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Somerville House

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Template:Infobox Aust school Somerville House is an independent, boarding and day school for girls and is located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The School was named after the British scientific writer, Mary Somerville (1780 – 1872), though the school's official name is still Brisbane High School for Girls, or BGHS.

The school provides classes from Preparatory to Year 12, within three sub-schools — Junior (Years Prep to 6), Middle (Years 7 to 9), and Senior (Years 10 to 12).

Somerville House is owned by the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association (PMSA) and is a member of the Queensland Girls' Secondary Schools Sports Association Inc (QGSSSA).

History

Somerville House opened in 1899 as the Brisbane High School for Girls.

Principals

  • Miss Eliza A Fewings (1899 - 1909)
  • Miss Constance E Harker (1910 - 1931)
  • Miss Marjorie K Jarrett (1910 - 1940)
  • Miss E Frances Craig (1941 - Aug 1953)
  • Miss Ellen Christensen (Aug 1953 - May 1956)
  • Miss Isobel Taylor (1957 - May 1969)
  • Mr Rod Wells (1970 - March 1973)
  • The Reverend Sam Seymour (1974 - 1987)
  • Dr Murray J Evans (1988 - 2003)
  • Dr Agnes Goodwin (2004 - )

School Badge

The colours of the School badge are blue, green and white. Blue is associated with Loyalty, green with Growth and white with Purity.

The central figure represents Wisdom, standing upon or emerging from, the open book, representing Knowledge. In her hand is the lamp, representing Truth. The close association of the three symbolises that Knowledge alone is but a barren thing unless studied by the light of the lamp of Understanding; that these two, combined with the experience which life brings, enable people to acquire a wisdom to be placed at the service of others.

School Motto

The School's Motto, "Honour before Honours", presents a challenge, in a competitive and materialistic society, to maintain the highest personal standards of integrity, and to remember the ideals of behaviour and achievement which always remain more worthwhile and important than the plaudits of the crowd.

House System

Somerville House has six houses, each named after a famous Australian woman that was a pioneer in her field. The houses are:

There are inter-house competitions held throughout the year. These competitions include:

  • Inter-house Swimming Carnival
  • Inter-house Athletics Carnival
  • Inter-house Charity Trot
  • Inter-house Chess Competition
  • Inter-house Bin-Filling Competition
  • Senior School Choral Festival (Years 10-12)
  • Middle School Arts Festival (Years 7-9)
  • Junior School Choral Festival

Academics

Somerville House upholds an excellent academic record, scoring the second highest rating for academic outcomes from girls' schools in the Queensland Studies Authority's 2005 report.


Faith Education

As a member of the historic Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association, and with direct links to the Presbyterian and Uniting Churches, Somerville House deeply values its Christian heritage as it seeks to encourage its staff and students in their own spiritual formation, understanding and honouring the Lordship of Christ in all of life.

Technology

Somerville House has always striven to provide additional learning tools to its students. The Senior management of the School has identified the need to provide a consistent mobile computing platform to students because of:

  • The growth of educational content available on the Internet and through other web-based content providers;
  • The increase in tools to assist in the delivery of learning materials via computing and web based technologies;
  • The growth in utilisation of computing devices by the students as tools during their learning journey; and
  • A desire to deliver learning materials to the student body regardless of location or time of day.

The project to deploy laptop computers to the staff and students of Somerville House began in 2001 and continued to the pilot laptop deployment to Year 6 students during Semester 2, 2003. Laptops are currently used by all Year 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 students.

Notable Alumnae

See also

External links

Members of the Queensland Girls' Secondary Schools Sports Association, Australia
Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association Colleges, Queensland, Australia
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