Governor’s Civics Award for Schools

Year 9 Individual Award 

Emily for her Geography Task 

Year 7 – 10 Group Award

For their involvement in the Reconciliation Events – Celebration Day and Chapel

• Jade (Year 8)
• Toby (Year 10)
• Edith (Year 8)
• Alice (Year 8)
• Taylor (Year 8)

Year 12 - SACE Award 

Milika Filmer (2023)for her Research Project

My experience at Government House to receive the Governor’s Civics Award for Schools

“I was honored to be a member of the group to receive the incredible Governor’s Civics Award. It was an experience that I will never forget. But I'm not just proud of what I did I am incredibly proud of what this group has done.

As a member of the group since Year 7 I have been lucky enough to experience and achieve some amazing things. The experiences have been incredible and the people we have met have made it just so much better. I think I can speak for everyone when I say how grateful we all are to have received this award and been nominated in the first place. 

Government House was incredible. It was super posh and fancy. The building itself was breathtaking and I know I'm not the only one that felt out of place there seeing all these incredibly important people, but it certainly did make us feel special. Not only was the house beautiful but it also held so much history. There were amazing paintings of Queens and Kings that just took you down the alleyway of time. It was certainly surreal when I got to sit in Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite chair to get my photo taken. The staff at the Government House told us the chair was placed in the Queen's favourite room, they said that the reason she loved the room so much was because the morning sunlight came in and it felt warm and lovely. When you think of a house you may think of the living room and the kitchen and the dining room but for some of us the most exciting thing was to see how the bathrooms looked and, ohh boy…. were they fancy!

But it's not all about the award and the house. One of the biggest parts that made this night incredible were the people we got to meet. As we walked through the big fancy doors into Government House the Governor, Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC, was waiting to shake all of our hands. It was amazing to meet her, and she was lovely to us all. 

The awards began with an address by the Education Minister Blair Boyer, who spoke about the importance of the awards and the work that the students had done. Obviously to be there with the rest of my fellow Cornerstone kids was so fun. We got to experience this amazing journey together and support each other as we received our award. I was super excited when I saw an old news reporter, Keith Conlon
at the awards. Not because I had ever seen him on TV but my family had and I knew they would be excited when I got a picture taken with him. I wasn't expecting him to be so inspiring and smart and he was also super friendly. He's the type of guy that you could just listen to for hours and I think he became quite fond of the Cornerstone group. He spent the rest of the evening chatting with the Cornerstone families, which was super exciting. It was great that a personality like him was inspired by us! 

Overall the experience at the Governor Civics Awards was an honor and a privilege but also a lot of fun, so hopefully I get to do it again one day.” 

Edith (Year 8)

Yr 7-10 Group Awardee