The weather was sunny and students have enjoyed many fun activities, including games, tug of war and a water slide. Below is a snapshot of some of the fun!

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What a great way to finish the year!

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Somerville did exceptionally well this year, achieving first place in two of of the three categories for Years 7 and 8, first place in Years 7 to 13 Consumer Science and first place in Years 7 to 10 Technology/Innovations categories. Our students also won six of the nine Special Awards at the prize giving.

A HUGE thank you to teachers, Carol Duffield and Karen Woolridge, for their dedication, guidance and support of the students throughout this journey. Thanks also to the parents who helped along the way.

Congratulations to the following students who won awards this year. Your hard work and dedication has really paid off and we are all very proud of you. 

Years 7 and 8 Living World
1st Place:
Alerys Bodle - Dryer or Dire

Highly Commended:
James Hawksworth - Cube Solving: "Young vs Old"
Zainab Jawad-Moody - "Heat and Rennin: Curd it Be?"

Years 7 and 8 Physical and Material World
1st Place:
Ayan Shah - "Microfibres: the plastics we choose to ignore"

Highly Commended:
Nikau Waru - "Does a Bat Weight Really Work?"

Years 7 and 8 Environmental Science
Highly Commended:
Mayin Lal - "There's Something in the Water"

Years 7 to 13 Consumer Science
1st Place:
Kieran Sun - "Light of my Life"

Years 7 to 10 Technology / Innovations
1st Place:
Louis Valois - "Tennis Balls Under Pressure"

2nd Place:
Saamya Sandal - "Caution High Noise Area"

3rd Place (equal):
Eva Malez - "Managing Diabetes with your Phone"

Highly Commended:
Daniel Revans - "Sky Bubble? No Trouble!"

Special Awards:

The IET Innovation Awards
Eva Malez - "Managing Diabetes with your Phone"

Award for Best Application of Electronics
Saamya Sandal - "Caution High Noise Area"

Best Use of Statistics Award
Kieran Sun - "Light of my Life"

Best Project by a Māori Student
Nikau Waru - "Does a bat weight really work"

The Environment Award
Ayan Shah - "Microfibres: the plastics we choose to ignore"

NZ Heritage Award
Jacob Powell - "Fat Rat"

Best Innovation, Invention, or Investigation by Year Level
Sponsored by NIWA
Year 7
Ayan Shah
“Microfibres: the plastic we choose to ignore”

Year 8
Alerys Bodle
“Dryer or Dire”

Eric Clague Award for Runner-up of the Fair
Alerys Bodle
“Dryer or Dire”

Premier Award for Best Exhibit of the Fair
Sponsored by NIWA
Ayan Shah
“Microfibres: the plastic we choose to ignore”

We were delighted in how the cast truly rose to the occasion and their talents really came to the fore during the shows, much to the appreciation of the audience.  The whole cast mastered their roles from the largest to the smallest parts - they all shone! It was lovely to see how they delighted in the audience response to their performance. 

Having the whole school involved was no small task. Teachers organised the students into choreographed dancing lines for the major dancing numbers during the show. The gymnasium was filled with comical swinging steaks, a huge conspiracy of lemurs, a troop of African dancers and a stampede of very cute animals. 

This production has provided true and authentic learning in many different ways for our students. From the student choreographers who planned for months, to the lighting and sound students who took on the responsibility of ensuring that the show ran smoothly from the sound box. Prop making students worked on the steaks and the many props needed throughout the show. Students were backstage organising cues and ensuring whānau got to the dances on time. There were many opportunities for student leadership in all the different aspects of our production. 

We would like to thank all of the Somerville community who supported and made our production such a huge success. Without your support it would not have been possible. 

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Congratulations to all students who entered a project this year. It is a lot of hard work and takes considerable time and effort, and you have all done yourselves proud!

The standard of projects this year has once again been very high and we would like to thank all students for producing such amazing projects. Well done! 72 projects were entered and of those, 20 have been judged the best of the fair.

Special congratulations to the students listed below and a special thanks to the parents and teachers who supported them along the way.

Year 7 - 10 Innovations and Inventions:
Eva Malez                        Manage Diabetes with Your Phone
Daniel Revans                 Sky Bubble? No Trouble    
Saamya Sandal               CAUTION! High Noise Area!    
Kayleigh Thistlethwaite    Intoeing in Adolescence

Intermediate Consumer Science:
Annika Chantha                Popcorn Showdown    
Leana Ferguson and
Sienna Hands                  Spray vs. Germs    
Kieran Sun                       Light of my Life    
Louis Zhao                       COVID -19 Stops Spreading Here!!!    

Year 7 & 8 Living World:
Alerys Bodle                    Dryer or Dire    
James Dennis                 What’s my Beat?    
Oscar Guo                       Fertilizer vs. Compost    
James Hawkesworth       Cube Solving    

Year 7 & 8 Physical and Material World:
Zainab Jawad                  Heat+Renin: Curd it Be?    
Aida Raisat                      Home is Where the Heat is?    
Ayan Shah                       Microfibres    
Nikau Waru                      Does a Bat Doughnut Really Work?    
Sonya Yu                         The Stage of Perfection    
Callum Hurd                    A Brighter Idea        

Year 7 & 8 Environmental Science:
Mayin Lal                        There’s Something in the Water    
Jacob Powell                  Fat Rat    

Over the next few days, we will interview all these students about their projects, get them competition ready and then these projects will be entered into the NIWA South and East Auckland STEM Fair, to be held at Mission Heights Junior College on 19/20 August.

We wish these students all the best for the judging and their interviews.

NIWA South and East Auckland
STEM Fair Dates:

Thu 19th August:  Deliver and set up project at Mission Heights Junior College:  3pm – 5pm
(Parents need to help with this.)
Fri 20th August:    Judging day from 11am - 1:00pm.
Students will be taken to and from the venue by school van to this.
Mon 23rd August:  Public viewings
Tue 24th August:   Project collection 2pm – 5pm (Parents need to help with this.)
Wed 25th August:  Prizegiving at 7pm at St. Kentigern College

Our teams dominated their pools to make it through to the finals. We played against some great teams and came away with fantastic results. Our A Grade teams have qualified to move on to Auckland Champs later this term. Well done to all of the players. Your skills and positive sportsmanship were a standout on the courts and we are proud of you.

Y8 A - 2nd place
Y8 B - 1st place
Y7 A - 2nd place
Y7 B - 4th place

It was great to see so many parents and caregivers taking the time to view and purchase books on sale during the three way conferences. We will share the amount raised to purchase new books for the library, for all children to enjoy, in the next newsletter.

Friday 6 August was a lot of fun, with both students and staff getting into the spirit of Book Character Dress Up Day, in conjunction with our annual Book Fair.

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Girls

The girls did incredibly well by finishing in first place at the South Eastern Zone Futsal tournament held on Thursday 8 July.  In pool play, the girls won all 3 games, scoring 17 goals and conceding only 2. The team won a tight semi final by beating Farm Cove in a penalty shootout, after drawing 3-3 at full time. In the finals, we played our local rivals, BBI.  It was a close, intense game that Somerville won 3-2 and were crowned SEZ Champions.

Boys

The boys worked strenuously to place 4th in the South Eastern Zone Futsal tournament held on Thursday 8 July.  The team came through pool play finishing top of the group, winning 3 games and drawing 1. The team went into the semi-finals with confidence but unfortunately lost 3-2 to St Kents, after taking the lead twice. The boys showed great sportsmanship and managed to stay strong-willed, even when things didn’t go as planned. 

Somerville had the biggest squad of 15 players qualifying for the tournament. 

Many of our players had success in the opening round and this resulted in the majority of the team progressing to second round knock-out, best of 5 sets to 11 points. 

The girls division resulted in Kathryn Chansy and Elainy Fung progressing to the semi-final. Both girls played their best against BBI and St Kents. The end result was 3rd equal to Somerville - Well done girls!

The boys division had a much larger pool of players and many were talking about the top seeded St Kents player. Ayan Shah from Somerville progressed to the semi-final, after a closely fought match between Josh Donovan and Ayan from Somerville. St Kents top seed then played Ayan in the semi-final. Ayan produced some great rallies and fantastic serves coming 8 - 11 in the third set to St Kents. St Kents then progressed to win the tournament.

Congratulations to Teddy, Josh, Ayan, Austin, Ali, Cody, Neil, Theo, Kathryn, Irene, Elainy, Irushi, Alvia, Serena and Ruby for competing in the tournament.

Girls

On Tuesday 22 June, our girls' SEZ Hockey team played a magnificent tournament and were able to secure 3rd place.

The girls had an awesome day by winning two of their round robin games, making it into the 3rd/4th final game play off. They showed excellent teamwork and sportsmanship that allowed them to get the win, resulting in their 3rd place position.

The girls represented the school well and should be proud of the way they carried themselves throughout the tournament. 

Boys

On Thursday 24 June, the Somerville boys' SEZ Hockey team put on an excellent display during their tournament, finishing in 2nd place. 

The boys had a superb start to the day by winning their first four games. After a loss to BBI 0-1, we were left with a nail biting final game against Howick intermediate, to decide who the 2nd place winners were. After a 1-1 tie at the end of the game, Somerville came out on top, due to goal differential throughout the tournament. 

They played their best and showed great sportsmanship. They should be very proud of their accomplishment.

There was a build up to this with a range of activities being offered at school. This included classes exploring Matariki and all that was involved in bringing in the New Year. As a result, some classes focused on goal setting which gave their students an opportunity to reset their intentions for the new year. 

The fun aspect was researching and designing a kite to fly at school. We were pleased that our children got into the spirit as there were some amazing creations, with maori patterns and images.  A lot of learning took place as children decided on what materials they would use, giving thought as to how these would impact the kite’s ability to fly, as well as how much these materials would cost. 

Great attempts were made to get the kites up into the sky during the morning, but unfortunately there was no wind. With perseverance comes reward, and it was heartwarming to see the glee on children’s faces as they managed to fly their kites later in the day.

Congratulations to all the students who participated and especially the first 10 place getters for each group, listed below:

Thank you to all those parents and caregivers who were able to assist on the day and also for those who came along and supported the students.

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