New Primary Schools participating in the New South Wales Primary Pilot include the Nazareth Primary School in Shellharbour, Lindfield Public School in Lindfield, The Illawarra Grammar School in Wollongong, Ryde Public School in Ryde, All Saints Grammar in Lakemba, Al Zahra College in Arncliffe, Mowbray Public School in Lane Cove, Abbotsleigh College in Wahroonga, Holy Cross Primary School in Helensburgh and St Spyridon College in Kingsford. New South Wales schools are being joined this month by their Victorian, Queensland and Canberra counterparts, in initiating the most outstanding civics education project in the history of Australian schools’. Western Australian Schools will join the Parliamentary Club Program in the near future. 

News of this dynamic whole-of-school civics activity is making its way around Australia via CEFA’s website, Teacher Association state conferences, civics forums and media coverage. Collaboration is growing between key stakeholders such as the Australian Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Education Office as they begin to recognise the value ‘The Parliamentary Club’ has in educating young Australians about our democracy. It is becoming widely recognised that CEFA has the capacity to combine many of the civics resources available to deliver the most diverse and multi-faceted civics education activities that schools will ever experience. 

Success stories are now emerging from schools that have implemented the co-curricula civics activity, as student parliaments begin to tackle the issues that concern them and learn about the democratic process along the way. 

The initiative, designed originally as a civics education tool, has now also become a student leadership model that is engaging students and empowering them to take responsibility for their schools and also the wider community.  

Executive Director of CEFA Mrs Kerry Jones stated today that she is delighted that this practical civics initiative is taking off. By the beginning of 2008 CEFA hopes to offer this example of practical civics to all Australian schools. I

f you are interested in becoming a part of Australian civics education history, contact The Director of CEFA’s Parliamentary Club national initiative, Mr. Don Perna, at or telephone 0404 488 245.