On 14th of November, three members of the Student Research Team and Mr Taylor went to NSW Parliament House with Mr. Taylor.

Twenty schools including us went there to celebrate Democracy Week. First was the open Ceremony, Sutton Public School did a play about the King and Queen, and then John Gore, the Chairperson for the NSW Discovering Democracy Professional Development Committee welcomed us and spoke. Joshua Clark one of the students of Normanhurst Boys' High School did a speech about Civics and Citizenship.

Then we separated into groups (red, green and blue group). We were in the Blue Group. The other schools in our group are Mount Terry Public School, Vincentia Public School, Northern Beaches Christian School, Kinma School, and Mercy Catholic College. Every school needed to do speeches about what they did for Civics and Citizenship activities they do at school. We were the last school to present. We did speeches about Peer Mediation, Refugee Week and other activities about Civics and Citizenship do we do at school. We also showed other schools our website. Two teachers went up to us after our and said our website and presentation were good, they really like it and also the want to contact us through e-mail.

I really like the presentation that Northern Beaches Christian School did. They did a video about Anzac Day. They interviewed teachers and students about what do they think about Anzac Day, who went to war in their family. That video was really good.

At the end David Ohana, Young Australian of the Year 2002 did a speech and showed us some films he made. At last St. Agatha's Primary School's choir did a final performance.

That was really a great day, I learnt a lot.


On 14th of November, three Year 6 students and Mr Taylor went to NSW Parliament House. All the schools had to arrive before 9:00 to register our seats. There was mild security all around and when we went in, we had to be scanned.

Brookvale Public School was selected along with another 19 schools to give a speech in this showcase. We had to give a presentation about our website (www.brookvale-p.schools.nsw.edu.au) and it was about our civics and citizenship.

Mr John Gore officially opened the day.  Sutton Public School presented a small play titled 'Fair Dinkum'' before we had started to settle in groups.

The first school which was Mercy Catholic College they gave us a demonstration of their online course on Government. The internet wasn't working but luckily they had a backup with a slide-show in Microsoft Powerpoint.

Then we had morning tea which was just some cake or biscuits and a popper or coffee. We went back up after morning tea and we checked the internet and we were lucky to have it working again ready for us.

Straight after lunch we were next! I was the computer driver first while Mr Taylor gave his speech. Then our students spoke. Everyone was very pleased at our work on the site and they had a chat to us after our speeches.

We went down to the theatre and David Ohana the winner of 2002 Young Australian of the Year for Community Services, presented us a informal speech about his career so far. David Ohana used to work for the UN as a Communication Consultant in East Timor. He shared his experiences and showed us his advertisements for the UN. On the same day he had just made a new video and we were the first ones to be shown in public!

Then they had a lucky draw and there were four books. One of our students was lucky last! We came back to school via public bus. The day was educational,  tiring and fun.