Student Voice: Year 3 Junior Advisory Group Monash Council Excursion

In Term 1, Year 3 learners explored the question "How might relationships and collaboration shape resilient communities?"  A key aspect of this unit's focus was on understanding the role of local council in our community. Five learners showed exemplary interest and participation throughout this unit of learning and were selected to participate in Monash Council’s Junior Advisory Group (JAG).  

The JAG initiative has been developed to help young people connect with local government and ensure young voices are heard concerning relevant Council decisions. The session included a Q&A with Mayor Paul Klisaris and a consultation session which gathered valuable insights from learners across five schools that will help shape our community’s future.

Throughout the day learners were able to provide feedback and feedforward on future community initiatives such as; how to include children in decision making, popular areas within the community being used after school and how to improve communal youth spaces.

Our learners reflected on the day and wanted to share the following highlights; 

Rishaan – “The mayor shared that the hardest component of being a council member is managing how to feel and react in different situations. Such as, if they can’t listen to everyone’s feedback and feedforward, even if it might be good for the community then it becomes hard to feel successful. It was a privilege to have question time with the mayor!”

Dev – “I learnt the mayors name, personal journey and main component of their role, which is to help others by using their voice to help build the best possible community. The current mayor of Monash Council is Paul Klisaris, elected for the 2024-2025 term. He represents the Wellington Ward. Another highlight was the mayor putting his arm over my shoulder, I’m never going to wash my jacket! 

Samiksha – “It was an honour asking the mayor a question about the role of his gavel and how it helps maintain decorum if gallery members aren’t being cordial with each other. He stated that his goal is to always steer away from using it as he would like to maintain a calm space for everyone, but he has used it in the past”

Abha – “Being able to have my voice heard and vote for various improvements such as what a current youth centre requires was really engaging. I really liked asking the mayor a direct question which was ‘What is the main element of your role and why is this important?”. The mayor shared that although he didn’t always know that he would be in leadership or become a mayor he was grateful that he became one. I felt surprised hearing this as I thought leadership was something people always had but this showed me it’s also something we can grow into”. 

Shenelle – “The Monash city council was formed in 1993 which is what I discussed with the mayor. In addition to this I learnt that Paul Klisaris used to be a teacher in the 90’s which is why he is passionate about children and our voices. He loves working with youth communities and hearing our perspectives for future improvements. He highly encouraged our age group to be aware of and involved in government initiatives”. 

It was exciting to see learners deepen their understanding from Term 1 and immerse themselves into this learning experience which allowed them to refine and use their voice as a tool to enhance future community initiatives.