No. 2, Term Three, 2019

Our celebrations commenced with the Official Opening and Dedication of The Terry Herbert Foyer and The Suzanne Roberts Centre for Performing Arts. Our guests arrived to a beautiful performance on Piano by Himman Lo, Year 12 Franklin and with approximately 100 people in attendance. Our guests were treated to heartfelt words from our the Chair of the College Board, Mr Tony Hickey OAM, Performing Arts Captains, Ziggy Enoch and Bella Harris (Year 12 Laver and Veivers) and of course, Mr Herbert and Mrs Roberts. Guided tours of the new facilities were taken by several Year 12 students enabling our guests to view performances by Year 10 Drama students preparing for a Scenes Project in the Black Box; the Junior GCSSDF Play in Rehearsal; a Commercial Jazz Dance Class in the Theatre; Mr John Mitchell with Suzuki Strings which includes some of our youngest students; and the Senior String Quartet in rehearsal.

What a brilliant start to the day! We presented the Spirit of Somerset and Founders’ Day Awards amidst magnificent performances from the Concert Band and the Vocal Group. It was a perfect Gold Coast day to enjoy the traditional Founders’ Day activities, the All-Age Swimming Relay, the Steeplechase, the All-Age Running Relay, the Tug-o-War and the Courtyard Dash. Our Spartans shone as they competed or cheered – such wonderful traditions established to celebrate Founders’ Day. We could only continue to be amazed at the passion that Somerset produces.

Mr Hickey OAM reminded us of our humble beginnings and the dedicated and brave people who founded our great school and gave us the opportunity to thank three of the founders, who were in attendance, for their contributions; Mr John Aitkenhead, Mr Tony Cordner and Mrs Mary Rudkin and former Chairs, Mr Lex Bell, Dr Peter Brown.

While the students attended their House Lunch our invited guests attended the Official Opening of the newly completed Design Centre. Mr Hickey congratulated all involved in the creation of this magnificent facility. The Head of Department – Design, Mr Dallas O’Brien and two of our Year 11 Engineering students, Marcus Ibsen (Veivers) and Anica Moller (Starkey) told us that the new Design Centre will provide students with access to a plethora of impressive equipment, that will not only benefit quality of work but also fast-track the acquisition of skills required in a professional career. Our array of equipment now comprises of high precision 3D Scanners, 3D printers, high resolution tablet style computers, powerful laser cutters and industrial standard design software; just to name a few. Using this equipment, students will be able to reverse engineer, enhance existing products, sketch and design digitally as well as manipulate 3D worlds and environments. There is also an expanding robotics and internet of things with the addition of various peripherals.

Our guests, were again treated to personalised tours of the new facilities with demonstrations of Year 7 Design 3D printing phone charms to fit their client’s needs; Year 9 Digital working with programmable microcontrollers for wearable technology and Year 10 Digital developing a robotics solution with text-based coding in order to increase the scope and functionality of the capabilities for a robot.

The verandahs of The Smith Building, The Brown Building and The Arnison Building – all named for other magnificent servants – were perfect for a wonderful display of all things Somerset and the optimal vantage point for our littlest students. Our invited guests were able to view these Founders’ Day activities from the Terrace of the Design Centre. It truly had the atmosphere of a colosseum! Congratulations to the winning teams:

All Age Swimming Relay - Andrews

All Age Running Relay - Veivers

Steeplechase

Junior Girls - Alexandra (Alex) Halloran (Starkey)
Junior Boys - Timothy Hornsey (Starkey)
Senior Girls - Charlotte Chant (Franklin)
Senior Boys - Nicholas Tan (Laver)
Overall - Starkey

Tug-O-War

Infants - Andrews
Upper Junior School - Starkey
Senior School - Starkey

Courtyard Dash

Samuel Reeve - Veivers

Britney Ingr - Laver

The Spirit of Somerset Awards and Founders’ Day Awards are awarded for exceptional effort and commitment, which embodies those qualities that the College is proud to embrace. The recipients this year are:

Spirit of Somerset Community Award

– Mrs Katie Norman

Spirit of Somerset Staff Award

– Mr Paul Evans (Teacher – Senior School)

Spirit of Somerset Senior School Award

– Lilly Thompson and Stewart Ford (Year 12 Franklin)

Founders’ Day Award

– Phoebe Rogers and Ryan Longfield (Year 6 Veivers and Laver respectively)

Honours in Student Leadership are presented to Year 12 students who have demonstrated service and leadership at a level recognised and respected by staff and students this year were presented to:

• Luisa Ardill-Walker (Starkey)
• Samuel Dalton (Laver)
• Maya Hobley (Veivers)
• Montana MacFarlane (Franklin)
• Bria Phillips (Andrews)
• Mackenzie Quiggin (Veivers)
• Lachlan Sowerby (Laver)

Another Founders’ Day tradition is to acknowledge and thank members of staff who have served the College for 20 years. This year we thank and congratulate Mr Jeff Grocott, Mr Greg Juniper, Mr John Mitchell, Mrs Annmarie Moy and Mr Brad Walker for their dedication and contribution to Somerset.

The launch of astronauts into outer space was a culmination of decades of work by hundreds of thousands of dedicated people.

It has been said there is more technology in a toaster today compared with what was available in 1969 and we are all walking around with literally more than a million times the computing power in our smartphones than the most advanced computers available to NASA in 1969.

Technology has certainly progressed over the past half-century, as our students have been learning first-hand.

We have been running two half hour sessions every day after school since the beginning of Term Three. The Apollo 11 Virtual Reality experience allows the students to ‘become’ Neil Armstrong, through every moment of the historic mission, condensed into thirty minutes.

Mission ISS puts the person wearing the VR headset straight into the zero gravity environment on board the International Space Station. This is a more interactive programme, where students can undertake missions such as ‘space walks’, which can be rather nerve-wracking.

It is a lot of fun seeing the students so engaged and listening to their exclamations of wonder and surprise during this VR experience, the fact that it is also so educational really is a bonus. Possibly the best thing about Virtual Reality, as Shromm Gaind, Year 9 observed, “It helps students imagine things that we wouldn’t be able to in real life.”

The Virtual Reality Space experience is open to all students in Year 4 and over. We will continue to run two sessions each day after school until Friday 16 August (Week 5). Students simply need to visit the KIP to reserve their place.

Open A

From here on out, debates are ‘knock-out’, so teams only progress further if they win every debate. Teams highlighted below remain undefeated – we offer a special congratulations to these debaters.

Further, this is particularly exciting for our Open A debating teams, who both progress straight to a Quarter Final debate on 31 July. Our two teams have been separated on the draw, so it is possible that we might see a Somerset vs Somerset Open A Grand Final – fingers crossed!

Parents and students should note that venues may change as the finals progress. Further, it is worth noting that the Junior B division is structured differently, so our three Junior B teams will be notified of their finals status in the coming weeks.

We wish all of our finals teams the very best of luck in their finals debates.

Junior B

The Junior B Division in Gold Coast Debating is designed for Year 7 students to ‘find their feet’ in the debating world. Adopting a less competitive structure, this competition sees more preliminary debates before moving to a single round of finals amongst the top teams.

Out of the almost fifty teams who competed this year, the top ten will face off this Wednesday. We are proud to announce that Somerset College will be represented by two out of our three Junior B teams.

These students will compete here on the College ‘home ground’ and spectators are encouraged to come along! Join us at 6.00pm in the Towers Quad on Wednesday 31 July to cheer on our youngest debaters.

A special mention to SOM 3, who have progressed to the finals undefeated, winning all five preliminary debates.

2019 Gold Coast Debating Junior B Division Finalists

SOM 1 – Year 7 Students

Anna Thomas Georgie Kilmartin Summer Edgley Lael Jeon James Young

SOM 3 – Year 7 Students

Emmeline Anthony Penelope Decon Patrick Liu Elliot Bartley Hayeon Byun

Congratulations to Laver and Andrews Houses, who both tied first on five points for their house.

The programme is designed to be a fun showcase of debating, with each team incorporating both experienced debaters and those new to the activity.

Students debated the topic, 'Dogs are better than humans', which saw passionate dog-lovers arguing against their prized pooches, whilst some of the staunchly human-inclined had to vouch for their four-legged foes.

Next year, we hope for the activity to culminate in an inter-house debating ‘final’ to be held at lunch time, attracting a crowd to witness the expertly-articulated wit that our debaters have to offer. Watch this space!

2019 Inter-House Debating Results

The South Queensland Schools’ Regatta saw 30 schools head to Wyaralong in an event that attracts several schools up from New South Wales. With events for male and female athletes from Year 8 to Year 12, everyone had a great opportunity to represent the school.

Somerset achieved a silver medal in the Boys Year 10 Coxed Quad and the Boys Year 10 Double Scull. They also achieved a bronze medal in the Year 10 Coxed Four and the Boys Year 9 Coxed Quad.

Congratulations to all of the Somerset Rowing Team who competed over the weekend and represented the Somerset Spartan spirit with dedication and enthusiasm.

As a new Head Coach, I was impressed with the responsibility the athletes took in preparing themselves for each race, and the great team spirit they showed in supporting each other across all year levels.

A big thank you goes to Olivia Sina and Gerry Thurnwald, who as coaches have supported my introduction to the program and helped with the logistics making such a great weekend happen. Thank you also to the parents and supporters who were there, as they say, many hands make light work, and I hope they got the chance to enjoy the weekend.

Silver

Boys Year 10 Coxed Quad – Joshua Mills, Fergus McKeon, Cameron Smith, Nick Tan, Jasper Mansell

Boys Year 10 Double Scull – Cameron Smith, Nick Tan

Bronze

Boys Year 10 Coxed Four – Joshua Mills, Fergus McKeon, Cameron Smith, Nick Tan, Jasper Mansell

Boys Year 9 Coxed Quad – Xavier McMullen, Harrison Jordan, Raffi Anderson, Callum McClure, Jasper Mansell

The teams competing in the Championships included, the top four from North Brisbane and the Gold Coast, the top two teams from South West Queensland, the Sunshine Coast, Bundaberg, and the Fraser Coast.

On July 23 at 6.30am Coach Maarten took the boys to Oxley Futsal Centre. Arriving in Brisbane, the Spartans began with a warm up before playing a total of five games between 8.30am and 3.30pm. The first game against Albany Creek was very difficult. In the first few minutes Somerset competed well but after a few minutes Albany was too strong, resulting in a loss for the Spartans.

The second game saw the Spartans up against Assisi Catholic College. Again, like the first game, Assisi was too strong and scored more goals than we did.

From the afternoon we improved and started to dominate. This improvement resulted in a close loss verse Chancellor. We won the fourth game beating Shalom 6 to 2 thanks to some great goals from Harry Mackintosh. At the fifth game verse Murrumba we played very well with a narrow loss.

Great effort from Lachlan Milan, Rylan Kennedy, James Kirk, Harry Mackintosh, Ryan Palmer, Jayden McLean and Carter Dennings.

We keep improving every week and next week we will introduce new training techniques. These include, running with the ball, striking the ball, and first touch.

Under 7

We had both Under 7 teams in action at Palm Beach in Week 1. The Blue team lost, while the Green won their game.

The Blue team played one of the strongest teams in their league. The Spartans kept trying to pass the ball to each other. Post-game the team reviewed their plays, learning a lot from their loss.

The Green team had a great performance and were able to pass the ball a several times before scoring a goal.

Under 6

The Under 6 played at Robina. Our youngest Spartans, (as young as five-years-old) are still discovering the game. Our main aim is to ensure the boys have lots of fun each week. Through allowing them to play, they learn to make their own decisions on the field. Coach Neil helps the children have an enjoyable Saturday morning.

A big weekend is coming up for the Spartans, with games on Saturday and Sunday.

Please check the Football Club Schoolbox Page for more info.

Athletics

Darcy Halloran and Jake Giltrap-Good competed at the State Cross Country in Toowoomba and the State Relays for School Sport Region.

We hope to see them in the Queensland squad!

Gymnastics

In the recent school holidays, Stephanie competed as part of a team representing her gymnastics club (Southport Gymnastics) at State Club Championships - against all other clubs in Queensland.

She competed in the highest division, Level 8 to 10 Division.

Her team placed fourth on Vault, third place on each of bars, beam and floor. Their overall placing in Queensland was third.