On Friday night, 13 June, the Year 9, 10 and 11 Italian students attended an annual dance party held at Five Dock RSL Club. The students were able to experience the true Italian culture through a vast mixture of Italian music and traditional Italian food such as ‘polpette’, ‘pizzette’ and ‘bruschetta’. The girls had a chance to interact with students from other schools who also study Italian as an elective. As the girls made their way to the auditorium, the evening commenced with excitement ready for a fun night out. The dance offered the students exceptional entertainment as they danced the night away to a variety of both English and Italian   music. Also the dance party committee organised competitions in which the students had an opportunity to win various prizes. Luckily, two of Cerdon College’s Year 11 students each collected a prize. One student correctly answered a music question and another won the prize for best ‘Tarantella’, a traditional Italian dance. It was truly evident that their interest and knowledge of Italian music and culture came in handy. Although the night may have concluded with the girls having ringing ears and sore feet, it was agreed that overall the night was a pleasant event. We would like to thank the Italian teachers for all the time and effort they put into planning the event.
Stefania Gavoto and Chiara Rizzotto (Year 11)

National Italian Day: Il Giorno della Repubblica

On Monday 2 June, Italian students took part in celebrating ‘Il Giorno della Repubblica’. What excited some students the most was the amount of food we were about to eat. We enjoyed a wide variety of things such as pizza, pasta, bruschetta and homemade Baci chocolates. We spent one lesson eating, talking and generally having a lot of fun with our classmates. We then headed outside for some real Italian gelato. There was chocolate, mango, hazelnut and many others. It was a great way to spend the day.
On Wednesday 4 June, Year 9, and 10 Italian students enjoyed an incursion called ‘Leap into Language’. We played a trivia game with the questions and answers in Italian. The team called ‘Davide’ beat the other team in this game. Next we attempted to keep a ball in the air whilst counting in Italian. The rest of the period was spent getting into costumes and acting out a scene from ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’. This scene was acted out many times and in different ways, including once where every line was sung.
Alexia Severi (Year 10)

Italian Film Excursion

In 7 May 2008, Years 10, 11 and 12 Italian students went to The Palace Cinemas on Norton Street in Leichhardt to watch ‘Caterina va in citta’. This excursion was part of the ‘Il cinema Italiano’ unit we are studying in Italian. The film helped us to move between cultures. After watching the film, we ate at a Café/Restaurant at the Italian Forum with different groups of friends. Later in the  afternoon, we went to Haberfield to taste typical Italian cakes and biscuits and coffee. Overall, the excursion was a great experience for our Italian film study.
Jessica Morosin (Year 10)

On Tuesday 10 June, six Year 11 girls, Jade Fox, Erin     Russell, Jacqui Fry, Elizabeth McFarlane, Saryne Hanna, and Justine Youssef, went to an educational leadership program held at Fairfield Patrician Brothers. The day was aimed at improving our leadership skills, as well as informing us on current social justice issues. We were unbelievably fortunate to be spoken to by both Khoa Do, Young Australian of the Year 2005, and Father Chris Riley, founder of ‘Youth Off The Streets’.
Overall, this day was a great opportunity to prepare us for Year 12 and beyond.

The CSIRO provides a wonderful opportunity for senior Science students to be part of cutting edge research in a  scientific environment. This year so far, eight of our Year 11 students have been accepted to the program. Students will be working during the school holidays all over Sydney in a     variety of scientific projects Ranging from Biotechnology, Environmental Chemistry, Physics and Engineering. In the next few weeks we hope to provide further information on the work our students will be undertaking. Congratulations are extended to Angela Keough, Anna Nguyen, Chiara Grella, Jessie Hogan, Melinda Koutsoukos, Yvette Gaweda, Lia Marando and Annie Pang for being accepted into the program.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Catholic Schools Debating Association. For Cerdon College it has been both a remarkable and successful season. The Cerdon student body is to be congratulated on their commitment to ensuring we have ample volunteers each round to act as a chairperson, timekeeper, usher or to simply help clean and set up classrooms.

Our results this year saw three out of ten teams just miss out on a spot in the Elimination Round. Our Year 9B Team was eliminated in the Playoff Round whilst our Year 12 Team progressed through the Quarter Finals to the Semi Finals to be narrowly defeated by the Catherine McAuley Team who went on to win their division of the competition.

However the Outstanding Team Award for 2008 goes to the 10B Team. This team of Bernadette Anvia, Katie Davern, Andrea Fernandes, Katherine Ohlsen (who have been debating as a team since Year 7 and also debated in the Elimination, Quarters, Semi and Grand Final series of debates), Sophia Nassif (who debated during the rounds this year) and Francesca Gerardis (reserve). This team represented the College with eloquence, articulation and persuasiveness and provided the audience with an interesting debate in the Grand Final on Friday 25th July against OLMC Parramatta. Although they didn’t win the debate, these girls displayed true Marist Spirit and were gracious in defeat. These students are to be commended on their maturity and congratulated on an exceptional debating journey thus far.

Just like many Olympians, two of our students won gold in the Lenovo Olympic Challenge. Students were required to write about their idea of what gold medal learning looked like at their school. Congratulations to Collette Duong from Year 7 and Talia Walker from Year 8 for winning each of their divisions. For their fine achievements the girls will each receive a Lenovo IdeaPad notebook signed by Australian Olympic team swimmers Eamon Sullivan and Libby Trickett. Have a look at Colette's and Talia's winning entry.

Congratulations to Yvette Gaweda and Annie Pang who have been selected for the National Youth Science Forum program which will take place in Canberra during the January holidays in 2009. The program will run over 12 days and   students will reside at the Australian National University with 100 like-minded individuals from all around Australia and overseas. Students will be able to meet a range of scientists and researchers, visit and work with them on a variety of projects, discuss and debate the latest developments.

Earlier this year a number of students entered the Keeper of the Stone, run by Holroyd City Council. This competition aims to make students more aware of heritage in their local area and the need to preserve it.
Congratulations to June Ho in Year 8 who was awarded Winner of the competition. June will receive a certificate of Merit and a $200 book voucher for her fine achievement.
Congratulations also to Talia Walker in Year 8 who was awarded Runner up in the competition. Talia will receive a certificate of Merit and a $50 book voucher for her fine achievement. Congratulations also to Maria Nguyen and Tina Pham also in Year 8 who were awarded Certificates of Merit and prizes in their divisions.

Earlier this year a number of students entered their art work in the Write4Fun Art Competition. Many of our students’ work have been selected to be published in a book later this year. Congratulations to the following senior students who have been notified that their art work has been selected for publication (junior students names were listed in the last newsletter):

      Chantalle Ghantous    12       Alix Toufan          11
Karina Basso               12       Charnelle King    11
                                                  Penny Nailou        11
                                                  Simone Daher    11