‘Parliament’ in recess

By Shaun Inguanzo
THERE’S one recess at Dandenong Primary School that happens only once a year.
The Class Parliament had its final sitting last Friday.
The parliament’s grade six members will farewell the school later this month and leave their positions open to next year’s most senior students.
Dandenong Primary School principal David Crozier said the Class Parliament concept mimicked real parliament, and was an alternative to the School Council model commonly found elsewhere.
“Each class has a parliamentary representative,” Mr Crozier said.
“We have a government and opposition, the sitting members all have an area of responsibility, and they give speeches and participate in question time.
“It has been running for a number of years – in fact a few years ago we went to Parliament House in Melbourne to debate with another school.”
Mr Crozier said students had engaged well with the parliament concept, thanks to teacher Sue Bowman who introduced the concept.
Mr Crozier said he was the Governor General under the school’s parliamentary model.
“The students take it very seriously,” he said.
“After sittings of parliament, a delegation comes to me and I ask if they have any problems, and we discuss them,” he said.
“It fits in with our civic and citizenship programs, and because traditionally we have gone to Canberra every second year for school camp, it fits in with students’ studies of local, state, and federal governments.”
Bills proposed by students are not always passed, and Mr Crozier always explains to the students the reasons for and against each suggestion.
“There’s the normal, everyday type of bill, such as certain grades wanting more sports equipment, or saying we need more bins,” he said.
“We discuss issues, such as with getting bins and where to place them, rather than putting 100 out there.
“Some bills are to do with water conservation…really anything raised by various classrooms can be one.”
The Class Parliament will continue next year with the new grade six students, Mr Crozier said.