The success of the Colloquium was exceptional. This was the impetus for the College to create a programme that will formally assist staff identify and develop leadership skills relevant to their career stage and current roles and responsibilities.
In partnership with NESLI, we worked together to create The Somerset College Leadership Academy (SLA). This is an innovative pathway that has enabled us to bring together a range of leadership programmes from NESLI’s internationally respected curriculum. The SLA provides a strategic and sustainable platform that allows us to provide an industry-leading approach to developing the leadership capability of all staff throughout our organisation.
With NESLI’s oversight of the Leadership Academy model, programmes were mapped into a logical pathway culminating in credit towards Masters-level qualifications. This enabled us to plan appropriate and timely developmental interventions to the specific needs of our staff members throughout their professional journey at Somerset College. Our suite of programmes include the Enhancing Professional Practice, Aspiring to Middle Leadership, Australian Schools Leadership Colloquium, Advanced Leadership for Women, and Executive Leadership.
This year we are excited to have a further 22 staff involved in this initiative. We are delighted with their motivation and excitement for the opportunity. In Week Three our Aspiring to Middle Leadership participants started their course with a two day introduction with facilitator, Paul Larkin. This feedback from a staff member summarizes those expressed by the group:
"I have a tendency to be sceptical when it comes to leadership courses, as I’ve seen some presentations which were entertaining, but often had no tangible, take away message to implement in my role in schools. The NESLI course far surpassed my expectations. The information delivered was relevant and meaningful and I could immediately see how implementing some of the strategies would improve my interactions and leadership of others. The activities were engaging and I found the self-reflection confronting in a way that challenged me to identify areas I need to develop and take pride in aspects that are strengths."
We feel confident and proud of this significant undertaking, as outlined in our current Strategic Plan. We see this as more than an investment in individuals; it is an investment in our organisation and this can only have a positive outcome for our most important stakeholders, our students.
On Thursday 8 February a group of 16 College leaders were privileged enough to spend the day at Year 7 Camp. The day saw us work through a rotation of activities with our respective houses, including general fitness, origami, boxercise, meditation/yoga, team building and concert preparation. All of the activities were aimed at teaching valuable lessons in teamwork, cooperation and collaboration, and of course designed for maximum enjoyment.
One of the day’s activities was to work with the 7s to create a skit for the camp concert to be held after dinner. Hosted by the Year 7 Captains - Katie and Michael - the Year 7s from each House, and their Senior House leaders had the task of entertaining the crowd within a 10-minute window. While all performances were excellent, Veivers eventually took out the prize for best skit. Fortunately, the amazing performances in no way outshone the fantastic senior dance (or you could say poorly sung performance) to Justin Bieber’s classic Baby.
Year 7 camp is a great opportunity for all year 7s to bond as a House Group and get to know everyone in their cohort. It is also a really special opportunity to allow the Year 7s to know their Senior Leaders better and form friendships that will last into the future. We trust the Year 7s had as an enjoyable time, as did the seniors who attended.
We can’t wait to work with the Year 7s again in the near future!
“Be a Good Ancestor, Plant trees you’ll never see” - James Kerr
These core values consist of brotherhood, commitment, respect and responsibility, and are the guiding principles for all players involved in the squad to ensure success on and off the field.
On Sunday 11 February, students from the 1st XV Rugby Squad spent the day completing a community service project in Ashmore at the house of Janette. Throughout the day the students spent time fine tuning their trimming, cutting, snipping, sculpting and clearing skills, removing overgrown trees, bushes and palms from the property. It required multiple trips up and down the hill to load the utes and trailers, side stepping spider webs and several trips to the Molendinar Waste and Recycling Centre.
The boys displayed a substantial amount of character in sweltering conditions to complete the project. A wonderful experience for staff and students involved and a fantastic way to spend some time together helping someone in need. All players are working hard to improve themselves in a number of areas each day, at the College and in the wider community to ensure that they represent, in a positive way, all those who have come before them, and all those who will follow them in the years to come.
My thanks to all the boys who got stuck in, their parents who gave them permission to attend as well as Mr Troy Zernike and Mr Scott Walsh for getting their hands dirty too. If this is a key indicator to the season ahead then we can expect a positive and successful year in Rugby.
Somerset College achieves excellence in these mathematical skills, but, as with everything we do, we look to achieve something more, in creating a student who can think logically and critically. "Fundamental numeracy skills are important and very useful, but the transferability of things like problem solving and modelling to other areas of life – there’s huge value in that," explains Mr Abdou.
"Problem solving requires critical thinking skills and it calls for decision making about what knowledge to apply in a given scenario." Students who gather data, critically analyse it and apply it and transfer it to learning new problems and contexts, are becoming good critical thinkers.
Our teachers foster this critical thinking ability by teaching an array of problem-solving strategies, such as formulate, solve, evaluate, analyse and communicate. They encourage students to identify which strategies they are using on a particular problem.
Mr Grocott explains, "Tasks are open ended which provides scope to self-direct their learning and follow a path specific to them. This makes the learning process more purposeful for students.” Students can select different strategies which help them work out what they need to apply in order to work out a particular problem. It could be as simple as guess and check, or it may involve drawing a graph or a table.
“Every time we need to make a decision, we can draw on critical thinking skills, such as logic and deduction, to help us reason and evaluate.” According to Mr Abdou, this problem-solving approach instils more than simple mathematical ability. "This approach sets up students with confidence that they can solve problems, and with multiple strategies for solving the same problem," he explains. "Students can apply this problem solving expertise to all of their classes."
Students at Somerset College achieve excellent results. In 2016 and 2017, for example, almost 70 per cent of our Mathematics C students achieved grades in the A range. Our high achievers in Mathematics also accomplish more than just good grades. For example, Marina Hou, our top performing student in Mathematics from the class of 2016 and member of the Somerset Mathematical Society, has gone on to Oxford University of University in England, reading Law. Other notable graduates from the class of 2016 are Elizabeth Kay and Julia Wright-Smith, who are both Actuarial Studies Co-op scholars at the University of New South Wales.
While we are very proud of our students’ strong IB and QCE performance, at Somerset College, we believe that academic excellence in mathematics includes a more robust set of qualities. By focusing on our students’ personal connection to Maths, we encourage students to fully realise their curiosity, confidence and a life-long love of learning.
We encourage enrolment in a range of Maths classes, encouraging students to strive for and achieve their personal best in this crucial subject. We are very proud that approximately 65 per cent of our students choose to take advanced mathematics classes (significantly higher than the state average of less than 40 per cent). We view this active enrolment as a real success in an environment where many students abandon mathematics as being "too hard".
Over 40 people came to see if they could outsmart Titration Nation, Grace Kennett, Jason Zhang and Alex Gerrard. We also observed the mesmerising colour-changing-oscillating-clock reaction, and watched how bright magnesium ribbon glows when lit on fire. Last, but not least, we used the Quad as our fume-cupboard and lab to investigate how the reaction between sulfuric acid and sugar can create a snake made of carbon.
The purpose of the Science Committee is to delve deeper into the three sciences at Somerset: Chemistry, Physics and Biology. We want to explore and explain how Science affects every aspect of our daily life and continue to fuel the curiosity behind all sciences. This year our goal is to implement a Science Committee Project, which will raise the awareness and interest in Science at Somerset and will allow every member to contribute. Don’t be afraid to bring along some crazy ideas for activities throughout the year and also any suggestions for Science Week because we want to this Science Committee Project to be the best one Somerset has ever seen.
We encourage everyone to come join, even if you are not a huge Science fanatic and just want to try out some interesting experiments. If you are struggling with a science topic or need some help with understanding what you need to do for your assignments, Ms Hyman and Mrs Amores, as well as a large number of the Year 12s, including our Academic Captains, are happy to help you out (and maybe might give you a tip or two!) All in all, it was a successful first meeting, filled with smiles and laughs, and we encourage every curious mind to come along next Thursday 1 March to Smith 2.1 from 3:30 to 5:00pm.
Life is not always fun and easy. What do we do when bad things happen in our life?
Resilience is a fancy word that means being able to deal or cope with difficult situations in life. A resilient person is able to bounce back and keep going when things get tough and maintain their sense of who they are as a person.
Students learnt that there are many different abilities to being resilient:
The Bouncing Back workshop was a great chance for students to role play and apply these skills in social situations.
The Directors had an extremely difficult decision to make when casting, and that is a credit to the depth of talent we have among our Year 7 to 12 students.
The Performing Arts building is a hive of activity as our House Play directors and casts are now busily refining their entries for the 2018 House Plays Festival.
The Andrews House Directors are Alexandra Gerrard and Olivia Hammond, and they are presenting Smells Like Impulse, a comedy exploring the stereotypes that exist within the schoolyard.
The Franklin House Directors are Jessica Jackson and Kevin Song, and they are working with Jinxed, a race against the clock set in a doctors waiting room, where characters have to deal with their issues as well do battle with a mob of bargain hunting shoppers.
The Laver House Directors are Sebastian Angliss-Li and Trudi Morris, and they are delving into Character Analysis, a play that explores the detective noir genre, with a slightly absurdist twist.
The Starkey House Directors are Vivi Baker and Aidan McKeon, and they are diving into The Invited Audience, this face paced comedy definitely proves the idea that anything can happen throughout a live performance!
The Veivers House Directors are Taylor Crooks and Lucas Stokes, and they are exploring Spaghetti Wars, a comedic drama that fuses Romeo and Juliet…. With pasta!
The House Plays Festival begins on Thursday 1 March and concludes on Friday 2 March (the adjudication performance). Both performances begin at 6.00pm and tickets are on sale through here .
Come along and support your House!
On Wednesday 21 February, 30 Somerset Economics students joined 260 students from other Gold Coast schools to listen to Tim and Terry from the Reserve Bank of Australia talk about the Australian economy. During the speech, students discovered that:
The following swimmers placed in the top ten in their main events: Connor Borkowsky, Jaxson Brimble, Mia Collins, Millie Entwistle and James Sneesby.
While the following swimmers were State Sprint medallists: Ky Codd (Bronze 15 years 50m Breaststroke) and Jorja Otto (Silver 13 years 50m Butterfly and silver 50m Backstroke).
Finally, the Somerset Swim Club had three State Champions being current student Harrison Smith (17 to 18 years 50m Breaststroke) and former student CJ Licuanan (17 to 18 years 50m Freestyle) as well as Cameron Donovan (14 years 50m Breaststroke).
Congratulations to Somerset Swimmers on a fantastic meet and some impressive results. A special mention goes to Lachlan Kerry and Cameron Donovan who showed great team spirit over the weekend helping team mates when needed. A big thank you also goes to Coach Cheryl for coaching and supporting our swimmers over the course of the weekends racing.
The next few weeks are busy with swimming over a number of areas. The Somerset Swim Club is sending seven athletes to the Commonwealth Games Trials at Southport from 28 February to 3 March. These will be James Roberts, Ben Treffers, Yolane Kukla, CJ Licuanan, Luke Percy, Blake Jones, and Andrew Digby with Coach Ash leading the swimmers and Coach Cheryl assisting. We wish the swimmers the best of luck for the selection trials and will be watching on TV. There are tickets available for families to go along and see the event live as well. In addition to this, next week is South Coast selection trials at Miami Pool on Monday. The College has quite a few swimmers attending to gain selection on the South Coast Team to attend the State Championships in March. Good luck to these swimmers.
Happy Swimming!
All policies and procedures are outlined in the Senior School Sport page of Schoolbox, under “Sport Policy and Dates”. All students and parents are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these.Please note, practices are compulsory for both Winter and Summer Seasons.
Monday 26 February at Miami Pool. All qualifiers have been sent their events, programmes and permission booklets that need to be signed and taken on the day. Ensure you have contacted the College to notify of your son/daughter’s absence.
Hinterland Trials are for strong performers to trial for representative selection in school sport. These lead to Regional and State teams.
Students wanting to trial for these teams, must email or come to the Sports Department ASAP. All trials are listed on the Sports Page of Schoolbox (“Representative Sport” tile) and announced in Notices during the week.
Every day at 7.00am to 8.15am
Meet Ms McKenna and Ms Oppermann at the Track, all welcome
Friday 23 February APS Winter Sports Trials #1/3
Friday 2 March APS Winter Sports Trials #2/3
Friday 9 March APS Winter Sports Trials #3/3
Student Injuries: If your son or daughter is injured at school sport, it must be recorded at the time by the school nurse/medical person present if parents wish to apply through the school insurance policy. If delayed signs or symptoms arise over the weekend, students must notify the school nurse on Monday morning.
Sports Information:
All sporting details are posted on Schoolbox on the Sports page.
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