Australian Citizenship Ceremony

Gawler High School, South Australia

By Roslyn Conboy, Teacher

As part of a civics and citizenship unit of learning, the Year 10/11 Australian Studies class organised an Australian citizenship ceremony for five staff members at Gawler High School who wished to become Australian citizens. This ceremony was held in December 2005.

Students assisted staff with applying for citizenship, researched citizenship ceremonies and the associated protocols, promoted the event and even organised the catering.

During Celebrating Democracy Week the class promoted the ceremony and raised awareness within the school and wider community about the meaning and importance of being an Australian citizen, as well as the process of becoming an Australian citizen. They also had a guest speaker from the Australia Day Council come and speak to students about that organisation. In addition, students compiled a package of resources for teachers, which included parliamentary fact sheets, citizenship quiz questions and pamphlets that teachers could use throughout the year with their classes.

In order to have a record of the ceremony, the students designed and produced a calendar, decorating it with some of their own drawings of Australian sports and some popular Australian recipes. These calendars were presented to the prospective Australian citizens and the guests at the ceremony.

Proposed goals and outcomes:

• to raise awareness of the meaning and importance of Australian citizenship
• to raise awareness of the rights and responsibilities of Australian citizenship
• to encourage teamwork and cooperation
• to gain a better understanding of Australian identity and what it means to be an Australian citizen
• to celebrate our democratic values and what it means to be Australian.

Those involved:

• there were ten students in the Australian Studies class – all students were on negotiated education plans due to specific learning needs.
• the five staff members who became Australian citizens
• all Year 8 and 9 SOSE teachers had packages of teaching resources on civics and citizenship
• the event was promoted to the whole school and wider Gawler and Barossa community.

Comments from the students regarding their involvement in the project:

'I have learnt a lot about Australia and how democracy works by being involved in this project.'

'I have learnt about the rights and responsibilities of being an Australian citizen.'

'We have found out how hard and frustrating it is to organise an event as big as an Australian Citizenship ceremony.'

'We have enjoyed the project because I’ve enjoyed having lots of things to do – like putting together the calendar and catering for the event. We have also learnt more about Australia, the country we were born in.'