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 Declaration of Parent Election Results

Parent representatives votes:

Carr, Brian - 142

Cunningham, Verena - 137

Mackor, Tibor - 49

McGill, Taraneh - 41

McKenzie, Stephen - 96

Invalid Votes - 6

I hereby declare the following duly elected:

Brian Carr

Verena Cunningham

Stephen McKenzie

Signed

Hayley Russell

RETURNING OFFICER

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In groups four, they had to navigate around the Waitakere ranges, finding checkpoints and completing activities with a sustainability theme. Some of the activities included identifying various native plants and animals, learning about how native long tailed bats use echolocation to navigate and catch prey, identifying pests by their teeth marks, and how valuable our kereru birds are when dispersing seeds. 

Most students had never taken part in orienteering, so it was a steep learning curve. However, after a few mistakes and setbacks, they got to grips with the basic elements of map reading and started to accumulate points around the course. There was an element of fitness involved as well as problem solving. The students experienced great satisfaction when success was achieved, either by successfully completing a challenge or finding an elusive checkpoint using clues and a never give up attitude.

The day would not have been possible without our wonderful parent helpers, Mr Wilson, Ms Smith, Mrs Burgess and Mrs Moon who each directly supervised a small group of students. 

Although we didn’t place anywhere, the students had heaps of fun developing their leadership and problem solving skills, as well as learning new aspects of sustainability. 

Congratulations to the following Year 8 children for receiving a Howick College Rotary scholarship:
Pika Ranzinger
Jack Harrison and
Sophia Paton-Smith

We were extremely proud as all the Howick College Rotary scholarships were awarded to Somerville students.

This day saw 30 amazing people from our community come in throughout the day to present to and interact with over 300 students, about their Career Pathways. Students were able to sign up to see seven different presenters throughout the day and we were incredibly lucky to be able to work alongside so many professionals, and learn about different pathways they may take in the future.

A huge thank you to all our wonderful parents and community partners who took time out of their day to work with our students. We are so lucky to have you!

'Our Culture Day', at Somerville Intermediate, was a colourful blend of global, cultural activities from countries such as Brazil, The Philippines, China, Korea, South Africa, Japan, Colombia and Taiwan. ESOL students at all different levels of English ability proudly taught their peers and the enthusiasm and fervour was catching. Many of the students walked away with warm smiles on their faces after learning how to make Chinese dumplings, Filipino Munchkins and Colombian Arepas. There were joyful yells as some students learnt Brazilian Jiu Jitsu moves and tried these new moves on their friends. And everybody looked colourfully cultured as they walked away from the South African area with beautiful African necklaces they had made for themselves. In amongst this, the cultural extravaganza was brought even closer to home with stunning performances by our talented Kapa Haka group. What a special day!

Following the disruptive season due to COVID-19, the girls were excited to get back on the court together. For the Year 8's, it will be the last time this team will play all together again. The girls came out of pool play undefeated, their closest game winning by 8 goals.

As the day grew hotter, the competition became more fierce. After a long time not playing, all of the teams competing seemed to be warming up and dusting off the cobwebs, everyone playing some phenomenal netball.

The girls won their semi-final against Howick Intermediate convincingly and went to face Sancta Maria in the final, where they won 17-8. A huge day of winning for our Somerville netballers.

It was an awesome day where the girls displayed incredible skill and outstanding sportsmanship. A highlight was not only finishing the season on such a high, but incorporating our Year 7's into the squad in preparation for the 2021 season. The future of Somerville netball sure looks bright!.

A huge thank you to Howick College for supplying us with umpires, Howick Pakuranga Netball for allowing us to use the courts, Mrs Clayton for her support on the day and Mrs Kainamu for transport.

Please click here for a list of results.

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Girls

The girls had a really great day out at Lloyd Elsmore competing in the SEZ touch rugby competition on Wednesday 4 November. Awesome team spirit and a positive attitude were the keys to their success and we got through Pool A with 2 wins and 1 loss. A tough game in the semi final which we won 2-1 meant a rematch in the final against St Kents, who had previously beaten us in the pool game. A much-improved game from Somerville wasn't quite enough on the day and St Kents took the gold.

I think the girls can be incredibly proud of their efforts on the day and a well-deserved run to the final. Well done girls!

Boys

On Wednesday 4 November, the boys touch rugby team represented Somerville Intermediate at the South Eastern Zone touch tournament. After winning their first two games, nine tries to nil, against Mission Heights and Sir Edmund Hillary School, the boys had to fend off a spirited Elim College team. In the end they won 4-2.

In the semi-finals, Somerville played Howick Intermediate. Despite trying really hard, Howick were too good on the day and won 4-1. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, the boys played Elim for third and fourth. It was a real arm wrestle of a game; it could have gone either way but in the end Somerville triumphed. The boys were delighted to finish in third place overall.

Congratulations to Finn Wessels who was selected for the boys tournament team by the Howick College student referees. Also, a special mention to Ben Blundell who scored ten tries on the day.

Mr Read would like to lastly acknowledge Keegan O'Reilly and Brooklyn Pardoe’s leadership of the team on the day. As co-captains they led the team from the front, demonstrating fine sportsmanship and encouraging the team through thick and thin. Well done boys!

Mixed

The mixed touch rugby team had a tough start with their first two games. This resulted in them not making the top of the pool competition. However, with renewed confidence in the games to follow, the team showed the form they’re renowned for, displaying both excellent skill and sportsmanship. The team ended up with a respectful 4th place finish. 

We were amazed and enthralled by the talent of our students, with stunning performances from our Rock Band, Kapa Haka, Choir, Stage Ensemble, SomVoices, Dance Groups including Hip Hop, Pasifika, Lyrical and High School Musical, the graceful and beautiful Chinese Fan Dance and creative Wearable Arts models.

Thank you to all of the Somerville families who came along and enjoyed this special evening. After the disruptions with Covid throughout 2020, it was wonderful to come together and showcase our many talented students, who have worked extremely hard to perfect their performances.

A huge thanks to the many Somerville staff who have dedicated a lot of time in bringing this extravaganza together. Special mention must go to Mrs Sonya Koshy, who was the main organiser of this event.

We look forward to our school production ' Madagascar' in 2021!

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Their solution was uploaded onto the EPro8 Workshop Portal and needed to include: a 2 minute video showing their build, a team photo (including their build) and  a one page report. They competed against other schools in our area. 

A big congratulations to all 4 of our teams who entered a robotic animal. They all did very well against some really stiff opposition and their animal robotic creatures were very convincing and authentic. 

One of our teams came 4th out of 25 teams and will be representing our school in the EPro8 Challenge Inter-School Finals series. A special congratulations to: The Leaping Lizards - Nathan Cox, Joelle Tan, Daniel Revans and Linda Zhang, who made a crocodile with snapping jaws.

We wish this team well as they compete against 11 other teams in the semi finals on Thursday 19th November.