The future of these young Pre–prep to Year 2 athletes begins now, with the love, passion and enthusiasm for being fit and healthy, and finding enjoyment in these special carnival days.
The day began with the group health hustle and warm up to Let’s Go, by Calvin Harris. Thank you to Alana Walsh for assisting with the instruction of the choreographed routine for all of the students to dance together, putting on a bright and colourful display.
Students all participated in a variety of events including the 80m sprint race, egg and spoon race, sack race and ball games. The focus was on participation and fun.
Veivers were the champions this year for the trophy, which is awarded annually in the spirit of carnival competition.
Big thank yous to Elliot Roberts, Alana Walsh and our entire cohort of Pre-Prep to Year 2 teachers, who have been involved in various duties directed towards the success of the carnival.
Thanks also goes to our behind the scenes sports department, gappies, maintenance team and cleaners for all of the work that is done to set up and provide the outstanding facility for our special day with the little ones.
Thank you all and well done to all of our little champions.
A cool Friday morning was perfect for many students and staff to bust out their warmest flannelette pj's and turn up to school as if for a winter sleepover. Many in the school community were seen in pyjamas, slippers and dressing gowns, in a variety of different styles (notable mention must go to Mr Singh’s Pokemon onesie, which caused my jaw to drop until I saw a whole crew of Year 9 boys ALL wearing the same ones).
The day then culminated in a dodgeball competition in the Quad, with two staff teams competing. The Quad was abuzz with students and staff enjoying this spectacle. The Year 12 boys' team particularly vigorous in their attempts to plant a dodgeball into the head of a staff member. It was all a lot of fun, and the mood at the College - with many in their pyjamas - was relaxed and cosy.
The money raised was close to $2000 and I am sure that the Pyjama Foundation will make good use of these funds in order to carry on their wonderful work.
I would like to congratulate the Year 12 IB Diploma students for organising this day from conception to completion.
I remember the overwhelmingly, positive feeling of 'Girl Power' at the 2016 Showcase I attended with my eight-year-old daughter. It was wonderful to see the variety of school entries from around Queensland. So many young, innovative women were in the audience and to witness the excitement in the room when the winners were announced, was awesome.
The best part of the event is the acknowledgement that females CAN be entrepreneurial and they CAN DO tech! This is such an important message for our girls and young women to hear. Too often girls learn how they 'should' act from socially prescribed stereotypes and norms that are simply not true and no longer OK.
There are many reasons why we need to increase female participation in digital technologies and startups. Governments, businesses, educational institutions and media around the world, are pushing to increase female participation in computer science. Some reasons for this are to improve gender equality, increase diversity in the Information Technology (IT) industry, alleviate rising shortages in IT skills and to ensure ALL citizens are prepared for an increasingly digital workplace. It makes sense that a diverse workforce is better equipped to cater to the needs/wants of a diverse society. The social potential stemming from more women graduating in computer science, who then work in data science, software/app development, artificial intelligence, IT security and game design, is endless.
The advantages for participants in the Tech Girl Superhero competition:
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary came to visit Year 3, Wednesday 26 July. First we (3S) went to 3G for the visit, while 3G went to our classroom. WOW stands for Wildlife on Wheels. The people who visited were Kristie and Raina.
Litter bugs are very good parents and they are nocturnal. They told us that they eat dead gum leaves. Tawny frogmouths are birds that fly silently and their mouths are yellow. The yellow in the mouth is so insects think it’s a light and they go inside. Did you know that insects are attracted to lights?
Never ever touch a green tree frog because their skin is like it's got holes in it.
Shingle back lizards are shaped like they have two heads and they carry food and water in their tail. Did you know they are a member of the blue tongue lizard family?
A food chain and a food web is like a grasshopper eating grass and a frog eats a grasshopper and a python eats a frog. A python can eat a cat or a dog. They are not poisonous.
Ecosystems are living things or non-living things and can interact with each other.
Biomes are big places like the Sahara Desert.
Sebastian Salay 3S
The WOW (Wildlife on Wheels) came to visit Year 3 on Wednesday to talk about ecosystems and brought some animals in. These animals were: a carpet python, a shingle backed lizard, a tawny frog mouth, a green tree frog and a giant burrowing cockroach.
They talked about the differences between prey and predators. We also discovered that we cannot touch green tree frogs with our bare hands. Frogs skin absorbs everything they touch (a bit like a sponge) and because we wash our hands with soap and brush our teeth with toothpaste, the frog could get sick if there is any small amount on our hands.
They also talked about, if there is pollution in an area, it can affect the animals food chains.
I loved looking at all the fascinating creatures and loved the experience.
Charlotte Pazaratz 3G
On Wednesday the 26 July, 3M participated in a Wildlife on Wheels program. First, we were introduced to a giant burrowing cockroach. Did you know they can grow to the size of an adult's hand and dig up to 1.5 meters?
After, we met Kermit (a green tree frog). I learnt something about frogs: if you touch a frog with just one little bit of dirt, food, toothpaste or soap it will go into the frog’s body and the frog can get very sick.
We also met Popcorn the shingle back lizard. Something I learnt about popcorn was, when a predator comes, he curls up in a ball hoping that the predator gets confused and goes away. Next, we met Oscar the tawny frogmouth. Oscar can camouflage by putting up his head and blending in with a tree.
Last but not least, we met Spok the carpet python. When we patted Spok he felt cool because he is a cold-blooded animal.
My favourite part was patting and seeing all the animals brought in by the Wildlife on Wheels from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.
Charlotte Kemp 3M
Upon arrival in Düsseldorf airport, we were all very excited to meet our billets and see the familiar faces of the German students who came to Australia on exchange last year. We were immersed in the German language and culture – improving our German every day. School life was found to be very different to Australia, with more freedom and varying school hours. Our excursions to the Ski Hall, Cologne and Münster were all very exciting. However, the main highlight of this first week was the time spent with our billets and the lifelong friendships we formed with them. After a very teary goodbye, we left our host families in Düsseldorf and began our coach tour around Germany and Austria.
The coach trip proved to be a great bonding experience for the group as we got comfortable chatting, listening to music and spreading ourselves over every available seat. The first stop on this sightseeing journey was Hamburg, where we enjoyed a guided tour through the city, learning about its unique history and language before boarding a cruise through the canals. The first night of this tour was our first experience in an A&O youth hostel, and while we all loved the abundant amounts of spaghetti, it was certain that everyone felt homesick for Düsseldorf. The next few days took us through the wonders of Berlin, showing us the still scarred buildings of the Second World War and the path of the Berlin wall. This historical guided tour through the city was for some of us the highlight of the entire trip, seeing the Reichstag building and the memorial of the Holocaust. The next stop for us was Rothenburg. This breathtakingly beautiful medieval town was like something out of a fairy tale and spending the night in a converted castle was such a treat. The local nightwatchman held a tour through the town, explaining the history from the medieval period to the current day. Finally we hit Nuremberg and Munich, two extremely interesting places. Nuremberg was of course home to Hitler’s Nazi party rallies, and the Documentation Centre - a museum that took us through an in-depth history of his career and life. Just outside Munich, we visited the Dachau concentration camp. Our time at this camp was quite sombre, although it was a very powerful learning experience for all.
As we entered the last leg of the trip, we enjoyed the breathtaking views of southern Germany and Austria. The highlight of the third week was definitely Austria. Our first stop was Salzburg, where we did the Sound of Music tour, taking in the sheer beauty of the Austrian country side and small villages along the way. While in Salzburg, we visited the famous Salt Mine, which is the oldest exhibit salt mine. We received a guided tour through the mine which was very interesting and fun to explore. Next on the trip was the lovely Vienna. While in Vienna we had some free time, which allowed us to really enjoy the city and take in all its beauty, while having a little bit of fun on the side. Our farewell dinner was held at a local restaurant ‘Hausmair’s Gaststätte’. Here we celebrated with a traditional Austrian banquet and reflected on the highlights of our trip with a tear or two. It was then time to conclude our trip and slowly but surely make our way home. After a flight delay, we finally commenced our journey home to Brisbane, arriving on the Sunday before school, all extremely exhausted, jet-lagged and definitely not ready for school.
We would like to thank Mrs Ciappara and Mrs Sauer for making the trip possible.
Did you know that nesting boxes are an important aspect to wildlife conservation? Increasingly due to an increase in human development as well as the removal of damaged and dead trees it has left many cavity nesting birds with fewer places to raise their young Invasive birds, such as the Indian myna compete with native bird species for the rest of these remaining cavities.
On the last day of Term 2, we were fortunate to complete the full cycle of this “head, hearts, hands” approach to this Service initiative by personally delivering the nesting boxes to the Wildlife Hospital, where they will be mounted in trees around the Sanctuary. At the Hospital we were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of all the happenings at the Hospital. This hospital is one of the busiest wildlife hospitals in the world, with statistics showing since 2007 their patient admissions have doubled. The staff and volunteers are truly dedicated to providing the highest level of veterinary care to all their patients – truly making a difference.
We would particularly like to thank Lewis McKillop for taking the time out of his busy day to share with us his knowledge. For all of us, it was extremely satisfying to know that our effort and production went to a great cause. On behalf of the entire group we would like to thank Mrs Walker for supervising and guiding us through this fun process.
Upon arrival to the Brisbane courts, we were briefed on court etiquette before making our way through the security check. The class divided into groups to watch different proceedings in the criminal courts.
The trials we observed included theft, assault (actual bodily harm), sexual assault and drug-related offences. Fortunately, all the proceedings that day were for sentencing. It was fascinating to watch closely, how the judge deliberated on the facts of the case and the potential impact of any sentence on the defendant, the victim and society. Indeed, it was a learning experience to observe the emotional impact of the judge’s sentence on the defendant, their legal team and their family members in the public gallery.
At the end of the day, each group came back with information from different trials to share with the entire class. Some students had the good fortune to have a private talk with the judge from the trial they were observing. Justice Rackemann shared information not only on the trial process, but also some interesting facts about the architecture of the building, including how glass is extensively featured to represent the transparency of the justice system. Also, Justice Rackeman talked about the complexity of the construction in relation to the different entrances and the underground tunnels leading to the police cells across the street. The judge also explained the tradition of the wigs that all Barristers and Judges wear in the court room, which cost up to $5000 and are made from horse hair.
Overall, I am confident that the whole class found the day extremely interesting and a tremendous enhancement to our legal studies.
Pre-Prep Friends began, learning about the size and capacity of the different trucks in terms they could easily relate to. We worked out how many elephants could be carried by the trucks or how many giraffes high, the tipper can be. After learning all about the wonderful work that trucks help with as well as safety around trucks, we went to visit the Boral truck.
Mr Clark skilfully drove the truck and trailer (dog) past Koala House onto the oval, near the Spartan track. The Pre-Preps, one at a time climbed up into the cabin to look around and try out the driver’s seat, even having a steer of the truck.
Thank you Mr Clark and Boral trucks for this wonderful, memorable experience and for sharing interesting facts about the trucks and Boral.
In order to create awareness about the Exhibition the students choose a committee. There are three to choose from; advertising, speaking or the writing committee.
The advertising committee will be responsible for making posters to advertise the PYP Exhibition. The speaking committee will present in assembly, regarding the Exhibition and the writing committee will be writing an article about the PYP Exhibition for the newsletter.
We also have a blog on Schoolbox which we use to inform our class teachers about the progress we are making. This is a great way to communicate with our interest group and find information. It will be a challenging but fun term. We will be expected to do our best but in the end it will be worth it.
Congratulations to Anna Thomas and Aayush Chand for achieving a Distinction in their recent Effective Communication Exam.
Well done you two!
The current assignment offers students a choice of learning material on utopias, including Plato’s Republic and Thomas More’s Utopia. For the dystopic worlds, students are free to draw upon a range of the novels and films. Some sources include Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaiden’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and the films Metropolis by Fritz Lang and Elysium starring Matt Damon.
Our focus at Somerset College is on ‘doing philosophy” rather than simply learning about the ideas of philosophers. Therefore, in the second part of the assignment, students are designing a type of government for a futurist colony of 10,000 people on the planet Mars.
Justin has recently returned from Toowoomba representing the South Coast District in Golf at the Queensland Schools 12 and Under State Championships, a four day event.
The South Coast Team won the teams' event and Justin won the overall state champion title for the 12 and Under Boys. Justin was also selected to represent Queensland state at the Australian Championships in Adelaide in December this year.
Mia competed in the Queensland Surf Lifesaving Pool Rescue Championships in July and won two Golds and one silver medal. She was also awarded the Under 12 Female Athlete of the Year for the Point Danger Branch (which covers all Surf Clubs from Tallebudgera to the border) at their awards night on Saturday night.
She will now take part in the Australian Pool Rescue Championships in Adelaide this weekend.
Students meet at 7.00am at the Track and practices are daily:
Students of all abilities and experience are welcome and all events are catered for with excellent coaches. Come and join Somerset’s biggest team.
All sporting details are posted on Schoolbox on the Sports page.
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