INQUIRY LEARNING TERM 3

What?
Change of Government
I wanted the students to engage with something that was meaningful and had a real context. As the election is coming up at the end of September we chose to investigate change in government. A full resource from Life Education for the Electoral Commission was available and we received this to support our topic.

I feel our student inquiries often don't have a real context and I wonder how much learning the students gain from them. But when it is a relevant topic and in a real life context that they can relate to, they are more engaged. I certainly found this when we looked at the Olympics when they were on last year as well.


So What?                      
The students have discussed what groups they belong to and how the rules for these are made. They have thought about whether or not their voices are heard within these groups and what chances do they have, to have their say.
This was interesting when we talked about whether or not they felt listened to in a variety of situations and this is now coming up more often. 
One student doesn't feel like she is listened to at home. (So this has brought up a whole new issue for her, she is distressed and very unhappy about it). Will need to keep listening to her and monitoring the situation.

We have had lots of discussions around the current political parties and investigated:

• What the differences in their policies are.
• who are the leaders and why.
• how does government run
• why is it important to vote?
• different electorates and electoral roles.
• how to vote.

Now What?
We will run our own election.
This gives the students to work collaboratively with their peers in the classroom, syndicate and families. 
The students have organised themselves into a party. They have come up with a policy that they believe would benefit Southwell School. This was interesting because we had talked about politicians promising everything to the people of NZ but could they deliver? So when they began discussing their ideas, my question to them was, "How will you implement this?" They understood that if it wasn't viable then it was a waste of time. They came up with some really important and really valid concerns that they want to address. They have thought quite carefully about things that affect them at school. 

5DR POLITICAL PARTIES

PARTY NAME	STUDENTS	POLICY DETAILS
Healthy Hearts	Li Hang, Max, Sinali, Chilli	Only healthy lunches available for ordered lunch.
Enviro Queens	Millie, Cayla, Martha,	Keeping the school clean and green
Differences	Joseph, Amelia, Nikita, Tayler	It’s o.k to be different.
Education	Thomas, Oscar, Dominic	Include health education in the school curriculum.
Health NZ	Daniel, Isobel	Cleanliness around the school.
Healthy Futures	Vivian, Isla, Cici	Believe in everybody.
Hope	Ben, Tom P, Bryan	Anti-bullying.
Integrity Party	Turongo, Fabio,  Theo	Keep students’ belongings safe.

I think these ideas show that:

1. The students have engaged with the topic
2. They have real concerns for what is happening at Southwell.
3. They understand that they have an opportunity to have their say.
4. They understand the importance of voting to make a difference.

Within their groups they have had to decide on a name for their Party and a leader. Even this posed problems for some groups because they all wanted to be the leader. We talked about who they thought would be a confident speaker and would have the right image to portray to their voters. Another interesting discussion where they had to be really honest with themselves.
They have investigated their advertising - coming up with a Logo, Slogan, Poster, and live advertisement that all link.The leader will also have to give a party speech to the Year 6's to convince them to vote for their Party.

We will hold a voting day. The Party that obtains the most votes will be able to present their idea to Mr Speedy. This shows them that they can make a difference and their learning is in a real context that affects them. 

I love how engaged they are with this topic and the conversations that are happening around the classroom. Students are doing extra work at home and having conversations with their parents.