No. 10, Term Two, 2018

There were “Oohs” and “Ahhs”, spray tans and false eyelashes, designer dresses and suits, high heels and bow ties. Indeed, Guinness World Records have presented the College with a ‘Highly Commended’ for the greatest number of photographs taken per second in any two-hour period!

Upon entering the Ballroom we were welcomed by Dr Brohier who, not only read a message from Mr Bassingthwaighte, but had composed a poem for the occasion! Following entrée, House Group photographs were taken on the Grand Staircase. One of the highlights of the evening was Karen Yee’s performance of When We Were Young – she was just brilliant! A photo story also reminded us all of how cute our Leavers were in the Junior School.

Thanks very much to the Year 12s involved in the Organising Committee, our Year 12 Co-ordinator Miss Lisa Connell the Student Leaders – Alexandra, Kydra, Uni, Jason, Gwyneth and Fletcher who spoke on the evening, our incomparable MCs: Cal Maloney and Katie Plume, and Suzie Frawley from our Events Team. Special thanks also to our video team: Samuel Liu, Thomas Liu, Leo Xin and Jack Daly who had every angle of the evening covered.

In the Premier division, our second team also did well, missing bronze by only half a point. Special congratulations to these outstanding performers: Kenny Ming (1st place, 6.5 points from 7 games), Raff Atia (2nd with 6), Eason Wang (third with 5.5), Anson Qu (seventh with 4.5) and Sophia Ahern (eigth with 4.5).

In A Division, Somerset 4 came equal second. Stand-out individuals were: Sasha Hanford (first from students in Gold Coast South region, 6), Kona Baldock (third from students in Gold Coast South region, 5.5), Advait Naik (=12th, 4.5), Amon Watanabe (4), Ken Wu (4), Denver Bannerman (4), Tyler Bethscheider (4).

Somerset also won team gold and silver in B Division. Congratulations to: Hugh Cromack (gold medal, 6/7), Darby Ross (silver medal, 6/7), Jacob Yuan (=fifth, 5), Alonso Espin (4.5), James Hartley (4.5).

Our team of Year 1s finished =first in C Division, and team Silver on count-back. A really special congratulations to these little future champions: Calen Tang and Elijah Hadikusimo (both =6th, 5.5/7), Alessandro Martinese (=10th, 5) and Edwin Zhang (3). Well done also to James Young (5.5), Harrison George (4.5), Edward Zhang (4.5), Liam Hartley (4.5), Caspar Crampton (4.5) and Michael Narizhniy (4.5).

Congratulations also to Adriana Smith (4.5) in D Division. Top-performers in E Division: Zhander Griffiths (silver, 6/7 in E), William Miller (5).

There are many upcoming events during the holidays: • Gold Coast Open (28 June to 2 July) – ideal for our strong players • Queensland Junior Championship (3 July to 6 July) – suitable for advanced and intermediate players • Winter Chess Camp (9 to 11 July and 12 July tournament day) – held at the Koala House, Somerset, and suitable for players of all levels

We shared our knowledge with parents this week, by creating a monument that was our own interpretation of a significant landmark.

Here is an excerpt of a report written by Jan Owens from the Australian Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) which answers this question. In summary, the report concludes, that students need more than just a degree to be employable in the modern workforce. Instead, students need both a post-school qualification and workforce skills like entrepreneurship, communication and problem solving to successfully transition from education to full time work.

For all Somerset College parents, teachers and community members it is important that we have conversations with the children in our care about the changing nature of work to ensure that they are best prepared for life after their time at Somerset. Who would have thought that 10 years ago that the world’s largest transport company would not own any vehicles (UBER) or that the most popular media company creates no content (Facebook).

Excerpt of the Report:

For at least the past century, Australia’s promise to our young people has been that education is their ‘golden ticket’ to a full-time job. That promise is now at risk.

The New Work Reality Report reveals that young Australians face a number of significant barriers when seeking full-time work. When FYA removed common activities that young people do, such as gap years and returning for further education to look more deeply at the period they found it took on average 2.6 years to transition from leaving education to full time work in 2015, compared to one year in 1986. The reality is while nearly 60 per cent of young Australians aged 25 hold a post-school qualification, 50 per cent of them are unable to secure more than 35 hours of work per week, which classifies them to be full time employed (ABS definition). It also shows that on the journey to reach full-time work, an estimated 21 per cent work full time hours in casual employment, and 18 per cent do so through multiple jobs.

FYA found that four significant factors can speed up a young person’s transition from education to full time work. These are:

• Entrepreneurship skills: courses that teach enterprise skills (such as problem-solving, communication and teamwork) can increase the speed of attaining full time work by 17 months.• Relevant paid employment: combining studying and working in a job that is within your desired job cluster can speed up the transition. By working 2,000 hours in a relevant job a young person can accelerate the transition by five months, and by working 5,000 hours a young person can accelerate the transition by 12 to 18 months.• Future focused clusters: by choosing employment with a strong future focus a young person can speed up the transition by five months. FYA's previous research identified three clusters of jobs that are more future focused: The Carers, The Technologists and The Informers young people who chose work within these clusters transitioned faster.• An optimistic mindset: A young person who is happy with their career prospects begins working full time hours two months faster than a young person who is not happy with their career prospects. Mindset and wellbeing can greatly impact the opportunities that a young person perceives are available to them.

In addition, the two best academic performers in the Business Venture Assignment will receive free entry into the Bond University Student For a Semester Programme. Each entry is valued at approximately $1000.

At the 2017 Celebration of Entrepreneurship students run a market for the Year 10 Business Ventures Competition.

The Business Humanities Department is grateful to Bond University for again sponsoring the Business Venture Assignment. The extra incentive is certainly a strong motivator for Business and Entrepreneurship students.

We have asked many questions (like the one above) about how we can create a sustainable future. We undertook our Student Experiment where we constructed our own wind anemometers, testing whether the distance of the wind source to the anemometer effected the number of revolutions. We then applied our scientific knowledge to see whether Somerset College was a suitable location for a wind farm?

World Environment Day was celebrated 5 June. It focused on a platform of action against plastic waste. Mrs Walker embraced this theme by recycling parts of our turbines, gifting to each student a seedling, kindly supplied by the Southern Beaches Community Gardens at Tugun. Students all potted their seedling, which will hopefully thrive to blossom next winter.

We had completed similar Units of Inquiry this term in Year 7 Sciences and Year 5 on Earth Resources and Sustainability. The opportunity arose for Year 5 students to visit the Senior School Science Laboratory and conduct a practical investigation in collaboration with the Year 7 Science students. The idea of this lesson was to carry out a variety of roles and accept responsibility when working in groups/teams; show negotiating, advocacy, consensus-making and leadership skills. The experiment was designed to measure the heat energy produced when different sources are combusted. We discussed biomass; how the suns energy is stored as chemical energy in organic materials and released as heat when burnt and how it can be utilised. The two year levels worked well together and in some cases the Year 7 scientists even learnt something from their younger partners.

We are looking forward to sharing our Self-directed Scientific Inquiry with the Somerset community early in Term Three at the Somerset Science Competition.

Below are some comments from the Year 5 students about their experiences in the Laboratory.

"When I walked in to the science room I was amazed by the fantastic materials that were set up in the room. It was like walking into a room of colours. First, we needed to put our safety goggles and aprons on, then we lit a flame and burnt food. We put the burning food on a paper clip and above the food was water. We watched as the water got hotter and hotter till the flame went out. After we measured the waters temperature. And we learnt that if we burnt food it releases its energy, similar to Biomass. It was amazing I loved it and I wish we could do it again."- Sophia O’Leary

The girls showed incredible grit and determination right to the very end of the day playing six rounds of Netball. Gaining four wins and one loss under their belt, the team of girls needed to win their last game by five goals to remain second on the ladder. After a long and tiring day, the Somerset Year 7 team were awarded Runners-Up 13 Years Division.

Congratulations Oria Mougrabi, Giselle Burke, Alice Jones, Lily Peter, Heidi Hoffman, Lisa Murvurimi, Alex Halloran and Isabella Seymour for your fighting spirit and great team work. A big thank you to coach Lola McLaughlin, Kimberley Seymour and all our parents for their support.

One fateful coffee session a caffeine inspired parent made the suggestion: “Why don’t we learn to row ourselves?”. What followed was a number of discussions with the College and the Rowing coach and three months later Somerset Alumni Rowing Club was born.

In 2018 the Club counts 28 full time members who all had, or still have, children in the Somerset College Rowing programme or are in other ways associated with the College. It has a proud track record of countless capsizes, a few marine incidents (no persons harmed), many bruised egos (“rowing looks, not too difficult”) and most important still acts as a support group for the competing students at the College.

In recent years the group started to tip its feet into racing in regattas. A highlight of the racing season is the annual Head of The Tweed Regatta over 21 kilometres starting in Chinderah and finishing at the Murwillumbah Rowing Club. This year was special, with the contingent of parents (not all of them lightweight rowers) actively rowing, the event had grown to 20 plus two coxswain. Training for the long distance race began in March and some crews were coached by former Olympic rower Alf Duval (Silver Medalist in the 1968 Mexico Olympics in the Australian Eight). Robina Removals acted as sponsor to also look the part.

On Sunday, 17 June the various crews took off on a sunny but chilly morning against strong competition from Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Cairns and other Gold Coast based rowing clubs, making its way up the river. Two hours and nine minutes later the last of our crews had crossed the finish line and one Gold and one Silver medal were in the bag. Blisters, sore bodies, the most colorful outfit of the day from our sponsor Robina Removals and a pit stop for one crew to change the pants of an oarsman will be remembered until the next regatta!

Well done to Ari Thake, Year 4 for being voted the Most Valuable Player across the entire APS futsal tournament of 35 teams, as well as the winning trophy. Despite being in Year 4, Ari played the entire semester in the Year 5 girls' soccer team.

Class Swimming Awards – Semester One 2018

The best attendance for a class in Semester One 2018 was 3R. Congratulations to all the members of this class. Well done!

The following students received Class Swimming Awards this semester: 

Somerset School Swimming lessons - Kicking Records (50m Freestyle kick): 

Queensland Cross Country Relay Championships

Last Saturday, Somerset College entered a number of teams in the Queensland Cross Country Relay Championships at Nudgee College.

The results were as follows: 

• 4th - 7yrs Girls: Sharni Norman, Willow Truscott, Tarquin Weintrop
• Bronze - 9yrs Boys: Sabastian Mainali, Michael Rossiter, Austin Walters
• 7th - 9yrs Boys: Kaii Norman, Liam O’Nuallain, Bailey Pourre
• 6th - 10yrs Girls: Kseniia Igumenova, Charlotte Kemp, Jade Lee
• Gold - 10yrs Boys: Jamie Batho, Darcy Halloran, Jayden McLean
• 8th - 10yrs Boys: David Hammett, Raiden Kyaw, Ryan Palmer
• 4th - 11yrs Girls: Mako Inukai, Phoebe Rogers, Varvara Rubis

Lyla Proctor - Country Capital Cup Gymnastics

Hats off to Lyla Proctor from 3B who travelled to Tamworth over the weekend and competed in the Country Capital Cup Gymnastics competition. Clubs competing in this event travelled from all across Queensland, New South Wales and even overseas from New Zealand and Singapore.

Her results were as follows:

• 2nd – bars
• 2nd – floor
• 3rd – beam
• 4th – vault
• 2nd – All Around

Lyla is a level 4 competitive gymnast and has already qualified for State Titles later in the year.

Up and Coming Events:

• Thursday 19 July - Athletic trials for the track events for the Under 11/12 age groups
• Friday 20 July - Founders' Day
• Friday 27 and Saturday 28 July - Junior School House Athletics Carnival
• Thursday 2 August1.20pm to 3.00pm: Lower Junior School Inter-House Athletics Carnival
• All information about Junior School Sport can be located on Schoolbox by clicking on the Junior School Sports page.

Netball - Under 13

The Somerset Under 13 Netball Team finished second in their division at the Hinterland District Netball Association Netball tournament last weekend. A great effort following a good APS Season. Many thanks to coaches Mrs McLaughlin and Mrs Seymour.

Cross Country

The Queensland Cross Country Relay Championships took place last Saturday at Nudgee College.

Somerset teams performed very well with the following results:5th - 14yrs Girls: Jemma Clements, Riley Davenport, Emily Macbeth6th - 15yrs Girls: Miku Adachi, Lizzie Garratt, Lila Horobin4th - 16yrs Boys: Noah Jay, Nick Tan, Troy Turman

APS Summer Season 2018

All students have been emailed the link to sign up for this season. Sports include Basketball, AFL, Touch, Tennis, Water Polo, Cricket and Softball. Students should be prepared to consider other sports if required. If on the long-term injured list and seeking to join the Rehab Group, parents must forward a medical certificate to the College Nurse with all relevant information.

Track and Field Season 2018

Practices have started. Join Somerset’s biggest team at the Track. Practices are daily and optional, beginning at 7.00am sharp, concluding at 8.15am.

Mondays and Wednesday: SS Jumps and Throws, JS TrackTuesdays and Thursdays: JS Jumps and Throws, SS TrackFridays: All events for JS and SS

Holidays

7.00am to 8.15am: Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Term Three

Daily 7.00amAthletics Practices (Somerset Track)

Thursday 26 July

Day 1 of the Senior School House Athletics Carnival

Friday 27 July

Day 1 of the Junior School House Athletics Carnival

Saturday 28 July

Day 2 of the Junior and Senior Schools' House Athletics Carnival

Friday 3 August

Summer Sports Trials #2/2 APS Javelin/ 1500m Events

Wednesday 8 August

APS Athletics Carnival at Somerset

Somerset Sport Policy

All policies and procedures are outlined in the Senior School Sport page of Schoolbox, under “Sport Policy and Dates”. All students and parents are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these.

Please note, practices are compulsory for both Winter and Summer Seasons.

APS Sport Photos

Click here to access photos of your sport or your team.

All Season details on Schoolbox Senior School Sports page. (“Winter Sports” tile for all season dates, and training schedules of the APS Season)

Sports Information

• Don’t forget to check the Somerset Schoolbox Senior School Sport Page, as well as the noticeboard at the end of the Science Block for all Sports notes.
• If you need more information, drop by the Sports Office.
• The Sports page link must be added to your Schoolbox.
• If you need more information, drop by the Sports Office in the Ray Building.

Student Injuries: If your son or daughter is injured at school sport, it must be recorded at the time by the school nurse/medical person present if parents wish to apply through the school insurance policy. If delayed signs or symptoms arise over the weekend, students must notify the school nurse on Monday morning.

All sporting details are posted on Schoolbox on the Sports page.

• go to “My Links” at the bottom left of your Schoolbox page and click ‘Edit”
• at “Manage my Links”, click “+” at the top right of page
• paste the link below and add title “Senior School Sport”: http://schoolbox.somerset.qld.edu.au/homepage/1466

Netball

Netball athletes have shown great dedication and consistency all year with the implementation of a Strength and Conditioning Programme prescribed from the results of pre-season physio screening and ongoing regular exercise testing. Injury prevention has been a major goal to ensure longevity for the players who have completed increasingly more difficult strength and stability exercises each week.

The team is now fine-tuning their physical performance before travelling to Townsville in the school holidays to compete in the QISSN competition. Good luck girls.

Swimming

It is a full house in the Fitness Centre as the Somerset Swim Club enter a new 12-week strength-training block. These athletes work hard with twice weekly, 5.30am Strength and Conditioning Sessions to improve their performance in the pool. Athletes in this squad are competing at a state and national level.

The first game is against arch rivals Sunshine Grammar early Monday morning so the team will be hoping to get a good start to the challenging week ahead.

Somerset match draw and results and further information can be viewed by clicking here.

All the very best to our team next week. GO SPARTANS!

The QISSN Team consists of: Kirsty Brodbeck (captain) Natalie Blauberg, Rylee Burns, Kasey Collins, Erin Crough Heaton, Sara Dann, Tara Davies, April McMullen, Katisha Webb, Madizen Wilkins, Coach, Sheryl Burns and Manager, Andrea Richards.