Robina State School

Students from our school have recently undertaken an educational tour of the National Capital.  While on this tour they participated in a variety of educational programs focused on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit their National Capital as part of their civics and citizenship education.  To assist in meeting the cost of the excursion, the Australian Government is contributing funding under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program towards the travel expenses incurred.  This contribution will be paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.

We would like to thank the Australian Government for their support of this program.

Activities undertaken as part of the educational tour were Parliament House, Old Parliament House, Australian War Memorial, Electoral Education Centre and the National Capital Exhibition.

Our Tour

We are finally in Canberra after an early start on Monday morning. 5am saw us ready to leave Gold Coast Airport.

We started our day after picking up our coach at Canberra Airport, Regatta Point was an interesting presentation showing us how the site for Canberra was chosen and how it got its name. We were able to view models of Canberra and also able to see many of the sites from the huge glass windows overlooking the lake.

We moved on to Parliament house where we were taken on a tour of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The children then participated in a dramatisation of a sitting of Parliament and the reading and passing of a Bill. It certainly brought together the concept of government together for them in a practical way.

We headed to our accommodation and after unpacking and dinner we headed off to the CSIRO. This was fantastic. We were the only people there as it is closed to the public at this time. After a number of presentations.The children donned lab coats and became scientists participating in many and varied experiments in the lab. Some of our braver students made very close friends with some stick insects.

We headed to bed at about 10pm. It had been a very long but enjoyable day. Hopefully I can jump on somewhere tonight and maybe get some photos up for all to see.