Civics | Magill Junior Primary School: CCE for Junior Primary

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Magill Junior Primary School: CCE for Junior Primary

Magill Junior Primary School: CCE for Junior Primary

The school and its community

Magill Junior Primary School is part of the Magill School Campus and is situated in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. The Junior Primary School caters for children, 5 to 8 years, in Reception to Year 2. During the school year the enrolment will increase to more than 300 students. Many of the students come from diverse cultural backgrounds. The school has identified six core values: Caring, Cooperation, Diversity, Respect, Achievement and Self-Worth. Program Achieve is also being incorporated into the learning environment. The core values and Program Achieve are integral to providing a learning environment that is child-centred and success-oriented and which purposefully engages young students in meaningful activities. Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE) plays a key role across the curriculum enabling students to be active citizens, developing skills in lifelong learning.

Program Outline 1: A Whole-School Approach
Program Outline 2: Student Voice
Program Outline 3: Using the Discovering Democracy Materials

Program Outline 1: A Whole-School Approach

Values and beliefs Core values: Caring, Cooperation, Respect, Self-Worth, Diversity, Achievement
School policies and programs Values Education, Essential Learnings/SACSA, Student Voice, Program Achieve, Literacy, Learning Technologies, Active for Life
Continue whole-school approach to enable all students to be active citizens
Classroom teaching and learning	School organisation, ethos and environment	Partnership and community links
Roles and responsibilities Class meetings Fun Day, casual days, World Environment Day, Children's Week celebrations, disco Using Discovering Democracy materials Cross-curriculum links	SRC, peer mediation, library monitors, sport monitors, litter teams, planning groups Whole school involved Students planning whole-school assemblies, celebrations and casual days Students reporting to staff and senior management	Students learning skills for lifelong learning Students informing and inviting parents Link with primary school for special events and activities Developing links with community groups and global organisations Students reporting to School Council and Parent Communication Group
Integrate Program Achieve and Values Education
Classroom teaching and learning	School organisation, ethos and environment	Partnership and community links
Empowering students – thinking, feeling, doing Students using language in everyday situations Students developing social skills Students working together with common goals Cross-curriculum links	Whole-school focus with core values and Program Achieve Students and staff using consistent language Students empowered to support each other Whole school developing a strong sense of community	Students developing skills for lifelong learning Students talking to parents Students showing work samples, reflections to parents Workshops for parents Developing signage to publicise the documented school values

Developing links between student voice, school values and literacy
Classroom teaching and learning	School organisation, ethos and environment	Partnership and community links
Encouraging student responses, suggestions, ideas, feedback on topics, activities, events, programs and solving problems Engaging students in critical literacies Incorporating the Discovering Democracy materials Cross-curriculum links	Students contributing to decision making Students seeing outcomes of decisions Student decision making achieves change Students working together Staff sharing ideas to develop links with student voice, school values and literacy	Junior Primary SRC meeting with Primary SRC Students reporting at whole-school assemblies Students informing parents Students communicating and interacting with community groups
Building whole-school and community links by buddy classes, Student Representative Council and sharing resources
Classroom teaching and learning	School organisation, ethos and environment	Partnership and community links
Encouraging buddy classes linking junior primary and primary classes SRC reps reporting at class meetings Using the Discovering Democracy materials Cross-curriculum links	Students planning activities together Junior Primary SRC and Primary SRC to meet once per term Sharing resources R–7	Incorporating International Baccalaureate and Year 7 community service Reporting to Council, Parent Communication Group and school newsletter Using school's intranet site and Internet to develop global links
Planning 150 celebration
Classroom teaching and learning	School organisation, ethos and environment	Partnership and community links
Students suggesting, voting and planning events and activities to celebrate 150th Anniversary of Magill School Research – intranet, Internet, books, people Using Discovering Democracy materials Cross-curriculum links	SRC and all classes R–2 participating in discussions and activities Interaction with buddy classes and SRC in the Primary School	Parents, old scholars, past staff, historical societies, visit local area Visual display for community Whole-school celebrations

Program Outline 2: Student Voice

At Magill Junior Primary School the learning environment enables young students to develop skills in lifelong learning through active participation in decision making, negotiation, planning and taking on special roles and responsibilities. Students have opportunities to engage in a wide range of groups, activities and events which enable them to develop an understanding of democracy and government in a community.

Clean up at Magill Junior Primary School
Clean-up

Sports monitors at Magill Junior Primary School
Sports monitors

For information on programs run under the Student Voice see the school website:
http://www.magillps.sa.edu.au/.
(Under Foci, look at Student Voice.)

Learning outcomes addressed through Student Voice

Young students:

are active citizens in the day-to-day life of the school
participate in decision making, negotiation and planning
develop an understanding of government and democracy in Australia.

Program Outline 3: Using the Discovering Democracy Materials

The Discovering Democracy materials were used to plan a unit of work on 'Volunteers'.

Materials included:

Australians All! including the Teachers' Guide
CD-ROM – One Destiny! The Federation Story
Discovering Democracy Australian Readers Middle Primary Collection.

We used Australians All! as a literacy focus with emphasis on the story of Bindi Gully.

Students:

viewed the text
discussed the content of the story
analysed the setting, theme, characters, language and expression
discussed the problems and conflict resolution strategies used in the story
related the problem-solving aspects of the story to class meetings and the SRC.

Australians All! was also used as a focus to explore the reasons why volunteers are needed and what kinds of volunteers there are.

Students:

identified volunteers in the family, school and community
researched a range of volunteers and presented projects to class
discussed planning special activities at school to entertain others (eg Talent Show)
identified skills and talents so that they could participate in the Talent Show
developed collaborative skills by working together to plan, organise, promote and present the Talent Show
worked with Year 7 students who volunteered to provide lunchtime activities so that younger students could learn new skills and activities.

The Discovering Democracy materials were also used to plan a unit of work on 'Celebrations' and 'working together' leading up to a whole-school celebration. This incorporated International Children's Week and the Centenary of Federation.

Using the 'The Bindi Gully Band' story from the big book Australians All!

Students:

explored and researched types of celebrations
looked at why people celebrate
discussed the events and issues in the story
identified how the people from Bindi Gully solved problems and worked together to plan a celebration
suggested, discussed and agreed on developing a whole-school celebration for International Children's Day and the Centenary of Federation working through the SRC and class meetings.

From this, students across the school:

developed an understanding of Australian heritage, culture and diversity
participated in decision making through class meetings and the SRC
worked together with another class to learn dances
celebrated cultural background through dress and food
organised and planned a whole-school celebration
promoted the celebration within the school and invited parents to the Children's Day celebration
discussed rights and responsibilities and world peace
supported children in Afghanistan by donating money to UNICEF.

Evaluation and assessment

Students used De Bono's Thinking Hats to evaluate the Children's Day celebration.
Students discussed and recorded what they learned, enjoyed and had problems with in the planning and organisation of the celebration.

Other resources used

For Every Child – Hutchison UNICEF
It's One World – Geoff Hocking

Other activities based on Australians All!

Through the poem 'My Country' students:

identified characteristics of the Australian landscape
created pictures of the Australian landscape using oil pastels and paint wash
researched the author on the Internet.

'I am Australian' and 'My Island Home' were used for:

class and choir singing
discussions on setting and themes.

Using 'Australia Becomes a Nation' students:

viewed and discussed the text
noted facts
sequenced events.

The One Destiny! CD-ROM was used to:

inform students of events and people relating to Federation
explore the history of Federation
experiment with the flag activity.

Acknowledgements

Principal Wilma Sullivan, staff and students at Magill Junior Primary for their commitment and support of the programs and activities

Discovering Democracy Project Officers, SA:
Mary Hudson and Leanne Carr

The Civics Team for commitment to developing programs across the school:
Jill Dodd
Anne Gilligan
Dee Cooper
Sue Rogers
Patricia Lutz

For using Discovering Democracy materials and developing units of work 'Volunteers' and 'Celebrations':
Dee Cooper
Patricia Lutz