From the Headmaster

A very warm welcome and welcome back to 2023 for the Somerset community. We had 267 new students, 207 in the Junior School and 60 in the Senior School, begin their journey at the College and we certainly hope theirs will be as rewarding as ours. We started the year with a record enrolment of 1726 from Pre-Prep to Year 12. On behalf of the College Board, I thank you for your continuing support of Somerset as we enter our 41st year. It was quickly apparent that the students settled very well to their classes.

We have had a number of new staff join the College and we have been very impressed by the start our new colleagues have made. It is certainly the largest intake in my time and represents an enormous opportunity for them and the College to enhance an already outstanding culture.  

The staffing changes are noted as follows:

• Mr Dane Robinson | Dean of Activities
• Ms Kanae (Aki) Aki | Teacher - Senior School
• Miss Julia Beaumont (Class of 2019) | Sports Instructor - Activities Hub
• Mrs Kim Bennett | Teacher - Learning Enhancement Junior School
• Mr Kai Bevens | Functions Coordinator
• Mr Stephen Blaszkowski | Kitchen Hand
• Mr Alec Brand | Teacher - Senior School (Fixed Term)
• Mr Kyle Butcher | Teacher - Junior School
• Miss Lynley Calder | Teacher - Senior School
• Miss Kristen Clark | Sports Intern
• Ms Jessica (Jess) Hall | Assistant Accountant
• Mrs Gail Hamawi | Teacher Assistant - Junior School
• Ms Holly Harrison | Teacher - Junior School
• Mrs Alison Jarvis | Teacher Assistant - Junior School
• Ms Virginia Male | Coordinator Learning Enhancement
• Ms Rosie Malone | Sports Assistant
• Mr Harry McMaster (Class of 2015) | Personal Training and Strength & Conditioning (Fixed Term)
• Miss Kayla McNaught | Teacher - Junior School
• Ms Meisha Napoles | Assistant Head of Department - Foreign Languages
• Ms Caitlyn Nevins | Head Coach - Netball
• Mrs Rath Tha (Malis) Pau | Chef 
• Mrs Emma Percasky | Year Level Leader - Junior School
• Miss Jen Rush | Teacher – Senior School 
• Mrs Sacha Sharples | Teacher - Junior School
• Mrs Philippa (Pip) Siddall | Teacher Assistant - Junior School
• Mr Jackson Spinks |  Network and Systems Technician
• Mrs Sharaz Stanford-Modini | Teacher Assistant - Junior School
• Mr Daniel Toomey | Teacher - Junior School
• Mr Hayden Volzke | Teacher - Senior School
• Mr Andrew Walsh | Assistant Head of Department - Business
• Miss Sienna Willis | Teacher - Junior School

Welcome back to Mrs Melissa Black, Ms Corina Jeflea, Mrs Sally Leslie, Ms Jingjing Lu, Miss Tracey Payne, Mrs Brittany Simpson and Mrs Carrie Smith after some periods of leave. 

There have been a number of changes to responsibilities for 2023:

• Mrs Annmarie Moy | Co-ordinator – Activities HUB
• Miss Stephanie Oppermann | Teacher – Senior School (Fixed Term)
• Mr Elliot Roberts | Assistant Head of Department – Early Years
• Ms Fiona Smith | College Leadership Team
• Mr Baden U’Ren |  Entrepreneur in Residence / Co-ordinator
• Mr Scott Walsh | Head Coach – Athletics and Cross Country
• Miss Rebekah (Bek) Ward | Year Level Co-ordinator  

I could not be more proud of the Class of 2022 or the staff. In summary the results are:

Three students, our College Dux and Academic Captain, Lauren Chan, Kate Jordan and Joe Wright-Smith, achieved the highest possible score, 99.95, only 33 students across the state achieved this result. 

Somerset is one of a handful of schools to have been represented in all years in this way. 14% of the Year 12 cohort achieved an ATAR of 99 or above, placing them in the top 1% of the state. In total 21 students were OP1 equivalent, our previous best was 15. That will mean the most common score for Somerset will continue to be the equivalent of an OP 1, an incredible statistic, possibly shared by only one other school in the state

• 44% of the Year 12 cohort achieved an ATAR of 95 or above, placing them in the top 5% of the state
• 59% of the Year 12 cohort achieved an ATAR of 90 or above, placing them in the top 10% of the state
• 85% of the Year 12 cohort achieved an ATAR of 80 or above, placing them in the top 20% of the state
• An astonishing 37 achieved straight A results in their subjects
• Six students received perfect scores of 100 in their subjects, Darcy Beynon in Music, Lauren Chan in Literature, Maths Methods and Chemistry, Kate Jordan in Literature, Jackson Li in English, Charlie Liu in Maths Methods and Ruben Yam in Music.

This summary of the IBDP results has continue to confirm our place as the top non-government co-educational school in Queensland.  These results should never be taken for granted and are the result of serous effort from all stakeholders in a supportive and encouraging environment.

We certainly had a bumper end of year with all the positive press about our NAPLAN results.

I also provide a considerable list of successful Scholarship recipients:

• Lauren Chan | The University of Queensland - Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship 
• Kate Jordan | The University of Queensland - Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship 
• Joe Wright-Smith | UNSW - Scientia Scholarship 
• Peter Osborne | UNSW - Co-Op Scholarship 
• Angus Millar | Melbourne University - Melbourne Chancellor’s Scholarship 
• Ari Uchida | Melbourne University - Melbourne National Merit Scholarship 
• Kobee Munro | Monash University - Engineering Excellence Scholarship 
• Aaron Lim | Bond University - Extension Program 
• Darcy Beynon | Bond University - Excellence Scholarship 
• Keira Eljed | Bond University - Excellence Scholarship 
• Ruben Yam | Bond University - Excellence Scholarship 
• Ethan Carkazis | Bond University - Leadership Scholarship 
• Thomas Kilmartin | King’s College UQ - Residential Scholarship