Starkey House Captains book 2019

S tarkey H ouse C aptains 2019

S omerset C ollege P ersonal S uccess | G lobal O utlook

L eading a L egacy – S tarkey H ouse C aptains

A word to the Captains from the Captains before...

Aidan McKeon Ok, so, Jade and I managed to win all three carnivals, The Bassingthwaighte Cup, Founders’ Day, and tied first in the Inter-House Rowing Regatta. Disappointing, I know, we didn’t get House Plays, or Activities Day... But guess what? You guys are taking over now, so onwards and upwards, Jade and I expect a clean-sweep when we come back to watch our brothers at Scholars’ Day. A clean sweep, no biggie. Good luck!!! I’m kidding - of course. I wish both of you all the best of luck. Leading Starkey is an enjoyable and memorable experience. It will be stressful sometimes, but it is definitely worth it. Congratulations on getting the Captaincy that is probably the most fun ever. Mr Bassingthwaighte believes in you, the rest of the staff believe in you, your peers believe in you, Miss Green believes in you, and Jade and I believe in you. I am certain you will be excellent captains. I wish you all the best for your year of service.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

L eading a L egacy – S tarkey H ouse C aptains

A word to the Captains from the Captains before...

Jade Mansell Congratulations! Aidan and I are both so proud and excited to pass on this position to you as our successors. Leading Starkey can be incredibly stressful at times, but it is also one of the most rewarding positions. I can assure you that you will make new friends, new memories, and face new challenges that will push you far beyond your comfort zone. My advice for this would be to just take every opportunity and every challenge in your stride. Always try to be the best role model possible, encouraging and supporting those who are struggling, but also recognising those who are succeeding. You were selected to lead and represent this house for a reason. Just always stay true to yourself and be confident! I wish you the best of luck for your year of leadership.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

W hat does your position entail ? As a leader and representative for Starkey house, it is important to always maintain a positive attitude. Whether it be at House Carnivals or The Sombrero Games, the students surrounding you feed off of your enthusiasm and encouragement. To really live through our moto “Unity Is Strength”, it is crucial that you can be seen as a friend to each individual student. Simply stopping to have a conversation, visiting PC’s and providing guidance, is what builds our House spirit. Forming these new relationships, with the students and staff, and leading by example in every endeavour is what will make you a successful leader. As well as this, you will be expected to help Miss Green organise your team in preparation for every event. You will soon grow to learn the way things are run, but never be afraid to voice your opinion during the organisation phase.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

F ive tips for you as successors • Be a good role model. If you interact and build relationships with the younger grades, while also maintaining a constant positive attitude, you will create House spirit that will, in turn, encourage the students to do their best for the House. • Always plan ahead and stay organised. This year will be hectic, trust us! Make sure you stay on top of your tasks for the House. Using quiet weekends and holidays to create new goals and organise teams, will be a major part of your success. • Set goals that you want to achieve each term. By creating goals, with not only Miss Green, but also with your entire Year 12 cohort, will provide inspiration and motivation for the both of you and the entire house to achieve success. Simple things, like building House spirit or organising Age Group teams by a certain date, will make the stressful times easier. • Visit each PC. Create new opportunities to build each relationship. You will learn to realise how much each student values your interest in their wellbeing. • Embrace your Year 12 cohort. The rest of your Seniors are just as much leaders as you. Involve them with brainstorms and distribute work loads during carnival preparation to make your life easier. Have faith that they will back you up and support you through the harder times.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

H ouse W arcry

Male Captain: Starkey war-cry 1,2,3 All S-T-A-R-K-E-Y

Listen to our great war-cry. S - for strength T - for try A - for action all the time

R - for ready K - for keen

E - for everyone in the team Y - for yes we are the best, So in the end we’ll beat the rest. Yeah Starkey, Yeah Starkey, Yeah Starkey! Female Captain: When I say Starkey, you say Hoorah. All Starkey – Hoorah!

Starkey – Hoorah! Starkey – Hoorah!

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

H ouse E vents

The First week of School – what can you do to help? As a House Captain, the first week back is usually the busiest time of your position. You really have to hit the ground running! This week in particular will show you why planning ahead and staying organised is extremely valuable. Starting with the first day, it’s always a great impression to be down in the Year 7 locker room, shaking hands with the new students and introducing yourself. The rest of the week is generally filled with planning for the Swimming Carnival, setting up trials, picking Carnival Captains, promoting House Plays, setting term goals and deciding the best way to achieve them; plus all your school work! It’s easy to see why it’s a stressful time. Once you settle in and have your first ever House Meeting as Captain, processes will become smoother. Miss Green is all for letting you guys make decisions and have opinions as Captains, but she’s also there to help you whenever you become swamped. Overall, remember to have fun and keep smiling. It’ll be your last first week ever! Leadership in PC PC is a great way of getting the House to be a whole. As 2018 Captains, we aimed to use this time to really build on House spirit as a whole, and our efforts did not go unrecognised. It’s time to now make it your own! Use PC time to promote upcoming events, pass on messages and generally build on your relationships. This year you set the tone as Seniors. Create your legacy. Make PC something to look forward to. You will be surprised by how much each student will appreciate your interest in their endeavours. House Meetings House Meetings are incredibly important for both you and Miss Green. This is your time to express new ideas, inform students and staff of up- coming events and encourage the House for each Carnival. Miss Green will plan each meeting, but it’s up to you to correctly inform the entire House of the important information. Plan out points you need to cover and have them locked in your head in advance. It is also important for you to be positive, upbeat and enthusiastic. This is your chance to implement your legacy and your level of House spirit. Your first House

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

Meeting is always full of a lot of information; as the meeting comes to end, ask if anyone has questions, particularly the new Year 7’s. Within our Captaincy position this year, we tried to incorporate the war cry during the majority of the House Meetings as a way to regain spirit and a sense of community throughout the year. Year 7 Camp Year 7 Camp is one of the best experiences throughout your captaincy. As the “babies” of the Senior School, the Year 7’s are experiencing new things and trying to find their place within their new family. Use the camp to join them in their activities. Partner up with the students and find ways to bond with them. Not every student feels comfortable with every task, so its up to you to encourage them through it and participate with their house peers. The smile on their faces is something you won’t forget! House Chapel The House Chapel is somewhat a daunting task as it is your first opportunity to represent yourself as a Starkey leader to many members of the College community. However, this can be easily managed if you prepare appropriately and using Miss Green to help establish the main ideas behind your service. As your first formal event, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. After all you always learn from the mistakes you make! House Play Festival The House Play festival is so much fun. If you aren’t participating or directing, attend some of the rehearsals and say hi to the cast. Talk to the directors and help where necessary. Sometimes the cast can get out of control, and considering the short time period the cast have to prepare, the extra help is always greatly appreciated. It will make the directors life so much easier. Watch the plays, and congratulate them on a great performance afterward, no matter what the result is or how the play turned out. It is a great opportunity to get to know more Starkey students and build House spirit and we definitely recommend getting involved.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

Inter-House Carnivals As you can imagine, and have quite possibly noticed throughout our year of captaincy, Inter-House Carnivals are INCREDIBLY stressful. It is no surprise that there will be students who are hesitant to participate, and finding ways to avoid stepping outside their comfort zone for the House. This is where your patience and enthusiasm is greatly tested. Your ability to motivate the House is so crucial! As mentioned before, the rest of the House feeds off of your encouragement and enthusiasm, so it’s up to you to set the tone for greatness at each carnival. Most importantly though, you need to work as a team with each other, your cohort, your Carnival Captains and Miss Green. Many hands, light work! House Activities Day House Activities’ Day is an excellent time to boost House spirit. Coloured and glittery hairspray is a great way to do this. Remember to walk around to every event, say “hi” to everyone and have a quick chat with them. Ask them how they are going so far, are they having fun, their plans for the holiday’s etc. House Activities Day is a great time to get to know people, and is one of the least-stressful Inter-House Competitions throughout the year. Enjoy it, take photos and have fun. Service Learning – House Charity There are many opportunities for you to get involved with all of our house charities. Within charitable activities such as ‘Meals That Make A Difference’, your contribution greatly benefits the community extending further than the College. This is one of the aspects of your leadership that will be the most rewarding. Promote this to the House and embrace every opportunity to participate. Age group managers and other captains Your age group managers and Carnival Captains fall under the aspect of embracing the Year 12 cohort. Designating the Year 12’s to each Age Group early on in the year, makes team organisation an easier process. As well as this, when goals have been achieved, whether at a carnival or just within the House, everyone can feel a sense of involvement in reach- ing these goals, ultimately leading to success.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

L ooking B ack

Highlight of my Captaincy

Aidan McKeon There are so many highlights of my captaincy - it’s hard to choose. Winning the Swimming Carnival for the first time ever was pretty epic, probably the most exciting out of the three carnivals. The trifecta was also a massive highlight this year for me. But winning isn’t the only enjoyable thing about being Starkey Captain. I was a director of the House Plays this year for Starkey, and, although stressful, it was an amazing experience. I got to know so many people, and had so much fun directing them (when they were behaving themselves), and watching the play from the wings was just magical. Whether it was Julius’ booming entrance echoing throughout the theatre, Michaels bogan interpretation of Tom, Dom’s miming skill, Ella and Sarah-Anne’s floaty depictions of their characters, or the set falling apart, the 2018 House Plays is certainly something that I will never forget. But there’s also the Year 7 Camp. When I really think about it, I think the most enjoyment I had this year was that day of camp. I remember sitting on the bus on the way back, with a sore face from smiling so much. Playing, boxing, orienteering, paper-folding, eating, chatting and dancing with them were all enjoyable and so much fun, and to top it all off the performances at the end of the night were so much fun, and the spontaneous dance party during dinner (courtesy of the Starkey Captains). Jade Mansell Where to begin… This year has definitely been one for the memory books… literally. Despite our year of total domination in all regards, the highlight of my captaincy was definitely having the opportunity to create new relationships and further build on old ones. As cheesy as that may sound, I really took it upon myself to face new challenges and create friendships with the staff as well as the students. By interacting with each PC and the experience of Year 7 camp, I bonded with so many members of the House. I personally found this incredibly useful, as I could then approach my captaincy as I was talking to old friends. I took interest in each student’s personal endeavours and applied these interests to building motivation for each carnival.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

As well as this, another aspect of the role I thoroughly enjoyed has been working with my co-captain, Aidan. Despite numerous arguments and complications, we worked to overcome these difficulties and developed ideas, activities, and goals that we were both proud of. We were able to build a tighter sense of “family” within the Starkey House, and it has honestly been one of my proudest moments this year. Seeing each individual pushing himself or herself to be better than they were the day before to make their house proud, was the legacy Aidan and I worked so hard towards, and seeing the results has been absolutely incredible! U nexpected things that happened during our captaincy Throughout our captaincy period, we never expected to win all three carnivals. This outcome was definitely unexpected! We started our year setting goals and working tirelessly to achieve them. Winning was just the extra bonus! Despite this, we had many much smaller unexpected experiences. Our personal favourite however, was the fact that we would just always show up to Miss Green’s office, make ourselves comfortable, eat her lollies and just wait for her to come back. This became such a regular occurrence we definitely feel like she started hiding the lollies from us! O ur memorable moments with M iss G reen I think it would be fair to say that we have had a lot of memorable moments together as co-captains and with Miss Green. The best would definitely be being covered from head to toe in whipped cream after winning the Athletics Carnival. Much to Miss Green’s disgust, we decided that is was a reward that was certainly deserved. And the other memorable moment would be pushing Miss Green into the pool after the Swimming Carnival. It was so amazing to see so many other mem- bers of the House joining our celebration by jumping into the pool with us, fully clothed!

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

F ive things you won ’ t know about your head of house

• Miss Green is actually a MAJOR stress head! We couldn’t help but laugh at how incredibly nervous and stressed Miss Green got when awaiting results for each of the carnivals. Fair enough, its an exciting and nervous wait, but Miss Green literally gets to the point of being so stressed she begins to shake.

• She always seems to have an endless supply of mints in her office. Well that was until Aidan and I discovered them…

• This is an obvious one, but she looks really great in a Sombrero!

• Miss Green has this little notebook where she writes down everything she needs to do in a day in one big scribble. We are pretty sure that her life would fall apart if she lost that book! • Somehow she manages to be so organised yet so unorganised at the same time. We can’t blame her for the amount of stuff she is always juggling but you will need to constantly remind her to send an email! O ur H ouse can best be described as … Our House can best be described as exuberant. The enthusiasm, energy and cheerfulness of Starkey is unbelievable. Everyone is so willing to jump in and give things a go it’s amazing. The competitive, yet easy-going nature of our House is what sets us apart from the others. Other Houses tend to either be serious and competitive, or easy going and completely unmotivated. We think that Starkey is the perfect blend of the two. We compete, and we compete hard, but we never stop smiling and enjoying it, and if things don’t go the way we planned, we laugh it off and keep our heads up.

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

T hings we will miss most about our house

Without a doubt, the greatest thing we will miss about Starkey is the sense of belonging and family. This year has seen some great improvements to the overall House spirit. We are going to be leaving such a tight group of individuals from all age groups that we have grown so close to over the year. We have both made so many new friends and relationships that we will forever cherish. As well as this, we will definitely miss working with our Carnival Captains and the rest of our Year 12 cohort in finding new ways and working towards implementing our legacy as much as possible. Most importantly, the time that we spent with Miss Green. We both found so much joy in working with Miss Green this year, and we always found new ways to make stressful situations a reason to laugh!

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

O ur advice to you is … Being a captain isn’t a reward for what you’ve already done… it’s an opportunity for you to show what you can do. Take it and run with it, “ carpe diem style” . Don’t hesitate, leave nothing for you to regret, and make sure you can look back on your year in Captaincy with pride. Enjoy it, it’ll only happen once. Savour every moment, and you will have the best year ever. Good luck, we believe in you!

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

S tarkey H ouse C aptains 2019

Joe Lanham

Candice Taylor

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

G oal S etting 2019

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

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Somerset College Starkey House Captains Handbook

S omerset C ollege P ersonal S uccess | G lobal O utlook Somerset College ABN 54 010 343 227 CRICOS Provider 00521G Address Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba, Queensland 4213 Telephone 07 5559 7100 Facsimile 07 5559 7345 Email mail@somerset.qld.edu.au Website www.somerset.qld.edu.au