I am delighted to join the Somerville House community. I extend my gratitude to staff, students and parents for your very warm welcome. Despite the exceptionally high temperature for the first day of school there were plenty of smiles as new and existing students arrived for the 2024 school year.

2024 is a special year for Somerville House as we celebrate our 125th Anniversary. We will be celebrating this milestone via special events, so I encourage you to find out more information via SomerLink and the School’s social media channels.

Parents are warmly invited to attend a variety of events throughout the year whereby they can meet and mingle with other parents and staff. The first event that I encourage you to attend is SomerSoiree on Friday 16 February 2024 at 6.00pm. Registration is essential and can be completed here or by clicking the image below. I thank the P&F for hosting this event for parents and I look forward to meeting you all.

Another event that I am looking forward to is the Principal’s Commissioning this Wednesday 24 January at 11.45am. At this event I will be commissioned as the 13th Principal of Somerville House. I am honoured to hold this position and look forward to further developing excellence across our academic, pastoral and co-curricular programs and further enhancing our School culture. If you would like to watch the Commissioning Service via live stream follow this link.  (use access password: Somerville2024)

Change to the Honour Roll Frequency

This year we are changing the frequency and format of the Honour Roll newsletter. From today the newsletter will be distributed fortnightly with a focus on sharing key information including activities and events rather than articles of length. I hope this will help you to navigate quickly the information you need. I recommend all families from Pre-Prep to Year 12 take a moment each fortnight to read this short e-publication to stay abreast of what is happening at Somerville House.

Quote of the Week

“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life” - Jackie Chan

Dr Sandra Hastie
Principal

“One Life” is a movie depicting the true story of Nicholas Winton, an Englishman who rescued Jewish children from the streets of Prague in the Czech Republic and bringing them via train to London to be fostered by British families for the duration of World War 2.

He organised for 669 children to be rescued, most of whom ended up staying in London permanently when their families died during the war. Winton never believed he had done anything special, and it was only when he was an elderly gentleman that he was recognised for his efforts, and reunited with some of those now adult children who were of course incredibly grateful. There is so much we can learn from the life of this very humble man.

Firstly, never underestimate the power you have as an individual to make a difference. I have been very impressed over the years by Somerville House students who have seen a need, thought about it carefully and jumped in to help, sometimes when they were still at school. There is Tiana Reimann and her Buckets of Love project in PNG, and Eloise Morrison who set up special fund-raising for young single mothers in Kenya while volunteering in a hostel there in her gap year, just to mention two.

Nicholas Winton explained his actions by saying “Because I may be able to do something to help, I must at least try”. All of us have our own particular set of skills, time and resources that God has given to us, and we have a responsibility to put them to work, not just for ourselves but in the service of others. In Mark’s Gospel Jesus states that it is in giving our lives away that we receive true life and fulfillment, in working for the happiness of others we become most happy ourselves.

Jesus is the ultimate example of all serving others. He stepped down from his existence in heaven to lay down his life for us so that we could become God’s friends. Who would have imagined that a single death of one person so long ago would be such a significant part of God’s plan?

We, like Nicholas Winton, all have one life, what are you doing with yours?

I invite you to come and join us this Thursday for the Blessing of the School Year. 

Ms Chris O'Gorman
Senior Chaplain

Welcome to 2024 - This week we launch the Somerville House Wellbeing Framework to our Community.

Our symbolic Culture of Care is our way of being. It can guide all so our community can embrace all who learn, teach, connect, support and celebrate in our warm and positive environment – where our Christian ethos is the foundation and Honour Before Honours, together, frame our values so that each individual may be their best and enhance the whole. The symbolic images and language speak to us and act as beacons, reminding us what is important at Somerville House. Just as the waterholes of Cumbooquepa were a place of community, so is Somerville House.

We acknowledge Emma MacNeil who created the image for our indigenous sports jersey.

We welcome your comments and feedback to [email protected].

Mrs Julie Brunckhorst
Dean of Students

Somerville House is excited to launch a new image-sharing platform - Pixevety.  Pixevety can now be accessed via the SomerLink sidebar.  

Pixevety allows parents to privately view images of their children taken during the school year.  It allows Somerville House teachers and staff to securely share images of students that may be taken during daily classroom activities, at camps, during special events and more.

The Pixevety app is suitable for all mobile devices and parents can easily change privacy settings and sharing permissions for their child as well.

Please click here to read the instructions and guidelines for use and email to [email protected] should you have any additional questions.

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