Our Inter-House Athletics Carnival was held this week with our early years, Pre-Preps to Year 2 competing on Monday and finishing with Years 3 to 12 on Thursday.
Well done to Veivers House who won for both Junior School and Senior School, and who took out the Bassingthwaighte Cup.
Congratulations to all Spartans who broke records, earned Age Champion medals and for those who participated, earning points for their House.
A small group of staff and students represented Somerset College and played an active part in the Myall Creek Commemoration Service, Sunday June 9. The service pays respect to the victims of a senseless massacre, one of many in the region - which occurred on June 10, 1838 when 28 unarmed Wirrayaraay women, children and elderly men were murdered by a mob of stockmen.
Our students were asked to give readings at various ‘stations’ as pilgrims walked along the rainbow-serpent shaped path towards the monument. It was here that speeches, dedications, traditional dance and a moving pledge was read by representatives of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
Highlights included discussions with a prominent academic leader in Geoff Langford (ANU); Leo Kelly-Correa reading the pledge on behalf of non-indigenous students; witnessing descendants of the perpetrators and descendants of the survivors embrace in an authentic act of reconciliation and lastly, walking back to Myall Station in solidarity with other attendees in perfect sunshine was empowering for us all.
To top off a significant weekend, Somerset College’s Matilda Guthrie was awarded a Highly Commended for her poem in the annual, Thoughts & Dreams Myall Creek Art, Writing and Song Competition. You can read her beautiful poem below.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the students, who were humble and engaged in their interactions with many at the gathering and through their readings of the history at ‘stations’ along the journey to the monument.
The Year 11 STEM ambassadors, Jenna Lee, Cru Scott, Advait Naik, Luke Oishi, and Nadia Wu, recently participated in the Personal Development Day at the University of Queensland. The day began with a design thinking workshop with the Science Program Director, Dr Gurion Ang. We learned effective project management and teamwork skills that will support our future improvements to the College’s bolstering Science community.
In the afternoon, we engaged in a competition as a team, writing and performing a pitch to educate our fellow ambassadors about the important role of fire in maintaining our planet and ecosystems. With a narrow win, our team progressed to the finals, facing off against other teams from schools all across Queensland. In the final battle, we achieved the ultimate win with our informative and humorous presentation.
Finally, we ended our day with a talk about studying science in tertiary education. We were further informed about the various opportunities provided by UQ in the sciences that would further our prospects beyond education.
We would like to thank Mrs Amores and Ms Hyman for organising this opportunity and giving up their time during the recent holidays to attend the event with us.
The UQ Personal Development Day was an exciting and interesting opportunity, personally and educationally. We have definitely learned many effective techniques to help introduce new initiatives towards the science community at Somerset College.
On Friday July 12, 6G and L investigated the medical sciences of blood.
We first practiced the procedure of blood typing, learning about and identifying the blood types of several samples of blood substitutes.
You can "B-Positive" that these Somerset scientists found this enlightening.
Next up was microscopic analysis of blood samples. The science department was lucky enough to gain access to lab-grade human blood smears.
I'm sure that the donors would be pleased that our students were being exposed to the "bleeding-edge" of laboratory education.
Standard human blood, Leukaemia, Neutrophilia and Thrombocythemia were analysed for cellular differences, and then compared against bird and frog blood smears.
Throughout this session, our budding biologists' faces were "smeared" with enjoyment.
It was a very special day to remember for our elite Somerset chess squad as Australian chess legend and super coach Grand Master Darryl Johansen spent the day with us!
This exclusive Somerset invite-only event was worth it's weight in gold as Darryl shared his journey to GM, his Australian National titles and travels around the world as a professional chess player.
Our super juniors were then treated to a series of lessons from the annals of his more than 40 years coaching experience and stretched our young minds with some crazy, difficult puzzles and challenges that even was even getting my brain to hurt!
Finally, the highlight of the day was a chance to play GM Darryl in a simultaneous tournament of 13 kids (and me). Having found out that Darryl had not lost a game in a simul for seven years, you can imagine the cheers and clapping in the room as he uttered the words "I resign" with a handshake and a smile on his face.
Young up-and-comer William Lai (3H) had defeated the Grandmaster! A student of one of our returned High Performance Coaches, Doug Williams, William has been on a rocket this last year and I'm sure we are going to see a lot more from him as he leads our next generation back to Somerset glory!
A huge thank you to Darryl as well as everyone involved in helping to make this rare opportunity happen. And looking forward to more exciting chess adventures to come.
Go Spartans!
On the weekend of July 13 and 14, 28 rowers from Somerset headed to Waralyong Dam to compete in the 2024 South Queensland Championships.
The event presented many challenges for our rowers, with Saturday’s races delayed and postponed due to strong winds and choppy waters. Despite these less-than-ideal conditions, our athletes persevered.
The Girls Year 9 Quad, along with Ethan Hu, Misha Zubko, and Hayden Li in their single sculls, bravely battled the waves on Saturday and secured spots in the finals. The Girls Year 9 Quad finished ninth in their final, with Zoe Benson stepping up from Coxswain to rower for the day. The boys’ race was postponed until Sunday.
Sunday brought improved conditions, and some of our rowers had an early start, leaving the Gold Coast around 4.00am for the South Coast trials. Congratulations to Maddi McLaughlin, who was selected as a reserve for the South Coast team.
Ethan Hu made the most of the calmer waters, winning a bronze medal in the Year 8 Boys' Single Scull. He also led the crew of Charlie Cardone, Hayden Li, Jacob Anderson, and Lila Curry (Coxswain) to a bronze medal in the Year 8 Boys' Quad Scull final.
Maddi McLaughlin gave a strong performance in her single scull final, finishing seventh against tough competition.
A huge shoutout to our Year 7 Girls—Lila Curry, Ava Pearse, Alba Ward, and Estelle Kirby—who all qualified for the Year 8 girls' double scull final. This is a fantastic achievement and shows great promise for next year when they will be competing against athletes their own age.
To round out two days of intense racing, the Year 9 Boys' Quad, consisting of Hugo Drerksema, Ethan Hu, Roger Hua, Rafael Brand, and Josh Rosentreter (Coxswain), secured a third-place finish.
Thank you to all the coaches and parents who supported our athletes this weekend! Congratulations to all who competed and made us proud.
At the start of Term Three, Our Junior School Futsal Teams participated in the AFA School Futsal Titles Stage 2, the Champion of Champions. All our age categories have reached semi or grand finals to qualify for the final, Stage 3!
The U9 Boys faced a challenging group stage with two wins, a loss, and a draw. Thankfully, this was enough to secure second spot and continue into the knockout rounds. Our knock-out stage saw more tough games, with outstanding defending from Jack, Oliver and Presley in goals. Goalscoring from Aksel, Ollie, Padra and Harry got us the rest of the way through the stages. A tight game against St Joseph's Bardon in the Final saw Somerset taking home the Under 9 Boys Champions.
Well done to all the players an incredible effort. Jack Dew, Oliver Hilbert, Presley Madden, Aksel Pitura, Ollie Sharples, Padra Moshtagh and Harry Cordner.
We also want to mention our 2nd Under 9 team. Somerset was the only school that had qualified two teams! Unfortunately, they couldn’t get through the group stage. Harley Wilson, Ashton Un, Israel Lang, Tias Thou, James Mitchell and Xavier Sanders.
- Written by Coach Keita Emsden
The Under 10 boys began Monday off very strong, opening with two wins, when they were disheartened through an unexpected loss to a side who took their chances when our judgement lapsed. Their reaction could've gone one of two ways.
No one expected what was to come in the semifinal, against known competitors Peregian Beach, from the Sunshine Coast. To bluntly describe, it was an array of emotions, and frankly epitomized why we play this sport. Comfortably up 4 to 2 with minutes left, they eventually equalized, a perhaps complacent ending to regular time from us. Deep into extra time, as the crowds rolled in to catch this ending. A winner was scored, and shortly after disallowed. The boys showed real tenacity, and reacted well to hardships prior, finding the net once more with a screamer to proceed to another final.
Thank you to The Islamic College for the challenging final, but our ability to break teams down showed this game finishing 5 to 1. An entertaining end to a good day.
Onwards and upwards for the Under 10 Boys.
Congratulations: Sam Thompson, Zach Sanders, Edmund Lee, Hunter Sharples, Denham Barry, Leo Chen, Thomas Chudzinski and Hugh Adams.
- Written by Coach Ryan Harraway
Entering the AFA Champions of Champions with a fresh-legs and a full squad, the Under 11s started the tournament with a bang. Convincing wins throughout the group stage saw them finish second in their group, only narrowly trailing Stretton College. Movement on and off the ball was much improved from the previous round, with the team making the most of every opportunity in front of goal. They would progress to face Mary MacKillop College in the semi-finals. With scores locked at 1-all by half-time, fortune would swing in Mary Mac’s favour, scoring two late goals to end the Spartans run. Despite the result, the Under 11’s secured a spot for Stage 3!
Well done to all involved.
Jakub Pitura, Louis Hodge, Oliver Moir, Kai Edgley, Sion Kim, Johnny Ratcliffe, Sebastian Hall, Knox Black and Ethan Kelly-Correa
- Written by Coach Kydra Walden
I've thoroughly enjoyed these tournaments with these girls so far, this was no different. We took it game by game and stuck to our plan consisting of three words: "Getting stuck in". The players produced some big moments, for instance coming from 2-nil down to sniff out a winner with a couple seconds to play, ensuring we weren't going home early.
The final meant a clash with everything to play for against Islamic College of Brisbane, a talented group. The opponents came out as victors after an intense end of play, both teams gave their all to what was an entertaining end of the day.
We were not disheartened for long, in fact the opposite. The girls have been so coachable, and provided every bit of effort asked with confidence, and we walk away excited for the next stage.
Big thanks to all the family members who came and supported us.
Well done Charlie Anniss, Scarlett Hasselle, Annie Talbott, Lucinda Sounness, Aneka Mitchell, Isabella Jennings and Sunny Toomey
- Written by Coach Ryan Harraway
The U11s Girls were set to compete in the next stage of the school titles, after winning the first stage! In a pool with 5 other great teams the girls played some great Futsal. Having had two players playing up a year level, it was a big challenge for them to match their last efforts, but after winning 3 games in their pool they went through and into the finals. Collecting automatic qualification into stage 3. The girls had 2 amazing finals, the semi-final being a fantastic 2-0 win, and the grand final being a 1-1 draw which went to penalty shootout. Unfortunately, it didn't go their way, so the girls ended in defeat.
Well done: Robin Wang, Emma Cordner, Indy Toomey, Gabbi Steenackers, Poppy Tribe, Chloe Li, Alex Lee and Edith Hilbert.
I am so proud of all the girls that played, they had some amazing moments, represented the school to the best of their ability and had lots of fun!
- Written by Coach Jonathon Pritchard
The U12 girls made an impressionable start to their AFA Champions of Champions campaign, securing an early victory against a disciplined and well-structured Kawana Waters. The girls second game was also highly rewarding, with a plethora of goals shared amongst the team. Playing at such level is not without its challenges though. A hard-fought group game against Mary MacKillop delivered the girls their first loss however both teams would go on to face each other in the grand finale. The grand finale saw 26 minutes of thrilling, end-to-end futsal, with Mary MacKillop walking away eventual champions.
Well done to the girls on a fantastic campaign and congratulations on securing a spot in Stage 3!
Bronte Butler, Mayuko Takahata, Arianna Reading, Audrey Hilbert, Frankie Dew, Luella Zerbst, Sienna Tribe and Maddi Coakley.
- Written by Coach Kydra Walden
The Australasian Champion of Champions is taking place on 8, 9 and 10 November. This is for the first time that Somerset has qualified a total of 6 teams!
Our Head of Football and Futsal is happy to see the development of our programme. Based on the results and performances we can see that all our hard work from the previous years is paying off.
I want to thank all our Coaches, Students, Parents and supporters for all their support. We hope to see you all at Stage 3!
The Somerset Primary School Netball Teams competed in the South Coast Primary School Cup Gala this week, held July 17 at the South Coast Netball Association in Palm Beach.
Congratulations to both teams!
Our Championship team went through the day undefeated to take out carnival honours. Our Development team only lost one game by a small margin in their pool round and won their semi-final, placing them equal fifth in the Development Division.
Well done to all girls on their outstanding performances.
Both teams will contest the Primary School Cup Championships in September in Bundaberg.
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