Hello Somerset College!
At Scholars Day last year, we unveiled the new Strategic Plan, Our Future. That Strategic Plan continues the aim of Somerset College to, “develop engaged global citizens, aspiring to excellence, demonstrating integrity and valuing difference.”
2018 has seen our Head, Craig Bassingthwaighte, our COO David Thornton, the College Leadership Team and indeed all of our teachers and staff embrace “our future” and embark upon implementing the strategic goals which have been set for the next four years.
The strategic goals identified by our Strategic Plan to deliver personal success to all our students are as follows:
As Chair of the board I am very proud of what has been achieved in driving towards our strategic goals already in 2018.
When my children first came to Somerset College many, many years ago the only “criticism” that was ever aimed at Somerset College was that the academic excellence that was achieved by Somerset College was a reflection of a focus purely on academic results. Nothing could however have been further from the truth and as the years rolled by the true story of Somerset College is a commitment and an aspiration to achieving excellence in all areas of our students endeavours.
Clearly, the framing of the Strategic Plan goals demonstrate this commitment as indeed do the physical expressions in the facilities and buildings that we have created and continue to create for the personal success of our students.
Our masterplan for building works in the future is clearly programmed and budgets set already for well beyond the next five years.
As you can see, we are now engaged in the significant refurbishment (perhaps more correctly “rebuild”) of the Performing Arts Centre which will be completed in June of 2019.
Another very exciting new building we are creating is the Design Centre. This will house flexible learning spaces to encourage innovative programmes and further excellence in learning. This building will be completed as well by June of 2019.
We can only plan for innovation in curriculum and learning techniques and for the building of buildings on the back of careful economic management of the business of Somerset College.
I am proud to report that this year will see another successful financial year of achieving budget forecast and profit goals to allow continued investment in the education and wellbeing of our students. Let me pay tribute again to the expert leadership of Somerset College by our Headmaster Craig Bassingthwaighte. Craig is an inspirational teacher and a wonderful business leader. It is pretty hard to get this combination to run a business as large as Somerset College. Craig manages and works with a great team of people. I want to thank our COO David Thornton particularly for his leadership of all of the business projects and financial management. David is supported by a great team and indeed David and Craig are supported by a very strong and committed College Leadership Team. Indeed, the success of Somerset College is based upon the people at Somerset and we are truly blessed with wonderful teaching and administrative staff and I thank and I appreciate all of them for their service on your behalf.
The board's commitment is to not only provide the best in facilities, teaching staff and resources but also to do so, whilst minimising fee increases. It is a fact of life that the cost of living increases yearly and the cost of education, the very best education, also significantly increases on an annual basis. The most significant influence on our budgets is salaries for our teachers and our teacher aides which accounts for 55 per cent of our total expenditure. Those costs have justifiably increased by just over 5 per cent in the past year. The board's direction and guiding philosophy to our Headmaster is to continue to seek only the very best staff and deliver on the commitment of Somerset to encourage and develop every student’s own personal success. Notwithstanding increases in expenditure and on the back of the very careful financial management by Craig Bassingthwaighte and David Thornton, the board has been able to approve a minimum fee increase of 3 per cent for the next school year.
Somerset is served by a very enthusiastic and committed board bringing a very effective and varied skill matrix to the table. All board members give their time voluntarily and with passion. At the start of the year a Somerset parent, Mark Sowerby, joined our board. Mark and his wife Heidi have two sons at our College, Lachlan and Patrick. Mark brings strong business acumen to our board and in particular, Mark is the driving force behind the development of our Entrepreneurship Program and our Celebration of Entrepreneurship. Mark was appointed by the Premier of Queensland as the first Queensland Chief Entrepreneur.
At the AGM of May this year, Terry Herbert stepped down as Deputy Chair of the board and Peter Trimble was announced as the Deputy Chair who will in time succeed me as Chair. Terry, will be resigning as a board member at the end of this year. Terry is to my mind one of the real heroes at Somerset College over the last 20 odd years. Terry and Julie had two children attend Somerset, Anthony and Katy. Anything that has been needed to be done at Somerset, Terry has done it all. He is a hands-on committed worker, whether it be to organise balls, dinner dances, cocktail parties, entertainment, behind the scenes and in front of the scenes for the Celebration of Literature. He has served on the board since 2003 and has served as my Deputy Chair since 2012. Whenever any fundraising appeal is made, Terry is the first to put his hand up and always contributes generously and significantly. The wisdom that Terry has given to our board with his successful business experience is invaluable and will be missed. It is fitting that there be a long-lasting tribute to the contribution of Terry Herbert to Somerset College.
Thank you to the board of Somerset College, thank you to Terry Herbert, Peter Trimble, Chair of Finance; Belinda Simmons, Chair of Governance; Penny Thurnwald, Chair of the Foundation; Bede Young, Jason Cordner, Chair of Storyfest; Louise Davidson, Catherine O’Sullivan and Simon Chan.
Thank you Somerset College for the privilege and honour for allowing me to serve as your Chair. I am committed to continue to do everything within my power to deliver to our students every support, encouragement and facility to allow them to earn their own personal success.
They also won an invitation to attend the Hollywood Dance Invitational, an invitational dance experience run in Hollywood!
To top it all off, they actually won the highest scoring group routine in the entire competition, which means they are one of a select few in Australia selected to go in the running for a paid trip to compete at nationals in America! This is now chosen purely on the number of online votes they receive.
We will post details for online voting when they become available. It would be fabulous to get the College community voting to make this opportunity a possibility!
Thankfully the weather was on our side with only one shower followed by a clear night. Thank you to all the families and friends who came along to support our singers. We are very proud of all our students for their singing achievements throughout the year. All the performances were outstanding.
Congratulations to the students who received the following awards:
Thank you to Mrs Sue Roberts and Mr Stuart Roberts for your support and assistance, to Mrs Josephine Flynn for technical support, Bria Phillips for being our MC, and Maya Hobley for being our sound technician.
We look forward to an exciting new year of singing in 2019.
The drive went for an hour and a half and when we finally got off the bus, we put our suitcases in our rooms and went to our first activity. All of the activities required us to be active risk-takers and many of us overcame our fears and had a go at some challenging experiences! Some of our favourite activities were the flying fox, waterfall walk, group initiative games, archery, canoeing and camping skills.
After completing three amazing activities each day, we were treated to delicious meals each day and we even got to share the dining room with our teachers! On the first night at camp we had a reptile show by the Fauna Fetchers who brought in their favourite reptiles. We all got the opportunity to hold a lizard or a snake. On the second night, we held our annual year 3’s got talent, it was a night full of amazing skills with the judges having a very tough decision to make.
By Friday, we were very tired and ready to come home. We did our final two activities in the morning and hopped back on the bus. After a short nap, we were welcomed by the smiling faces of our family ready for a night in our own beds.
Surrounding ourselves with books at home has a positive relationship with educational outcomes, and not just with literacy as we might expect, but also numeracy and IT skills. The study, “…found the number of household books at age 16 had a direct positive relationship with literacy, numeracy and IT skill in later years – independent of how much tertiary study a person did, or how often they read as an adult.” (Zhou, 2018)
Previous studies have found similar, but this study has gone further and no matter what the study looked at, whether it was wealth, IQ, school grades, they found that books gave a positive advantage.
Having more books, even if you don’t read more, also improves educational outcomes.
Whichever way you look at it; books make a difference. Our children need to see us as adults reading and valuing making time in our lives for books and the positive influence they bring.
I am even painting my house without it feeling like much of a chore at all because of audiobooks. The most mundane tasks become enjoyable with a good story and narrator, they are like a ‘teaspoon of sugar’ without the calories!
If you have long holiday drives ahead a family-friendly audiobook will help pass the time and keep everyone in the car entertained. Long haul flights are a joy when you can close your eyes, relax and get lost in having a great story read to you by a skilled reader.
Some say that the act of listening to, rather than reading a book is somehow ‘cheating’, getting the same reward without any of the effort. However, according to University of Virginia psychologist Daniel Willingham, author of the 2015 book, the Science of Reading If, “...you take the question from the perspective of cognitive psychology — that is, the mental processes involved — there is no real difference between listening to a book and reading it.” So, indulge and enjoy without guilt, they’re good for you!
The benefits to children who are learning to read are enormous. From helping to develop good listening and quiet concentration skills to improving a child’s pronunciation, enunciation and vocabulary. Even the sheer pleasure of being read aloud to is great for growing minds.
Here are some tips for getting started with audiobooks:• Join the Gold Coast City Council Library and install the Borrowbox and Overdrive apps on your phone. There is no cost or minimum age so the whole family can join.• Install the Wheelers ePlatform app on your phone for students to access the Somerset College Audiobook library.• If you are unable to find the book you are looking for via these free sources, you may wish to sign up to Audible.com. The cost is $16.45 per month but please come to the KIP as I have several vouchers for two free Audible audiobooks to give away.
If you need any assistance in getting started or some listening recommendations I will be more than happy to help so please feel free to pop into the KIP and say hello.
The shop grounds the inquiry in a real world context while also serving another very important purpose; a year level action for PYP Exhibition, which was presented to the school community last term. During PYP Exhibition, they learnt a great deal about children’s opportunities and challenges around the world so they knew they wanted to try and make a difference to their lives. They worked tirelessly over the 4 days to try and raise as much money as they could.
Due to the nature and popularity of the products sold, the shop was BUSY and, after costs were recouped, an amazing $797.00 profit was made. The Year 5 cohort decided that this money would be donated to Drought Angels where it can be put towards bettering the lives of children living on the many farms that are suffering as a result of the drought.
Thank you to everyone in the Junior School that visited the shop, your purchases enabled this action to happen. You have all played a very important role.
Congratulations, Year 5 – we are VERY PROUD!
Well, it’s certainly not at all straightforward, especially as it is aimed at the extension maths students.
This year we had questions such as … Find the number of whole numbers between ∛2018 and √2018 … and … What is the least possible integer N such that 60/N <N? (with no calculators, of course).
There were over 10 000 students across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific entered in our Year 7 and 8 divisions, with individual prizes going to students in the top 25 per cent or better.
In the end, the staff were just too good defeating the students 28 to 17. Thanks to our Year 12s for the game, we look forward to playing again next year!
Rowing captains Katherine Plume and Blake Mills did an extraordinary job of emceeing the night. They reflected on many aspects of the season from training, to rowing camps, competition and the great team that they have been a part of in Somerset Rowing.
On behalf of the whole rowing programme, Katherine reflected on the support that the rowing parents offer to their children and especially her own parents Andrew and Lisa who have had at least one of their three children, Annabelle, Harrison and Katie continuously in the rowing program since 2009. Both Plume parents have been great supporters with Andrew being a committee member and President throughout that time. Three other Year 12 parents Carl Eksteen, Karen Neumann and Jens Muenster have taken on the role of president of the rowing committee over the past years and I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to the parents who have given so much to the programme.
2018 President, Jens Muenster gave a great speech about being a rowing parent, he also expressed that it was an absolute pleasure to be president as he had such an abundance of support from the rowing parents. Jade Mansell and Aidan McKeon presented the highly contentious Cupcake award, with Michelle Mansell being honoured as the 2018 winner. We were also privileged to have Somerset Alumni, Blair Carey at the dinner to award the Brian Carey Award, named after his later father. The award recognises a parent who has gone above and beyond in the support of the programme and was presented to a very humble and surprised Michelle Smith.
Sam and Tom Liu shared their passion for rowing and their skill at movie making with a brilliant montage that captured the essence of the Somerset Rowing team and I would like to thank them for the work that they put in to the video.
On behalf of the students I was able to thank the coaches, Greg Juniper, Olivia Sina, Reuben Mansell, Nick Miller who have helped to develop the rowers over the 2018 season. The night was capped off with Mr Bassingthwaighte presenting the 2019 Rowing Captains, Declan Thew and Zara Smith, who I look forward to working with next year.
Their faces beamed with joy as they showed off their swimming skills which they have been practicing this year in their weekly swimming lessons. The students were lucky enough to have in-water support from our Year 6 House Captains as well as a number of Year 6 Helpers.
At the end of the carnival, the results were as follows:
A special thank you to all who came out to support this wonderful morning. To Mr Butcher, the Gap Students, Teaching Assistants and our wonderful teaching staff, thank you for your dedication and tireless efforts on the day.
Congratulations to Sarah Hammett who competed in the recent Golf Nationals in Geelong, Victoria. The Queensland Team which she was a part of had a clean sweep, winning the Girls Nett, Boys Nett and Overall Gross, making them the National Champions 2018. Well Done Sarah!!
Monday 26 November - Semester Two Sports and Cultural Assembly – Great Hall
All information about Junior School Sport can be located on Schoolbox by clicking on the Junior School Sports page.
Friday 23 November:
12.50pm - Sports Assembly: Summer Season Awards – Part 2 1.30pm - House Swimming Trials 1/2
Friday 30 November:
1.00pm - House Swimming Trials 2/2
APS Sport Photos
Click 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).
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.
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