No. 4, Term One, 2017

The students revelled in the opportunity to see their pieces of art, inspired by their various Units of Inquiry, mounted and displayed with professional care. It was also wonderful to see our students’ parents and the wider Junior School community supporting the event and enjoying the impressive array of art mediums exhibited.

Pieces ranged from self-portraits and landscape scenes, to representations of Indigenous Australian art, sculpture and even vibrant skateboard decks!

Congratulations to all the students whom produced these pieces of art and thank you to the many staff members involved in organising and setting up the event.

In addition to the exhibition of artwork, there were performances by members of Wordsmiths as well as musical items by Taylor Crooks (Y11) and Ethan Hill (Y12). Congratulations once again to all the prize winners on the night – your work was of outstanding quality and you should all be very proud of your achievements.

The People’s Choice Award was awarded to Aimée Mulvihill (Y11) for her insightful Need & Desire piece.

Gina-Marie Teixeira, Jennifer Wong-Lin and Bianca Crisp (Y12) were all commendable shortlists for the Somerset Senior Art Award.

We thank local artist, Llewellyn Skye, for her time on the evening and for selecting Bianca Crisp as the winner of the Somerset Senior Art Award 2017. Thank you Skye for your wonderful feedback to our budding young artists.

A huge thank you to the Maintenance and Events teams for their help with the Exhibition, as well as to Mr Keefer, Ms Scandrett, Ms Holmgren and Mr O’Brien for their tireless efforts. See you again at Synergies 2018.

Through a variety of platforms, students engage in experiences that help expose them to a myriad of leaderships styles, both working on the individual leader and the collaborative “orchestral” leader.

Below, three of our Year 11 students reflect on moments of significance from the week.

Monday Morning (Amy Luke Paredi)

We began our Year 11 leadership day with two representatives from Peer Power talking to us about the importance of trusting each other instead of tolerating each other. They also highlighted the necessity of following a servant-leadership model as this style of leadership focuses on the growth and wellbeing of people and the communities to which they belong. A servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

We then subdivided into our House groups to participate in a range of team building activities. One of the most memorable experiences was the construction of a house mascot, made out of aluminium foil. We then shared how these mascots represented our House with the rest of our cohort. With great pride, Veivers collectively designed an octopus to symbolise the 8 core values of our House.

These enjoyable team activities helped to strengthen the bond between House peers, thus building solid foundations for 2018.

Monday Afternoon and Evening (Rowan Bouw)

After a morning filled with rigorous activities we finally reached the last one for the day, the paper plane challenge. In this challenge our houses were required to split up into two groups, each group creating a design for a paper plane and the other half of the house had to recreate this plane using and A2 piece of paper. The challenge proved how an effective leader must also know how to give clear instructions to get effective results. After the challenge we were required to test the paper planes to see how far each would fly. Veivers was first, throwing the longest distance with one of the planes “The Kydra” only to be beaten by the final plane to be thrown by Andrews.

Later that evening we had our leadership dinner, filled with good food, good laughs and good speeches, each table was decorated by the houses with some very decorative themes. Andrews went Hollywood, Franklin were purple, Laver drew upon nature, Starkey embraced their inner Mexican and Veivers were resourceful in the creation of their balloon centrepiece.

Finally came the announcement everyone had been waiting for, the winner of the coveted McKenzie Shield. Awarded to the house scoring the most points for activities throughout the day, it was announced that Veivers had won the shield! To continue with the theme of the day, the whole house received the shield as a team, further demonstrating the way the day had unified us as a team.

Wednesday’s Seminar (Meghan Rooney)

On Wednesday morning, the Year 11 cohort separated into their House groups for more leadership activities. During this time, the house groups reflected on what each member took away from Monday’s leadership seminar. It was very interesting to see the way each individual perceived the numerous messages from the conference. In addition to this, we then discussed how leadership is not just a title, but a legacy that the cohort (with or without a “badge”) leaves behind. As a member of Starkey House, we discussed our plans for tightening the bonds between year levels, encouraging more participation in carnivals and breathing new life into Pastoral Care – accomplishing our motto “Unity is Strength”.

After some deliciously warm jam doughnuts, prepared by the Bird and Bush staff, the whole cohort returned to the Dining Room to listen to the leadership team of 2017 discuss the specifics on each leadership role. Although this demonstrated how each leadership role varied, it also indicated the importance of collaboration with other leaders, and most importantly, collaboration with the whole grade.

The leadership experiences over the past couple of days has been extremely beneficial, helping build more tight-knit relationships with our house groups and our cohort as we work towards constructing the leadership team of 2018.

The festival was a great educational experience for our students as they enjoyed German food, entertainment, competitions and most importantly, language. The program was filled with exciting activities and events including a leg-slapping and cow-bell ringing performance from the Alpenrosen German Dancing Group. Our students sang and danced their hearts away to their favourite song das Fliegerlied and also learnt some typical German Folk dances.

Our students could be forgiven for believing they had found themselves at Munich’s ‘Wiesn’, parading around in their typical German ‘Dirndl’ dresses and ‘Lederhosen’, whilst munching on their giant pretzels. In addition to singing and dancing, our students took part in the much anticipated pretzel eating competition and fiercely competitive ‘Gummibär’ race in the main Oktoberfest tent. In the outside area, students enjoyed the rides, food stalls, the German souvenir corner, face painting and the animal farm.

We were glad our Year 7 and 8 students were able to experience and appreciate this culturally rich event and be immersed in the German language for a day. They certainly did Somerset proud with their enthusiasm, participation and conduct. Until next year, Auf Wiedersehen!

On Friday 20 October Drama students took part in a workshop run by Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company, from Brisbane. From the start we all knew that it was going to be a very physical workshop. We started off by doing a warm-up game called Knife and Fork, where we had to run around the entire room and when Franki and Lauren (workshop leaders) called out a number we had to get into groups of that number and create a shape, however we were not allowed to talk.

Once we completed that activity, we moved onto the stage and discussed three important areas of physical theatre, Architecture, Spatial Relationships and Shape. Once we had been educated, we moved into three groups to work on these areas. Within these groups, we created three separate tableau’s displaying emotions – anger, joy and guilt. All of the groups were able to develop different interpretations of these emotions through body shape, with our focus to display the meaning as a whole ensemble, rather than developing a story line.

After sharing our shapes with one another, Franki showed us the importance of manipulating architecture throughout a physical theatre performance in three ways – literal, abstract, and changed context. Within our three groups we were then asked to manipulate these three architectural elements to create our own performance. This performance had to incorporate one tableau, and two moving scenes. We were then given a title, in our allocated groups, to base our performances on. These were, Looking into the Light, Into the Darkness and Love is Lost. In our groups, we collaborated on a time constraint of six-minutes to develop our student devised performances; however, as the workshop came to a close, only one of the three groups were able to perform.

Our group performed Into the Light, which demonstrated the struggle of ‘tormented’ characters to get to a possessive light. We chose to use the architectural space of a staircase not only to show the distinct hierarchy between the rest of the group and the character who got entranced towards the powerful light, but also to distinctively show the effect of the light. Using physical theatre, we contrasted our movements, showing the before and after effect of being exposed to this light. Usually, the context of ‘light’ has a positive connotation of being angelic and pure, however we took a negative turn on this context, showing the audience a negative and manipulative light.

Without a doubt, this workshop has taught our Drama class the power physical theatre has to create meaning when devising theatre. On behalf of Year 9 and 10 Drama students, we would like to thank Franki and Lauren for delivering such an incredible and informative workshop, and we look forward to incorporating our learning into future performances.

Throughout the evening, the content and themes explored were incredibly varied. From a play that focused on the Port Arthur Massacre, to the stories of domestic violence survivors. Wrongly accused death row survivors, to the now resumed suburb of Brisbane, Cribb Island. The topics were sometimes brutal, sometimes shocking, but always fascinating and handled with respect.

The audience, however, was in for more of a surprise. The first performance of the evening, The Exonerated, sent the audience members walking through the wings and halls of the PA to view the performance. Every student went above and beyond to take their production and performance elements to the next level and create an exciting, engaging piece of theatre.

The second performance was a chilling exploration of the Port Arthur Massacre, with the students working with the Verbatim play Beyond The Neck as well as creating their own Verbatim text, through sourcing transcripts of police interviews, court documents and documentary interviews with survivors. This minimalistic yet confronting play recounted a historic event from a series of very different perspectives.

The third play followed the stories of five women and domestic violence survivors. It All Begins With Love used sound, projection and strong ensemble work to communicate the confronting material of the piece.

The final play of the evening was Cribbie. This play was a gentle, nostalgic performance focusing on the stories of the people who lived on Cribb Island, before it was resumed by the Federal government in order to extend the Brisbane Airport.

Overall, it was an entertaining and successful evening and was a great opportunity for the Year 10 Drama students to present work to an audience.

To assist in understanding the processes needed for a task such as this, we Drama students were treated with a unique experience last Friday; a webcam call with the one and only Nelle Lee, a brilliant actress and artistic director of Shake & Stir Theatre Company. Well known for their in-school touring performances and nation-wide performances of modern adaptations of famous plays, the Shake & Stir team have gained a serious reputation, both locally and nationally.

Based in Brisbane, Nelle and her theatre comrades have an astronomical amount of skill and talent, and as Drama students, we took every opportunity to gain some professional directorial knowledge and industry insights.

Nelle provided us with information on how to go about directing a piece, the dos and don’ts of polishing a piece of modernised theatre, told stories of her own experiences in the directing and acting business, and the world of Drama during and after University.

When beginning an adaptation, we learnt that first, we must find inspiration in everything, as no idea should be ignored, and that anything is an opportunity to gain insight from.

Using her many pieces as examples, such as Dracula and Wuthering Heights, Nelle explained that most of the time, simplicity is key when devising new adaptations. Complexity within pieces is important to keep the audience entertained, but it is necessary that the audience also understands.

Through these questions and the answers that Nelle provided, we all felt more informed in the realities of the processes outside of a school environment, with having greater knowledge to draw upon for both our upcoming assessment piece and beyond our schooling lives.

Before the Year 12’s close out their final year at the College, they often make a return to their early classrooms, where their school life began.

Other special guests at the morning tea were Somerset Bunny and Little Ted.

The group enjoyed reminiscing, as they scanned Prep photos, before the Seniors sat to watch their 2005 Christmas concert, joined by some 2017 Pre-Preps.

Thank you for visiting Year 12 friends and good luck for the weeks and months ahead!

This year the Year 9 Design students have worked very hard. They began the year with their Save the Bees unit, resulting in dozens of bee hotels being installed in the rainforest area around the Rudkin building. Following this, additive manufacturing and thermoforming were the areas of focus. As a reward for the students’ hard work, a Materials Edition of Monopoly was tracked down and shipped over from the UK.

Designed and made by students at The Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, famous English locations are replaced by materials. The materials range from readily available natural woods, through base metals, composite materials all the way to the rare Premium Platinum where we would normally find the illustrious Mayfair.

All come with information cards and so among the negotiation skills required to determine who gets to be the dog, who gets to be the banker, who buys and sells certain properties, the students were exposed to some unfamiliar terminology which they may not otherwise have come across.

Well done, Year 9, for a great year of work!

Ainsley McCarthy – Year 10 Laver

“Perhaps the most memorable part of our leadership experience was participating in ‘the lifeboat’ activity. We were separated into groups and each given a title. We then had to decide who was to be left behind on the sinking boat. This deliberation process brought out the best and the worst of people. We had make a case as to why each of us should stay whilst others proposed that in order to be fair, we should all remain on the life boat and drown together. It became very clear as to what each person’s strengths and weaknesses in a team are, how their decision making process takes place and whether they fear or thrive on stress.”

Kevin Song – Year 10 Franklin

"Last week I was given the amazing opportunity to attend the A.B. Paterson College Leadership Experience at Bond University. Being in a room with like-minded students allowed me to expand my personal possibilities and capabilities. The thing that I enjoyed most was exploring my own leadership style, methods of communication and personal fears. I received insight into an area of my life that I had not previously put much thought into."

Vivi Baker - Year 10 Starkey

"I really enjoyed the A.B. Paterson College Leadership Experience at Bond University for a variety of reasons. The presenters were really engaging and seemed genuinely interested to hear our thoughts and have discussions with us. We all learnt a lot, and I feel like I have obtained a lot of new skills which I can take with me into everyday life. I feel grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend the seminar and I would absolutely recommend it to those entering year 10 next year and who are given the opportunity to attend."

Hello everyone! We are the Sustainable Spartans Committee.

Our first sustainable action is focused on reducing the plastic usage of the Bird and Bush Café, more specifically eliminating plastic bags in the Retail Centre. As a sustainable alternative, bags will be sewn out of second-hand uniforms and will be available to borrow (and return) to the Bird and Bush Café.

A sewing day will commence on Thursday 9 November, from periods 1 to 3 (8.40am – 12.00noon) in the Knowledge and Information Precinct (Library).

We invite parents and students to come along and bring their sewing machines to help sew; second-hand uniforms will be provided.

We’d love to see you there!

Somerset Basketball

170 Somerset College students are now involved in the Somerset Basketball Club which plays on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. The number of members has doubled from this time last year and is always looking for new players to get involved.

Matthew Sprague - Gymnastics

During the September school holidays, Matthew Sprague competed in 2 major gymnastics competitions (Level 6): State Titles (Chandler Brisbane). 7th place Overall (Level 6 Open) and 7th place pommel, 7th place high bar, 6th place vault. He then went on to National Club Championships (Bendigo, Victoria).

Recovering from injury (which saw him withdraw from Gold Coast Regionals in August), he came back to place 3rd place in Australia on High Bar and 2nd Place on Pommel in the Level 6 division. He helped his club (Super Performance Centre at Ashmore) to place 3rd club in Australia across all divisions. Also a member of the Level 6 team was Michael Dobroskok (Year 7).

Somerset Rowing Dinner

It was a great night at the 2017 Somerset Rowing Dinner. A lot of worthy recipients of awards and you definitely sense the spirit and comradery in the room. Coach Andrew Butler spoke about the importance of boat loading and boat unloading. Focusing on doing the ‘little things’ well that ultimately lead to big things. Katie Plume and Blake Mills will have the honour of being Rowing Captains for 2018.

Sport this week:

Monday 23 October - Compulsory APS Summer Sports Practice (7.00am or 3.30pm)

Wednesday 25 October - Compulsory APS Summer Sports Practice (7.00am or 3.30pm)

Friday 13 October - APS Summer Sport v All Saints Anglican School

Friday 10 November - Sports Awards Night

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