Year Five

Year Five Explores Democracy and Australia’s Voting System 

Our Year Five students have been learning all about democracy and Australia’s voting system, with a particular focus on understanding how preferential voting works.

As part of their learning, students put their persuasive writing skills to the test by writing a speech explaining who they believe would make the ideal Prime Minister. Eight persuasive speeches were shortlisted, with teachers presenting them to Year Five and Six in order to vote for their most preferred candidates.

Students then had the opportunity to experience a mock Australian election, putting their understanding of preferential voting into practice. They learnt how to number candidates in order of preference and how preferences are distributed when a candidate does not receive enough first-preference votes.

Of course, no Australian election experience would be complete without a democracy sausage!

It was fantastic to see our students engaging so enthusiastically with this important aspect of Australian citizenship, while developing their persuasive writing skills and gaining a deeper understanding of how our democracy and voting system work.

The Year Five Team

Angelina Cetin, Jonah Garvie, Jonathan McFarland and Ruby Ziogas