Year 5

Topic 1: What is democracy? (1h 25min)

Curriculum alignment
AC9HS5K06

Getting started (40 min)

As a class, read through the Democracy fact sheet and summarise the ideas, principles and values of Australia’s democracy into a table like the one below. Display this prominently.

Values and benefits of a democracy

Hand out the Living in a democracy worksheet. In small groups, students complete and share their responses with the class.

Democratic decision making (45 min)

Introduce your class to different ways to make decisions using the Explore decision-making classroom activity. Ask students to describe the different ways they are involved in making decisions at home, in community groups and within teams. They can discuss:

• does the importance of the decision affect whether you could have a say in that decision?
• were there any consequences when you contributed to ‘bad’ decisions?
• what steps did you and others take when making shared decisions?

Topic 2: Representative democracy and the electoral process (1 h)

Curriculum alignment
AC9HS5K06

Getting started (5 min)

As a class, watch the One Voice for Many video (39 sec) to illustrate the concept of representative democracy. Ask students what message they take away from the short video. Did everyone get to have a say?

What is representative democracy? (25 min)

As a democracy, Australian laws are made by the people of Australia. But it would be too hard to consult everyone in Australia about every single law. With hundreds of federal laws made each year, thousands of questions are asked – and in just one level of government! Instead, we need a way to have some people act on our behalf – represent us – in the Australian Parliament.

Australian citizens choose who will represent them in a parliament. If citizens do not think their representatives are doing a good job, they can vote for new ones at the next election. In Australia, federal elections are held approximately every 3 years to select representatives from each electorate, state and territory to make decisions and laws on their behalf.

This ability to choose representatives makes Australia a representative democracy. Examples of other representative democracies include Canada, the United Kingdom and Argentina.

From the Unpack democracy classroom activity, ask students ‘why should citizens be able to choose who represents them’? Use the think-pair-share strategy to discuss the question in small groups and share responses with the whole class. 

Elections (30 min)

Watch the What is parliament? video (2min 7s). Discuss how the Australian Constitution created the Australian Parliament with 2 houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate is made up of 76 senators, with 12 senators representing each state and 2 senators representing the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory each. The House of Representatives is made up of 150 members, with each member representing an electorate – a geographical area determined by having a similar number of voters in each.

One key idea of Australia’s representative democracy is that citizens have a say in who represents them and that they themselves can stand for election. Federal elections are held to select members of parliament approximately every 3 years.

As a class, brainstorm the qualities of a good representative. What kind of skills, qualities and experience should they have? Use sticky notes or a digital mind map tool to collate and categorise student responses. Once many ideas have been generated, have students group them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss what the ideas have in common and how the categories relate to one another. Create a list of the finalised qualities of a good representative and display this in the room.

Going further: Get elected!

You may select one or both of the activities below to extend your student's learning.

Make speeches

Explore the Make speeches classroom activity. Students may select any speech type (first speech, constituency statement, matter of public importance) to prepare and present. You may use the speech in preparation for the election activity, and/or if you have students wishing to be student representatives next year. You may like to run this activity after the election activity (below) as if students were successful in being elected as a representative.

Run an election

To extend on your learning, run a class or Student Representative Council election using the Australian Electoral Commission’s Get Voting program. Ballot papers with your student's names can be generated in the style of a federal election.

Topic 3: Active citizenship (1h 45min)

Curriculum alignment
AC9HS5K07

Getting started (10 min)

As a class, play the Getting involved quiz or Getting involved Kahoot!

Clean Up Australia case study (30 min)

As a class explore the Clean Up Australia Day Our Story webpage to discover how this nationwide program started with one person and is now supported by many volunteers. Discuss:

• what is Clean Up Australia?
• what was the problem the founder identified?
• how did they start solving the problem?
• who is involved? Are people paid for this work?
• how do they bring about change?
• are they successful?
• why do people volunteer?

Community challenges near you (20 min)

Discuss local community issues with your class using the following questions from the Unpack democracy classroom activity:

• What is a change you’d like to see in your school or local community?
• Can you do anything about it? If yes, what action can you take?
• If the problem can not be fixed by one person, what could you do to help make a change?

Making a difference (45 min)

As a class, select a community issue that is important to students. For example, students cycling to school without helmets or a polluted creek in the local area.

Distribute the Action plan worksheet and discuss:

• how can the class research the issue and understand the cause and the effect on the community? This might include surveying relevant school or community members or doing a statistical analysis of the issue (such as counting the number of students wearing and not wearing helmets in a school week).
• who are the people or organisations that could help fix the identified problem or have a positive influence in this area? For example, your school principal, community groups, the local council, parliament representatives at the state/territory or federal level. Identify those that represent you.

Brainstorm ways students could help solve this issue. For example:

• • create posters to put around the school to persuade students to wear a helmet
  • include the message at a school assembly and/or in the school newsletter or school website
  • contact the local newspaper to cover your campaign
  • make a short video to share with others
  • organise a petition with signatures from the community
  • team up with a local community group or charity who shares your interest. Perhaps you can ask them for advice on how to get involved with this issue.

As a class, decide on actions that could address the issue and complete the action plan.

Going further: Put the plan into action!

After the above discussion, students can select and enact their action plan. Afterwards, discuss:

• did the group action plan work? Why/why not?
• what were the advantages and benefits of working together to address the issue?
• were there any disadvantages or drawbacks to working together as a group (e.g. slower decision-making, disagreements etc.)?
• is it possible for citizens to make a difference?
• why is it important for citizens to be active in our community?
• how could active citizenship benefit the whole country?

• Elections and voting
• Getting involved
• System of government
• Years 5+6