No. 8, Term Four, 2018

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: 

• Dynamic learning;
• Inspired teaching;
• Community wellbeing; and
• Organisational sustainability.

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.

Enormous thanks must go to Sonam Bathols who led a band of merry helpers to create a wonderful entrance way, photo shoot area and beautiful table decorations. Everyone was entranced and the venue felt exciting, yet calming, just as if we were inside an enchanted forest.

The evening started with a fabulous performance from the ‘Imagine Band’ – an initiative of Daniel De Villiers Hossy and his friends, ably helped by Mrs Rowe. Students danced for their parents and with their parents; the ‘JuJu Boys’ rocked the Hall with their awesome and now famous Hip Hop moves and the Year 6 students sang a beautiful song called Wings accompanied by their Music teacher, Mr Ryaed Owens. Various Year 6 Captains led the evening as we worked our way through a delicious buffet meal provided by Clancy’s Catering.

The traditional Candlelit Ceremony at the Turning Circle concluded the night with some words from us – the Year 6 PC Teachers and Teacher Assistants – who wish the Year 6 students all the very best for their futures.

Thank you to our Tech Crew, the Wait Staff, photographers, Rob and Kathy Llewellyn of Heartbeat Rockers and to all the teachers who attended the evening in support of the Year 6 students. It was a wonderful night.

One of the highlights of the day is the award of the MacKenzie Shield and the activities, which include the creation of House mascots and problem-solving skills, contribute to the award, presented at the Leadership Dinner.

Each House were responsible for setting their tables – this year’s efforts saw Veivers with a beach theme, Starkey students sat in a very colourful ‘garden’, Laver were illuminated with green lights, Franklin celebrated Ms Hyman’s birthday and Andrews were ‘out of this world’. After an evening of Italian food and two very challenging quizzes designed by Dr Brohier, Franklin House were victorious in claiming the victory and were presented as the winners of the 2018 MacKenzie Shield.

On behalf of the Heads of House, thank you to our Year 11 students who engaged with maturity and positivity on Wednesday. We very much look forward to your leadership in 2019!

The students only had six school days to prepare and create a solution for a problem that they had brainstormed in their, Think Tank session in the previous week. Their business brief was to create a company name, logo, mission statement, financial background and a code of conduct outlining human rights for their workers, how to lessen the impact on the environment and what charities they were going to support with this new venture.

These were modelled and taught in different subject classes during Term Four so that the students could then use these skills from IAS, Mathematics, English and Design lessons to produce their final presentation.

In teams of mainly three, they had to produce four to six slides outlining their company’s product and policies, and present it to the judges. Heats were held to choose one winner in each Year 7 Class, who would then progress to the Grand Final. Our guest judges were Year 11 Business Studies students, who had the very hard task of choosing not only the heat winners but also first, second and third place winners in the Grand Final.

The winners of the inaugural Sustainable Business 101 Award for 2108

1st-GREEN WEAR - Ava McCarthy, Ben Major and Luke Rana-Smith
2nd-SCHOOL’S OUT - Andy Wong Lin and Kartier Marjanovic
3rd-SOMERSET CPS- Ananya Garg, Jerry Zhang, Julia Puhalla and James Gell
Year 11 Grand Final Judges: Katisha Webb, Lachlan Gallagher and Teleah Yuen

Heat Winners of the Year 7 Pitch Competition

7.1 Personal Touch - Zhi Dobson, Mia Huang, Gianni Restaino
7.2 KoKoWare - Amy Barry, Edward Lynch, Tyler Longfield
7.3 Somerset CPS - Ananya Garg, James Gell, Jerry Zhang, Julia Puhalla
7.4 School is Out - Alice Jones, Andy Wong, Kartier Marjanovic
7.5 Green Wear - Ava McCarthy, Ben Major, Luke Rana-Smith
All the Year 7 teams, dressed in their corporate attire, produced an amazing array of product creations and their presentations were well articulated and very professional.

The Year 7 Teaching Team would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who made this happen: Mr Moore for organising the Year 11 Judges, Ms Morley –PITCH Technics, Mr Grocott, Mrs Wheeler for their immense involvement in ensuring the students had the knowledge and skills to complete this Interdisciplinary Unit of work.

A BIG ‘thank you’ to all the Year 7s who worked very hard together to produce imaginative and creative products and services and were willing and eager to experience the workings of the corporate world!

We have exceeded our expectations for the year due to the support we have received from our team of volunteers and families who have purchased from us and/or donated and consigned clothing and textbooks.

We farewell long standing volunteers Dr Lisa Freeman, Anthea Gerrard, and Didi Warmerdam, whose youngest children are in the Class of 2018. We bid a temporary farewell to Dr Leisha Hay who we hope will rejoin our team in 2020.

We thank the dozens of other volunteers who have helped out sorting and pricing items and serving customers throughout the year. A big thank you to all the staff who help behind the scenes including Suzie Frawley and Anthony Farrugia.

We look forward to being of service to Somerset families in 2019.

According to the QCAA, it aims to assist students in overcoming past difficulties with, or negative perceptions towards, mathematics, so that they can use mathematics efficiently and critically to make informed decisions in their daily lives.

Prevocational Mathematics provides opportunities for students to improve their numeracy to assist them in pursuing a range of vocational and personal goals. Over the past couple of weeks, Miss Kim Capper’s Year 11 Prevocational Mathematics students have been by engaging in a number of work experience opportunities. Students have been involved in assisting in the College Events Department, the Computer Department and the Swimming Pool; where they were hoping to gain a small insight into the running of these areas.

This week, the students experienced working life at Mercedes-Benz Gold Coast Luxury Dealership in Robina‎. Cooper Markovitch, Jess Pridham and Ky Codd, enjoyed the time and hospitality of Sales Manager, Peter Cresia. The student’s enthusiasm for the cars was infectious! This was followed by a wrap up lunch with the students at the Easy T Centre.

The work experience unit of the Prevocational Mathematics course, not only provides students with the opportunity to establish a positive learning environment, but it also allows students to develop practical skills. With its focus on topics like how to do a tax return, pay off a car, buy a house and plan a holiday, Prevocational Maths helps students answer the age old question; “when will we use this?”

However, our luck would soon take a turn when one of our members saw an injury. Although her safety was fortunately ensured, our schedule had been delayed two hours. Nonetheless, we continued with the ambition to summit Mount Maroon.

It was at 200m from the summit that we could see a storm system approach and so the upsetting, yet appropriate decision was made to turn back in respect for our safety. Although we could all be proud of what we had achieved for ourselves and as a group on this camp, for most of us, it felt inevitable that we would soon return in the near future to summit.

Fast forward two months and a consensus for a rematch had been made; a Mount Maroon 2.0 set for November 25th. With 9 of the original 16 students partaking in this hike, it was special to see such an eager and dedicated group of individuals freely give up their Sunday for this unique mission of ours. Upon arriving at the base of Mount Maroon, clear skies presented itself and a more hopeful atmosphere was certainly felt by all. Progress to the top was efficient, with optimistic mind-sets and strong fellowship seen unfailingly. A short time after midday we had made it, we were all standing victorious at the summit of Mount Maroon, 967m above sea level. The serenity was truly spectacular and the feelings that were experienced at the summit were heartfelt. This moment undoubtedly became a memory of purity for us all.

As Captain Lez would say, ‘the view was definitely worth it!’.

Thank you to Mrs Leslie and Mr Henderson for this opportunity – sincerely your 2018 Year 10 camp group.

Mr Correa has raced internationally and also coached international triathletes. Currently completing his masters degree at Bond University before embarking on his PhD studies – into altitude and heat training for Triathletes.

Our aim is to compete as a team at:

• Kingscliff Triathlon 31 March.
• The Gold Coast (Luke Harrop Memorial) Triathlon on April 7

Both events cater for athletes from seven years and older.

Training will begin first week back in the new year so stay tuned for details.

Please email: csayer@somerset.qld.edu.au to get on the mailing list.

The aim of the Program is to identify talented athletes who have the potential to achieve success at an elite sporting level.

The testing consisted of measures of anthropometry, vertical jump, 20m sprint, cycling peak power, standing long jump, softball throw and the multistage fitness test. There were some excellent performances shown by a number of students.

The results will be analysed by QAS staff and any students who demonstrate potential for a particular sport will be notified shortly.

Junior APS Summer Sports and Cultural Assembly

The Rising Star Trophy for AFL: Sarah Hammett & Bowen Mansell

The Halloran Trophy for Cricket: Liam Kiddle

The Michaela Harrington Trophy for Softball: Emmeline Anthony

The Belinda Lanham Trophy for Basketball: Ekheera Birk & Ali Cuhadaroglu

The Smith Trophy for Touch Football: Vienna Gillespie & Ethan Carson

The Paroz Family Trophy for Swimming: Elizabeth (Bessie) Dear & Raiden Kyaw

The Brenden Toohey Memorial Trophy for Cross Country: Marley Burns & Darcy Halloran

The McDonald Family Trophy for Athletics: Elizabeth (Bessie) Dear & Darcy Halloran

Class Swimming Awards – Semester Two 2018

The best attendance for a class for swimming lesson in Semester Two was 3B. Congratulations to all the members of this class! Well done!

The following students received Class Swimming Awards this semester: 

Results - Year 3 to 6 Inter-House Tabloids

Congratulations to all those Year 3 to 6 students who competed in the 2018 Junior School Inter-House Tabloids Event that was held last Friday on the Middle Track. The results were as follows:

• 1st Veivers
• 2nd Laver
• 3rd Starkey
• 4th Andrews
• 5th Franklin

Thank you to all staff who contributed to the running of this event. Without your help and assistance, the hosting of this wonderful and enjoyable event would not have been possible!

Lilly Thompson – Ballet

Lilly completed her Royal Academy of Dance Advanced 2 exam recently. This is the culmination of fifteen years of work and dedication.

Lilly began learning Ballet at 1.5 years old and has worked through the grades from Pre-Primary to complete the syllabus. In the last two years has worked tirelessly to overcome two major ankle injuries, caused by other activities unrelated to Ballet, in order to achieve her goals.

Yesterday, Lilly was advised that she has passed her exam and has been awarded her Advanced 2 Certificate. The Royal Academy of Dance is an accredited institution of the University of Surrey. As such, she has received the accreditation of: Lilly Thompson ARAD, which is a wonderful achievement.

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

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.

After a great day both our red and orange teams were undefeated! What a great way to end the year. That means both our red and orange teams finished 7th overall in Future Stars 2019. Hopefully next year we can rise up the ladder.

Our Red team consisted of:

• Sharni Norman
• Paxton Ryan
• Lucy Pluss
• Jack Pluss
• Zhander Griffiths
• Paxton Stewart

Our Orange team consisted of:

• Mia Richards 
• Mason Richards
• Sasha Hanford
• Justin Kim
• William Pluss
• Jamie Batho
• Noa Chester-Haviv

Special mention to Paxton Stewart and Sasha Hanford who won the sportsmanship awards on the day!

By 5.00pm all six of the courts were flooded with kids playing and the BBQ was running, hot cooking our 300 sausages and assorted meats thanks to The Meat Smiths.

The parents were ushered into the multi-purpose room around 5.30pm for the introduction of Somerset Tennis 2019. Lachlan Treacher and Luke Spanner presented 2019’s mission to the 60 parents in attendance and answered all and any questions they had. There was plenty of excitement for what’s to come.

After more games and mingling, it was time to gather all students, parents and staff to the multi-purpose room for a hilarious slideshow of what Somerset Tennis 2018 looked like. The slideshow concluded once everyone caught their breath or dried their eyes. The parent committee presented coaches Lachlan Treacher, Luke Spanner and Lachlan Yarwood with generous gifts and kind words as thanks for their efforts throughout the year.

It was well past the night's scheduled end, however there was plenty of energy left in the kids and one last game to be played. Every single parent, student and staff member joined in for the last game, using modified Red Balls, along with a modified court, everyone battled it out for the prestigious prize of a box of chocolates and bragging rights. In the end the parents were no match for the eager students and the final was between Ethan Stewart and Fynn Busuttin. In the end Fynn took the chocolates, literally, but instead of consuming a monthly dose of sugar in one night, they were hurled into the air for all the kids to share.

Overall the night was a tremendous success and a whole lot of fun however it wouldn’t have been as organized if our parent committee wasn’t behind the scenes ensuring everything was done. Thank you to everyone who attended, bring on 2019!