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.

{loadmoduleid 379}

They also won Grand Champions over all the Intermediate teams competing, including Bucklands Beach and Ponsonby Intermediates, who were in a higher grade!

The team members are: Katy Gribble, Sarah Hurford, Monique Pulley, Ruth Groenewald, Tiana Coutts, Ella Gibson and Elise Lincoln-Myles.

This is an amazing achievement girls - A huge congratulations to you all!

Somerville Intermediate School also sent its biggest AIMS team, 170 students to compete against over 300 schools, across 23 sports codes. Every Somerville student who attended should be proud of their achievements on the sports field, court, pool, gym, arena or stage. The time and training to prepare for their chosen code is enormous and is only possible with the support of coaches, managers, caregivers and the Somerville community.

There have been lots of highlights throughout the week, with many of our athletes and teams having successes, personal best performances, new friendships, podium finishes and of course, the fun of playing the sport that they enjoy. The cups and medal table this year has Somerville placed 5th overall. This is an impressive achievement, along with all the team and individual successes.

Congratulations to all our athletes and in terms of Cups, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, the achievements are below:

Somerville Cup Winners and Gold Medal Placing
Aerobics Team:
Kate Sole, Tiffany Ong, Greer Pedersen, Brianna Luca, Martha Fenn, Mia Jones
Hip Hop Group:
Eric Zhu, Alex Ready, Sienna Walmsley, Julie Lu, Charlotte Radford, Holly Welham, Hazel Havea, Lauren Tinning
Table Tennis Boys Team:
Leo Mamedov, Henry Han, Simon Qian

Gold Medals
Gymnastics
Rosetta Tanner - WAG Flyers
Aerobics Individual
Tiffany Ong - Open Junior Womens
Table Tennis
Boys Team: Leo Mamedov, Henry Han and Simon Qian
Boys Doubles: Leo Mamedov, Henry Han

Silver Medals
Table Tennis
Boys Singles - Leo Mamedov
Yachting
Y8 Girls Yachting Opti Racing - Sofia Currie
Aerobics Individual
Jamie Scott - Flyers
Greer Pedersen - Open Junior Advanced
Gymnastics
Matthew Arck Weeber - MAG open junior
Anton Smith - MAG Flyers
Charlie Lindsay - WAG Twisters
Kaitlyn Long - WAG Twisters
Swimming
200m Freestyle - Danielle Asiata
100m Backstroke - Danielle Asiata

Bronze Medals
Aerobics Individual
Kate Sole - Open Junior Women
Futsal Boys Team
Leo Hall, Marcus Stratford, Isaac Smith, Kodie Nicol, Ryan McKenzie, Thomas Wrack, Zac Dawson, Ryan Pritchard
Table Tennis
Mixed Doubles - Leo Mamedov and Riya Prakash
Indoor Bowls
Pairs - Oscar Hill and Toby McCormack
Golf
18 hole Team - Leona Zhao and Daniel Ko
Swimming
Danielle Asiata - Overall Y8 Girls Division 2 Bronze -
Olivia Bates - 100m Breaststroke

{loadmoduleid 378}

STEAM education is a trans-disciplinary approach to the school curriculum, based on projects and project-based learning. Specific learning objectives from Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts (including humanities) and Mathematics are combined to create new learning experiences. During the week, the children were extended in their thinking, they followed the design process and they completed their projects. We were impressed with the engagement and focus of our children as we visited workshops.

Opportunities were created for children to:

• think and act creatively
• work collaboratively in mixed-ability groups
• build learner agency, which is directly linked to our school-wide focus.

It was great to see so many experts from within our community sharing their knowledge and helping our children during the week.

The week culminated in a sharing session on Friday 13th September and it was lovely to have our children showcase the learning to some of our parents and grandparents who came along on the day.

The eight students selected for the team this year were: Jordan Wade, Ryan Burgoyne, Kieran Gawn, Benjamin McLaren, Owen Westall, Oliver O’Brien, Lachlan Hawker and Ruben Lee-Robertson. In preparation for the event, the team had six race coaching sessions at Snowplanet during Terms 2 and 3.

For the fifth year in a row, the team was hosted by the Pinnacles Ski Club at Whakapapa. The weather for the competition this year was a real mixed bag, with the event having to be delayed for two consecutive days due to adverse conditions. On the third day it finally came right, with perfect bluebird skies and unlimited visibility for the Giant Slalom.

The Giant Slalom involved competitors racing against the clock for the fastest times. As expected, competition was fierce, with some spectacular racing. In a large field of 244 boys, Ryan placed 122nd, followed by Kieran 123rd, Owen 132nd, Lachlan 143rd, Jordan 193rd, Ruben 216th, Oliver 217th and Benjamin 218th. Having had such a great day of racing in perfect conditions, expectations were high for the following day. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and the Dual Slalom had to be cancelled.

Overall, Somerville placed 47th out of the 98 schools that were represented at the event.

Special mention to Barry Westall, Ramon Lee-Robertson and Paul Burgoyne who volunteered as Course Assistants and Team Manager to assist with the running of the event. Thanks also to Robin O’Brien, Colin Wade, Ruth McLaren and Callum Hawker for all your support during the week as well.

{loadmoduleid 377} 

The Year 7 Girls competed first and although it was a tough course, they did their absolute best. Our top finishers were Zoe Brazier in 12th and Mae Reynolds in 21st.

Next up were the Year 7 Boys. Tyler Gagiano was our only entry and he managed to get 67th. He had a lot of tough competition, so we were very proud.

Next to compete were the Year 8 Girls. This was a tough race as they had to run an extra loop of 500m that included a decent hill, Danielle Asiata managed to come in at 10th place and Sophie White, a respectable 41st.

Finally the Year 8 Boys competed. They also had to run the extra loop, and it was quite clear from the start that Connor Boulton and Tyron Newell were not going to let anyone pass them, staying at the front of the pack for the majority of the race. Connor finished 6th and Tyron was 8th. The rest of the boys did an awesome job and managed to secure 2nd place overall in the team competition.

They had a great day, and all put in 100%. Special thanks to Roger Whatman for helping manage the teams and supporting the students on the day.

Her accomplishment was announced by Mr Chris Harris, CEO, Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, at a special assembly about the importance of standing up to prejudice and discrimination - a topic which Rosetta wrote passionately about. She will present her winning composition and receive her prize at the United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day function in Wellington on January 27, 2020. An outstanding achievement Rosetta - Well done!

Kapa Haka groups from a number of local primary, intermediates and colleges performed on the day.

Our Kapa Haka performed extremely well in the afternoon. They made us very proud and were honoured by former students following their performance.

A special thanks to Whaea Carolyn Pou for her mentoring and performing with the group at the festival, Destiny Anderson and Dayalan Pillay for their expertise and coaching, and other Somerville staff and parents who attended and supported this wonderful cultural event.

They displayed excellent sportswomanship and were always playing to the rules.

We saved our best game until last, and won a tight game late on against Pakuranga.

Our special guest speaker was Pita Alatini. Pita is a former professional rugby union footballer who played for the All Blacks, 4 Super Rugby franchises, and in Japan. Pita shared his journey from a boy playing in the back yard with his brothers, to representing New Zealand as an All Black. His story of success, failure and the support of his family was inspiring, with many students and adults reporting that his message resonated with them.

Many thanks to all the male staff who worked really hard to put on a fantastic and important event. A special thanks goes to Richard Weightman who organised our guest speaker and then expertly interviewed him during our bacon and egg breakfast.

You have all worked so diligently and produced such innovative and creative projects. Everyone at Somerville is really proud of you!

The students will be receiving three 1st places, one 2nd place, one 3rd place (a joint award), two highly commended places, and four special awards, which is an amazing achievement for our school and we would like to congratulate them all for doing so well!

Camerone Chin, Aleisha Coleman, Sofia Currie, Olivia Dixon, Kishan Harry, Kayan Lawyer, Reuben Martin, Benjamin McLaren, Jo Thistlethwaite and Jack Want.

The winner of the Korean speech final was Jisoo Kim and the winner of the Mandarin speech final was Cindy Zhang. These girls went on to represent our school at the APPA international Korean and Mandarin speech finals at Farm Cove Intermediate.

Congratulations to Cindy (pictured left) who came 1st overall in the Mandarin speech final and Jisoo who gained 2nd place in the Korean speech final.