Closing the Book on a Chapter….
Following presentations, Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason entertained the dinner audience with their own intellectual and witty repartee about Iceland, the Viking Sagas, the curious and solitary nature of male friendship and Kari’s own search for family and identity.
The dinner also showcased the new direction and name of the festival in 2019, (Somerset Storyfest), with its emphasis on reaching out to the Gold Coast community and being inclusive and innovative. Yes, the festival will live on, with a new name, and a breath of ‘new’ life! Some things will change, but many much loved aspects of the festival will remain the same; with the most important ones, the venue and the ownership, being Somerset.
Through the days leading up to the 2018 festival and during the three days of the celebration of reading, writing, creating and simply being reflective, all that was inspirational about this singular event was on show.
Over 70 schools attended (21,000 tickets sold), children were bussed in from remote schools, authors spoke, entertained, sketched, sang, and wrote beautiful message in the covers of their books that they sold to excited children; many who were in the process of being ‘turned on’ to books. What a worthy goal!
The Prologue Party on the Wednesday night was relaxed, convivial and feisty with the enthralling fireworks closing the evening. Thursday lunchtime saw Clementine Ford elevate the consciousness of the 100 plus women (and a few hardy men), on the issue of genuine gender equality, by posing difficult questions for the audience to contemplate. The very idea of this lunch with this relevant and topical issue being so openly discussed, is testament to the power and maturity of the Somerset festival and community. The festival’s goals are very much aligned with the strategic goals of the College, where we encourage the asking of difficult questions and moving into the zone of disruptive and critical thinking and – hopefully – constructive problem solving. On Thursday night, the ‘Kids Dinner’ with its eight authors and passionate students, under the stars in the Towers Quad, gave birth to eight zany and creative mini drama performances, which entertained other students and parents alike. And that brought us to the Literary Dinner!
The 2018, 25th Celebration was a success in so many ways but through all the humidity, noise, fun, food, fireworks, heated debate, books, speeches, workshops and so many other notable aspects of the festival, the primary focus has and will, always be, creating a love of reading and writing in students and adults; leading to a better, more literate and more functional society.
Personal Project
I have chosen baking and decorating cookies as my Project, as I wanted to extend my knowledge in this area. The progress of seeing myself learning different skills and techniques, will be a large part of the exercise, as it will mainly focus on my journey and improvement of my skills. I thought decorating for different themes would allow me to expand on my prior knowledge and apply this to my work as I go.
Learning and researching will also be a large part of my Project. I will therefore allow myself to reflect on my work and process over the nine-month period. Lastly, the global context I have decided to include is ‘Personal and Cultural Expression’. I chose this as I feel I can communicate my personal expression through my work of creative baking.
So far, this Project has allowed me to learn various techniques and broaden my knowledge of decorating. The more I practice, I feel the more I improve. Furthermore, this experience has improved my time management skills as well as my organisation. Balancing my Project as well as school work, is difficult at times, however I chose something I love doing and it makes my Personal Project enjoyable.
I look forward to finishing and seeing the final products for everyone’s projects!
Kid’s Lit Quiz - Testing our Keenest Readers
From Enid Blyton to R. J Palacio and so much more in-between, our students used the strengths of the team to answer some very challenging questions.
The Year 6 team was comprised of Daniel de Villiers Hossy, Alex Jordan, Emmeline Anthony and Penelope Deacon. They were a consistently performing team, winning the “Enchanted” section of the competition and won books of their selection.
Sophia Ahern, Abigail Brinkworth, Ayla Chirathivat-Geralds and Danielle Svoboda made up the younger Year 5 team. Their incredible knowledge of books and the extent of their reading soon became obvious as they won more than one section and answered interim questions from the quiz master to win cash. Their competitiveness came to the fore as they openly vied with the Author’s Table who were seated nearby: all in good fun of course!
Somerset’s Year 5 team placed an admirable second overall, being beaten by just one point! This was the difference between $600 in prize money and the chance to compete in the national competition in Sydney. Maybe next year!
Murgon to Mudgeeraba
Last week, the Somerset community opened its doors and service hearts to many schools across south east and western Queensland, including 15 Year 5 students from Murgon State School. The B1 attendees had been reunited with their friends.
For three days, the students from Murgon were influenced and inspired by six authors. They also visited SkyPoint (Q1), watched Julian Wilson win the Quicksilver Pro, played footy with the Gold Coast Titans, toured Bond University with current indigenous students and finished the week being put through their paces on the Spartan track. The Prologue Party proved popular as they danced the night away (at least until the fireworks).
None of the students had visited the Gold Coast before, so the trip provided these young people with an opportunity to see what’s ‘out there’ should they aspire to do further study in the future. With comments like, “this has been the best day of my life”, and “I think I want to do Year 5 again, so I can visit the Literature festival”, makes what we all do so worthwhile. The opportunity afforded to this school, and others like them, can only happen with the generous support from the Somerset community, in particular The Sunland Group Foundation and the Abedian family and for this we are most appreciative.
IBDP News: The future of the ATAR?
ATAR converts results from all of the state courses into one number that Australian universities then use to select students. In the case of students from Somerset College, this means converting their QCAA results or their International Baccalaureate Diploma results into a score.
The Mitchell Institute has completed a study to reveal just one in four undergraduate students are admitted based on their ATAR, according to the ABC.
Hence, it is worth considering having your child study the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). The IBDP encourages students to develop skills and knowledge to prepare them for university and beyond.
These qualities are becoming increasingly attractive in potential university students. This is recognised in Australia and worldwide as more and more universities accept students through direct entry via their IBDP results, i.e. avoiding such systems as the ATAR.
Many Australian universities already do this with the following universities, amongst others, accepting direct entry from IBDP candidates: Melbourne, Sydney, UNSW, Macquarie, Adelaide, and Monash.
Some universities in Australia (and around the world) are even accepting IBDP based upon their predicted grades (which schools have to submit around the end of Term Three in our hemisphere).
An example of why these universities are doing this, can be seen in the University of Queensland's approach; on the University's website it says that as “...an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma graduate you have the international awareness, academic rigour and enquiry-based learning skills to excel at The University of Queensland (UQ).
Pi Night was ePic
Notwithstanding this set back, the evening was ably led by the SMS Captains, Tiffany Yuen, Zara Smith and Jason Adams. Jason kicked off the proceedings with a math trick involving a pendulum which he had constructed to have a time period of π seconds.
Then it was time for the π Challenge run by Debby Kuo, Lyanna Chan, Cindy Xue, Anna Georgeson and Betty Ke. Their questions to the volunteers from the audience all began with a different digit of π. Year 6 students Nicola Swainson and Natalie Mai gave a wonderful biography of Albert Einstein whose birthday, by coincidence, is on π day (14 March). Mr Wrigley followed with a talk on pie charts which included a breakdown of students’ excuses for not doing homework. He then put the e in pi(e) by discussing that other important irrational constant e (2.718…). e day occurred recently on 2/7/18 and is linked to π through Euler’s identity, often referred to as the most beautiful equation in maths, e π + 1 = 0. Brock Hudson, Desmond Chuah and Kevin Song rattled off some more maths jokes which just went to show that the old ones are still the best.
James Guy and Desmond Chuah delivered the main talk of the evening entitled Life of Pi. They included a comprehensive explanation of the history of π from its humble beginnings in the Babylonian approximation of 3.125 to the current day value with an infinite number of digits, making it both irrational and transcendental. Those are two adjectives that might be used to describe their presentation.
The audience then rose to their feet and performed Pi-lates with the theme taken from a variety of mathematical equations and they were stretched even further with graph dancing. It was then time for the popular Pi reciting competition run by Jason Adams and Michael Guy. Congratulations should go to all the reciters, especially those from the Junior School.
The number of digits completed by each one was as follows:
Aaryan Sajjad 25, Bessie Dear 30, Harry Walters 32, Daniel Liu 40, Natalie Mai 50, Penelope Deacon 50, Benny Lu 60, Kei Naito 87.
The evening concluded with a chorus of the Pi song and for those who were still hungry for knowledge, it was straight downstairs to eat hot pies in the aftermath.
Thanks go to Mr Brodar, Mr Abdou, Mr Hawtin and Mr Bassingthwaighte for their support on Pi night.
Mitchell Hamilton deserves special recognition as he has developed an ‘App’ to produce mathonyms quickly. He and I were thinking of making our fortune with the App but decided to offer it as a FREE service to all those who love Mathematics. The App can be accessed here.
The App allows you to quickly produce labels like this:
It would be remiss of me not to mention the passing of Stephen Hawking on Pi day. He is often quoted as having been the most intelligent person of our time and my favourite quote of his is, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”. Hawking’s birthday was on 8th January, the same day Galileo died and he died on Pi day which was Einstein’s birthday.
Watch out Hans Zimmer, John Williams and Danny Elfman... Here comes Jason Adams!
Specific Music is owned and operated by American songwriter, record producer, programmer, engineer, mixer and music publisher - Robert Conley and long-time music and film industry veteran Leonie Conley.
The Somerset Song Writing Competition was open to all Australian high school students. It was a wonderful opportunity for serious student song writers.
Jason’s song, A Light White Sky, was among the three short-listed songs that were performed at the Helensvale Nightquarter, last Saturday, 17 March. Charlotte Roche performed Jason’s song. Although not being placed first in the competition, being a runner-up in a national competition, is an achievement indeed. The judges were impressed with Jason’s writing which shows a very strong leaning towards film scoring. One judge commented, "...it was what one would expect to hear on Game of Thrones." Very high praise indeed.
Congratulations, Jason! Perhaps our next Oscar contender.
Seniors with Seniors
It is fair to say that even though we have only had a few conversations with our new friends over the course of this recently introduced programme, we have already grown incredibly fond of them all.
Personally, participating in this activity has been extremely rewarding and truly a one-of-a-kind experience. Many people in our generation do not get the opportunity to have meaningful conversations with others who come from a variety of backgrounds and have all lived such unique lives. Each visitor has a range of different interests and knowledge to impart on the Year 12 students they may otherwise never have been exposed to.
As it is our final year at Somerset College, I think this opportunity is so significant and important to cherish as it is something we will most likely not be able to encounter again, once we each tread our separate career paths.
Homes for Wildlife
The Sustainable Spartans are very grateful to the Parents' and Friends' Association for funding our first project. Over 300 Australian animal species depend on tree hollows for nesting and shelter; these include around 17 per cent of our bird species, 42 per cent of our mammals and 28 per cent of our reptiles. More animals depend on hollows in Australia than in any other country in the world.
It takes at least 80 to 100 years for a small hollow to form and many hundreds more for large hollows. In recent years, widespread clearing of mature and dead trees has resulted in a critical shortage of tree hollows. Sadly, around one third of hollow-dependent animals in Australia are now considered endangered or threatened.
The ‘tree hollow’ nest boxes at Somerset have been individually carved from recycled hardwood logs by local company, Habi-tec Habitat Innovations. We will be monitoring them for signs of activity over the coming months. Once they are occupied, we plan to install a wildlife monitoring camera to carry out scientific research and provide students with unique wildlife viewing experiences.
Somerset Netballer Reaching New Heights
Rylee will travel with the Queensland team to compete in the Australian Netball Nationals being held in Adelaide in April.
Rylee has also been selected in the U19 Golden South JAGs Netball team, who compete against other regional teams in the Queensland State Netball League from April to September.
Well done and all the best for the season!
Somerset Sports
Samuel Dalton- Senior State Surf Lifesaving Titles
Samuel competed up in age in the Under 17 division for Flags, Beach Sprints and in the Under 19 Beach Relay at last weekend’s state titles for Lifesaving. He had a very successful weekend and his results were as follows:
- Flags - Individual Bronze Medal
- Relay - Team Gold Medal
- Beach Sprint final - 6th place
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.
Hinterland Sports Trials
Hinterland Trials are for strong performers to trial for representative selection in school sport. These lead to Regional and State teams.
Students wanting to trial for these teams, must email or come to the Sports Department ASAP. All trials are listed on the Sports Page of Schoolbox (“Representative Sport” tile) and announced in Notices during the week.
Cross Country Team Training
Every day at 7.00am to 8.15amMeet Ms McKenna and Ms Oppermann at the Track, all welcome
House Cross Country Carnival, Wednesday 18 April:In Week 1 of Term Two, we will host our Annual House Cross Country Carnival. Students will leave class at the end of period four and head to the Track area to prepare for their races (16 Years+ Boys race 6km, all others race 3km). Awards will conclude at the Track by 4.45pm.
APS Winter Dates
Monday 19 and Wednesday 21 March Compulsory APS Practices continue
Friday 23 March APS Winter Sports Practice Round vs ASAS (Years 8 and 9 on Camp)
Monday 26 March Compulsory APS Practices continue
Wednesday 28 March Compulsory APS Practices continue
Term 2: Weeks 1 to 8 Winter Season Rounds 1 to 7 and Finals Day
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)
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