A big thank you for making the Festival happen in 2020 must go to our Headmaster Craig Bassingthwaighte, as well as our Strategy Committee consisting of Mr Mark Sowerby (College Board Member), Mrs Amanda Appel (College Board Member), Ms Megan Ziems (Founder and Creative Director of Grace Loves Lace), Ms Jolie Clifford (Project Manager at Makki), Mrs Lisa Thomson (Dean of Information Technologies) and Ms Andrea Lewis (College Events Manager). We are also excited to announce that Mrs Sara Kirby (Groen) will join our Strategy Committee this semester. We are excited to have Sara join the team to take the Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship into the future.
In 2020, we welcome back our key partners including: Bond University; The Somerset Alumni Association; Advance Queensland; Autoguru; Castle Cubby; Club Kidprenuer (Entropolis); KYND; Outland Denim; Study Gold Coast; Scooter Hut; The University of Queensland. We thank these organisations for their support during these challenging times. We also thank our new partners including: Bootstrap Marketing; Grace Loves Lace; Makki; Home Of The Arts Gold Coast (HOTA); Ray Group; Spare Harvest; Synengco; Village Roadshow; Zaraffas Group for their support in 2020. If other members of the College Community wish to partner with us, please click here.
The 2020 Festival will focus on the theme ‘Alumni’. We want our current students to see and hear from those who went before them. The focus on Alumni will provide current Somerset students with the knowledge, networks and hands-on experience to help them launch their own enterprises both now and in the future.
Finally, we are very excited to announce that our key note speaker will be Leanne Kemp, Queensland Chief Entrepreneur and founder of Everledger. Leanne’s session will be live streamed to all students in Queensland.
You may have seen Alex using the Somerset Track as he continues to train for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. Alex is also a two-time World championship representative and Commonwealth games finalist and uses all of his experience as a current elite athlete to help you achieve your goals.
Alex will work with you through your rehabilitation and can offer a range of assistive services to help improve your sporting performance. Alex is excited to be a part of the Somerset community and is looking forward to helping students and their families prepare, prevent and perform but most importantly achieve their goals for 2020.
Alex is available from 2.30pm during the week and available Saturday mornings.
Subsequently, I have explored the interconnectedness of relationships and communities, moreover, my personal health. In short, exploring what it means to be a human being and what makes us human.
My Personal Project was to formulate and implement an effective training and diet plan; only regarded successful if I completed a 400 kilometre Road Ride efficiently and effectively. I undertook this project to stretch my parameters, discover more about myself and how varying communities interact. Unfortunately, my original plan, to ride from Sydney to Canberra, was compromised due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, I persisted and altered my route, which began in the Gold Coast and finished in Coffs Harbour (414 kilometres and around 3,000 metres of elevation).
Thankfully, I completed the trip last week (23 June) with extremely sore legs, however, no injuries. Throughout the journey we stayed at Byron Bay, Evans Head, Brooms Head and Coffs Harbour. Nicholas Tan (my riding partner) and I rode around 100 kilometres each day, meeting my coach (and our classy camper) at each stop, where we were treated to gastronomical delights. This trip was made possible due to my extensive physical preparation and logistical planning. This consisted of meetings with Glauber, my coach, and in-depth planning with my parents. Throughout the trip I learnt a plethora of new things about myself, changing my overall approach and perspective, regarding life in general.
I cannot believe that I am nearing the end of my Personal Project, how time flies. I am so grateful for everyone that made my trip possible as I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it, I have been left with amazing, lifelong memories. I hope I inspired others to push their limits and leave their comfort zones. Remember anything is possible.
These two simple and quite ancient proverbs have the same powerful message for us today. The uncertainty, anxiety and disruption of COVID-19 that arrived so suddenly and lingers ominously is a force that will impact all of us, but the good news is that we can influence how.
Wax, clay, potatoes and eggs are unable to move away from the sun or water, and they certainly cannot change their composition. We humans can. We have an enormous ability to adapt to the pressures on us and the threats to us to both minimise the harms and maximise the opportunities. Our likelihood to do this, and to be successful in it, have much more to do with how we are composed than the burning forces that are applied to us.
When we encourage our minds to find the positive in every situation, to grasp hope whenever it presents itself, and to seek forgiveness and renewal for when we have failed, we build walls of resilience and unlock the pathways to growth.
Sadly, life is so busy, and the pressures on us seem so great and multiply so quickly, that our minds follow the line of least resistance and fixate on the negative. We become mentally occupied with our weakness and the weaknesses of those around us, we incline towards noticing hurts and slights far too easily. Hence our composition is weakened and consequently our joy and effectiveness are dulled.
To counter this, we need to enable our minds to feed on information and inspiration that nourishes positivity and hope. Let’s choose to read the stories from history that uplift us, to take note of the wonders of the natural world that make us awestruck and to celebrate every positive human interaction we have in a day. Let us allow the revelations, practices, promises and community offered by our Faith to influence us daily.
Of course, as with most things in life, it is not that something is true or right that make it a reality. It is that the thing is done.
Lunch clubs are back up and running also, with the Year 3 to 6 club being held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in the Spartans Chess Room above the KIP. The Year 1 to 2 club will be held on Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the Year 2 classrooms. A Senior lunch club will be run on Thursdays in the Spartans Chess Room from 12.20 to 12.50pm.
We expect Inter-school tournaments to be held during Term Three, although we anticipate a reduction in numbers allowed to attend.
In the last week of the holidays, the National Junior Training Squad we held via online mediums with Byron Morris and Eason Wang lucky enough to be able to receive tutelage from former Women’s World Champion and Top 10 player in the world GM Judit Polgar from Hungary, along with local Australian GMs.
During the past few months of lockdown, there have been many online events held, with some of the highlights as follows:
• Byron Morris scoring 4.5/7 in the Box Hill (Melbourne) Classic, including a win over the 2018 Victorian Champion.• Eason Wang winning the Gardiner Chess Easter Online Series, ahead of Byron Morris in second place. Calen Tang was third U1000, Oscar Credland-Ballantyne second U800, and Alessandro Martinese third U800.
Over the board chess returned on the weekend with a number of Somerset students taking part in closed event in Palm Beach. Charlie Liu, Oliver Yang, Kenny Ming were the best of the bunch, with Eason Wang, Calen Tang and Harrison Qu also taking part. Young Harrison was by far the youngest competitor and it was great to see him get a win on the board of a very tough competition.
The Under 6s played an amazing first game back! They lit up the first half with three goals and an incredible defensive effort. Edie and Thomas were all over the field, setting up plays. Alan and Sean hustled in the opposing team’s end to keep the ball safely from our net. It was a great team effort that resulted in a 4 all tie. Sean was awarded Player Of the Week for scoring two goals and assisting Alan’s goal. Great game Under 6s!
A great start to the season with the Under 7 Greens. All players made it onto the scoresheet, with Jakub scoring an amazing four goals and earning Player of the Game.
The final score was 12 to 3. The boys showed a great ability to play as a team, assisting Knox who came out very strong in defence. Well done boys on your first game for the season.
Last Saturday the Under 7 White won their first home game. The final score was 5 to 3. The team scored five goals in the first half and conceded three goals in the final two minutes of the second half.
During the game, Louise had a hat trick and won the title of best shooter. Sion and Ruben scored one goal each. Franklin and Miyuki also performed very well and contributed a lot in the team's first win.
U8 Green team played a powerful first match. Their energy and effort shone like the winter sun last Saturday and were defeated in score only against their opponents Tamborine Mountain.
Abi Hunt received Player Of the Week with her resilient attitude throughout the match.
Izaak Barclay scored the goal for the Green team.
Thanks Coach Sean; all the players were beaming after their first match for the ‘new’ 2020 season.
The match started off with a slight shower but that didn’t deter the boys one little bit. They kicked the season off with a win against Palm Beach 7 to 1. A few of the Under 8 Blue players were able to fill in as they had a disappointing Bye, while the missing white team players were still away on holidays. Congratulations to Ashlesh Kumar our player of the match. Ashlesh gave it his all, in his very first football match.
If any questions about Football at Somerset College? Please contact our Head Coach - Football and Futsal, Maarten de Kruijf mdekruijf@somerset.qld.edu.au.
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