The first thing which strikes many people about Somerset College is the warmth of relationships between our students and the mutual respect between students and our staff. These characteristics are developed in myriad ways each and every day.
Learning within the classroom is inclusive, engaging and encourages collaboration. Opportunities beyond the classroom include a broad range of sports and cultural pursuits, and progressive outdoor education and service learning programmes.
There really is an opportunity for every child to develop a passion in the knowledge they will be well supported as their talents develop. This extends into our pastoral care programme and our focus on student wellbeing with continuity of care throughout the student’s time in the Senior School.
During the last school holidays, I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in Vice-Chancellor’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) camp held by Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. The camp was for current Year 11 students who are passionate in STEM fields and who would like to explore, understand and achieve something about STEM within five-day time frame.
Congratulations to the students of Year 10 Design Business, who recently created and ran their own market during the inaugural Celebration of Entrepreneurship in Week 2. This was the culmination of a whole year of work in which students researched customer needs, developed a product concept, designed advertising and planned how to create and operate market stalls.
There have been a number of ‘Eureka’ moments throughout history including Archimedes falling into his bath, Newton watching an apple fall to the ground and Einstein’s thought experiment of a man free-falling. One lesser known flash of inspiration came to Irish Mathematician, William Rowan Hamilton, while he was out taking a trip with his wife along the Royal Canal in Dublin.
Somerset College is a non-selective school. We accept students from all ability levels with our only precondition being that students at the College always strive to do their best and try their hardest.
The development of a caring community and a strong network of support for our students is central to our ethos and daily work.
At Somerset College we have numerous student committees for Senior School students. These are a major avenue for outreach into the wider community.