On this page: Fellowship delivers for pre-service teachers | Kidsview | Student parliament deals with local town issue | A parliamentary experience| A parliament of birds in parks and gardens | Student decision-making at work
Profiler Newsletter Issue 6: November 2003
From May 2002 to November 2004, the PEO produced a regular newsletter called Profiler. This publication has now ceased, but archived articles will continue to be made available here.
Articles on this page are in text only and are suitable for printing. The downloadable PDF version contains photographs.
Download Profiler Newsletter Issue 6: November 2003 [PDF 359KB]
Director's cut
As we come to the end of another busy year staff in the PEO have put their minds to addressing this month’s Profiler with its focus on activities that we have been involved in at Parliament House.
Whilst we have travelled to a number of states in Australia this year, we have been equally active back in the House working with over 78,000 school students and their teachers.
We have also taken time out in this edition to take a closer look at ways in which our role play programs link with national curricular. Helen Paterson has drawn some valuable links between a number of relevant outcomes in the Western Australian curriculum and the experience that a small group of Edith Cowan university students had during a recent fellowship at Parliament House as guests of the PEO. And in our own backyard so to speak, Anne Kennedy and Deb Parish worked with concepts from the ACT SOSE curriculum when they guided a group of years 4-6 students from Miles Franklin primary school through a Senate Committee of Inquiry role play at Parliament House last month.
Julie Jarman and Erin McGuire have taken a quirky approach to their introduction of a new PEO web program, Kidsview for primary school students, whilst Ali Garnett and a number of environmental educators joined up for a week at Parliament House to explore ways in which they could take the very engaging program for Years 2-4 Cockatoo Island, into new territory, namely Botanical gardens in various locations around the country - an innovative and brave take on outdoor education!
Finally as this is our final edition for 2003, I would like to thank all of those readers who took time to give us valuable feedback (more pics please!). We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing our experiences with you all. On behalf of the PEO team I would like to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year season.
Ann Owner
Director, Parliamentary Education Office
Did you know?
Under our Fellowships program, we have hosted 88 fellows since 1995. Most have been teachers or people involved directly in education; one group (6 fellows) were Aboriginal community workers from around Alice Springs and another group (7 fellows) were journalists from regional Australia.
Fellowship delivers for WA pre-service teachers
The Edith Cowan University Fellowship Program 2003 was implemented by the PEO in Parliament House, Canberra in October 2003. The visit by four pre-service teaching fellows enabled a demonstration of how the PEO role-play program links consistently with the AW SOSE curriculum and translates back into the classroom. The four fellows participated in a five-day program in Parliament House, outcomes of which included:
- Experiencing the working of federal parliament
- Learning about the operation of the PEO
- Learning how to deliver teaching/learning strategies to students and teaching colleagues, based on parliamentary processes
- Confidently being able to use these strategies in the classroom
with their own students in the future, fulfilling
state curriculum requirements.
The PEO program consisted specifically of two role-plays, debating a bill in the House of Representatives and a Committee of Inquiry. Students participated in a hands-on activity, taking on the roles of parliamentarians debating and voting on the bill in the lower house. The Committee role-play involves the students scrutinising the bill in detail and reporting on findings.
Learning outcomes result in active learning and understanding about the functions of parliament, including representation, scrutiny, formation of government and legislation as well as the collection of information by committees and how citizens influence political decisions.
There are two aspects of the WA SOSE curriculum which are of particular relevance to the PEO program: civics and citizenship education (CCE) in Strand 7 and parliament and government in Strand 6. Investigation, communication and participation links consistently with the PEO’s Committee of Inquiry roleplay. Civics and citizenship relates clearly to the PEO involvement in promoting decision-making models in schools.
The fellowship program also encourages these future teachers to develop an active contact with the PEO and the network of PEO fellows Australia-wide.
-Helen Paterson
Kidsview - a multimedia website is coming!
The Parliamentary Education Office is developing a new section to the PEO website. It is called Kidsview—Parliament in Focus because that’s what it’s all about—bringing parliament into focus for kids.
Kidsview is: Interactive and educational; demanding but fun; multi-layered yet focused. Kids can have their cake and eat it too on Kidsview!
Go to Kidsview—Parliament in Focus.
Student parliament deals with local town issue
The PEO helped students from Boat Harbour Primary School in NW Tasmania to experience a learning strategy that brought more than just understanding parliament.
The Program
Two role-plays on the parliamentary process prepared and delivered over two days.
The Actors
Three Year 5/6 classes in two groups.
The Roles
The first group prepared and role-played a Senate Committee of Inquiry, the second group role-played senators in a debate in the chamber. Four students represented the media.
The Bill
A Bill for an Act to release water from the Lake Llewellyn once every week to flush out the pollution in Sisters Creek. It was assumed that this bill had been debated and passed in the House of Representatives, and was referred to a Senate Committee before being debated in the Senate.
The Recommendations
Hearings from representatives of the Parks & Wildlife group, the Local Residents Association, the Waratah Wynyard Council, Greens Representatives and Environmental Scientists produced mixed support for the bill. The committee later recommended that the bill go ahead, as passed in the House of Representatives.
The Vote in the Senate
In the end, after many speeches from senators telling their colleagues how they felt about the bill, the government failed to persuade the cross-bench to vote for it, and the bill was defeated.
Special Guest
Senator Richard Colbeck (Tas) participated in the Senate debate role-play as a government senator, and in his speech implored the opposition and other Senators to support the bill.
The Outcomes
In the two days 70 students learned much about the way parliaments deal with problems, became informed about a local (real) issue, prepared and wrote submissions and speeches, presented information to their peers, found out how to get information and how to use it, had a lot of fun and asked dozens of questions to satisfy their own interests in the processes of parliament.
-Rick Williams
A parliamentary experience: a taste of what it’s like to be a federal parliamentarian
Three groups from MacGregor PS from the federal electorate of Moreton in Queensland spent a few very busy hours here in Parliament House.
The first stop for the group pictured was to Debate a Bill in the mock House of Representatives. Our would-be members of parliament very quickly discovered due to the numbers in the chamber, (gov. 82, oppos. 64, independents 3 & greens 1) the power was with the “government” - the Speaker was chosen from the government ranks and the agenda was set by the government.
The banning of violent cartoons was the government’s most important bill and this would be the topic of debate for today. Although the opposition normally supports the vast majority of bills presented, it would be opposing this bill.
The chamber took on a somewhat authentic look with the Speaker, Clerk and Sergeant-at-Arms all dressed in traditional costume. The Mace, the symbol of the House was placed on The Table where the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader sit. The Speaker took his seat in a chair which had been used in Old Parliament House.
Debate was robust with members representing their electorates. The government was keen to push the argument that young children could be influenced by the violence contained in these cartoons and possibly become violent themselves, whereas the opposition argued strongly that they had watched violent cartoons when they were young and hadn’t become “violent adults.”
The Whips, the managers of each of the parties, controlled the number of speakers and party discipline was evident when it came to the vote. The government was successful on the initial vote, known as On the Voices. However, the opposition led by the Whip, called for a Division, whereby all members were called to the chamber and formally counted. The vote resulted in the government being successful, but the opposition’s lack of support for the bill was formally recorded.
There was a moment when our young parliamentarians wondered, what is the point of having an opposition if the government always has the majority? The question was thrown back to the students who came up with the following conclusions:
- Each member has been voted by their electorates to REPRESENT them.
- Alternative views are a fundamental part of the freedom we have within our system of parliamentary democracy.
- Alternative views can result in changes, compromise or improvements.
- The opposition also works diligently to present itself as an alternative government at the next election.
Mr Gary Hardgrave MP, the local member and the Minister for Citizenship joined the group and spoke about the work he performs and answered the students’ questions. He was joined by Dr Brendan Nelson MP, the Minister for Education who presented the school with a cheque for $2 000, one of 60 000 schools which had won a Literacy and Numeracy Achievement Award. The cheque was accepted by the “Prime Minister” (the country’s first female PM!) and the “Leader of the Opposition.”
The young parliamentarians’ work wasn’t quite finished! They joined the Minister for Citizenship, invited guests, their fellow students and Evatt PS, a local ACT school, to be part of the Citizenship Day celebrations, where they witnessed some of our newest citizens become formally recognised as Australians.
It was then 2 o'clock and off to Question Time, first visiting the House of Representatives and then the Senate. This gave the students the opportunity to see non-government members scrutinise the government and they observed how the government is made to be accountable - another valuable function performed by the opposition and minor parties.
Through engaging in active participation, our young parliamentarians gained a better understanding of how their system of government works, with a small taste of what it is like to be a federal parliamentarian.
The role-play program is the core activity offered by the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) to over 78 000 students visiting Parliament House each year. The PEO would like to thank all senators and members who are able to give their time to meet visiting school groups.
-Anne Nelson
Read more about the Role-play program at Australia's Parliament House.
A parliament of birds in parks and gardens
Imagine taking your class of excited ten year olds to the nearest botanic garden and finding, tucked away in a little shaded corner, a collection of small perches arranged in the shape of a parliamentary chamber. Imagine that your class are all dressed as birds, and the chamber has been made especially for you! This is our dream for the Parliamentary Education Office’s newest resource for young Australians - Cockatoo Island.
In this program, students in middle primary school (Yr 2 -4) take on the roles of different species of Australian birds and become citizens of an imaginary island. They vote for representatives who make decisions on behalf of all birds.
In September the Parliamentary Education Office invited environmental educators from various Parks and Botanic Gardens around Australia to visit parliament and become “Cockatoo Island fellows”. The aim of the Cockatoo Island fellowship was for educators to swap ideas about how to create a Parliament of Birds in the great outdoors.
Our guests were delighted to be part of a busy sitting week of parliament. They were able to meet many of the main players and feel the ambience of a working legislature. During the week many ideas were exchanged about how to use Cockatoo Island in their own venues for the benefit of visiting students.
The Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens are in the process of building the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden, a dedicated space for students presenting all the major habitats. Christine Joy is in charge of designing new programs. At the Desert Park in Alice Springs, Anne Scherer looks after students from all over Australia who want to explore environmental issues that affect the desert, and in North Brisbane, Noeleen Rowntree and the staff of the Bunyaville Environmental Centre have already identified a hidden valley, across a creek, just right for a chamber for birds.
In Canberra, Peter Lehmann, the education officer at the Australian National Botanic Gardens would like to involve local teachers in the project right from the start and is hosting a workshop on 10 November, 2003. They will be exploring various possible sites, from the Nancy Burbidge amphitheatre to the Brittle Gum lawn. By next year, classes in the ACT will be able to bring their Parliament of Birds to the Gardens and make decisions amongst the trees.
In September 2004, we are planning to meet with Steve Meredith, education officer at the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide, at the Australian Association of Environmental Education (AAEE) conference and compare notes. We hope to link with educators from other parks and gardens and convince them that law-making is interesting for even the youngest amongst us!
-Ali Garnett
Read more about Cockatoo Island.
Student decision-making at work
Miles Franklin Primary School in Evatt, ACT, has shown its commitment to student participation in decision-making, by immersing its Student Representative Council (SRC) in parliamentary role-plays designed to enhance students’ abilities to make a real decision about a school-based issue. With the support and guidance of Deputy Principal, Melissa Travers, the SRC are currently determining whether a section of the school oval should be expanded for student use and the repercussions this could have on the school and wider community.
Students from years 4 – 6 were initially invited to nominate for SRC membership, by submitting an expression of interest, in which they set out why they wanted to be a part of the SRC. This was an ideal way to focus each student’s thoughts on what SRC membership really meant to them. In preparing for the Senate Committee of Inquiry role-play, the SRC canvassed opinions and sought information from students, teachers, administrative staff, a neighbouring school and relevant government departments. The program culminated in a day spent in Parliament House, in which the SRC enacted role-plays, toured the parliamentary chambers and visited the Prime Minister’s office.
The Miles Franklin SRC program encapsulated concepts from the Natural and Social Systems strand of the Upper Primary band in the ACT Studies of Society and Environment Curriculum Framework, including using role-play to explore decision-making, examining and interpreting the views of others, active citizenship and the rights and responsibilities of all in the political process. Students learnt valuable research, investigation, public speaking and written skills and enhanced their understanding of the law-making process in federal parliament. Students and teachers alike saw firsthand how they could use these skills and understandings in future SRC decision-making and in other areas of the curriculum.
-Anne Kennedy