Swinging through the valley with only a harness and rope to support you. This was the Giant Swing and it was definitely a highlight for most pupils who attended the Year 7 Camp.
From 29 May to 1 June, Year 7 students had a joyous three days camping on top of Mount Tambourine. From the exquisite meals to the adrenaline-rushing activities, Year 7 camp will definitely be a highlight of the year.
Mount Tambourine's activities were team-building exercises and by the last activity, everyone definitely knew each other a lot better. It was the best feeling having your team cheering you on up to the top of the giant ladder to the Leap of Faith.
One of my all-time, personal favourite activities was the GPS Challenge. It was like a scavenger hunt but instead, we had a GPS that would track us around the campsite, and we had to copy the specific knot in the rope. Although we had to spend cold nights and days, overall camp was a blast and it will definitely leave a mark in everyone’s memories.
In Mandarin recently, we have been celebrating and learning all about the Dragon Boat Festival (Duān wǔ jié) and we even held our own Dragon Boat Race!
The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated each year in either May or June, depending on the Chinese Lunar Calendar and is in memory of the Chinese poet Qu Yuan. Students have been exploring the traditions that you might see during this festival which include eating delicious sticky rice dumplings (Zòng zi), watching Dragon Boats race on the river, and trying to balance eggs on their end for good luck! In class, students participated in several games to learn about these traditions, as well as used their creativity in making their own Dragon Boats, Zòng zi and a beautiful dragon collage.
In Year 1, we were fortunate to hold our own Dragon Boat Festival activity together, with the help of one of our fantastic Year 1 parents. Students deepened their knowledge of the Dragon Boat festival through hearing more of the stories and traditions of this festival, as well as seeing a demonstration of how to wrap the special rice dumplings. We then combined the traditional activities of the Dragon Boat race and egg balancing for good luck with our own ‘Dragon Boat Race’ outside in our House teams. This time, it was Veivers who won the Dragon Boat race but it was a fantastic effort by all teams. It was great to hear all the students cheering Jiā yóu (Come On!) to support their teams.
端午节快乐 – Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
The Somerset Festival for Young Performers is run very successfully due to the generosity of our volunteers and sponsors. With over 200 sections offered this year, our aim is to encourage our young performers in a wide variety of areas at varying levels of expertise.
Sponsorship of sections enables us to keep our entry fees low, keep sections small and, at the same time, provide each participant with Place Ribbons. Sponsors’ names are printed on each ribbon and in the Programme. Our aim is for this to be an enjoyable time for our enthusiastic young performers.
Thank you to our sponsors who have already booked their support for this year.
Would you like to sponsor our 2022 event?
Follow this link to become a sponsor and help support our 2022 Somerset Festival for Young Performers.
After a Year 9 IAS exam, 10 boys (Lachie Mckinnon, Lachie Mathieson, Eason Wang, Jed Collofello, Ethan Grocott, Raiden Kyaw, Mason Richards, Hamish Kennedy, Jackson Dong, and Elijah Hill) raced for the bus in which they stayed in for the adrenaline-filled two-hour trip. As we arrived at Toowoomba’s Sports Stadium, the boys all prepared themselves for the first match of many.
Up first we were playing against Kelvin Grove a volleyball school. From the first few points the boys were nervous, which quickly changed as they managed to take the win 3-nil in sets. After this, the boys were exhilarated, taking their first win easily. The boys then had to play Stretton, which was one of the hardest games they would play. With a neck-to-neck game Somerset and Stretton played until time ran out with the set score at 1 all. Eventually Somerset lost with an overall point difference to Stretton by 1 point!
With the boys all rested up and ready to face the new day, they had breakfast and headed back to the stadium. In the freezing morning, the boys had to face their next opponent, King's Christian College. Their APS rivals ended in an easy 3 set win to Somerset. This match was then followed by Citipointe Christian College. This team had an inhuman reaction with many amazing ups. This was eventually won, putting the boys in the semi-finals. The semi-finals match brought an easy win from Somerset with a 3-nil set score against Ambrose Treacy College, completely blowing them out of the park putting the boys into the finals against the only team to have beaten Somerset.
Finally, the day all the boys have been dreaming of for the past week. Everyone woke up early to have an early breakfast even though our game wasn’t until 2.00pm. All were anxious about the game ahead. Again, Somerset had to play the team that beat them earlier on in the tournament, Stretton. The game was very close coming down the very last serve with Somerset taking the cake and winning the Gold Medal!
We would love to say a very huge thank you to all the parents who were committed to helping with the programme and a special thank you to Mr Grocott who without him, this whole trip would not have been possible.
Again, thank you to everyone who made this trip possible because without their support we would not have won the gold.
On behalf of all the boys in the team.
This week on Monday our Spartans travelled down to Byron Bay for the regional futsal titles, the Northern Rivers, where we became the regional Champions!
Year 11 and 12 students played a total of seven games, and despite a rocky start - not managing a win for the first three games - the team managed to turn things around. We beat the top two teams in the competition to take out first place in a tight final. Our boys won 2 to 1.
Congratulations to Hayden Blackburn, Will Burns, Oliver Leal, Raffi Anderson, Ethan Robinson, Bongani Mhlanga, team captain Peter Osborne, and team coach Maarten de Kruijf for their win on Monday.
Best of luck to the Under 19 Boys in Round 2 for the Champion of Champions.
Two big events were held this week with lots of students having the chance to be involved. The first was the Somerset Junior Chess Championship which included the House Championship. Over 80 excited youngsters took part in this event but at the end of the day it was Calen Tang who defended his title from last year, scoring a perfect 8/8 to win the event. Will anyone be able to stop him next year as he looks for the three-peat?
The full list of winners is – priority given to the overall prizes:
On Wednesday the Gold Coast Secondary Interschool Championships for Term Two were held. Somerset took 25 students to the event and fielded teams in the three divisions on offer.
In the A Division, Somerset 1 (Byron Morris, Eason Wang, Jason Li, Jared Consiglio-Cockle) finished in = first place and claimed the title on count-back. Somerset 2 (Aarav Rawlley, Lyanna Chan, Melody Yang, Oscar Credland-Ballentyne) also performed well and finished in fourth position. Jared scored 5.5/7 to finish second individually, whilst Eason and Byron both scored 5/7 with Eason getting 3rd place on tie-break.
In the B Division, Somerset 3 (Ruhara Mapabandara, Aaron Lim, Aadi Rai, Tony Guan) proved too strong for the opposition and claimed first position. Somerset 4 (Annika Lim, Ken Wu, Jenson Turner, Laurens Brisbane) finished in = fifth position. Individually, Ruhara finished = second but finished just outside the medals on count-back with 5.5/7. Aadi, Annika, and Tony all finished with 5/7.
In the C Division, Somerset 5 (Debby Kuo, Ethan Huang, Jackson Yeung, Caspar Crampton) finished in third position. Debby, Ethan, and Ksennia Iguemenova all scored 5/7 in excellent performances.
Next week we will see the Junior School students take on their local counterparts in the Hinterland zone competition, before wrapping up for the term.
Friday afternoon chess will continue to be held next week as well. Other upcoming events are:
Gold Coast Open – Queensland’s largest and most prestigious chess event! Running from Friday 24 June to Sunday 26 June. Full details can be found here.
Queensland Junior Championships (Under 8, Under 10, Under 12 and Under 18 divisions), being held in Brisbane from Tuesday 28th June to Friday 1st July. Full details here.
Gardiner Chess Winter Holiday Program @ Somerset from Monday July 4 to Wednesday July 6. Registration link.
Gold Coast Winter Cup @ Somerset on Thursday 7 July. Full details here.
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