Years 7/8 Camp
Exploring the nation's capital
by Beth Alvarez, Years 7 & 8 Coordinator
Our students recently undertook an educational tour of the national capital – Canberra – where they were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s identity, history, culture, heritage and democracy.
Our agenda included:
- The Australian Mint
- The National Art Gallery
- The High Court of Australia (where we saw a case being heard)
- Parliament Houses (new and old)
- The Australian Institute of Sport
- National Exhibition Centre
- Telstra Tower (at sunset), and
- the crowd favourite... Questacon.
We were also fortunate enough to visit the Governor General’s House, which is not open to the general public. Undoubtedly, one of the highlights on the camp for our students was meeting the Treasurer of Australia and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, The Honourable Josh Frydenberg. Our students very eloquently posed questions to him that focused on climate change, expenditure of taxpayer money, immigration and refugees. The manner, passion and respect with which the students undertook this Q&A (including submitting their own opinions) had passers-by stopping to view the interaction. As a School we are so proud of the independent and confident thinkers within this cohort.
Socially the students had a great time. Friendships were forged and quick jokes and laughter were certainly a theme of the camp. I would also like to publicly acknowledge the staff members who attended: Kate Ellis, Matt Barker, Phuong Tran and Kristin Vestermark. They helped ensure the experience was an enjoyable one for all and I could not have run the camp as smoothly as it went without their support.
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 and to this end contributed funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards camp costs.
The invaluable learning experiences and knowledge gained by the students will be utilised in a variety of subjects now they have returned to school.