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The Henry Parkes Civic Action Awards grew out of the success of the Margaret Parkes Federation Awards, introduced in 2001 as part of the contribution of the Henry Parkes Foundation to the development of citizenship in young people during the Centenary of Federation year.

2004 AWARDS

The renamed awards were launched at a Primary Professional Development Program at Parliament House on 15 June 2004 by Jane Gray, as an introduction to a presentation by teacher Di Barnes, from St Ives North Public School, who spoke about the impact the awards have had on the curriculum at her school.

Entries for the awards closed on 22 October and were reviewed by a panel from the Foundation and Parliamentary Education and Community Relations at Parliament House.

The awards attracted a significant number of entries in 2004, with 43 contributions from eight schools. This was an increase on previous years in terms of numbers of entries, diversity and numbers of schools. Promotion through teacher professional development activities may have been one reason for this, as may have been increasing awareness in schools of the need for effective civic action. We believe that involvement in the program will increase again in 2005 from this new base.

The decision was taken to recognise all entries to some extent as all represented significant efforts by students to engage with their communities. This required a small increase ($200) in total award money.

Another innovation this year was to inform local members of Parliament about the awards. As a result, a number of the members have written to or visited their schools to congratulate them.

For the individual entrants, the impact was considerable, notably for the multicultural Year 6 students at Newington Public School, and the two young anti-plastic bag activists at Manly Village Public School.

St Ives North continues to be a lighthouse school in regard to the program. At that school the civic action process has become central to the Year 6 school curriculum, with an amazing level of student community involvement: over 90 students took part in the program in 2004.

The achievements of the St Ives North students and teachers were honoured at a special assembly of the three sixth form classes on 13 December 2004, attended by the school Principal, representatives of the Henry Parkes Foundation, and the local member, Andrew Humpherson MP. A commemorative Henry Parkes Foundation certificate was presented to each class and each teacher for their exceptional effort.

2004 award-winners