With the valuable support of the Ian Potter Foundation, the Constitution Education Fund Australia conducted a 6 month pilot programme involving 13 schools and more than 350 students in the upper primary cohort Years 5 to across all States and Territories.

The participating schools were selected following consultation with State and Territory education authorities. Our project sought to ensure a representative sample of urban, regional and remote communities with a commensurate a mix of high, middle and low socio-economic demographics. 

Project leaders also chose to involve four schools with a strong bilingual language heritage:

a school which educates across the whole curriculum in several indigenous languages common to central Australian communities; a school in Sydney’s southern suburbs with a compulsory Arabic language commitment integral to its Islamic religious ethos; an independent school in Sydney’s western suburbs with a compulsory immersion programme in the Greek language consistent with it’s Greek Orthodox religious ethos; and an independent Anglican school that immersesstudents from primarily Anglo-Celtic ethnic backgrounds in Indonesian from the age of four. Participating schools were:All Saints Grammar School - Western Sydney NSW Al Zahra College - Southern Sydney NSW Macarthur Anglican School - Outer Sydney NSW Pittwater House - Northern Sydney NSW Ryde Public School - NthWestern Sydney NSW Drouin West State School - Gippsland VIC Nerimberra State School - Rockhampton QLDSt Francis De Sales School - Regional SA St Dominics College - Inner Perth WA Rosetta State School - Hobart TAS Southern Cross Public School - Canberra ACT Yirarra College - Alice Springs NT The students were required to undertake a comprehensive seven week pilot programme in their classroom environments.They were asked to attempt 29 specific individual or group exercises developed by the CEFA education team on five identified pillars of Australian democracy: the rule of lawparliamentary democracy federalism rights and responsibilitiestraditions and opportunities for reform Both teacher support materials and on-site support were provided to assist the participating schools to trial and test the civics education curricula. Teacher assessment, classroom observations and student feedback were sought and received. CEFA has alreadyincorporated much of this valuable feedback to the design and development of existing and upcoming projects aimed at enhancing civics knowledge and key learning abilities. Designed to complement existing civics teaching, the pilot concluded with a 39 student national workshop in Canberra in early December 2005. Project managed and supervised by CEFA, the nominated students were able to: showcase their understanding of the referendum process; address the demands of political campaigning in a historical context; and competed in a individual student public speaking competition. CEFA was pleased that Professor Malcolm Mackerras AO, was able to judge the individual public speaking event conducted at Old Parliament House, Canberra. A reception at Government House Yarralumla washeld on the last day of the workshop, hosted by the Governor General and Mrs Jeff ery, where some of the top performances in drama, speech and public speaking were showcased. Planning has commenced to conduct a 71 school national project to offer students in upper primary cohorts an opportunity to analyse, build and test a civics education website suitable for their peers. Clusters of schools, across all education sectors, are expected to be participate from communities in Adelaide, Gippsland, Hobart, Rockhampton and Sydney.