Canberra 2019 – Zac F and Zac D
On Thursday the 16th May, Year 6 students arrived at school at 6:15am to go on a 4 hour bus trip to Canberra, ACT. The trip was to support our work in our History unit – Australia Becomes a Nation, and to have a bit of fun too!
Our first stop was Parliament House. Our humorous tour guide took us to the Senate and the House of Representatives and told us where everyone sits and what their roles where. In the Senate we saw the chair reserved for the Queen – even though she has never sat in it! After our interesting tour of Parliament House we went to the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) where we had a tour of the facilities and got to go in the interactive zone and pretend we were elite athletes. We then went to Canberra Park – our accommodation – and settled into our rooms and had dinner. After our delicious dinner we went into Questacon, which was a lot of fun, especially the free-fall! We were very tired when we returned to our accommodation and we all fell asleep very quickly.
The next day we were woken at 5:45am and prepared ourselves for our second day in Canberra. After a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast, cereal, fruit and yoghurt we went to Old Parliament House and visited the Electoral Education Centre. Here we learnt how to vote and did a mini polling session ourselves. We then went to The Australian War Memorial and here we were able to go on a guided tour, spend time in the Discovery Zone and have some free time to explore the Memorial with the teachers. Our final destination was The Royal Australian Mint. We learnt about how our Australian currency is made and how it has evolved over the years. We saw where the coins are made and the robots who make them. The best one was TITAN who showed us some of his dance moves. Sadly we jumped on the bus and began our 4 hour trip home. We had a fantastic time in Canberra!
PACER
The Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program is an Australian Government initiative that provides financial assistance to support students’ on-site learning about national democratic, historical and cultural institutions in Canberra, the nation’s capital. AS stated above our Year 6 students 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 $20 per student under the PACER program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.