Friday 14th March, ten girls from Years 7-12 braved the stormy weather and joined hundreds of other students at St Gregory’s, Campbelltown to participate in this year’s CSDA Public Speaking competition. The girls all worked very hard preparing and rehearsing their speeches, and represented the College with pride and confidence on the night. Congratulations:

Raia Marie Gamundoy
Alessandra Allegretti
Talia Walker
Sasha Borges
Jesse Bacon
Denise Wireko-Brobby
Jessica Orap
Alexia Severi
Kathryn Hale
Belinda Coniglio

A particular congratulations to Talia Walker in Year 8 who competed in the Zone Final at Mount St   Benedict’s, Pennant Hills. Talia has been selected to move through to the CSDA Public Speaking Final. Well done Talia!

On 7 March, 2 representatives from   Cerdon College,  Andrea Fernandes and Remona Mekdessi in Year 10 were   involved in a Climate Change Forum made by youths, for youths. It was a great forum with a range of students from independent schools in Years 10 and 11. On the day we were given a thorough insight into technology to help reduce the world’s climate change emissions by a representative from the United Nations Assembly. We were also involved in 2 workshops which gave us a chance to meet people and speak out on what we think about the issue. The day concluded with a youth declaration by which all who attended wrote a declaration on what we urged or what we wanted to be taken into law, based on climate change, to the Federal Government.
We would like to thank Mrs Agius and Jackie Lipman from the United Nations Assembly for giving us the opportunity to go.

The College leaders were able to experience true leadership on Friday 29th February when they were invited to attend a day at Parliament House, and meet with the NSW Governor, Marie Bashir. Our day was one filled with much knowledge passed on from State leaders of Parliament, most notably Peter Debnam, former leader of the NSW Liberal Party. His and his colleagues’ advice and insight allowed us to have a greater understanding of, and to appreciate, the qualities that create great leadership; leading while inspiring by example.

The highlight of the day was the student leaders’ address by Governor Bashir at Government House. She provided us with encouragement, particularly as young women looking to make changes in the world. As the first female Governor of NSW, Marie Bashir stands as a role model of success, not only in leadership within the State Executive, but also within society as a strong woman with firm morals and vision. We felt truly blessed to have been able to meet with her and to know that this experience has enriched our passion to reach our potential as Cerdon College’s School Leaders of 2008.

Cerdon was buzzing with excitement when on March 5, over 40 students and teachers joined thousands of mathletes around the world to celebrate World Maths Day. The challenge was to set world records in answering arithmetic questions online against students from about over 15 000 schools. The excitement was such that Australian systems nearly had a melt down but after a few teething problems ( and some muffins for energy)the girls were ready and eager to log on and answer as many questions they could to earn points and win prizes. It was fantastic to see so many girls having so much fun and enjoying Mathematics. Like all celebrations, the day ended with a party bag filled with special mementos to mark, what was, an amazing fun filled event.

Congratulations to Julie Anne Bankowski (HSC Class 2007).

Julie Anne was named Fairfield City 2008 Young Citizen of the Year. The citation for this award is reprinted below.
Julie Anne was also acknowledged by Holroyd Council where she received the Young Ambassadors Award for Sport on Australia Day.

On 28 February Mrs Trinh’s Year 9 Food Technology class completed a practical lesson where all groups cooked different treats for a child’s birthday party. These food’s included cupcakes, tiny sausage rolls, rissoles, mini pizzas, fruit kebabs and much more. We decided to invite Mrs Baker to come and join us to see what we had made. She was very impressed with our presentation and liked all the finished products.
This term we have learnt many facts about nutrition and healthy eating and have discovered that different food varieties can be used to celebrate special occasions. Our class has enjoyed preparing and cooking these meals, as we can apply what we have learnt to our everyday life.
Kate Summers (on behalf of Year 9 Food Technology)