Parents and students were beaming with the success of the show and the praise from audience members has been overwhelming. Seussical Jr - The Musical is based on the fabulously entertaining stories of Dr Seuss. The show was a colourful spectacular with Nurse Linny leading the way with costume design.
Thank you to Melissa Black, Kate Grigg and Sara Rosentreter for your outstanding vision and direction in bringing this masterpiece to life. Thank you also to the many volunteers – staff and parents – who assisted with choreography, the creation of props, costume design, backstage and the many other factors that made the show such a great success.
Thank you to James Geralds and Katie Chirathivat-Geralds for the photography and videography of the show. The talent of our Junior School cast was mind-blowing. Regardless of how many times I watched the show I found myself bursting with pride and feeling fully entertained each and every time.
Congratulations to the cast and crew for your outstanding performances of Seussical Jr - The Musical, presented by Somerset College Junior School 2019.
"Oh, the THINKS you can THINK!"
Having both of my parents as pilots and being surrounded by aviation my whole life, it was evident that I was going to develop an interest in aviation, and this interest started when I was about 9 years old. I knew I had to do something with airplanes for my personal project, however doing something affordable and something that I could relate to a global context was going to be difficult. I explored the possibilities of designing and building rc aircraft, however, I knew how I was going to do that and felt like I needed more of a challenge. It wasn't until I saw a video of a solar-powered aircraft that flew around the world that I knew I was going to design and build my own solar powered remote controlled U.A.V.
Approaching this project was one of the most daunting experiences of my life, I had built many pre-designed rc aircraft, however, I had only worked with one material before, being foam. I had no idea how to do anything, from designing my aircraft to wiring up solar panels and measuring the efficiency of my aircraft. Designing a goal was even a challenge for I knew nothing about how my aircraft would perform and therefore couldn't come up with any specifications for my goal.
The first step I thought was to see what others had done in order to be successful, so after many hours scanning through the internet observing other peoples awesome ideas I had a very very rough idea of how to start my project. I decided I was going to experiment on the different build techniques I could use for my airframe. I knew that the aircraft needed to be quite large in order to fit a certain amount of solar cells in. Having worked with foam before I knew the structural stability of the wings along with the weight of the structure would be extremely inefficient, so I needed to find a different build technique. I knew of a few options I had never tried before such as using composite materials to build a high-performance aircraft, however, the drawback to this method was it was extremely expensive. Another method was to use balsa wood to design an aircraft, and this fit my basic specifications of being affordable and strong enough to build an aircraft with. I ordered two balsa aircraft kits, both having slightly different built techniques to try and figure out what the best way to build my aircraft was going to be. After building both kits, the FW190 and the piper J-3 cub I noted the best parts about each build and started to develop a rough plan on how I was going to design an airframe.
The next step was to order the part of the aircraft I needed, which was a whole new challenge I had to face, having never built an aircraft of this scale before. I needed a highly efficient part capable of converting solar energy into energy required to make my aircraft fly. Due to the passion I already had and the numerous amounts of the airplane I had already make I knew the basic requirements of getting a plane into the air, however, I needed much more than that, so once again I used the interested to aid my research in helping me find the electronics I needed. I had successfully discovered all the components I needed to build my aircraft which was great….. Until and I added up all the prices and saw how far over the budget it was (not including shipping). I decided to remove the GV boost mppt controller which is a controller that obtains the correct voltage output for the battery and instead control the voltage by running a certain amount of solar cells in series with each other.
At this point in time, I have spent many many many hours, 50 as a rough estimate designing a test aircraft to see if I can make an airplane I designed myself fly. This aircraft was designed in adobe illustrator and it will have a wingspan of 1500mm or 1.5meters. I hope to laser cut the designs into balsa wood, build the airframe, cover the airframe in covering film and install the electronics to see if it will fly. I have also been testing my solar panels and managed to soldier up one solar panel to a small motor which worked great! I was amazed to see how efficient that one solar cell was, however also how fragile it was. The next steps in the process are to calculate my airfoil and evaluate the aerodynamics of my future aircraft. And start designing and constructing the final product!
Working on the project allows me to be me and allows me to pursue a passion I love. Designing a solar-powered plane also allows me to push my capabilities I was previously unaware I had, prior to starting the project I considered myself to have a fairly in-depth level of understanding for basic aerodynamics and knowledge for rc airplanes. However, since starting I realized that there is always room to grow and learn more which is exactly what I have done, and I am excited to see what applications I can use my skills for in the future.
"[NAPLAN] is a point-in-time snapshot assessment of a student's achievements in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
"We all understand there's a lot that goes into a student's education. NAPLAN doesn't test everything happening in the classroom or a school and isn't designed to assess a student's diverse and creative learning, entrepreneurial skills or risk-taking ability.” Robert Randall, ACARA CEO. The intent of this national testing program is to provide a measure of how all Australian school students at these year levels are performing in Literacy and Numeracy.
The performance of each child will be reported to the College community using six bands of achievement at each year level. These bands enable all students across Australia at these year levels to be compared. One of these bands will represent the national minimum standard for students at that year level. We certainly view the rich data we receive from NAPLAN as an opportunity to review our annual goals for teaching and learning at the College.
The actual content NAPLAN tests is informed by the National Statements of Learning in English and Mathematics. Test questions therefore cover aspects of Literacy (Reading, Writing, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) and Numeracy. In years 3 and 5 these elements will be assessed through four separate papers whereas students in years 7 and 9 will sit a total of five test papers. These tests range between 10 minutes and 65 minutes depending on the year level and will consist of a combination of multiple choice and short response questions.
While preparation for NAPLAN occurs every day through our normal teaching and learning, we do recognise it is important for students to feel comfortable in sitting this style of testing. As such, leading into these tests, students at the College will be exposed to sample questions and have explanatory sessions to become familiar with the format and the expectation of each paper. Further information about NAPLAN can be found here.
Special mention should also go to our Open A Year 10 team, who won their first debate despite the Open A division usually consisting of Year 11 and 12 students exclusively. The team achieved this win despite the illness of two out of three team members, and such wouldn’t have been possible without the generous help of Year 12 debater Skye Van Esch, who stood in for one of the unwell students.
Well done to all involved in Round 1.
Will all the trademark fanaticism of a new convert, Luisa Ardill-Walker (our Somerset Girls’ Cricket co-Captain) set out to raise the profile of women in this sport. She thus conceived of playing a Staff/Student game, in the manner of the high profile game that the First XI play every year, but just for Women Staff.
Morrison (SS) as well as Holly Hembling and Darcy Halloran (JS).
Special mention must go to:
Thank you to Natalie Nugent, Brad Cates, Glauber Correa and Andrew Halloran for all their coaching efforts. We also appreciate all the hard work Kate Webb, Steph Opperman and Ellie Taylor put into the carnival today.
Congratulations to all involved.
The National Open Championships were held in the first week of the holidays from Sunday 7 to Friday 12 April. Somerset was represented by CJ Licuanan (alumni), Blake Jones and James Roberts. CJ, having recently graduated from National Age swimming competed in the 100m Freestyle as well as the 50m Freestyle. In the 50m Freestyle, CJ placed third in the 18 to 19 years division. Blake competed in the 50m and 100m freestyle as well as the 50m Butterfly. Whilst James raced in the 50m and 100m freestyle finishing fourth in both events. These swimmers are now preparing for the World Championship Selection trials to be held in Brisbane in June.
The National Age Championships were then held from Monday 15 April to Monday 22 April and included two days of Multiclass Championship events from Sunday 21 April to Monday 22 April. Somerset had 10 swimmers attend the Championships including Ciara Fay, Ellena Perry, and Hugo Vitello. Leon Shiryama (17 years) narrowly missed the final of the boys 100m Butterfly finishing 11th, while Connor Borkowksy also narrowly missed making the final in his main event, the boys 16 years 200m Freestyle finishing 11th. Cameron Donovan swam very well finishing 6th in the boys 15 years 100m Breaststroke and 10th in the 200m Breaststroke. Tara Newton, swimming in her first National Championships finished fifth in the girls 13 to 14 years 1500m Freestyle event. Jorja Otto had an outstanding swim in the girls 13 years 100m Backstroke winning the event and finishing eighth in the 200m Backstroke. Jorja is the Aussie champion in the 100m backstroke! She swam to win the event in a time of 1.03.87. A new PB by two seconds!
In the multiclass events, Sebastine Du Preez finished fifth in the boys 11 to 14 years 50m and 100m Breaststroke and Andrew Parkinson (boys 17 to 18 years) finished fourth in the 50m Backstroke, fifth in the 100m Backstroke, fifth in the 100m Freestyle and ninth in the 200m Individual Medley. Somerset also fielded a team in the boys 14 to 17 years 4 x 100m Medley Relay who had a great swim finishing 17th out of a very strong field.
Well done to all of our swimmers and especially Jorja for her National Championship win. A big thank you also goes to the Somerset Team Managers as well as Coaches Matt, Chris and Ash.
The Somerset Masters Swim Club had 2 competitors compete at the recent Queensland State Championships in Brisbane from 11 to 13 April. Shannon Emmett finished sixth in the 50m Breaststroke and fifth in the 100m Breaststroke in her age division while Alison Ross had an outstanding meet winning the 200m Butterfly, placing second in the 100m Butterfly and 400m Freestyle, third in the 800m Freestyle and fifth in the 200m Freestyle in her age category. Well done to these swimmers and our Masters Coach Greg in preparing these swimmers to race.
Some of our Masters swimmers also competed in the recent ocean swim, the Cooly Classic. Five swimmers won medals at the event being Wal Mayr, Nicole Munroe, Rebecca Newing, whilst Cate Jolley and Ken Newing won their event. Well done!
This year’s event had a combined 253 players across four divisions: Premier, Major, Minor and U1200. The Premier featured five Grandmasters (highest international title in chess) and ten International Masters (second-highest chess title). Trips like the Doeberl Cup always create fond memories for our chess students, and are an important test of their improvement.
In the Major, Byron Morris finished on 3.5 from seven games and Oliver Yang 3. In the Minor, Eason Wang was = sixth with 5/7, Kenny Ming 4, Ben Atia 4, Jason Li 4, Charlie Liu 2, Melody Yang 2, Anson Qu 2, Jennifer Yeung 1.5. Alessandro Martinese, still only in Year 2, finished on a respectable 1.5/6 in the U1200 Division.
Eason Wang has had an outstanding result in the recently completed Sydney International Open (Challengers division). Eason, Board 1 for the Spartans' Junior School team, finished the tournament with 5/9 and increased his FIDE (International Chess Federation) rating by 88 points.
During the first week of holidays, the Holiday Chess Program was held at Somerset for three days, and we had a tournament day - the Easter Cup. Well done to our young rising stars: Calen Tang 5.5/11, Elijah Hadikusumo 5.5 and second place Rating Group B, Harrison Qu 5.5 and second place Rating Group C, Aadi Rai 5.5, Kush Veeramachaneni 4.5, Arjun Rai 3.5 and Harry Couper 3.5.
Enrolment for Term Two Junior School co-curricular lessons is still open through the My Somerset Community (Electives tab). For Senior School students and intermediate/advanced Junior School students, the Thursday After School Chess Club runs 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm.
When I was young I had to convince my sister to bowl to me (I had to play “elastics” with her and her friend – an activity that did my fragile school rep no favours) and cricket was as alien and uncomfortable to her as elastics and gravity was for me. This is “elastics” Not so these days. Our Somerset Girls Cricket co-captain Luisa Ardill-Walker cannot wait to get to PC during summer – not for my grey-bearded sagacity but to discuss the Big Bash and other cricket matters.
Since our first game last year, our other co-Captain, Alex Halloran, has gone on to represent South Coast at cricket.
This Wednesday we played Saint Stephen's, who caned us last year. But we were a stronger squad this time around. Alex is our game-day captain and when she won the toss and elected to bat we already looked better for the training that we had undertaken (on extra afternoons and totally voluntary). The new opening combination of Luisa and Caylin worked well and the wicket-tumbling from last year was gone. Caylin remained unbeaten and has really stood up as a batter. Check their form below:
In the end, we had managed to bat through our allotted overs and improved on last-year’s score by 500 per cent!
Alex then took control in the field – with her and Holly Clements being our bowling spearheads. Alex removed their best bat with a lovely delivery and their coach told me she had never been dismissed before in school cricket!
Alas, the Saint Stephen’s girls were a little too strong for us and they managed to win.
I was very proud of the commitment and improvement in our girls. Debutante Roxy Brown’s overall contribution and Sarah-Anne Hornsey’s stand-in efforts behind the stumps were other highlights. It has been a pleasure coaching them, and I look forward to taking this team further in the future (maybe those whispers about girls cricket coming to APS will come to pass).
Thanks to Mrs McKenna for her enthusiastic support and for Mr Whish for stepping in with last-minute help.
Wind is the scourge of rowers, making it hard to stay in lanes, chopping up the water and increasing the risk of capsizing. However, despite the wind, our rowers showed true Spartan spirit by giving it their all and coming away with some great results.
Somerset parent volunteers also showed Spartan spirit with marathon efforts in the canteen tent preparing, cooking and selling food and drink to 240 competitors and families as well as driving official boats, assigning bow numbers, erecting tents and the myriad of other jobs that need to be done when hosting a regatta. We really could not do any of it without you.
As always, a big thank you also goes out to all the coaches who ensured rowers were out on the water at the right time, with the right boat and the right crew.
A complete list of official results can be found here. The next regatta is 11 May, 2019 back out on Coomera Lake.
First Places
The Uhlsport Cup competition is conducted in two stages:
• A round robin group stage involving groups of up to five teams, with teams progressing to the elimination stage. • An elimination stage (knock-out) leading to the final between the two remaining teams.
The Co-ordinator of football has scouted players from Years 7, 8 and 9 during the APS trainings and games. After nominating 16 boys and 16 girls the Somerset U14 teams are ready to play.
On Tuesday the U14 boys played a very strong Kings Christian College Under 14. Final score was Nil to 7.
On the Wednesday the U14 girls lost with 1 to 4. The boys were coached by Maarten de Kruijf and the Girls by Bronwyn Lee.
The experience to play in Cup Football is fantastic. This will help the players to improve their technical and tactical skills of Football.
Please check our Schoolbox Football Page to find more info about the ISSA Cup and the Round 2 fixtures.
The Under 9 played TSS. Somerset had a good start with a few opportunities, unfortunately they didn’t went in the goal. Were TSS had no problems finding the target. With two great goals from Jacob Kelly we got back in the game. But it wasn’t enough. TSS won with 2 to 4
The Under 6 and Under 7 won their matches from Bilambil and Palm Beach.
Saturday May 4 all Spartans Football teams play away games.
Please check the Football Club Schoolbox Page for more info.
Whichever direction teams are going, the pursuit of continuous improvement is what we strive for, week in week out!
"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender, this strength!" - Arnold Schwarzenegger
April has stepped up in recent absence of the team's captain, Katisha Webb, and has proved she has great leadership qualities and potential as a top scorer. April plays a good defensive game, and gets up and down the floor well, running lanes hard and with urgency. This allows her to create great opportunities on the offensive end with her ability to get open and make herself a target for a good outlet pass. April has also decided to step up and take over as Head Coach of the U15 Girls Spartans Club team, as Coach Haley Thomson sadly leaves us to head up North to Cairns. We look forward to watching you progress as a player and coach April, keep up the great work!
Calvin is a relentless attacking player who is hard to stop from penetrating the paint and creating a good scoring opportunity. He is also an intense defender, and not shying away from contact is a huge benefit to his game and ability to win individual contests. In recent weeks, Calvin has started to develop a new level of basketball IQ, where he is shooting the ball reasonably well, making some great passes to open teammates, and showing signs of maturity and leadership in the way he communicates and carries himself. Those who turn their weaknesses into strengths are always ones to watch out for! As Tim Duncan said, "Good, better, best. Never let it rest, until your good is better, and your better is best."
WE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR GIRL PLAYERS TO JOIN AGED 6 - 10!Any students interested in joining Somerset Spartans Basketball Club, please contact Mr Whish-Wilson (swwilson@somerset.qld.edu.au) or Coach Dean Marais (dmarais@somerset.qld.edu.au) for more info and details on how to sign up.
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