The Personal Project offers students that opportunity to develop an area of personal interest and bring together their learning from the Middle Years’ Programme through inquiry, action and reflection. Every year, the quality of work produced is a testament to our students. We congratulate our Year 10 students this year on successfully completing their projects.
As our students complete their fifth and final year of the Middle Years’ Programme, it is a time for reflection on their learning journey. The Personal Project helps to prepare students for further education projects and helps them to develop key skills. The skills learnt of organisation and time management are invaluable. There are strong links between the MYP culminating project and core elements of the Diploma Programme – the Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge Presentations and Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) – which offer students the challenge of creating a significant piece of work over time.
Our students this year completed their project in challenging and unique times. They were often pushed out of their comfort zones and with the support of their mentors, family, peers and friends, have created projects that are diverse and in-depth inquiries into areas of their choice.
As our Year 10 students move forward into Year 11 and the academic challenges that will bring, they can do so with confidence that they are developing the tools needed for success.
Calen with Ms Rebeccal Collie, Head of Junior School
NAIDOC Week acknowledges and celebrates that our nation’s story didn’t begin with documented European contact and the very first footprints on this continent were those belonging to First Nations peoples.
Our Year 11 students collaborated with Junior school this week to assist them with indigenous games, borna jokee which is similar to dodgeball, branbahl, a challenging skipping game and juluhya, a team game involving passing marbles through a long tube.
There were also Indigenous Australian stories and games, all enjoyed to a soundtrack of Indigenous artists Thelma Plum, Baker Boy and Electric Fields.
On Wednesday we celebrated Australia Reads, a national initiative that encourages all Australians to come together and celebrate the joys of reading.
Students in Years 3 to 6 joined us for a lunchtime story in The Yarning Circle followed by an amazing 'Australia Reads' cake to truly mark the occasion.
Our students have also been encouraged to tell us about their favourite book through our Australia Reads Competition. The entries have been overwhelming and I have to say Harry Potter and the Treehouse series are still hot favourites, all of the entries are papering the walls in the KIP. It is a delight to see that reading is very much enjoyed and celebrated by our students, which is also reflected in our borrowing statistics for this year, which have reached an all-time peak.
Year 3 student Calen Tang wrote a story for the Coles Little Treehouse Writing Competition that combined three of his favourite things: chess, soccer and piano.
A wacky game of SocChess was clearly a hit with judge Andy Griffiths, who voted it one of the top one hundred, a huge accomplishment as the competition was open to all primary school children across Australia.
Part of his prize included one hundred books for his school library, worth well over a thousand dollars!
Thank you, Calen, for having a great imagination and taking the time to enter the competition. We love your work!
The festival is cheerful and a great way to get involved with the College, especially if you are just entering the senior school. You have the opportunity to support your House, make new friends, not just from your year level but throughout the College from Years 7 to 12 and develop your skills in the Performing Arts. How good does that sound?
Whilst the House Plays Festival previously occurred in Week 6 of Term One, next year, in order to facilitate Year 12 involvement and their assessment schedules, the date has been brought forward to Week 4 of Term One. This means that auditions will take place in Week 7 of this term (2020) and rehearsals will begin in Week 8.
Year 6 students entering Year 7 next year are invited to come and audition! This is an exciting opportunity and a fun way to start off the new year. Your House directors would love to see you at auditions and remember that points are awarded to each House for every person who attends auditions!
If you are interested, please click on the link located on the Performing Arts Schoolbox page and reserve a time to audition. We hope to see you there!
And now, the moment you have all been waiting for… Introducing the House Play Directors for 2021!
You can see from the attached images, the students had little problem constructing some fun creatures typically found 'under the sea'.
The first has to do with vacuuming. The division of labour in our house is very conventional. I mow the lawns, wash the cars, clean the pool and vacuum. My wife cooks, cleans and does laundry … and manages the finances, provides wisdom to the children, provides wisdom to her husband (who often needs it more), educates the grandchildren, manages the arrangements for her ageing parents, and ageing mother-in-law, and is generally both the foundation and engine of our family. I think you get the point.
When vacuuming, I judge my success by the neatness of criss-cross tracks of pile raised and by the speed at which this can be done. My wife judges my lack of success by black spots, those little pieces of dust and detritus that make their homes near the skirting boards and furniture legs. She has noticed them there earlier (I suspect sometimes she lays them as traps) and will point to them as proof of a haphazard approach on my part. And she’s right! And what is worse, the extra time and effort required to ensure they were drawn into the belly of the machine would have been nothing.
Our lives are like that, we have those tiny, but obvious, habits, expressions, attitudes and behaviours that undo in moments the goodness we take so long to perfect. We genuinely project our kindness, generosity, or cleverness which others notice, but then are diverted by a sharpness in our tone, or a failure of empathy, or an unfortunate pattern of turning the conversation back to ourselves. Those are some of my black spots, but I’m pretty sure we all have a fair idea of what ours are.
My wife works on the philosophy of cleaning passed down by her grandmother to her mother and then to her, “if you look after the corners the middle will look after itself”. This too is true in life, by taking a conscious effort to identify and then eradicate our personal black spots, those small but glaring inadequacies, we very quickly build into being the person we want to be and want to be seen to be.
The second has to do with the pool. Each year, around this time, I have a ritual caused by my negligence. We do not use our pool in winter, none of us are stoics, so with lack of use comes lack of attention. The Kreepy Krauly keeps the bottom clear and the cold slows most algal growth, but not all. Stubborn, ugly, slug like black algae creates colonies in the grouting. By the time the pool is just warm enough to enjoy, it is with a view of gross lines of blackish green vegetation. Then out comes the pool brush and into the not quite yet warm enough water goes this man to scrub the grout clean. Then the vacuuming, the addition of algicide, pool shock and elevated chlorine levels. Then the complaints from blonde family members that I have turned their hair green.
If only I had maintained the pool properly through winter none of this would be necessary. Similarly, there can easily be too many times in life where we wait too long to address a problem, and then it is too hard. Issues drop below the surface when times are relatively good and stable, but when trouble comes it disturbs the surface allowing issues to be exposed. The existence of the trouble makes the issues seem worse and harder to deal with. Careful attention to our souls and relationships daily, rather than just in crisis, is certainly the truest way to a calm life.
If only poor Lady Macbeth had known this, that the only way to get rid of the spot is to work to not put it there in the first place.
Stephanie Sprague won the U18 women’s Pole Vault with a leap of 2.70m (Equal PB) and retained her title from last year. Stephanie is our Spartan Athletics Captain and is always out there doing her best for the school. She is a dedicated athlete with an outstanding work ethic, and this is reflected in these great performances. Well done Stephanie.
Kassia Brown, a newcomer to the event, has been working hard at the track with myself and on the pole vault pit with Howard Arbuthnot our outstanding school Pole Vault coach to compete in her first ever pole vault event. She did not disappoint and was rewarded with a Gold Medal in the U14 women’s event with an outstanding leap of 2.40m.
Having Howard as our specialist Pole Vault coach at Somerset College is a privilege as he is one of Australia’s leading coaches and former elite pole vaulter himself. We are very lucky to have Howard available to our students. If you are interested in trying out Pole Vault and training with Howard, please contact me to discuss, or just drop by the track on a Tuesday afternoon from 3.30pm to 5.00pm and come and meet him for a chat.
Both girls, along with a strong group of other athletes from Somerset, will now prepare to compete in the Queensland Multi Event State Championships in December. If you are interested in competing in this competition entries are still open, so please contact me for further details.
Congratulations to all our State Champions and representatives!
Round 4 saw the Spartans U8 Green team take on the Spartans U8 Pink team, in a much-anticipated match. It took the Green team a minute to find their feet, but the goals soon followed courtesy of some pressing attack from Levi. Some great positional play from Hunter and Dylan. Levi found himself in front of the goals again - sneaking in his second for the half.
The girls put up an impressive effort in defence to deny Jacob. Sam’s prompt counterattacks and some reflex saves from Edie and Robin drew applause from the crowd. This left the boys hungry for more heading into half-time. A quick re-shuffle at half-time and the green team came out in force. Hunter’s persistence paid off with a goal early into the second half, along with a near-miss off the back of a free-kick. Kai and Brayden held down the back as Gabriella and Annie made some pressing runs.
All in all, a great team performance from the U8 greens to secure their first win of the season, 8-nil, against a very resilient pink side. Well done to both teams who played!
In front of an appreciative crowd of 34 patrons, Somerset Blue comfortably defeated Somerset Black at Robina High School's Indoor Stadium. The team was initially a tad unfocused, going down 1-nil, courtesy of a well worked goal by the opposition.
Somerset Blue then began to work as a team, putting together some slick passing and well-timed challenges. After a tense 10-minute goalless period, Benedict scored the overdue equaliser in the 12th minute, drilling a shot in the bottom right corner. The keeper had no chance. Benedict fired Team Blue ahead three minutes later, with a great touch to turn the last defender before putting in another pole driver this time in the bottom left. Edward was soon in on goal a minute later, with a 2005 Luis Garcia ghost goal special, volleying past an outstretched keeper. Despite protests, the referee was satisfied the ball had crossed the line before it was cleared by the Somerset Black defender.
By this stage Somerset Blue were well and truly in the ascendency, rattling the post and testing the Somerset Black keeper. Alex sent the team into the half time break with a cracking shot from distance to make it 4 to 1. Whatever was in those lollies (or was it Coach Maarten’s team talk?), Somerset Blue came out firing in the second half. After Henry curled a sumptuous effort into the top right corner shortly after the restart, Alex scored six goals in as many minutes, some courtesy of great assists from his teammates, some great solo efforts.
The team pressed on, with Hugo a brace, Henry and Benedict each completing their hat tricks, Alex adding his seventh goal, and Izaak a great turn and finish in the bottom right corner. Somerset Black never gave up and were well rewarded with their second goal. Great effort by the boys, maintaining their unbeaten start to the season.
Black went down 17 to 2.
Well done to Lachlan Talbot who scored both goals and to the whole team for working together and continuing to support each other right until the end.
Thank you coach Ryan.
As we progress through the season the team’s improvement is starting to become more and more apparent. From our first game the boys have improved in all aspects, specifically passing and dribbling in the futsal environment as well as goalkeeping.
We faced more tough opposition and as a result spent a large portion of the game defending. This is also improving each week and it was great to see that everyone is continuing to give their 100 per cent best for the entire duration of the game.
If it wasn’t for some great saves from our rotation of goalkeepers this week, we would have conceded a few more.
A special shoutout to Ruben and Harrison. We did take advantage of our attacking opportunities and made some counter attacks in which Oli, Ethan and Louis forced saves from the opposition goalkeeper and we had a few decent corners. Overall, it was another harsh result but a performance that shows promise for the future.
This week Under Orange 8 played against Utd Boys. What a nail-biting match it was! Both teams scored a goal each.
Special thanks to Benedict for being our goalkeeper this week, he was fantastic at stopping the goals. Well done team Orange.
It was an unfortunate season start for Paxton Stewart. Paxton has not been able to play due to having surgery a few weeks ago, and under doctor's orders 'no futsal/football' for six weeks. So, this weekend Paxton made his season debut under unfortunate circumstances.
The opposition did a no show. This season the competition seems to be dominated by Somerset Spartans, and we had willing players who had just finished a game stick around for a friendly match. Some of the siblings who turn up each week in support were also given a chance to play. Connor’s sister Amelie Miller–Martin showed no fear going out there without shin pads, and Danny’s sister Robin Wang did a fantastic job in goals saving many powerful kicks from the boys.
Coach Maarten was coaching the team today due absence from Coach Keita. The Under 10 played a very good game versus Tally Tigers. The team played well together. Dylan played first half in goals had had great safes. Zac played in defence and had a tackles and interceptions. With Jacob and Eli on wings we had plenty of energy. Farry and Ashton has been moved during the game through several positions. Miranda joined us from the second half, and this gave us an extra boost. We are glad to see the weekly improvements from the team. Game ended 6 to 3 in advantage of Tally Tigers
This week’s game was a challenging one for our boys with a few team injuries and unfortunately missing a player due to injury also. Having said that the boys continued to fight and try their hardest until the end. The game scoring was opened early by Caspar and the boys showed tremendous teamwork the entire game. Our usual goalkeeper Dash was on the court this week due to a hand injury, which was great to see and he showcased his goal keeping skills when defending and attacking.
Bailey was goalie for the first half and made some fantastic saves and the goal keeping duties were shared by Jacob, Nash and Caspar in the second half who all put in a top effort also. At the end of first half, the score was 1 to 2 to Magic. In the second half the boys started to tire without a substitute and tried so hard to push on with Bailey scoring two more goals in the second half. Unfortunately, Magic were just too good in the end. The boys should be super proud of their efforts and persistence to the end. Well done boys where are all very proud of you.
Final score was 8 to 3 to Magic.
Goal scorers: Bailey (2) Caspar (1)
Our Somerset U13 had two big games of futsal this Saturday taking on Robina FC and the Scorpions. Our first match saw the boys really come together to play as a team. We saw some amazing shots on goals by the boys, as well as goal line defending, including a great goal line clearance from Magnus. This amazing effort from the boys saw them come from 3 to 6 down at half time to just finish short of even at 5 to 6 to conclude the match.
The boys then had a short break before meeting back at Varsity to take on the Scorpions. The Scorpions were always going to be a tough team, and the boys went in with a great attitude to learn, have fun and enjoy the game (while hoping to snag a goal or two).
All the boys on the field to tried their hardest. Somerset came away with two goals, in what was otherwise a very convincing game for the Scorpions. It was a great weekend for all our boys, well fought, even everyone did great to keep and uphold a positive Spartan spirit even through hard games.
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