In Term 2 2023 the Year 5 and Year 6 students explored the city of Canberra. This tour enriched their current Inquiry Learning topic of Democracy in Australia. We had a great week! Read on to hear about all their wonderful experiences.
Our camp all began with a fun flight to Canberra but first we had to go on a quick bus ride to the airport. We got there with perfect timing and had a quick and easy check in and waited to board our virgin airways flight. On the flight I was seated in the middle seat in between Frankie and Millie. We saw wonderful tall mountains with snow on them as we flew across from Melbourne to Canberra. We had a great landing and went to the baggage claim to get our bags. After we were all sorted we went outside and realised how warm Canberra actually was. Then we left to explore the beautiful capital city of Australia. – Ella
After the flight we headed straight to our first activity which was going to the National Museum of Australia where we learnt about the important people and places in Australia. It was super interesting and we enjoyed every bit about it. One person we learnt about was a lady called Nova Peris. She is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician and was the first Aboriginal Australian to be elected to Parliament. After learning many interesting things it was time to go to the Museum of Australian Democracy. – Edie
It was time to put on our white gloves and go into the Old Parliament House to visit the Museum of Australian Democracy. In the first room we learned about past Prime Ministers and how different people run Australia. We only had time for one more thing: The Old Senate, which is a red room where bills get looked at more carefully. We also saw what the Governor General wore and we saw what the first female Governor General wore. Then it was time to go to the War Memorial so we had to say goodbye. – Holly
After a fun time at MoAD we all headed over to the War Memorial. We learnt about who built the memorial, what it was for and we also got to watch the Last Post ceremony which is a time for families of fallen soldiers to come and lay wreaths for them. Even though we came there to learn, we were still allowed to participate at the ceremony and laid a wreath on behalf of St Mary’s. – Saoirse
It was finally time to check into our cabins which would be our home for the next 3 nights and 4 days. Once we were inside our lodge we had dinner before we saw our rooms. We were all so eager to see the rooms. Straight after dinner we saw our cabins. My room had 12 beds. I was in a room with Ava, Holly, Isabella and Sophie. I was also very proud of myself because I’ve won the cleanest cabin award 3 years in a row. My highlight of the lodge was it was located on a farm and we got to feed the animals. One sheep even attacked Miss Pell. – Abbey
On the night of the first day we played 10 pin bowling at Time Zone. When we got there we separated ourselves into groups to play against each other. There were 10 rounds and within those rounds you had to try to get the highest score. I was playing against Charlie, Alex, Millie and Kiara. Lots of people got spares and even strikes. I got 2 spares and 1 strike. I won out of the people I was playing with and the class. My score was 106. I thought it was a really fun night and would love to do it again. – Pip
Day 2 started off with an amazing walk through the National Botanical Gardens. We explored the miniature rainforest and the Sydney Gardens. We stopped in the Rock Gardens for a snack and to draw an image of a piece of nature we liked. In the Rock Gardens we also met Chubba Chub and Fatty Patty the magpies. The last place we visited in the Gardens was the Outback where we were looking for reptiles but we sadly didn’t see any. It was a really nice walk. – Frankie
Following our great walk at the Australian Botanic Gardens. We headed to the National Capital Exhibition where we learned all about the people who designed the outline of Canberra. Their names were Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. We also got to design our own cities of what we thought the future of Canberra would look like. We did this activity in groups. It was really interesting! – Kiara
Parliament house. The place of debating, arguing and making new rules to make our nation a better place. Our tour guide, Luke, took us all around the two biggest rooms in the Australian politicians world, The Senate and The House of Representatives. Luke took us to an overhead sound proof room in both rooms. We talked about what has been a tradition and things that we, the future, can change if we are elected to parliament whilst watching the Senate and House of Representatives in action (we saw the prime minister). Finally we got to do it ourselves. We got to do a role play in the kids version of the house of representatives. Art was the prime minister and I was the leader of the opposition team. The topic was that every house should have a water tank. Both teams debated until we came to the conclusion that the bill would pass and it would become a new law. – Alex
At 7PM we were at the Australian Institute of Sport! When we got there we sat down and then met a few people who led us into a room called SPORTEX which had lots of games inside the room. Some were rowing, wheelchair racing, bike racing, rock climbing, football, basketball, tobogganing, skin, soccer and arm wrestling. There were also outfits and sport equipment famous Olympians used such as a pair of swimmers, a helmet, a rowing boat and a cricket bat. We spent what felt like hours playing these fun games, some of which were harder than others like hanging on a bar. Sadly while I was hanging on this bar trying to get a world record we had to go and I lost my chance to be a star! All together it was a fun night at the ASI playing fun games And challenging my friends! – Isabella
When we arrived at the Royal Australian Mint we went to take a photo in front of the Mint. As we went in we walked over to the shop to spend a long time there to get a couple things and our amazing teachers gave us 3 dollars each to get a limited edition coin from a machine. We climbed up the stairs to go to a room with a glass window where we could see all the different ways to make coins. After that we went to our last room to see the evolution of coins which was my favourite part. Did you know that a long time ago people used to create one big coin and cut it in the middle to make one small coin and the outside was a coin too but the inside was worth more and that’s why our 2 dollar coin is smaller than our other coins. This was an amazing experience and we are so grateful that we went to the Royal Australian Mint on camp. – Sophie
Next stop the Electoral Education Centre. During our visit we used a program called Democracity to learn the rules on when you can vote and how you can vote. We learned that you have to be 18, enrolled and an Australian citizen. We then did a fake vote, and Apple won! We also learned that if the vote was not filled out properly it did not count and if you filled out the vote in the order of 1234 it was called a donkey vote. Coming out of the Electoral Education Centre we had lots of new knowledge. – Ava
Right after lunch on the 3rd day, we went on the Anzac Parade walk, which started byvisiting the memorial for the soldiers of the Korean War which was an important war as it got the united nations involved, next, we visited the Vietnam War memorial, which had several people’s stories all over the walls as well as the names of (almost) all the names of the Australian Soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War and died. And last of all, we visited the memorial for the Boer War, which was the first war that took place in the 1900’s. Overall, the Anzac Parade walk was a wonderful part of our trip to Canberra and I am glad that we did it. – Art
After doing lots of things on the third day it was time to go to the High Court. Whilst there, we took a photo (as usual) and went inside to meet the tour guide. We started the tour by going downstairs to watch a video about the history of Australian law. After the video the tour guide took us to Court Room 2 where we took a look at the High Court Justices’ at work, then left to go to Court Room 1. After going to Court Room 1 we said our goodbyes and left the High Court. – Catherine
On our last night we went to Questacon, everyone was really excited because we heard that there was a big slide called the Free Fall. At Questacon we learnt about sciencey things. Some of the things that we learnt about were AI, chemical reactions, natural disasters and space science. One of my favourite things that I did was the Free Fall. It was a drop slide where you hang from a bar and then you let go on the count of three you let go and dropped. As you were waiting your hands got all sweaty and you would feel like you couldn’t hold on. Then we sadly had to leave to go to bed. It was a night we would never forget. – Millie
Finally it was time to come home. It took 10 hours to get back to school. We had 3 stops on our way home. The stops were The Dog On The Tucker Box, HMAS Otway in Holbrook for lunch and finally a petrol station in Euroa. On the bus we watched three Harry Potter movies. We had a great bus driver called Damien. He made sure we got home safely after a super fun week in Canberra. – Jack and Sasha
Students from our school have recently undertaken, an education tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy.
The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $45 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.
Year 5 and Year 6 Teachers
Aimee Pell and Therese Davies