Year 5 Writes about Recent Events in Year 5!
Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD)
‘All the students in Year 5, experienced a virtual tour of the Museum of Australian Democracy. On the tour, we talked about the history of Australia and the different statues and paintings in the Museum. We got to experience the inner workings of the House of Representatives and the Senate. We also learned about the process of law making. After the educational tour on the screen, we virtually saw the Aboriginal Tent which is right across from the Museum of Australian Democracy. Overall, all the Year 5 students had a blast learning about everything in Old Parliament House.’
– Qaylah Mohamed (Year 5O)
‘During our Canberra Immersion, Year 5 were fortunate and visited MOAD – the Museum of Australian Democracy. This is the Old Parliament House Building. We toured the building and learned additional information about democracy, the Senate and the House of Representatives. It was great to have previewed this experience during our online incursion the previous week.’
– Elizabeth Horvath (Year 5W)
‘Before year 5 went to Canberra for our immersion, we had a Zoom meeting with Neil, who works at MOAD. He told us about old Parliament House and we visited all the rooms in it, including the green room called The House of Representatives and the red room called the Senate. We also were lucky enough to hear real life politicians speaking and debating against each other. Neil taught us how democracy works and why it is important for us and our lives. It was very beneficial, and it taught us so much.’
– Clara Southward (Year 5B)
‘Year 5 had a Zoom meeting with an amazing person, Neil who works in MOAD. He was able to give us an extraordinary presentation all about our Old Parliament House, which is now called MOAD, fascinating right! He took us on an online tour all around MOAD (and later we visited it in person!) Year 5 learned a lot from the meeting and, we still have lots to learn, but Neil helped us to see things from different perspectives. It was so cool to learn all about MOAD and its history! It was interesting to see all these cool jobs especially being a politician! We learned how they present a convincing case to pass a law and how different their daily lives are to ours. We soon realised how politicians, and all the other important jobs can help us live safely!’
– Sienna Dib (Year 5B)
DEBORAH JENKINS – MLC School parent*
‘Year 5 had a magical experience with Deborah Jenkins who works at Parliament. She taught us many things about her career as a Deputy Secretary, and about how the government manages tax. Her job is extremely important as she makes sure that people pay the right amount of tax to ensure our country has enough money.’
– Caitlyn Rodrigues (Year 5O)
‘Following our Canberra Immersion, Year 5 had a face-to-face visit from the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Workplace and Employment Relations (DEWR), Deborah Jenkins. We learnt so much about what life is like for her working in a Commonwealth Government role, her family, and much more. It was an Incredible moment for Year 5 to take a step into the world of a mum and Government Employee. We were so glad that she could come and join us to talk about her job, her life. I would love another chance for her to come visit us again.’
– Kyrani Countouris (Year 5W)
‘Deborah is an MLC School Member of Council, who works at the Parliament House. She came to Year 5 to talk about her job. She has a daughter that is in Year 7 and her name is Charlotte. Deborah is a Deputy Secretary who works at the Parliament House and has thousands of people working with her. Deborah flies between Sydney and Canberra all the time and she often misses her family, so they FaceTime each other. Her expenses are covered by the government so she chooses wisely which flights and hotel wisely and economically. Year 5 students were impressed about what she does for a living and some students were so impressed that they also want to work the at Parliament House in the future.’
– Camellia Yao (Year 5B)
‘On Tuesday 12 November, the Deputy Secretary of a government department and member of the MLC School Council, Deborah Jenkins joined Year 5 to talk about her job. Deborah is a mother of 13-year-old Charlotte who is in Year 7. She has been working with the Commonwealth Government in Canberra at Parliament House and Deborah also works with Ms Moloney (Principal) on the MLC School Council. She is a mother who loves football so much that she has decided to coach the 11 year old football team in her local area. Her favourite part of her job is everything! The fact that she has lots of people working with her and that she sometimes gets to work with the Prime Minister. The only part of Deborah’s job that she is not as fond of is the late nights and the fact that she has to be away from her family and community.’
– Aashani Chandramohan (Year 5B)
* Note: Deborah Jenkins is a current parent at MLC School and serves on the MLC School Council. Please click here for Deborah’s bio.
LANCE BALCHIN VISIT
‘Last week Year 5 got to have a Zoom call with Lance Balchin, the author of ‘Mechanica’, a book that Year 5 have been reading. Year 5 had a lot of remarkably interesting questions for Lance, as he explained why and how he created ‘Mechanica’. He told us that he was working on a fashion design, and he needed a robotic element. He realized that the same technique could work on animals. Lance did not hand draw the illustrations, but he got different pictures and made a collage.’
– Poppy Frederick (Year 5O)
‘Year 5 has been focusing and learning all about the dystopian picture book ‘Mechanica.’ Mechanica was written by Lance Balchin in 2016 but Year 5 never expected to interact with him over a Zoom call. We had many questions to be answered from why he wrote ‘Jurassica’ and ‘Aquatica’ to why he writes in this picture book format. Lance told us all about his life changing story that shaped him to the man he is today.’
– Aaliyah Liu (Year 5W)
‘We were so fortunate to have a zoom meeting with Lance Balchin. This was such fun because Lance told us about his job, and how he is working on a video game! He told us some secrets, just like that there might be a new book coming out next year! It was interesting to learn about what Lance does. Now I even want to be an author!’
– Carla Di Leo (Year 5B)
‘We were lucky enough to have Lance Balchin, author of ‘Mechanica’, ‘Aquatica’ and ‘Jurassica’, tell us about his books. He spoke about the inspiration for his novels and what provoked him to be an author.
His inspiration was sourced from many different books, such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, and novels by George Orwell. He also told us how he made the Mechanicas. He got photos of gears and other robotic equipment and put them together on Photoshop. It was a great experience. I would love to do it again!
– Peta Bianchi-Howden (Year 5B)
– Susan Blanche
Teacher
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