, Creepy Crawlies, Gates of Orion, Alien Invasion and Homework Blues.
Our teachers, Mrs. Rowe and Mr Keczan, allow us to have ... COOKIE TIME, where we get to have cookies at the end of each practice! That’s all from me.
Alana Agnew, Year 5M
I find Junior Concert Band extremely enjoyable as students and friends have the opportunity to examine, explore, and try a variety of instruments. Once you have learnt the foundation, I doubt nothing will perplex you.
I have tried the mallets, which is similar to the piano/keyboard and have found it delightful. From percussion to brass, you can play just about anything in the band. Even the pieces are quite pleasant – sometimes one glance might make it look complicated, but when you play it with the entire band, everything comes together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and you begin to understand the meaning of the piece.
Last week we did a concert for our parents and Mr Bassingthwaighte played the triangle with us!
Alvina Shen, Year 6G
The Year 10 Griffith STEM ambassadors (Mia Huang and Joselene Chen) took the lead this week assisted by the Year 9 Griffith STEM ambassadors (Natalie Mai and Athena Agnew). We demonstrated engaging experiments allowing young scientists to learn more about different chemical reactions, such as the reaction between hydrochloric acid and magnesium that leads to a combustion reaction and produces an exhilarating explosion. We also discovered that a cube of potato could also aid in the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide but what we were more amazed about is the enzyme in the liver – (yes, we used fresh chicken liver from Woolworths!) is a better catalyst.
After the demonstration, the scientists had fun working together with the help of our Year 12s to experience to create their own elephant’s toothpaste using yeast as a catalyst. The lab was filled with noise as the scientists recreate their own mini explosions of combustion reaction. At the end of the session, we were left with new learning opportunities while having the most fun ever.
Science Club is not just for crazy mad scientists, anyone can come along to enjoy the fabulous opportunities that the normal class is unable to provide. This also a perfect platform for those who wanted to develop leadership skills and improve scientific literacy. Also, it’s a great way to make friends with people across all grade levels. No assignments, not write ups, just fun.
The Adventurous Journey is one of the five sections students must complete. This first journey brought the Duke of Ed students together from many senior year levels who now look forward to planning and participating in their Qualifying Journey later in the year.
On Saturday 6 to 8 March, 20 students including myself, arrived at the College ready for our first ever journey for the Duke of Edinburgh award. We had been practising our skills after school in the two weeks prior and were excited to action them.
Before departure we split our cooking equipment, tents and other necessities provided by the school, amongst each group and were ready to go by 9.30am. The bus trip was about an hour and there were beautiful views and a plethora of motorcycle clubs speeding by as we travelled up the mountain towards Lamington National Park in Binna Burra.
Our walk for the day, reached 15-kilometres and we travelled through both rainforest and rock scenery across the mountain. I started off leading the group, a position we rotated, learning many new navigational skills as we went.
We stopped at Numinbah Rock for lunch and were greeted by an amazing view, seeing a huge python - whose stomach was inflated to the size of a balloon from its lunch - along the way. Once we arrived back at camp, we set up our tents and got to work cooking the food we brought, using Trangias and fuel which for a lot of us was our first time using this equipment. This was when we formed most of our bonds with each other, helping to cook food and playing games like mafia to pass the time later that night.
The second day's walk was filled with big open caves such as Kweebani Cave which for me was a definite highlight as it was my first time seeing a cave so large and beautiful. Since this walk was much shorter, we spent the second portion of our day at a school park where we had our lunch and learnt first aid procedures and other important skills surrounding environment care, eccetera.
Overall, the trip was an incredible experience that I will remember forever, and it was an amazing opportunity for both forming friendships with students you don’t have class time with or who might not be in your grade and learning skills for the outdoors. I cannot wait for the qualifying trip in the coming months.
As it had already been decided there would be no National School Swimming event in 2021, this would be the pinnacle of the School Swimming calendar for our students.
Somerset College had three junior students and eleven senior school athletes qualify for the championships while there were a further seven junior athletes and another seventeen senior athletes swim for the Somerset Swim Club who competed throughout the week.
A special congratulations go to the following Junior School State Champions, finalists and competitors:
In addition, special congratulations also go to the following Senior School State Champions, medallists, finalists and competitors:
Medal winners: Bessie Dear, Cameron Donovan, Sebastine Du Preez, Ciara Fay, Brayden Miles, Olympia Pope, Tristan Song and Holly Hembling
Finalists: Sasha Henrison, Avie Rounsley, Jaxson Brimble, Joshua Cimini, Bessie Dear, Cameron Donovan, Sebastine Du Preez, Ciara Fay, Ada Fraser, Queena Guo, Gisele Howard, Ethan McCullough, Brayden Miles, Zac Moir, Ellena Perry, Olympia Pope, Riley Rasmussen, Isabelle Sly and Tristan Song.
This is a long list of very successful students representing Somerset at this years State School Swimming Championships. Well done students and thank you to our coaches Chris Urquhart and Cheryl Baty who supported them through the week.
Many of these senior swimmers will be competing at the National Age Swimming Championships on the Gold Coast (Southport) next week. Best of luck to our students and swimmers.
In fact, we were very accomplished and happy at the end of the game.
Coach Issy and I, were very proud of how the girls played, showing off their improved skills and how they have worked hard as a team. We celebrated the amazing spirit, the great teamwork, and the happy and supportive vibes inside the court.
Our Open Bs scored up to 22 in the second set and our Open As scored double that what we normally scored in the past! We have just proven that if a team is happy, gentle, and kind to each other – we experience the true essence of winning.
We thank our captains (Ella Punch for B and Jin-jin Wang for A) for being good role models. We genuinely enjoyed the game! Please wish us all the best for the coming fixtures.
All players will play in a division were he or she can perform the best to his or her ability.
We are looking forward to 2021 Football Club Season, to prepare for the season we organised friendly games on Saturday March 20 and March 27. All games were played at Somerset College.
For the 2021 season we are proud to announce that Somerset Spartans Football Club has been accepted in the Football Gold Coast Junior Girls Competition.
Somerset already participated in the Miniroos Competition. This competition uses small sided games teams playing 4v4, 7v7 and 9v9 sides rather than the traditional 11v11 format to cater to four to 11-year-olds. The smaller fields, modified rules and fewer players leads to a more enjoyable game with more opportunities to be involved in the action.
The Football Gold Coast Junior Girls Competition play the 11v11 format. Are you in Year 7, 8 or 9? And you are interested to join our U15 Girls Football Team? Please contact our Head of Football on mdekruijf@somerset.qld.edu.au
Each Monday the students had a total of five shots. Having the shooting target placed in the goal (see picture), the student needed to aim in one of the corners. For each goal the students scored, they received one point.
We saw great participation from our Under 15 Football Club Girls team but it was the boys that took the best shots. Will McMonagle and Gregg Velloza ended up both with four points. In the shootout, it was Gregg that came out as the winner! Congratulations Gregg!
In the Junior School we had a total of 25 students battling against each other to become the Junior School Winner! We had Vaughan Furlong and Alex Pourre with both three points. But there was only one player with four points. This was Benedict Thompson. Congratulations Ben!
We hope to see all students back in Term Two. In Term Two we commence the 4v4 Football league.
Have a question about Football at Somerset College? Please contact our Head Coach - Football and Futsal Maarten de Kruijf. mdekruijf@somerset.qld.edu.au
Congratulations to all teams who performed exceptionally well.
Our Under 9 Boys Blue team and Under 10 Girls made it all the way into the Semi-Finals. Unfortunately, both teams had a loss but for most students, this was the first time attending the Futsal Titles. Both teams can be proud of the way they played.
Congratulations to the Under 9 Boys Green and Under 12 Girls who reached the final to be 2021 winners of the Brisbane Metro Futsal Titles.
Some Somerset teams who participated in the Metro Titles will play in Term Three at the Champion of Champions to decide who is the best school Futsal team in our state.
In Term Two our Senior students will play their Futsal Titles. Keep checking our Schoolbox Futsal page for the latest updates.
If any questions about Futsal at Somerset College. Please contact our Head of Football and Futsal mdekruijf@somerset.qld.edu.au
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