The boys are well into their study of Government and so far we have looked at Federation, Levels of Government, political portfolios and our electoral voting system. While working through the unit, the boys formed political parties within the grade based on their special interests. Each party selected a leader and together organised speeches, posters, business cards and flyers to promote their ideas to the Southwood electorate.
The leaders are:
Liam Eadie, Justin Bacon, James Bonnyman, Krisshnaa Kannan and Lorcan McCrave.
Each leader presented a well-rehearsed speech at our Junior School Assembly on the 9th of May to persuade the Southwood electorate; ie. all the Year 3 to 6’s, to vote for their ideas and elect their party as our government. We then held a secret ballot in the Southwood Centre, where all the boys from Year 3 to 6 classes cast their votes. After voting was completed, we collected the ballot boxes, and with the help of our electoral officers Josh Apsey and Mark Evans, we began the vote count in the Year 6 classroom. Using the Preferential Voting system adopted by Australia, our guest vote counter, Mr Kenny and the electoral scrutineers, we conducted the count.
Our political parties are:
The Tech Party – Liam Eadie, Mark Evans and Angus Middleton.
Find The Fun Party – Justin Bacon, Oscar Webb, Elliott Corcoran and Oliver Dugan.
S.I.P Southwood Improvement Party – James Bonnyman and Geoffrey Zhang
Southwood Step by Step – Krisshnaa Kannan and Kasim Adil
The Super Fun Sports Party – Lorcan McCrave, Zack Crowe, Josh Apsey, Will Butterfield and Max Adam.
Congratulations to the Find the Fun Party who were elected into government and the leader Justin Bacon who is the Prime Minister for Southwood for 2016.
We will now begin to hold Class Parliament sessions where we debate the promises made during the campaign and see how many bills can be passed. Of course they must also be passed by The Senate (Mrs Neilson the Year 6 teacher) and signed off by our Governor General (Mr Kenny).
Such an exciting time is being had by all in Year 6 at the moment, plus we have our trip to Canberra coming up in Week 10. Life just doesn’t get any better than this!
by Ros Neilson, Year 6 Teacher, Junior School Boys
