On the 30th of May, Stage 3 went on an excursion
to Bankstown City Council Chambers.
The day started off at 9:30am and the children were already
roaring with excitement!
The chambers could only hold a limited amount of children,
so only half of stage 3 could go in the first session and the rest went in the
afternoon session.
When we arrived, everyone was waiting at the door for the
guide to come. Once he came, everyone raced to get a seat at the front.
Our guide for the day was Matthew. He showed us around and
told us what to do.
Firstly, Matthew spoke about local government
responsibilities and explained how Bankstown was named. He also told us the meaning behind the Bankstown
Council logo.
Soon after, we did a mock debate of a local issue to help
us with our understanding of how decisions are made at local government level. Students were given roles such as The Mayor,
councillors, audience, security guards and trouble-makers. From this, we were
able to see how the process works.
After the mock debate had finished, we had recess that was
supplied by the City Council Chambers. It wasn’t much but it did the trick of
satisfying everyone’s hunger.
After recess, we split into groups and we each were given
$10 (fake money) to spend on something in the community. Each of the sectors of
the budget was explained to us. They
were Invest, Green, Liveable, Lead and Connect. We each got to spend our money
but needed to justify why we were spending our money on that particular sector.
The most common area of spending for the morning session was ‘Liveable’ coming
in with $100.
Once that was finished, it was the end of the excursion.
All the students were glad they had the opportunity and privilege to visit
Bankstown City Council Chambers and learn so much about their local government.
By Natasha Harvey & Lili Green 
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