No. 5, Term Three, 2018

However, they agreed that the introduction of an extended internal exam programme in their last term would necessarily mean they would not be a presence at the College for most of that term.

Class of 2018 Leadership Team, announced at Scholars' Day 2017.

Their advice was also that this might be an opportunity for some mentoring of the incoming Student Leadership Team by the current Captains and Staff. It is an inspired suggestion and fills me with admiration that they want to leave the College a better place.

We decided that this was such a good suggestion that we would implement these changes this year after consultation with the Class of 2019, Senior School Teachers and other students. Feedback from these groups has been overwhelmingly positive and so we have begun the process in this term.

The only material change to the appointment process is that we will name the Captains-Elect at a special Leadership Assembly on Friday 21 September 2018 at 2.30pm. This will be attended by all of the Senior School and parents of Year 11 who are able to join us.

We look forward to the opportunities for enhanced preparation for leadership this will deliver for our Senior Class.

We are developing our understanding of programming language algorithms, loops and statements, and this week we are programming our animals to move on a continuous loop using Lego WeDo robots. Students are having lots of fun!

"Thank you Mrs Boone this is so much fun."

"I want to create an ecosystem to bring my robot to life."

"I need to ‘Debug’ my robot Mrs Boone it is not working properly."

Students are all looking forward to animal race day in Week 10.

Mr Clark explained that the huge Boral truck is used to make cement and concrete for buildings such as our schools and homes. The huge truck can hold up to six elephants and when the back is tilted can reach the height of two giraffes!!

Hamish Rose commented that he got to climb into the truck and loved it so much. He thanked Somerset for allowing Mr Clark to come to our class, as it was just amazing.

A lifetime memory created.

Thank you Mr Clark.

It has to be said that this date alignment will not occur for another 100 years so if you did miss it, you could have a long wait. The only other possible way to catch it would be to calculate phi to another decimal place (1.6180), so 16 January 2080 (16/1/80) would also work.

The Somerset Mathematical Society held their own Phi nite to celebrate this remarkable number, known by the popular name of the Golden Ratio. This took place on Phiday, 10 August (which is two x phive), at phive 0 phive.

The evening began with everyone receiving a phree gift, which was phinomenal and is a credit to the philanthropy of the SMS. The SMS captains stamped their mark on the evening like philatelists and introduced the talks, tricks, dancing and even mathematical high phives.

Natalie Mai and Hayeon Byeon started the proceedings with some mathematical magic which certainly impressed the audience. When they explained the maths behind the trick the audience was even more astounded.

James Guy then introduced his own version of Celebrity Phi-ces analysing the faces of the Somerset Maths teachers to see whose features most closely resembled the Golden Ratio. Mr Abdou finished first on 1.641, Mr Turner second on 1.523 with Ms Capper third on 1.517. Mr Wrigley finished last although this decision is still pending an appeal on the grounds that with an aspect ratio of √(-1), he should have judged in the Complex plane.

Zara Smith and Mitchell Hamilton invited audience participation in the popular Phi swatting which is a competition to swat the image which contains phi and then Jason Adams had the whole room on their feet with graph dancing moves, often referred to as Philates.

Mr Turner fired up Geogebra to illustrate the importance of phi for plants to achieve the most efficient packing of seeds in a sunflower to ensure they maximise seed dispersal. He had the audience mesmerized as they watched the seed patterns swirling around and around….and around.

Tiffany Yuen then explained the brachistochrone problem which she studied as part of her Internal Assessment for her Maths IB course. The problem here is to find the curve of fastest descent on a track and this was a problem posed in the 17th Century by Johann Bernoulli. At the time, no-one could solve it for six months but then Newton heard of it and solved it overnight using Calculus. The solution to the problem is a curve known as a cycloid.

Jason Adams then brought the crowd to its feet again with his rendition of High Phives. The greetings ranged from tangential to asymptotic and from sinusoidal to Roman.

Mr Wrigley then gave a lecture on the ‘Life of Phi’ which traced the roots of this mystical number from its first mention by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, up to more recent discoveries. After the talk, Anna Georgeson revealed the answers to the quiz from the back of the programme.

The phi reciting competition was run by Victoria and Mia Huang with Kei Naito winning with just 25 digits. Two years ago, Callum Moffat managed 235 digits!

The evening ended in the aftermath with hot phies, phizzy drinks and phibonachos and was best described as a phun philled phi phestival phor phree. By the way, 10 August 2018 also marks the start of a 10 day period of palindromes in the dates, (written in American format): 10 August 2018 was 8/10/18, 11 August 2018 was 8/11/18 and this continues on until 19 August 2018 or 8/19/18. In 2019, palindrome dates will occur again in September.

Participants were required to store food, clothing and other necessities in their backpack and live off these bare essentials for 40 hours. All of the proceeds made were donated to World Vision.

After setting up our sleeping bags and getting ready for the evening ahead, we started off the afternoon with a Colour Run. Armed in white t-shirts and swimming goggles, we prepared to be covered in coloured powder thrown at us by Year 11 IB students, Miss Capper and Mrs Walker, as we ran laps of the oval all in the name of charity.

Following dinner, we had the privilege of watching a live debate between the Somerset Opens Debating teams titled, Refugees Deserve Better From Us. A very relevant topic and a hard-fought debate as both teams delivered convincing arguments. Congratulations Somerset 1, winners of the debate.

One of the highlights of the evening was a poetry workshop presented by Trudi and Uni from the Wordsmiths Committee. Breaking into groups, students were given a small time frame to construct a poem that reflects life as a refugee. It was amazing to listen to and reflect on each poem presented to the group and students perspective of what life might be like for a refugee.

Following the workshop, Valerie and Kurt (Committee Captains) organised a variety of fun group activities whereby each game required team work, communication, trust and participation. It was a great way to bond with students from all year levels and learn a bit more about each other.

Thank you to all the staff and students involved in making this challenge possible. A special thank you to Mr Walker and Miss Capper for co-ordinating the evening and putting up with some chatter well into the night.

“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude” – Brene Brown

The students were fortunate enough to come face to face with six Egyptian mummies and the secrets behind their wrappings, during a recent trip to the Queensland Museum.

These individuals included a female temple singer, a priestess, a wealthy married woman, a young man, a priest and a two-year-old boy. The world renowned exhibition also featured over 200 Egyptian artefacts that are part of the British Museum collection. Part of this collection included ancient texts, funerary objects, sarcophagus and the mysteries behind their past.

The display gave us an insight into six individuals lying under five centimetres of bandages and cloth. I found it a fascinating experience, especially to identify the processes of embalming and mummification. Individually I believe that for us to have the opportunity to listen to the stories of these museum pieces and individuals should make us rethink our own fatality.

Personally, I felt this excursion allowed us to gain a new understanding of how the Ancient Egyptians lived 3000 years ago.

- Gianni Restaino

Our study for our IAS focus question took us to the Queensland Museum to see ancient Egyptian artefacts. Firstly, my group went to the section with the sea creatures and the Australian animals. Some of the fish there were bigger than me!

We then set off for the fossils on the floor below.

Afterwards, everyone went to the ancient Egyptian exhibit. We were given a work booklet so that we focused on each artefact closely. The displays were impressive. To me, the most intriguing part of the trip was the realization that the bandaged mummies actually had dead bodies in them! It was so weird knowing that these displays were once important people in the AE society.

I learnt a lot about Ancient Egypt, my research topic (hieroglyphics) and also a lot about the general life of one of the first successful ancient civilizations in the world.

Of course, none of this could have happened without Mrs. Smith so I’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Year 7 cohort to thank her as well as all of the other Year 7 staff, who helped out to make it such an enjoyable day.

- Hayden Goldsmith

With the IB students beginning their mock exams 3 September and OP exams beginning 7 September, Year 12 students are going to spend the next few weeks diligently preparing for one of the most important weeks on the academic calendar.

As Academic captains, we would just like to wish the Year 12 cohort good luck for their exam preparation and remind them that it is important to maintain balance during this stressful period.

The boys' team – ‘Sirius Cybernetics Cooperation (SCC)’ - entered a duo of robots coded to not only move to a musical piece but for the robots to play the music themselves. After their two performances and interview, they ended two points short of finals qualification – a close call indeed and an impressive effort for our first time at the championship. It was great to see the complexity of their code acknowledged by the judges.

The girls' team – ‘Team Infinity and Beyond’ - demonstrated and were recognised by the judges for a great level of maturity and resilience. During their first performance, their robot fell over during their demonstration. Not to be dissuaded, the girls made appropriate modifications for an extremely successful second demonstration. The ability to be agile and problem solve are real and vital 21st-century skills and the girls' team is to be commended for how effectively they did this on the day.

During the day, our students had the opportunity to see a wide range of robot designs and were also exposed to industry-standard robotics, gaining valuable experience for the 2019 RoboCup event.

As we are a global citizens we use our head, heart and hands. To use your head, heart and hand you have to think about the people around you, feel emotion for them and do something about it.

We have been doing lots of things to learn about the PYP, like watching a long video about kids without education, healthy food and clean water.

We chose our own issue and my issue is girls' education. I chose girls' education because it felt like a personal issue to me. Being a girl, I could not imagine not being allowed an education, just because I am a girl.

We have done lots of things like reflections and research and it’s only a couple more weeks until all of our hard work goes up in the Great Hall.

We also get to sign up for speaking, writing and advertising committees and as you can see I’m doing a writing committee, and every week someone does a task as part of their committee.

We are all looking forward to the great PYP Exhibition set up in the Great Hall, and I’m sure we will do a great job.

ANU has decided to only accept students who have at least "three points" on the new co-curricular or service schedule, which had been designed to assess "the whole person".

This policy perfectly aligns with the IB Learner Profile and the IB philosophy. In the Diploma this can be seen in the Core component that we call CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service). In this students have to be engaged in Creativity (e.g. music tuition or membership of Wordsmiths creative writing club), activity (e.g. weekend sports, cycling or even College sports training) and Service (such as the activities which our MYP students will be well familiar).

The ANU are prepared to accept students on the basis of a predicted grade that the College decides upon in September. If students’ final score is more than or less than three of their final IBDP score, their acceptance will be confirmed. For example, if a student applied for a university programme which has a published IB requirement of 31 and they were successful for the IB Early Entry Scheme, as long as their final IB score is 28 or above, their offer will be confirmed on 11 January 2019.

This development seems to be a growing trend in international and Australian universities, with Macquarie University (my alma mater) making unconditional offers to IB students on December 7 based on their predicted final results provided by schools, just weeks after their exams end on November 17 and well before IB results are released 5 January. The University of Sydney will also make conditional offers to IB students by December 1 based on their predicted grades.

If you would like to know more about the IB Diploma generally, please feel free to contact me: swalther@somerset.qld.edu.au

Our team players were Stewart, Himman, Aaron, Will, Dom, Ahmet and myself.

The competition spanned three days and we quickly learnt what a challenging but rewarding experience we signed up for. We had no reserves on Friday, due to a clash with the Gold Coast Eisteddfod, but our team still placed second in our group leading into the weekend. With our full complement back on deck, we defeated Rockhampton 2 to 0 on Saturday to make the quarter finals and then defeated Stretton 2 to 0 to make it into the Semi Finals. Despite our best efforts, we were narrowly defeated in our third match by The Gap 2 to 0 (25 to 21 and 25 and 22) which pushed us out of gold medal contention.

On Sunday we valiantly tried to win the bronze medal for our school against Holland Park however after losing the first set 25 to 23 we forced a third set playoff by winning the second set 25 to 18. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold on against our very experienced opponents and we were narrowly defeated in the deciding set 16 to 14.

We were up against 11 teams who trained all year for this event from across the state so 4th place was beyond our expectations and we were proud of our efforts.

Thank you to Mr Grocott for his coaching expertise and spending three days with us. Also, to our teachers, parents and other spectators who supported us and to Mr Lunniss for entering our team into this competition. We have improved immensely because of this experience and hope we get the opportunity to enter our side into this competition again next year.

Somerset’s Team 1 and 2 won overall silver and bronze respectively.

In the Premier, Charlie Liu had a great result, winning individual gold on Board 3 with 6/7. Oliver Yang also scored 6/7 (only loss was to Charlie). Kabilan Manuneedhi and Byron Morris also did well with 6/7, but just missed out on individual gold for their boards.

In A Division, notable performances from Somerset included: Kei Naito (5.5/7 and = fourth), Abhinay Panda (5/7, = sixth), Ethan Chant (4.5/7), Aditya Naik (4.5/7) and Michael Dobroskok (4.5/7).

Upcoming chess events:

• Youth Rapids at Kings Christian College on Saturday 18 August 
• Gold Coast Primary Inter-School: Wednesday 5 September at Carrara Indoor Stadium 
• Somerset Junior School Inter-House: Friday 14 September after school 
• Junior Masters Term Three on 15 to 16 September at Hinterland Hotel, Nerang 
• One Day Challenge on Sunday 16 September at Hinterland Hotel, Nerang 
• Nell Van de Graff Weekend Tournament 22 to 23 September at Hinterland Hotel, Nerang

During the Yo-Yo they wore heart rate monitors to get a measure of max heart rate. From this, Dr Eastwood will provide them all with their heart rate zones to use during their aerobic training sessions

Testing conducted by Dr Annette Eastwood – Somerset Exercise Physiologist and Emma Sturges – Somerset Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Junior APS Athletics Carnival - Results

The team performed remarkably well achieving a number of PB’s. Two students came away with a top 3 finish in their aged group with Kartier Marjanovic in Year 7 securing first place in the Under 12 Girls individual rankings. The college had some athlete's qualified for the South Coast Trials to be held at the GC City Athletic Centre on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 September.

Four age groups recorded also recorded top three finishes. Somerset secured fourth position in the aggregate standings (Percentage Trophy calculation on population of the school) and fifth place overall.

Here were the notable results:Age Group Champions9 Girls – 2nd place Ari Thake12 Girls – 1st place Kartier Marjanovic

Age Group Podiums9 Boys – 2nd10 Boys – 2nd11 Girls – 3rd12 Girls – 2nd

Top Three Results:

We would like to extend our congratulations to all the members of the squad for representing themselves and the College in such a worthy manner. Many thanks to our team managers, Mrs Grigg and Mrs McLaughlin as well as our Track & Field coaches for their fantastic commitment in spending countless hours training the squad.

Up and Coming Events:

Thursday 30 August - No Junior APS Summer Sports Trials/Training (Week 7)

Tuesday/ Wednesday 11/12 September - South Coast Regional Track & Field Trials

Tuesday 9 October (3.30pm to 4.30pm) - Junior APS Summer Sports Training Year 4 to 6 (Compulsory)

Thursday 11 October - Round One – Junior APS Summer Sports v Emmanuel

All information about Junior School Sport can be located on Schoolbox by clicking on the Junior School Sports page.

Compulsory APS Summer Season Practices

All students are required to practice with their APS Summer Team once each week and attendance rolls are taken. If students are unable to attend, parents must make contact with the coach, in advance, so we can maintain our “duty of care”.

Term Three

Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday 7.00am - Athletics Practices for South Coast & State Knock-out (Nitro)

Somerset Sport Policy

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.

APS Sport PhotosClick here to access photos of your sport or your team.

All Season details on Schoolbox Senior School Sports page. (“Winter Sports” tile for all season dates, and training schedules of the APS Season)

Sports Information

• Don’t forget to check the Somerset Schoolbox Senior School Sport Page, as well as the noticeboard at the end of the Science Block for all Sports notes.
• If you need more information, drop by the Sports Office.
• The Sports page link must be added to your Schoolbox.
• If you need more information, drop by the Sports Office in the Ray Building.

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.

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

• go to “My Links” at the bottom left of your Schoolbox page and click ‘Edit”
• at “Manage my Links”, click “+” at the top right of page
• paste the link below and add title “Senior School Sport”: http://schoolbox.somerset.qld.edu.au/homepage/1466