The effort that went into the 40th Inter-House Swimming Carnival made it arguably one of the best ever. Wonderful conditions across two days, in Week 7 and Week 8, saw Spartans in Year 3 to Year 12 doing their best for their House.
Some declared it was, “the best swim carnival ever”.
In Junior School, Starkey House swam to first place, while Franklin House came out on top in the Senior School competition. Congratulations to both Junior School House Convenor for Starkey, Andrew Halloran and Franklin's Head of House, Jacinta Hyman.
A special mention must go to the Heads of House/ House Convenors for their work to ensure our Spartans were ready to swim! Thanks to our expert Head of Aquatics, Forrest Butcher, as well as Stephanie Oppermann for their marvellous efforts with operations.
Also thank you to Suzie Frawley and the team in Logistics, P&F, Lisa Thomson, Stephanie Johnson, Grant Peel and IT, Martin Furlong and the catering team, our Cleaning Department, staff in our Health Centre and the visiting Medics.
Stoyfest was a huge success last week and on the Thursday, Slimefest took place in front of an excited audience.
The Committee of Year 6 boys – Julian Kelly Correa, Darcy Daly, Jackson Smith and Ben Sharpe – spent the week selling tickets. Thank you to Mrs Walsh for designing a great poster and helping with publicity.
Many students desperately wanted their names pulled out to have the good fortune to lift a bucket of coloured slime and tip it over the head of the brave people sitting in the slime chairs: Darcy Daly (Year 6 student in a revenge slime), Angus Fraser (Junior School Captain), Thomas Gray (Somerset School, Captain), Mr Troy Zernike (Assistant to the Head of Junior School) and Frane Lessac (Author and Illustrator). Mark Greenwood, author, ably worked up the crowd!
The boys raised $740 to hand over to the Charity for World Literacy called Room to Read, of which Frane is an Ambassador. Thank you, Somerset community, for your generosity and involvement.
Earlier this year, the Quoll Society of Australia and a group of intrepid volunteers took to the tracks at O’Reillys in Lamington National Park to set wildlife cameras for the endangered spotted-tailed quoll.
This is the official record of the almost 20-kilometre trek my brother and I did with the Quoll Society over the Summer holidays... I fancifully liken it to Shackleton's epic arctic expedition; heroic struggles against the odds in the name of science. I mean, what else would you call endless mud, a few leeches, treacherous creek crossings (resulting in sodden feet), sheer drops and fallen trees? This was certainly my view before going, as I'm not known for my love of hiking. But I can honestly say that despite this being the most challenging physical activity I've probably ever done, it was so rewarding both personally and to see a scientific process such as this in action, and appreciate what goes into these conservation endeavours. Plus, the endless waterfalls, mountain vistas, Giant Antarctic Beech trees, Blue Crayfish spotting’s and other amazing scenery made up for the hardships. I was talking to Emily, one of the scientists, and she said this was an easy field day! Often, she has to go out geo-tagging or such alone in areas with no paths, maps or signs, and has to rely on GPS and her knowledge of topography maps to not get lost.
The aim was to deploy 20-30 motion-activated cameras along the two tracks, which meant laying a grid over the map for even coverage of the area, then finding suitable sites in each grid. There couldn't be too much vegetation around that would activate the cameras, so a plain solid background was best. Then, motion-activated cameras were tied to a tree facing a bait holder containing a chicken drumstick laced with a splash of tuna oil. These cameras remain in place for about six weeks before they get collected (via a second trek) and the hours of images are analysed for signs of quolls. To paraphrase the official blurb 'Hopefully the surveys will show that the remote parts of Lamington National Park are one of the last places that the imperilled spotted-tailed quoll, which is the largest marsupial carnivore on mainland Australia, is still persisting in South East Queensland. The results of the surveys will be used by the Quoll Society team and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to inform future conservation management strategies to ensure quolls are around for future generations to enjoy.'
It may seem like two or three scientists could have done this work, but the truth is the equipment is so heavy- I had to move one of the full backpacks up the path and it was at least 20-kilograms!
So even if we were just glorified packhorses, it shows that volunteers can be necessary in this type of endeavour, and my brother and I will forever remember this day and are proud to have been involved.
We are off to a flying start in the Junior Technology classroom. Year 3 students are using Bits Box text-based coding to create their own App games. Students are developing their understanding of programming language, commands, loops and If statements using Java Script.
Year 4 students are creating their own interactive multiple choice game using Scratch Game Creator software, with Year 5 continuing the programming theme for this term using Co Spaces to create an interactive game connected to their Central Idea Historical influences shape a community. Students are particularly excited to gain hands on experience using the Augmented Reality Merge Cubes, this allowing student to bring their game creations to life.
It has been an exciting start for our Pre-Prep to Year 2 Students in Mandarin this year, full of dragons and Chinese New Year celebrations!
After returning to school, Pre-Prep to Year 2 students have been exploring the customs and traditions of Chinese New Year through stories, songs and by creating some beautiful decorations. Students demonstrated great self-awareness by highlighting the parts of Chinese New Year celebrations that most excited them, as well as by comparing Chinese New Year to their own celebrations at home.
For Year 2, this culminated in an incursion to the Chinese Museum of Melbourne as part of their Digital Cultural Adventures. Students participated in a programme called Awakening the Dragon, that explored one of the important mythical creatures in Chinese cultural celebrations like Chinese New Year. Staff from the Chinese Museum of Melbourne guided students through the origin of the Chinese dragon, as well as how it came to have its unique shape. Students even had the opportunity to create their own dragon during the session!
新年快乐！
This week has seen the return of Inter-School chess competitions and Somerset Spartans were at the forefront of competitions!
Tuesday saw the Hinterland Primary zone take place in the Great Hall, with Somerset sending over 50 students to take part. The standout performance was Calen Tang who scored a perfect 7/7 in the A division to claim first place individually. Together with Calen, Alessandro Martinese, Harrison Qu and Paris Liu formed Somerset 1 and they clinched the Term One title!
In the B Division, our top performers were Paul Sang Yum, William Zhao, Zhander Griffiths and Hayden Li who all scored 5/7 to get Merit ribbons, whilst Kush Veeramachaneni and Asha Kowalczuk scored 4.5/7 to also get Merit ribbons.
Somerset 4 (Paul, William, Kush and Jeremy Zhang) finished the day in second place, whilst Somerset 3 (Zhander, Hayden, Ethan Kelly Correa and Sehaj Gill) finished in third place.
In the C Division, Ashton Jennings scored a perfect 7/7 to claim first place individually. Merit ribbons were collected by Elli Dirckze (5.5/7, =third), Thomas Chudzinski and Arjun Rai (5/7), and Kobi Brittain (4.5/7).
Our top team in this division was Somerset 9 (Ashton, Arjun, Kaius Ho, Samuel Hosking) who finished second, whilst Somerset 15 (Elli Dirckze, Kobi Brittain, Austin Liu, Johnny Ratcliffe) finished in fourth place on count-back.
On Wednesday it was the Gold Coast Secondary event where teams were impacted by school camps and exam block. Somerset had teams scattered across all three divisions, and in the A Division, Somerset 1 (Byron Morris, Oliver Yang, Jared Consiglio-Cockle, Lyanna Chan) finished in third position despite missing a collective five rounds due to exam clashes). Byron finished = first with 5.5/7. Somerset 2 (Jennifer Yeung, Oscar Credland-Ballantyne, Aarav Rawlley, Ruahara Mapabandara) finished in fourth position.
In B division, Somerset fielded a young team who worked super hard to finish in sixth position.
In C division, Laurens Brisbane made a triumphant return to the chess board with a perfect 7/7 for first place individually. The Somerset 5 team finish in sixth position, with only three players.
Chess Opportunities
Somerset Chess is back up and running with our co-curricular lessons in the Junior School running each day along with the following opportunities for all students to play at lunch time:
We also have a Friday afternoon club which is open to all students in years 1 through 12. This club runs from 3.30pm to 5.30pm every Friday and involves five tournament games. Informal coaching is given between games by experienced Gardiner Chess coaches. To register for this, please follow these steps:
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