Canberra is the place where our politician’s debate, lobby and vote on some of the big decisions for Australia. So what better location to take Year 6s, who are embarking on the unit on Australian Government, than our nation’s capital. Some people say that discussing politics is a conversational ‘no-no’, but when learning about our representative democracy, is it essential to find out about: how it all started; how it operates; how it has shaped our nation, and Canberra caters for such a need.
Post landing our Year 6s took in the bigger picture from the Mt Ainslee lookout before checking into our accommodation with our camp family. Together we: focussed on government at the Museum of Australian Democracy located at the old Parliament house; took a behind the scenes tour of the Speaker’s Chambers (thank you to C’s dad) and spoke with our Kooyong elected politician and Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg at the ‘New’ Parliament House; voted 1 for PEACHES whilst practising preferential voting; went through a very thorough security check into the High Court; and we were invited to tour the house of the Governor-General… a privilege only afforded to those on Open House Days, dignitaries and school groups.
By clicking on the students’ blog reflections you will also read that some of the bonding experiences and other Canberra highlights related to other areas of our curriculum. Places featured may include our interactive and entertaining excursions to Questacon (Science), AIS(Sport), the Portrait Gallery (Art) and dancing with Dora at the movies.
At Carey, we really are lucky to be able to go on two very different camps and see 6D students thrive in two different environments. I also felt very lucky to have such a wonderful individuals class who made my role in loco parentis enjoyable. -SD