On Wednesday 24 May at exactly 11.00am our Junior School students joined millions of other children across the country for the annual National Simultaneous Storytime.
Each year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in schools and libraries across Australia. Now in its 23rd year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy.
This year’s book was The Speedy Sloth, by Rebecca Young and Heath McKenzie and was read by our Head of Junior School, Ms Rebecca Collie. To make it even more fun we chose two winners from each year level at random to win a copy of the book and a baby sloth fluffy toy.
If your child missed out or wants to relive the fun, click here to watch the video. Congratulations to the lucky winners!
We refer to a student's achievement that was unintentionally omitted from material provided to The Somersetonian 2022. We apologise that Kevin Wang (Class of 2022), was not recognised as the co-recipient of the Mathematics Award in the Scholars’ Day Awards Senior School article on Page 232 of The Somersetonian 2022.
The Mathematics Award is awarded to the student in the Senior Class with the best combined results in Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics (QCE) and/or IB Mathematics Hl and Further Mathematics. This was awarded to Kevin along with Charlie Liu. We celebrate Kevin's achievement and apologise for the omission.
Collaborative Mural – Oil pastels and watercolour
Pre-Prep Students in collaboration with Lann Levinge (Kombumerri traditional owner, Yugambeh language region)
Lann visited us to share his knowledge of the Kombumerri people and their Dreamtime Stories. Each class was told a different story. We discussed the importance of LISTENING to our elders’ stories to learn about our past, and our culture.
Each class then chose symbols to retell the story Lann had shared with them. The children drew these symbols using oil pastels on their respective section of the mural and added watercolour over the top. Colours were selected in collaboration with the children. We asked ourselves: Which colours would be best to represent the different parts of our story? Yellow for the honey, Blue for the water, etc.
At the centre of our mural, there is a meeting place with people of different sizes around it, just like at school. Then a songline travels across all stories, joining them. From the songline, paths lead to the meeting place: water paths for stories where water plays an important part (Gwondo, Jabreen and Jalum) and a land path when the story takes place on land (Wugan).
See next week's episode of Somerset Stream to watch the making of our collaborative mural.
Have you ever heard of UQ Engineering Ambassadors at Somerset College? Well, we are the first wave of UQ Engineering, Design and Computing Ambassadors, and our goal is to promote these subject areas throughout the College across the course of 2023.
The University of Queensland's Ambassador Program has been specifically designed for Year 11 students who are passionate and motivated in the fields of Design and Engineering. The Program aims to deepen knowledge and raise the profile of these subject areas across the schools involved and to simply engage and inspire young people in the limitless potential of STEM + Design.
Being an Ambassador will challenge us to develop our leadership abilities and communication skills, offering us the chance to communicate with like-minded students across Queensland and Northern NSW. As Ambassadors, we will bring events, activities and opportunities to your attention at least once a term.
Please keep an eye out across all of the Colleges social platforms and engage with events and activities that spark your interest!
Featured (from left to right) Elliott Bartley, Ekheera Birk, Shania Li and Oscar Pan
Year 11 and 12 students recently attended the Future Filmmakers conference at Bond University, as part of the Gold Coast Film Festival.
The conference was focused on studying film after high school and working in the film industry. We are extremely excited by the Queensland Film industry and how much it has grown since COVID. The industry is booming and many people are migrating towards working within it.
A few highlights of the conference were Gold Coast Film Festival ambassador, actor Lincoln Lewis. Lincoln spoke of his experience as an actor within the industry, but also some other areas of interest such as producing. He was enthusiastic and engaged with the audience. Lots of questions were asked and answered and Lincoln even obliged for a few photographs for fans.
Keynote speakers included, makeup and props special effects artist, Jason Baird. Jason has just won a BAFTA for his work on Baz Luhrmann’s Queensland created film biopic, Elvis. Victoria Heatherington, who is a Bond Alumnus 2018, spoke to students via a zoom link from her workplace in Adelaide. She is now working for WETA FX. Victoria has been involved in recent films, The Batman, The Last of Us and DC and Marvels films are currently in the works.
Students were given the opportunity to take a tour around the Bond Film studios, visiting the sound and editing suites and the main film studio. Many of our students are excited to enter the BUFTA Awards, Bond University's film competition for Australian Year 11 and 12 students.
Future Filmmakers is an annual event held during the Gold Coast Film Festival at Bond university. Somerset College’s Design Department is proud to work in partnership with Bond University’s Film school.
The Gold Coast Secondary Inter-School Chess tournament had a record 297 entrants for local high school teams playing in five different divisions. Somerset sent a large contingent to the event, although we were missing our whole top team due to assessment clashes.
Somerset nonetheless qualified two teams to the Premier Division next two, from where the chance to qualify for the State Finals will occur.
On the day, our best individual performers were Malcolm Chan who scored 5/7 in A Grade and Jackson Yeung who scored 6/7 in B Grade (second place).
For teams, our Somerset 3 team of Malcolm Chan, Roger Hua, Bobby Long and Ethan Huang finished = second.
The Primary Inter-School event saw 287 players take part, with Somerset sending several players.
In the A grade, Somerset 1 (Alessandro Martinese, Harrison Qu, Paul Sang Yum and Sanaaya Mapabandara) finished in second place.
In the B grade, Alisa Lai finished in first place with 6/7. Taya Liu finished sixth with 5/7 including the last game of the tournament in a big comeback win.
In the C grade, Sam Gilshenan and William Lai finished = second with 6/7, Somerset 10 (Sam Gilshenan, Oscar Riddle, Evan Li, Liam Hunt) were second, whilst Somerset 8 (William Lai, Amelia Shum, Isabella Jennings, Ada Yang) finished third.
In D grade, Samuel Dawson, Tiao Thou, Dylan Kingston all scored 5/7, whilst Somerset 15 (Tias Thou, Edmund Lee, Harrison Cordner, Ava Barry) finished third.
An unprecedented win in all age categories our Junior students entered into at the AFA School Futsal Titles earlier this month.
(Coach Sean)
On Monday 15 May, the U10 girls started their tournament day with an good warm up, so they could get ready for a big day ahead. The girls played five games in the pool stage with only 20 minute breaks between each game. They did a great job by finishing first place in the group.
Defeating Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School in the semi-final secured our girls met St Andrews Lutheran College in the final. It had been a very challenging game verse St Andrews. No goal could be scored from either side in the first half as it was an extremely intensive game.
Our Spartans entered the second half tired but determined to play their best. The girls' tireless effort was rewarded with four goals in a row to earn a well-deserved title of Champions of the School Futsal Titles after a 4-nil win.
Well done Alex Lee, Edith Hilbert, Chloe Li, Scarlett Hasselle, Robina Wang, Ava Meyers, Mayuko Takahata and Emma Cordner.
(Coach Maarten)
The Under 11 Girls played five group matches in the morning, followed with semi-finals and a grand final in the afternoon. The team did a fantastic job by staying undefeated throughout the day to become champions!
Congratulations to Bronte Butler, Imogen Sounness, Emma Cordner, Audrey Hilbert, Arianna Reading, Mayuko Takahata, Emily Barry and Luella Zerbst.
(Coach Rhys)
The Under 9s had a very successful tournament playing an intense group stage game against King's Pimpama College to end in a 7 to 6 win. The last-minute goal save from our keeper, meant we came top of our pool and moved into semi-finals.
The boys played an amazing semi-final, playing as a team and stringing nice passing plays to lead to a victory before meeting King's Pimpama College in the finals. Another great display of team spirit, supporting and encouraging each other, led to a nail-bitting game drawing at full time sending the game into golden goal. After playing five games almost back-to-back, the boys were tired but secured the win!
The boys all played amazing and well done to all of them!
Edmund Lee, Denham Barry, Lachlan Watkins, Thomas Chudzinski, Sam Thompson, Zach Sanders, and Hunter Sharples.
(Coach Kydra)
Well-practised, both Under 10s teams enjoyed hard-fought wins in their opening game. The U10 pink team (Oliver Moir, Sion Kim, Louis Hodge, Jakub Pitura, Ethan Kelly Correa, Kai Edgley, Jesse Kim and Knox Black) enjoyed continued success, finishing top of their group after five games to progress to the knockout stages.
Despite playing with diligence and tenacity, the U10 purple team (Harrison Qu, Johnny Ratcliffe, Brayden Merricks, Levi Wilson, Franklin Yang, Rafferty Ducker and Jad AL-Freah) finish third in their group, narrowly missing out on a finals spot. The team moved in strides, refining their Futsal each game against quality opposition. Well done purple team.
A convincing win against St Andrew’s, along with a gritty victory against rivals King’s saw the pink team progress to the final, with a wonder strike from Ollie Moir (half-court volley) serving as the cherry on top!
The final against Lord’s was a thrilling match complete with some formidable defence from Louis and Sion, brilliant passing combinations from Kai, Jesse and Ethan along with some crucial strikes from Knox. Important saves by Jakub kept the opposition at bay. The U10 pink team went on to win 5 to 3, meaning they ended the futsal titles undefeated, rounding off a fantastic day of Futsal by all!
Congratulations to all who competed and represented Spartan Sport with pride and passion.
(Coach Jonno)
For the Under 11, an event we have been part of for the past few years. Participating in the Gold Coast Titles instead of the Brisbane Titles gave us the opportunity to play against local schools, which was a great experience. The U11 Green went undefeated during the tournament. Congratulations to Max Bowden, Izaak Barclay, Oliver Ng, Benedict Thompson, Connor Millar-Martin, Harper Loon, Paxton Stewart, and Henry Pevy.
Somerset's Under 11 Navy played the best futsal during the day but the team was unlucky coming one point too short to progress into the finals. James Baumfield, Alex Pourre, Vaughan Furlong, Andrew Blatchford, Hugo Hasselle, Edward Hassett, Josh Thompson, and Danny Wang.
The group were fantastic over the whole day, showing great sportsmanship on and off the field. It was great having the navy team support our Under 9, Under 10 and Under 11s in the afternoon.
The overall highlights of the School Futsal Titles were watching the U9, U10 and U11 boys playing all three grand finals at the same time and winning all three. Somerset College created a great atmosphere and produced an overall standout display.
Five of our eight and under Tennis Spartans competed at the Red Ball Tournament Circuit event at KDV Sport recently. Even though the event clashed with Mother’s Day, there was still a huge turnout of players, making it yet another tough event.
In a tough girls draw, students Amber Lu and Bambi Whitcombe who both played four matches of tennis against some strong girls. Amber placed 11th and Bambi placed fourth out of a total of 16 players. At a regional level, this is an exceptional result that both girls should be proud of.
On the boy’s side of the draw, students Dylan Kingston, Sohan Pateel and Bosheng Zhang all competed at a high level in a draw of 18 players. Dylan Kingston came home with an outstanding result, placing first winning the final 15 to 6 in what was a dominant performance. Well done to Dylan!
Well done to all our Spartans on the day who showed great sportsmanship and respect on and off the court. The Somerset Coaching Team would like to thank KDV Sport for hosting the event and to the parents for providing their ongoing support.
Somerset Tennis Spartans recently had the opportunity to compete at the Queensland Secondary Schools State Tennis Trials. With 24 players across three divisions – Open Boys, Junior Boys and Junior Girls – the team had a strong showing and brought home some impressive results.
Open Boys division saw the team perform well despite having a few players out. The Open boys managed to find some form towards the end of the day, earning themselves fourth place in what was a fiery and tough division. A great way for our senior students to end their tennis journey at the college.
The Junior Boys division was even more impressive with Somerset fielding the most teams in division, with the A team placing third, narrowly losing to The Southport School in the semi-finals. Special mention goes to Orion Burdett, who not only faced some of the best players in the region for his age, but for also leading the team to this great result. Our B and C teams also performed exceptionally well, placing fifth and sixth respectively.
The team’s performance in the Junior Girls division was equally as strong, having lost to PBC in the final to come home with a strong second place. Our best result so far in this division, so the girls should be exceptionally proud of themselves!
The Colleges’ strong performance was thanks to the hard work and dedication of all the players and coaches on the day and throughout the weeks leading up to this event.
Overall, Somerset College’s performance at the Queensland Secondary Schools State Tennis Trials was a major success and all players should be proud of their efforts. We look forward to next year improving upon these results!
Students who played on the day:
In this week’s episode of Spartan Stream, we celebrate the close of APS Sport, Season 1, enjoy victories in Volleyball and Netball, highlight Spartan success in trap shooting, Football and Chess and we finish with our runners, after the All Schools Cross Country.
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