It was very challenging for the young rowers and they did a great job to make it through the day without any major mishaps.
Year 8 students Nathalie Brown and Emily Macbeth both started their Rowing careers with a win, with each of the girls taking a win in the novice single sculls event. The two girls made it through the day undefeated also racing in the double and quad sculls. Emily teamed up with Mackenzie Cadman to win the division 3 double scull. Nathalie teamed up with Eden Dovrat to win the Division 2 double event and along Katherine Jordan, Jessica Velloza, and Emelia Fink, they also won Division 1 of the Girls Year 8 Quad Scull.
Some of the Year 8 boys also had a winning start to their rowing careers with Xavier McMullen, Timothy Hornsey, Zak Van Den Brink, Harrison Jordan and Callum McClure all taking out first place in their novice single sculling events. Raffi Anderson, Riley Bust, Harrison Jordan, Callum McClure and Zak Van Den Brink were narrowly beaten by Trinity Lutheran College in Division 1 of the Boy’s Year 8 Quad Scull whilst the crew of Thomas Gray, Timothy Hornsey, Xavier McMullen, Jasper Mansell and Lachlan Hartley took out victory in Division 2.
In other highlights the Somerset senior rowers won both the Boy’s and Girl’s open eight races. Katherine Plume and Jade Mansell Mansell won the open Girl’s Double Scull and the Boy’s Open Quad Scull of Blake Mills, Marc Eksteen, Lachie Munro, Cian Muenster and Jasper Mansell took first place. There were many other strong performances across the day including second places in the Girl’s Year 10 Quad Scull and also the Boy’s Year 9 Quad Scull.
As always the Somerset parents and supporters were fantastic in their running the catering and the logistics for the Regatta. I would like to extend a thank you to all of the volunteers including the Rowing Queensland boat race officials and all of the Somerset staff members who helped to make the day a great success.
The rowers will continue to race the Gold Coast regattas throughout Term Two.
The first film we watched was Jeffrey, a documentary set in the Dominican Republic that chronicles a young boy’s dreams to become a reggaeton star. Filmmaker Yanillys Perez spent four years documenting the life of Joselito de la Cruz and his neighborhood, whom she first found cleaning car windshields for money. After this, we had a session with a professional film reviewer in which we found ourselves critically analyzing some hit films and possibly reconsidering them.
We then watched Window Horses, a Canadian animated film about a young girl who is aspiring poet unexpectedly being invited to a poetry festival in Iran and finding out her family history along the way. We then had another session where two Brisbane animators who own a group called Like a Photon, who have made many successful children’s TV shows, taught us about animated character design and gave us examples from some of the all-time greatest animated movies.
We are extremely grateful to Somerset for giving us this great opportunity to learn from some experts in this field. We all left with some new knowledge and were excited about the future opportunities we had.
The Screen Smart Parent Tour is designed for parents of 10 to 14 year olds in particular. It’s an age where your child may be becoming more involved online and a time when the more proactive we can be with having conversations around online use, the better. We have ongoing eSmart sessions at school – this week, it was the turn of Year 7 students. We encourage parents to also be actively talking about aspects at home - be it staying safe, balancing online time, communicating respectfully, or, as children move into their teens, social media use.
The Tour helps parents to identify areas that they aren’t as comfortable or confident with discussing with their children and then read up on these areas, with succinct advice and practical tips. Essentially, a parent survey, it allows you also to see some trends and give some insight into what other parents think about these issues.
Overall, the aim is to remind parents of the types of conversations they should be having with their children, and provide practical tips and advice. The tour covers six important online areas and doesn’t take long to complete. At the end there are a list of useful resources within the iParent section of the website for further reading.
On the eSafety website, you’ll find a wealth of useful information about different online environments, including social networking sites and online games, including information about age restrictions, how to report and privacy controls. Taking some time to explore the website is recommended and it is a go-to in this space with a real commitment from the government to constantly updating the information within.
Students were provided with the opportunity to explore the way objects move in different ways through both observation and participation in a variety of scientific experiments incorporating the concept of movement. Prep friends discovered objects move in different ways because of their shape and what material they are made from.
In the classroom, children have displayed curiosity when they have been busy planning and building with a range of equipment including; marble runs, gears, toolo and duplo. This construction helps promote questioning and further consolidates student’s new knowledge in relation to forces. Here’s to our future engineers and designers!
Future Filmmakers is aimed at Year 11 and 12 students who are considering a career in film. Students were given a taste of the many aspects of and jobs available in the film industry, with speakers covering all aspects of the filmmaking business. This year we heard from screen editor, Dan Rice; pop-culture commentator, Maria Lewis - who you may have seen on SBS; location scout Duncan Jones - the man responsible for turning Brisbane into NYC for Thor: Ragnarock; directors; producers; actors and writers to name just a few.
We even heard from Bond Alumni, Elizabeth Cullen, who the Year 12's were fortunate enough to meet and see in character on set last year, when we visited the set of TV series "The Bureau of Magical Things". Elizabeth won a scholarship to study at Bonds' Film School after entering and winning BUFTA, which has opened many doors for her. All the more reason for Somerset students to enter this years' competition!
Breakout EDU allowed us to work in an interactive and cooperative learning environment, all whilst learning new French vocabulary and revising existing content.
I can confidently speak on behalf of my class in saying that this was one of the most beneficial activities we have played in French since starting it in Junior School. This is because everyone in the classroom was working together to solve the problems and were enjoying themselves. It did not even feel like we were revising content and everyone learnt in a more kinaesthetic and entertaining way.
Leaving the classroom, I even heard one of my classmates saying, it "was the best French lesson ever".
We all look forward to taking part in this game again and continuing to learn in this hands-on, collaborative environment.
The 2018 Junior School Inter-House Cross Country Carnival was held at the College Wednesday 18 April. Each student tried their best, attempted to run the whole way without stopping and displayed excellent sportsmanship.
Well done to the following students who placed on the day:
Congratulations to Veivers House for winning the Carnival.
The placings on the day were as follows:
A huge thank you to all the Junior School staff who contributed to a successfully run Carnival.
Good luck to all our students who have been selected to compete at the Junior APS Cross Country Carnival at Runaway Bay, Tuesday 8 May.
Team training is every Monday to Friday at 7.00am on the track.
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