Desmond Chuah, Georgina Powell, Mohnish Chand, Joanne Jo, Lilly Thompson and Kristen Crasto have been invited to GYLC after meeting the high criteria in academics, service to others and leadership, required for nomination.
Previous College students who have attended the conference include Marina Hou (Class of 2016) and Jessica Lekich (Class of 2018). Our students will have the opportunity to learn from and exchange ideas with today’s world leaders in the challenging and dynamic environments of Washington DC and New York City. Through their programme, our students will meet with top business leaders, policy officials, lobbyists, journalists, diplomats, and academics from diverse cultures and backgrounds who will inform and exchange ideas with our students, and help them cultivate important leadership skills. These young leaders will be encouraged to analyse issues, form and advocate positions, as well as influence sound decision-making. Our students will be inspired to expand their horizons by fully exploring cultural differences, gaining first-hand exposure to the challenges of international diplomacy, developing their passion for international affairs while exploring a future career, and gaining a fresh, new global perspective.
Between their presentations and workshops, our students will also immerse themselves in the cultural aspect of their educational programme. They will explore Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York City, discovering all of the illustrious landmarks these cities have to offer. In Washington DC, they will visit the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, Smithsonian Institute, and Holocaust Museum. In Philadelphia, they will enjoy lunch and explore the renowned University of Pennsylvania campus on their way to New York. In New York City, they will taste the culture of Chinatown, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), experience bustling Times Square, and take a dinner cruise on the New York Harbor, where they can catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. They will absorb the culture, history and world views of the diverse people who are key players on the global stage during GYLC’s fascinating site visits.
Each day our students will engage in understanding and developing impactful leadership. They will explore their role as a global leader by using their communication and negotiation skills, to bring their peers to a consensus on an issue of worldwide importance. In a Global Summit simulation, held at the United Nations headquarters, based on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), along with their fellow scholars, they will act as diplomats representing various countries on international commissions. They will draft policy proposals; debate how to mobilise efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities, and tackle climate change; pass resolutions; and adopt plans of action.
Our students will return home from GYLC with a greater understanding of their roles and responsibilities as citizens and future leaders in an international community. As an IB World School we value an internationally minded learner who is above all a competent communicator, open-minded and knowledgeable. Our attending students grasp the importance of inquiry, challenge themselves to think critically and creatively, and are highly reflective. They represent the highest standards of integrity and they appreciate and support others. They are outstanding ambassadors for the College and we know they will fully embrace the opportunity and challenges that lie ahead. We wish them safe travel and look forward to hearing of their experiences on their return.
My project was principally sparked from my childhood experiences. Creating a mosaic initiated from memories of my nana and I, crafting small art pieces from meticulously arranged glass tiles.
Having a profound passion for recycling, I decided to create my art piece from pieces of aluminium drink cans, and then finish my piece by coating with glass resin. When considering a prominent cultural icon, a distant memory of my dad and I listening to Hound Dog and Suspicious Minds on full blast … and my mum yelling at us to turn it down, and then later, myself playing several of his pieces on piano, logically progressed to Elvis Presley being my cultural icon.
Beginning my Project was a discouraging experience. Taking approximately two weeks to cut, construct and glue just the eyes onto the board, the complexity of my project daunted me. My dad, being an artist, advised to me to keep going, insisting it would come together with patience and perseverance; after rebuilding the nose three times, I thought he was deranged.
Regardless of the challenges, I did persevere, and I could begin to see the face emerging from the blank canvas. I then became enthused and determined. Eighteen mosaic tiles in two weeks became 1000 in one week – I was up until 4.00am several days over the school holidays. I finished my project after 272 hours, cutting up over 600 cans into 4800 small pieces and using over 10,000 glue dots. It was backbreaking, figuratively and literally, but I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
If you told me a year ago that I would make a mosaic Elvis Presley from nearly 5000 pieces of cut aluminium can, I would not have believed you. The personal project has truly shown me that if you put your mind to it, and through patience and perseverance you can accomplish anything; an invaluable life lesson especially entering Year 11 next year. I am so excited to share my art piece with the Somerset community, to see the application of my acquired skills in the future and to never see another soft drink can again!
As part of the 2019 Bond University Model UN Conference (BUHMUN), students from all over southeast Queensland were recruited to expertly cover the days’ events through a constant stream of Facebook updates, video interviews, Tweets, and even a printed BUHMUN Newspaper.
Students received extensive workshopping and guidance from Bond University lecturers on the most professional journalist tips and tricks, resulting in professional publications of such a high calibre that they attracted the attention of the United Nations Press Secretary, who ‘liked’ their posts on Twitter!
Giulia soaked up her share of the fun, authoring two articles in the paper and co-authoring another, as well as composing two video interview compilations for social media. The social media stream from the event can be viewed here.
To top it off, Giulia received one of just three awards presented to the student journalists for Best Committee Coverage throughout the conference.
Congratulations to Giulia on managing her time and workload during exams to participate in this exciting opportunity.
Our intent was to move away from a professional learning programme that was externally driven and lacked efficacy to a model that was inclusive and scalable. With this goal, designing and delivering an in-house professional learning program that was aligned to the strategic direction of the school, resulted in the establishment of the Somerset Leadership Academy.
NESLI (National Excellence in School Leadership Initiative) and the Somerset Leadership Academy partnered to co-construct a range of leaderships programmes, suited to a variety of career stages. Through each programme, our participants are prompted to reflect on the content and themes in three distinct ways: how the concepts addressed directly impact their leadership capability; how they can be extended to their team members to make them more effective and how they can be adapted for use in the broader education community context. This process helps to ensure our staff build comprehensive and sustainable capabilities, for developing those around them, during and after each programme.
Over 2017 and 2018, 43 teachers have now completed one of the following programmes: The Australian Schools Leadership Colloquium, Aspiring to Middle Leadership or The Advanced Leadership Programme for Women. This year we are very excited to have a further 22 staff complete the Leadership Colloquium. Participants in this year’s programme, for the first time, come from a diverse range of roles within the College, ranging from teaching faculty, sports managers, the Information Services Administrator, College Administration, the Finance Team, enrolments and communications. The mixed group has fostered a stronger sense of collegiately and understanding of the complexities and challenges of the different departments in the College. However, it has also strengthened the concept of leading together through a common approach and language.
Adding to our 2019 Academy offerings, we organised a one-day in-service, to further build on the skills developed in the previous leadership colloquium programmes. In developing our focus, Dr Mike Gaffney, the Academic Director of NESLI influenced our direction. Dr Gaffney highlights the very real connection between leadership, wellbeing and positive student outcomes.
"One of the key characteristics of any high performing school is the high degree of wellbeing and engagement evident within its workforce. This is never more apparent and important than within the executive and middle leadership ranks. For schools to have a positive and productive culture they need to be guided by leaders who recognise the importance of good health and wellbeing in themselves and their staff. It is also clear that staff wellbeing and engagement is a critical element in enabling improved student outcomes. It is therefore vitally important that as school leaders we consistently monitor and find ways to enhance our own wellbeing and that of staff."
With this in mind, Dr Anna Dabrowski, NESLI Director of Education and Evaluation led a one-day programme for our senior and middle leaders. The day focused on leadership strategies for ‘Wellbeing, Resilience and Relationships’.
We continue to appreciate NESLI’s breadth of expertise across educational leadership as they continue to support us in successfully targeting the development of leadership capacity, which remains a key area in our current strategic plan. Our goal to embed leadership in the school community as a whole, supports our vision of a shared responsibility for a shared purpose of community. As we reflect on our progress we certainly value the contribution these leaders are making to the quality of teaching and learning, to wellbeing and to the continuous improvement of the College. These programmes are fundamentally changing how our staff approach their roles within the College and we believe will produce the kind of leaders who will themselves leave a legacy.
Guests were welcomed with relaxing music playing in the background, dimmed lights and were put into small groups ready to be massaged by their children. Prep friends had been rehearsing how to massage all week and were keen to spoil their Mums. The afternoon concluded with a special book and many cuddles and snuggles. Prep mothers were then delighted to be given gifts that their children had busily made for them. This included a hand-crafted picture that Prep friends had drawn of their “Super Mum” that identified four different personal strengths that their Mum displays. They also received some scrumptious chocolate slice that Prep friends had made at school during the week.
What a joy it was to see Prep friends and guests sharing such a wonderful afternoon together, full of memories that will be cherished forever.
The emphasis on play was a conscious one by the library, as research has shown that play engages children in the process of learning. In his book, Let the Children Play Finnish educator, Pasi Sahlberg discusses how more play will help our children explore, discover, fail, socialise and flourish – all skills they will need to leverage in their future.
We prepared for this shift by augmenting the games we had on offer, bulking up our lego supplies until they reached an epidemic proportion and making everything easily accessible. We are all about the 'giant' games, the favourite games of our childhood which have been repurposed, resized and now rediscovered by our Junior School students.
In the process we have witnessed some complex lego creations, sophisticated domino structures and intense chess exchanges, but mostly what we have noticed is an authentic desire for play.
On any given lunch there will be upwards of 100 students in here designing, creating, building, problem-solving, reading and sharing ideas with each other. In our era of innovation, design thinking is a powerful tool and stripping it back to its purest form has been transformative for our Junior School lunches.
Alumni Award recipients exemplify the transformation individual people can create through taking action and giving back to their community. Alumni Award recipients are leaders and innovators in their field, and exemplify the way in which we can create change through the application of passion, empathy, and dedication.
The Alumni Association encourages internal and external nominations for each of the Annual Alumni Awards categories. All nominees must have completed Year 12 at Somerset College and must not be a member of the Alumni Association Committee or the Annual Alumni Awards Selection Committee.
For more information click here.
This year our kind sponsors are offering some amazing prizes.
Here are just a few of the prizes to be won on the day:
Scooter Hut - a $600 Scooter
Condev Construction - Win a “Tradie for the Day”, a labourer to do the tasks you can't!
onPlatinum ICT - a Food and Wine Hamper
The Golf School, (Palm Meadows driving range coaching and fitting centre) will be running a competition to guess your driving distance and also video your swing using Trackman technology for a chance to win Lessons
For more information on the Somerset Golf Classic, click here.
As usual, Somerset was a strong competitor with rowers in almost every event. A standout of the day was the Year 10 Boys Quad consisting of Angus Cheung, Joshua Mills, Fergus McKeon, Cameron Smith and coxed by Austin Macrossan who placed first after a hard-fought battle with Varsity College. Well done to all the rowers and, as always, thank you to the coaches and supporters.
The next regatta will be held 25 May at Coomera Lake.
Rowing Captain, Zara Smith was kind enough to take the time in her busy day to answer some questions and help us learn a little more about her:
1. When did you start rowing? When I was in Year 8, 2015.
2. Why did you start rowing? I very vividly remember both telling my Year 6 teacher (Mr Zernike) that I really wanted to and thinking that all the kids who came off the rowing bus every morning were super cool.
3. Your greatest rowing achievement. My greatest rowing achievement has probably been completing the Head of the Tweed in the Schoolboys Eight (which is 21km long!). It was really long and hard, but it reinforced that I have a lot of internal strength and I was left with a great sense of satisfaction and some very impressive blisters!
4. Your greatest rowing embarrassment. I have many but in my first year, I capsized after trying to pick up a bottle out of the water at the bridge between the Shed and the 1km, and then to top it all off I couldn’t get back into my boat, so I had to swim over to the shore. I try not to capsize these days.
5. Your hopes for Somerset rowing. I love the really strong bonds we develop within the rowing community, and it has been amazing to have some of the past rowers turn up and support their family and friends this year. I would love to see more girls try rowing and I would love to come back in a year or two and see the girls outnumber the boys!
Yr 8 Girls Novice Single – Georgia Daly (Div 2)
Yr 10 Girls Single – Emma Wilson (Div 2)
Yr 8 Boys Novice Single – Armani Kujovic (Div 1)
Schoolboys 8 - Min Jae Kyeong, Thomas Liu, Samuel Liu, Jack Daly, Julius Wright, Chester Whiting, Declan Thew, Joe Lanham, Cox: Austin Macrossan
Yr 9 Girls Novice Single – Lauren Taylor Girdler
Yr 9 Boys Doubles – Raffi Anderson, Callum McClure (Div 1)
Yr 10 Boys Quad - Angus Cheung, Joshua Mills, Fergus McKeon, Cameron Smith, Cox: Austin Macrossan
Game 1 was a steep learning curve for the girls who were required to learn the rules and basics of futsal rather quickly in a difficult opening game against Aquinas Catholic College. More prepared and confident for Game 2, the girls took on St Andrews Lutheran College in a nail-biting match, defeated in the dying minutes by 1 goal. Game 3 saw them take on futsal juggernaut Robina SHS and the girls demonstrated their competitiveness and skill, scoring first and securing an early lead. However, sadly, Robina were able to bounce back, taking all 3 points at the final siren. The girls ended up in the 3 vs 4 play-off against St Andrews and despite leading for a lot of the game, unfortunately lost 3 to 2.
Overall, they had a fantastic day, learning the importance of teamwork and never giving up, and some valuable new skills that will benefit them on the larger soccer field. Congratulations to Isla Bigwood who netted all 5 of the teams goals on the day!
The day after, on Thursday the boys U16 and U19 took the bus to Byron Bay. Somerset Boys U16 presented by Lucas McKean, Peter Osborne, Ryan Harraway, Ethan Robinson, Daleep Bains and Oliver Leal. Somerset Boys U19 presented by Mitch Murdock, Mark Ritchie, Lachlan Gallagher, Ky Codd, Brendan Garrett and Jakob Eljed
Both teams came good through their group stage and made themselves up for the Semi Finals. Unfortunately, the opponent had better skills and defeated us. Overall this was a great experience for the boys.
Please check the Schoolbox Futsal Page for more Futsal information at Somerset College.
The Under 9 had a bye. They will be back in action this week against Southport. The boys trained good this week together with Coach Maarten.
The Under 6 and Under 7 played at Somerset College Track & Field. With the Under 6 kicking off at 8.30am versus Robina. The Under 6 played with Mayuko, Ruben, Hamish, Emily and Jesse. The boys and girls had a few challenges against Robina. Their opponents too strong in the end, scoring more goals.
After the Under 6 it was the turn for Under 7 Blue and Under 7 Green. Both had a challenging game versus Palm Beach and Mudgeeraba. Great effort and sportsmanship from both clubs made an it a great football morning.
Saturday May 18 all Spartans Football teams have away games.
Please check the Football Club Schoolbox Page for more info.
Somerset club team standings and top scorers are as below:
U9 Mixed Div 1: 6th place (Jack Pluss 8 points per game)U11 Girls Blue Div 2: 3rd place (Emiti McNamara 7.5 points per game)U11 Boys Blue Div 1: 5th place (Will Pluss 6.2 points per game)U11 Boys Green Div 2: 5th place (Daniel Kim/Panteli Charisiou 2 points per game)U11 Boys White Div 2: 3rd place (William Li 4.8 points per game)U13 Girls Blue Div 2: 5th place (Maya Pearse 13.8 points per game)U13 Boys Blue Div 2: 1st place (Benjamin Just 14.7 points per game)U13 Boys Green Div 1: 7th place (Amon Watanabe 6.3 points per game)U13 Boys White Div 3: 10th place (Tarang Kondamudi 5 points per game)U13 Boys Black Div 4: 4th place (Tyler Luo 10.5 points per game)U15 Girls Blue Div 1: 5th place (Ruby Partridge 9 points per game)U15 Boys Blue Div 1: 10th place (Alex Psaras 7.2 points per game)U15 Boys Green Div 3: 3rd place (Ali Cuhadaroglu 12.2 points per game)U15 Boys White Div 4: 7th place (Harry Walters 12.3 points per game)U15 Boys Black Div 3: 11th place (Benny Lu 5.8 points per game)U17 Boys Blue Div 1: 8th place (Calvin Conley 14.4 points per game)U17 Boys Green Div 2: 10th place (Frank Tomlinson 5.6 points per game)U17 Boys White Div 3: 10th place (Xavier McMullen 10.8 points per game)Open Girls Blue Div 1: 9th place (Katisha Webb 8 points per game)Open Girls Green Div 2: 7th place (Claudia Crimmins 10.2 points per game)U20 Boys Blue Div 1: 8th place (Dom Bensley 16.6 points per game)U20 Boys Green Div 2: 6th place (Ahmet Cuhadaroglu/Luke Jackson 6 points per game)
The growth and improvement of the Spartans Basketball program has resulted in several teams competing in tournaments across the Queensland, and heading to Melbourne for the National Championships too. In 2019, Spartans Basketball plans to send teams to the below tournaments to compete and represent their school's basketball club:• U11 Club Championships in Caloundra (July 2019) Boys + Girls teams• Gold Coast Invitational Basketball Tournament at Hillcrest Christian College (July 2019) 15 Year Boys, 15 Year Girls + Open Boys teams• National Schools Championships in Melbourne (December 2019) U17 and Open Boys + Girls teams depending on numbers
U13 Girls: Maya PearseMaya has been a leader in her team, and thrives in transition on both ends of the floor. She anticipates each possession and creates opportunities by reading the play and taking advantage of opposition players who are slow to react. Maya likes to get inside the paint and make a good read to either go all the way to the hoop or set up her team-mates in a better position. She is also a strong defender, and is an key cog in a competitive under 13 Spartans girls team, lead by her Dad, Coach Donovan Pearse. Keep up the great work and leadership Maya and team!
U13 Boys: James HartleyJames is a smart young player with a great basketball brain. He patiently breaks down defences by waiting for the right opportunity to attack, freezing his defender with his change of pace and playmaking ability. James is also a fantastic leader, communicator and has one of the best jump-shots in his age group, with great form and focus on display each and every shot attempt. He is in control with the ball in hand, and rarely rushes and takes a bad shot attempt or makes a silly pass. James is also passionate and competitive, and hates to lose, which is a great quality for any high potential player. Keep playing hard and leading from the front James, you are a great example to others at Spartans Basketball Club!
We Are Currently Looking For New Basketball Players To Join!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.
This week, our ‘Staff Spartan of the Week’ is Keita Ishii for designing the Late Slip for Sport Training document as well as for being a patient coach who focuses his team on active participation and enjoyment. Thank you Keita!
Kye Reynoldson has been selected in the Queensland side for the Australian AFL Championships!
Kye was part of the South Coast School Sport team that won the State Title on Sunday.
Somerset's Netballer Kasey Collins has been selected to play for Queensland.
Kasey will play for the Queensland Schoolgirls 19 Under Netball Team.
Kasey was an integral player in her South Coast team who finished in second place at Queensland Secondary Schools Tournament in Townsville last week.
Well Done Kasey!
Congratulations to Jordon Webb who has been selected for the Queensland 17 and Under Men’s Netball team and has also been named co-captain.
Jordon competed at the Australian Men’s and Mixed National Championships in Melbourne from 20 to 27 April, when Queensland scored a silver medal. He was voted fourth Most Valuable Player in the tournament and named in the Australian 17 and under Men's Netball Team which tours New Zealand in September.
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