Page 4306 - Week 11 - Thursday, 25 October 2018
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The theme of Children’s Week—children’s views and opinions are respected—reflects the recent ACT government future of education community conversation where almost half of the 5,000 people who participated were students. The student voice in this consultation has had a direct input to the strategy for education in the ACT for the next 10 years.
The education and community services directorates each provide a small grant to the Children’s Week committee to support the provision of funding for schools, play groups and childcare centres for events during the week. Some 26 Children’s Week grants were awarded to ACT public schools to assist them with holding specific celebratory events.
Many of these events involve inviting parents and grandparents into the school for cross-generational social opportunities. Examples include Black Mountain School, where students are making a short film focusing on the topic of one voice. Chapman Primary School has invited Indigenous artist and author Bronwyn Bancroft to visit the school and meet the school community. And Canberra High School is holding a special social activity for students who are carers.
The Children’s Week committee acknowledged at the awards yesterday Arawang Primary School for their project involving students working with the residents of Mirinjani nursing home. In addition, they acknowledged Lara Parkes, a student of Gungahlin College, for her efforts to overcome her personal difficulties and become a leader within the college in support of others. Lara was also the recipient of the Children and Young People Commissioner’s award.
Young people know what we as a community need to do to make Canberra make inclusive for everyone. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that every child capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child and that their views are given due weight in accordance with age and maturity.
Children have the right to be heard and taken seriously. To this end, among the many other things that have been talked about so far, the ACT government established the ACT Youth Advisory Council as a mechanism to listen to and engage with young people in our community. On 28 of September, I had the privilege of opening the ACT youth assembly held in this place. The ACT Youth Advisory Council was integral in developing and facilitating the assembly, and they created a space where young people could share their ideas and influence change.
Some 116 young people aged from 12 to 25 years from across Canberra attended the youth assembly. Each participant brought with them a different life experience and perspective, but they all had one thing in common: they are passionate about making a difference in our community. The youth assembly adopted a deliberative process to draw out ideas and policy recommendations and encourage direct participation from everyone who attended.
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