All the students have had a wonderful time - a great way to finish the year!

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Our students played as a part of an approximately 1500 strong massed ukulele orchestra made up of primary students from dozens of schools!

We performed a wide range of songs, from traditional Maori and Pasifika songs, to a ukulele arrangement of Guns 'n Roses Sweet Child Of Mine, through to a very challenging picking version of the Can-Can!

It was a great event, and our students had a blast learning and performing such a wide variety of songs!

Despite a bleak day and blustery conditions, ur four riders competed in three separate classes. Our best results were achieved by Jordie Mathews who obtained 12 ribbons in 15 possible classes. Among these, she received reserve champion on the flat and champion over jumps. Ella Harris, Avadee Nowell and Regan Healy also amassed an impressive collection of ribbons between them. The team came 9th overall. Despite the hail storm, sporadic thunder and soggy conditions, a great time was had by all!

A HUGE congratulations to the team! Well done girls.

The team consisted of the following students:

Isacc Smith, Marcus Stratford, Zac Dawson, Ty Newell, Luke Newson, Kahlen Flexman, Jack Taylor, Sain Jaafar, Judd Brown, Daniel Glenie, Emma Swan, Ashley Fillet, Rochelle Christie, Aiden Bray, Jaimee Scott and Ryan Johnson.

Sunny conditions enabled our runners to run to their best performances to allow them to cross the finish line in second place, beating other high school and intermediate teams. We are proud of all of these runners efforts in training during the school year as well as running in this tough endurance event. Thank you to all of the parents who supported in the success of this event once again.

Mixed Team
The mixed team was made up of Logan Besley, Cassidy Meleisea, Josh Gagiano, Tyler Gagiano, Ryan Collett, Connor Boulton, Chloe Overend, Shayla Nepia, Rochelle Christie, Demi Morris, Addison Doeg and Helena Dunn.

In our first game, the mixed team came out strong with a 6-0 win against Mission Heights. Following on from this win, the team were fired up and had a second very confident win 7-0 against the team from Elim. This team worked on their skills, figured out gaps they had and what they needed to work on, and played an incredible tight, well oiled game against Ormiston which ended in a 10-0 victory. After these first three games, the team were feeling confident, but knew the next two games against Howick Intermediate and BBI, our local rivals, were going to be tough ones. They fought hard and played extremely well together to get a very tight 3-2 win against Howick. The final game for the pool play was against BBI, which would decide our place in the finals. We unfortunately lost against BBI, but due to our previous wins we were through to the first/second final. The final was extremely tough, we had a couple of injuries, and in the end unfortunately lost.

The mixed team ended the tournament with a very respectable 2nd place overall.

Girls Team
The girls team was made up of: Jonelle Puletiuatoa, Alex Tucker, Katie Oliver, Eden Mika, Maddy Lum-on, Brooke Prescott, Mia Petford, Isabella Hintze, Olivia Taylor, Danielle Asiata, Charlie Lindsay and Madison Sanele.

The girls team had a day of mixed results, facing some tough competition. The day began with 2 losses to St Kents and Sancta Maria. We then had a solid 3-2 win against Redoubt North, and a draw against Howick. The girls progressed to the 3rd/4th playoff against Redoubt North, in the end finishing off 4th after a tough battle.

Over the day the girls improved and developed immensely. This was shown in their teamwork and sportsmanship on and off the field.


Boys Team

The boys team was made up of: Preston Field, Andrew Clark, Gary Basson, Kaiden Warren, Spencer Carr, Kodie Nicol, JD Bell, Brooklyn Pardoe, Keegan O’Reilly, Sam Read and Killian Armstrong.

The boys team started the competition with a bye because a school pulled out on the day. They won all of the rest of their pool games which were against Sancta Maria, Redoubt North, Howick Intermediate and Bucklands Beach Intermediate. The boys showed a wide range of skills to overcome their opposition and headed into the final undefeated.

The boys won their final game against Sancta Maria. This meant that they ended the competition in First Place for South Eastern Zones, and through to the Auckland Champs! A special mention is deserved to Preston Field for his excellent leadership on the day. He captained the team well, demonstrating good sportsmanship and respect for all involved.
Reported by: Mr Stuart Read

An extremely impressive effort from all players, and some great sportsmanship shown during the tournament. Well done to all members of all three teams, and good luck to the boys at Auckland Champs!

Wow, what an evening of beautiful singing and amazing music. Our students sang extremely well and our band accompanied them in a very professional manner. All students were great ambassadors for our school and we are very proud of them all. The performances were of a very high standard and they really entertained everyone who attended.

The audience were treated to so many different pieces of music from Aotearoa te no Katoa (a piece about the beauty of New Zealand) composed by a 14 year old,  as well as a piece from the Musical Aladdin and then finally on to 4 Chords Medley where the choir and rock band rocked out the melodies and harmonies.

The finale was also accompanied by the talented musicians in our rock band including Mr. Ward - “A Million Dreams” from the Greatest Showman and was a beautiful ending to a wonderful evening celebrating the arts. 

Well done to all the students and thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

The Track and Field events act as qualifying for the South Eastern Zone Athletics day that are held at Mount Smart Stadium on Tuesday 19th November. The day started with the 1500m, kicking off at 9am.

The most subscribed event for the whole day was the 100m heats.  This event had a lot of students achieving personal successes while having a lot of fun competing against school mates and friends.  Each field and track event contributed house points. 

We finished with the final of the 100m.  All races were closely contested as students strived to finish in the top 3. Well done to all the students who competed and gave each event their personal best.

Thank you to the wonderful parents, staff and school community that came along to coordinate and spectate for the day.

The students that qualified for SEZ will be competing at Mount Smart on Tuesday 19 November.

This school pest free project is part of a city wide collaborative effort towards the vision of Pest Free Auckland and aims to bring back biodiversity to our gardens and local environment.

Prior to hosting the Pestival, all of the student Enviro leaders spent several weeks learning about pests and how they can have a devastating impact on our native plants and animals. Students placed special “trakka” tunnels around the school which have ink pads in them. When a pest walks through the tunnel to get to the food, they leave footprints which can help identify what they are. As a result of their analysis, the students placed traps in key areas and caught a number of rats.

Lorrelle Stranaghan and Cate Jessep from the Auckland City Council, organised and ran the evening. We heard some interesting speakers talk about biodiversity and how to use the various types of traps and where to place them. A highlight of the evening was a talk given by one of our very own Year 8 students, Sara Adams. She captivated the audience as she described the interesting pest free activities students have done and the rats we have killed in the traps.

At the end, everyone received a free rat trap. Somerville Intermediate also received ten new rat traps, a rare bird poster and a “Weta Condo”. Any catches will be logged into the council website so that scientists can monitor effectiveness. Everyone is looking forward to contributing to this citizen science project.

Mr Read and Miss Carter would like to thank everyone involved. We are really enjoying being part of this citizen science project.

Boys
On Tuesday 22nd October, the Somerville Boys’ Volleyball squad travelled to Panmure Leisure Centre to compete in the 2019 South Eastern Zone volleyball competition. 11 teams competed in the tournament. The teams in our pool were Kia Aroha, Redoubt, Howick, Ferguson and Farm Cove Intermediate.

At the end of pool play, we had losses to Kia Aroha, Redoubt, Howick and Ferguson and one win against Farm Cove. This placed us 5th in our pool of 6. Our final game was against Farm Cove to decide on 9th and 10th place. This game saw us take a 2 - 0 win, securing us 9th place overall.

Our boys showed true fighting spirit, terrific sportsmanship and were a credit to the school.

Girls
On Thursday 24th October, the Somerville Snipers headed down to the Panmure Leisure Centre to compete against 12 other schools. Our team was very excited and ready to play. We had been training hard and preparing for this day.

We started off strong with a big win, with 6 games to go. We weren't so lucky in those next games as we had a mix of wins and losses, but we still kept our heads up high and remained positive. We ended up playing for 5th and 6th place and unfortunately lost by one point.

Overall, we placed 6th and we were pleased to represent Somerville Intermediate. Congratulations to all the girls for their effort.

We were part of the annual exchange with our Japanese sister schools, Wakamiya and Takamiya Elementary Schools in Fukuoka, Japan. Every year, over the past 19 years, Somerville students have alternately travelled to, or hosted students from Fukuoka.

The trip was a great success and the students experienced the Japanese culture through school life, home life and sightseeing. They had wonderful experiences and made some good friendships both within our group, and most importantly, within their homestay families.

We were impressed by the way our students conducted themselves and the personal growth we could see in each of the children.

A huge thank you to the parents who accompanied us on the trip; Andrew Dixon, Sumit Malik, Nick McCorkindale, Michelle Wang and Rachel Tucker. It was a great group and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

We look forward to welcoming the group of students and teachers from Wakamiya and Takamiya Schools who will be visiting us next year.

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