Welcome to the first episode of Spartan Stream, where we bring you the latest news, updates and highlights from the sporting life at Somerset College. We will highlight Pre-Prep to Year 12 sport as well as showcase APS competition and College events.
The first episode can be viewed here.
In this episode we reflect back on some of the holiday activities, chat with a few Spartan Athletes, take a look at our Inter-House Cross Country and welcome a very special guest.
A big thanks to everyone that has been involved in the creation of this episode - our Spartan coaches, our Spartan athletes, Sports Captains - Brooke and James, and producer Mr Peel.
Year 7 is once again committing themselves to a Hayley’s Cupboard challenge to fill the entire cupboard at the St John’s Crisis Centre at Surfers Paradise. This is a place where those who find themselves without a home can have hot showers, seek fresh clothes, find a safe place to sleep and of course get a meal, provided by us.
If we all work together, we can give the those experiencing difficult times a meal. Any food you or your family have left in the pantry, if you could be kind enough to donate this food to others who would truly appreciate this kind gesture.
I am sure those suffering hardships would be very thankful for these generous donations provided by the Somerset Community.
We look forward to collecting these items from the Junior School over the next five weeks.
Thank you in advance.
See some of the great photos from the clean up, taken by Vivian Song and Alex Taylor-Girdler.
Thank you to Dr Brohier and the Sustainable Spartans organising team for helping with planning/promotion and to Mrs Amores, Mrs Hossy, Mrs Leslie and Mr Stafford for supervising on the day. I'm also very grateful to Mrs Wilson, Mrs McDonald, Ms Higgs and my mum who all worked behind the scenes to make the clean-up happen.
Our next challenge will be to help make Storyfest a successful sustainable event. We have been invited to a meeting with waste management company Suez to discuss ways in which we can spread the message about how to avoid, reduce, reuse and recycle - and why this is important.
This year, the addition of music and a grassed area to unwind, chat while enjoying the milkshake added a new, positive atmosphere.
The Guide Dogs Queensland is acknowledged as a leading provider in training dogs as a mobility option for people who are blind and vision impaired. As a non-for profit organisation, the funds raised through the sale of the favourite milkshake flavours; chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and caramel raised an outstanding $600.00 for the charity.
The incredible volunteers from Veivers house did an amazing job of co-ordinating and managing the production of the milkshakes, with over 100 helpers from Years 7 to 12 over the two days. The Milkshake stall is not only successful in raising funds for Guide dogs but also successful for bringing Veivers house together for a marvellous cause.
Thanks must also go to Mr Zernike for allowing the Junior School to come out early after lunch to support this event. Thank you to all the amazing Veivers volunteers, Mr Attoe and Mrs Amores for making this fundraiser possible.
An underappreciated instrument, I wanted to share its beautiful and mellow tones to prove that it is an instrument that deserves the same recognition and respect of its more popular counterpart, the violin. Therefore, I decided that I wanted to write and perform a baroque dance suite for solo viola, similar to how Bach wrote a set for solo cello. However, after writing the first few pieces, I found that I wasn’t enjoying the project as much as I thought I would. The only piece I enjoyed writing was the prelude, and I quickly realised why: conforming to the rhythmic constraints of the dances stifled my creativity and felt like a burden. ‘So’, I thought ‘how can I showcase the viola without having to restrain my creativity?’
This led to a short period of not doing anything as I tried to figure out what I needed to do. As I lay on my bed, listening to my playlist of assorted classical pieces, an idea struck me as I heard the prominent viola solos and countermelodies in, Smetana’s Quartet 1 in E minor: I would write a quartet, with the primary melody and important countermelodies given to the viola. Struck with inspiration, I opened my composition software and began work. I thought about what I wanted to write for a bit, and went with a classical feel, similar to the works of Mozart and Haydn. High violin melodies, steady quaver accompaniment on the second violin and cello, and close countermelodies on the viola. ‘Perfect,’ I now thought, ‘I have a project that showcases the viola and also can teach me about harmonisation and writing for quartets.’ That was, however, until I realised that in my writing of the piece, I had unconsciously copied similar melodic lines to the allegro movement of Mozart’s 19th String Quartet, despite only once hearing the piece a few days before I started my work. Whoops.
Fast forward a few weeks to New Year’s Eve. I was at the Broadwater Parklands with my Kung Fu school to do a traditional Chinese lion dance for the event. Before our performance, however, there was a DJ who was playing various EDM tracks, and another inspiration hit me during the build-up and bass drop of his piece. A few classical music pieces, I realised, had similar tension in their build ups to the climax – most notably Vivaldi’s Winter (mvt 1). When I returned home from the event, I quickly researched to see if anyone had remixed classical music with EDM. There were several results, but none of them stayed true to the intent of the music, often taking a single melodic phrase no longer than four to five seconds long and looping that over a typical four-chord progression of modern pop music, bearing very little resemblance to the original pieces. As such, I am proud to present my third and final project: making remixes of classical music that follow the intent of the melodical phrasings and harmony of the original music. These remixes will make classical music more accessible to a modern audience, and act as a gateway to enjoying the genre, breaking the stereotypes of benig old-fashioned, elitist and highbrow. So far, I’ve remixed four pieces: Vivaldi’s Winter, Paganini’s 24th Caprice, Bach’s Double Violin Concerto and Mozart’s Sonata Semplice. I aim to remix enough pieces to create a moderately-sized album and upload it to Spotify or print CDs for sale on the night.
Overall, I feel like the MYP Personal Project is more about the journey than the destination. All these plan changes are but stepping stones over the long river that is the project, and there is still a long way to go to work on it before I am done.
Our water bottle rockets reached astonishing heights!
The Science Committee meets every Thursday Week B between 3.30pm and 5.00pm in Smith 2.1. This week (Week 6), we will be creating a Buzz Wire, followed by a Newton’s Cradle in Week 8. Then, for the final meeting of the week in Week 10, we will be exploring the life of Stephen Hawking and his contribution to Science.
The first meeting of the year was full of laughter and joy, and we encourage everyone to come along to the next. Join in on the fun and create memories you’ll never forget!
In debating for example, we have had a workshop for beginners which was a great start. Since then we have had two practices with the teams. The practise sessions are always fun, and always very interesting.
We are having our first debate in Week 8 for Junior A with the topic, ‘The royals are still relevant.’ We have a great team and I know that Somerset will do well. I am very excited for the year ahead.
Sophie Krueger was in an IQ Show jumping competition on the weekend hosted by Stuartholme.
She placed fourth and fifth in her 1m classes.
Congratulations to Sophie
Michael Dobroskok is aiming for Level 9 Under 15 (Junior International) which will be challenging in the lead up to the international stream from national open levels.
Michael will compete at Regionals in a few weeks and then state competition.
Gold Coast Gymnastics recently hosted the Netherlands national team for training at their Coomera venue. Michael and his team had the opportunity to train beside them and also had a question/answer session and meet and greet. Epke Zonderland (pictured with Michael) is an Olympic champion on High Bar and has just won gold at the World Cup in Melbourne. While they didn't make Tokyo Olympics as a team, Epke is hoping to qualify individually as a high bar specialist. It was such an amazing opportunity for the boys.
Martin Ding competed on the Sunshine Coast in open Taekwondo. He earned a silver medal and is working towards another three open competitions in March, May and June.
During the first round of Basketball Club games for Somerset Spartans, Oscar Riddle (pictured looking at Coach Peter) had his first game for club with his team. Following an incredible one point victory for the U11 Boys team, he said to Coach Peter Correa, "That was the most fun I have ever had in my life!"
Oscar didn't score, but being part of a team and contributing by defending, passing, and playing a big role to secure the win was more than enough for him. He was overwhelmed with emotion after experiencing such a great win with his new teammates.
Moments like this remind us how powerful working as a team can be. Feeling a sense of belonging and working hard to make a positive impact on others is the best feeling there is!
Windaroo Lakes is a Par 72 course and boasts one of Australia’s hardest Par Fours, the 437m double water carry 16th hole, known as Snake Gully.
Flynn Carter (10 to 12) boys and Sarah Hammett (12 to 18) girls both qualified for the State Championships to be held in Cairns in April with Sarah shooting a remarkable three under par 69 for the low round of the day of all competitors. Justin and David missed out this year - but I am sure they will be back.
Flynn, who plays off a 10 handicap and is a member of Royal Pines Golf Club, has had many early successes in his golfing career culminating as captain of the Australian team in last year’s Trans-Tasman Cup versus New Zealand, which Australia won. Last month he was the winner of the Australian Open US Kids, 11 year old boys shooting rounds of 76 and 72.
The Hammett family also have a remarkable golfing pedigree; Mum, Dad, Justin, Sarah, David and Katie are all keen golfers and members of Emerald Lakes Golf Club. The three eldest all have low handicaps with Justin and Sarah both off one and David, off 11. Katie who is the youngest (age nine) is now playing in nine hole junior competitions. She won her first tournament on Sunday in the Ocean Shores Junior Classic.
Justin, Sarah and David were all members of the Emerald lakes Interclub team which two weeks ago won the Gold Coast District Junior pennants series (winning the final against Royal Pines). Justin has just been selected to represent the club in the District Open Division 1 Pennant series.
Justin and Sarah have won the Queensland schools U12 State Championships in consecutive years which is believed to be the first time a brother and sister have won the title. Justin and Sarah have both represented the Queensland team at the U12 National Schools event and all three (Justin, Sarah and David), have represented South Coast district at State trials previously.
Justin won the Jack Newton International sub Junior Classic in October 2019, and Sarah won the Girls 12 years age division, and was Girls overall runner up in the same tournament. This is one of Australia’s biggest junior tournaments with players from across Australia as well as some international players.
The Hammett children are all very supportive of each other but there is obviously some healthy family rivalry as they push each other on. There is also the obvious handicap rivalry. Justin’s best score to date has been 66 (-6), Sarah’s best score so far is 69 (-3) while David’s current best is 79 (7 over par).
Congratulations to all these golfers and good luck to Flynn and Sarah for the State Championships in April.
With several of the experienced rowers there to guide them, they were given all the support to help them climb into the boat and row it around the pool.
It’s not often the pool gets to hear calls of ‘back it down on stroke side’ or ‘tap it round on bow side’. Rowing is filled with funny terms, like doing rigger dips, roll ups, squaring up and feathering. Once the new rowers had learnt the basics, they all stood up to master their balance and enjoy one last dive into the pool.
New rowers are always welcome to join the programme and with the Inter-House regatta coming up on 28 March, what better time to put the house polo on and see what rowing is all about?
It won’t be long until the regatta season starts and all these activities help us prepare along the way. Somerset College rowers are keen to improve on their performances from last year, and judging by the way the new rowers took to being the in the single sculls on the weekend, it looks like we are well on the way.
In our Team meeting to begin the day we discussed our goal of coming in the Top Four, and the students delivered!
Congratulation to the following for some amazing individual/ age group achievements:
Lucy Pluss - Third place Age Champion - 9 Years Girls
10 Years Boys - Third place in their age group
12 Years Girls - First place in their age group
Overall our Girls came in third place and our Boys in fourth place among the eight schools.
The following students were selected from the APS Carnival to compete at the Regional Swimming Carnival this week on Monday 2 March; Malorie Gell (12 years), Mia Miles (12 years), Olympia Pope (12 years), Jacob Moir (10 years) and Zac Moir (12 years). There were some outstanding results at the Regional Swimming Carnival with Malorie, Mia, Olympia and Zac all being selected into the Regional team to compete at the State Championships.
Congratulations to all students involved.
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