Humanities and social sciences / Year 6 / Knowledge and Understanding / Civics and citizenship

Curriculum content descriptions

The shared values of Australian citizenship and the formal rights and responsibilities of Australian citizens (ACHASSK147)

Elaborations
  • investigating how people become Australian citizens
  • discussing the Australian citizenship pledge and comparing it to the former oath of allegiance to the monarch to explore notions of allegiance
  • clarifying the formal rights and responsibilities of Australian citizenship and comparing these to the rights and responsibilities of non-citizens
  • exploring how laws protect human rights (for example, gender, disability, race and age discrimination law)
  • exploring the experiences of people who have migrated to Australia and who have taken up Australian citizenship (for example, those of Asian heritage)
General capabilities
  • Personal and social capability Personal and social capability
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
ScOT terms

Australian culture,  Migration,  Citizenship

Video

BTN: Why is citizenship important?

What makes an Aussie an Aussie? Is it loving Vegemite, playing cricket or maybe wrestling crocodiles? Find out about Australian citizenship and the ways someone can become a citizen of a country. What rights does citizenship afford you in Australia?

Interactive

An introduction to human rights and responsibilities

This is a unit of work for years 5 and 6 on human rights, the responsibilities that accompany them, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The unit consists of two interactive lessons for students and a teacher lesson plan, also in two parts. The interactive lessons include quizzes, short answer and ...

Interactive

Quizzes

Test your students with these quizzes about the Australian Parliament. Topics include the three levels of government, separation of powers and the Australian Constitution.

Interactive

Interactive posters - Parliamentary Education Office

Explore the key features of Australia’s system of government and the Australian Parliament with these interactive posters. Topics include Australia's Constitution, forming the Australian government, and making Australian law. Each poster is supported by teaching notes and student resources including interactive activities ...

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Civics and citizenship: posters and infographics

This webpage hosts a range of visual resources including posters about the Magna Carta, the separation of powers, various forms of government, check and balances and others.

Interactive

Civic citizens card game

This resource supports your students in learning about the democratic values and beliefs that come with the responsibility of Australian citizenship.

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Civic virtue

This resource has a collection of behaviours or expectations that show how effective citizens might demonstrate good civic virtue. Students match the behaviours/expectations with the three underlying elements of Rights and Liberties, Democratic Principles; and Australian Law.

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Queensland Parliament: Classroom activities

This webpage includes resources specific to the Queensland context as well as more generic resources applicable to a broad range of Australian classrooms. Find role plays about how Bills are made, about how Parliamentary Committees function and a template for a Parliamentary Inquiry role play.

Video

Key concepts in Civics and Citizenship Levels 3–10

These six videos for teachers unpack key concepts in Civics and Citizenship highlighting perspectives of current primary and secondary teachers and students. Find videos relating to both content and effective pedagogies. Each video is accompanied by questions that can be used to prompt discussions to support teachers’ thinking ...

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Work sample Year 6 HASS F-6: Australia’s Federation

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 6 HASS F-6. The primary purpose for the work sample is to demonstrate the standard, so the focus is on what is evident in the sample not how it was created. The sample is an authentic representation of ...

Interactive

Old Bernie's Pond

Clean up Old Bernie's Pond. See how it has become polluted and invaded by introduced species. Restore the pond by choosing actions such as planting native species and removing sources of pollution. Look at the effects of each change. Earn points to get a certificate.

Online

Australian Civics and Citizenship Curriculum Year 6 Unit of Work

This unit of work explores aspects of the Curriculum that deal with key concepts relating to Australia's federal Parliament. The resource is divided into three sections which explore the key institutions of Australia's democratic system of government; the roles and responsibilities of the three levels of government; and ...

Video

Get involved

Explore the ways ordinary Australians can get involved in the work of Parliament with this short video (6:25 min). Find out how you can get informed about the work of the Parliament, the role of petitioning and ways to participate in parliamentary inquiries.

Interactive

Aim to sustain: A world of difference

Students explore what is happening at an individual, community and global level and plan actions they will take. These may range from taking a quiz to sharing knowledge about being 'green' at home, through to planning a conference session to deliver to other students. The resource includes videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets ...

Interactive

Australian Parliament history timeline

This interactive timeline explores key milestones in the history of Australia's Parliament that led to federation and how the work of Parliament has influenced Australian democratic development since 1901. The timeline allows users to explore the milestones chronologically or follow thematic trails.

Online

Growing your own pizza

In this hypothetical exercise, young learners will explore what they would need to establish if they were to grow their very own pizza. The OUTCOMES of this learning activity are for children to: investigate where and how food is produced; appreciate the complexities of food manufacturing; expand their knowledge of food ...

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Data in Gapminder world

This resource is a dataset providing data for a number of indicators of development over time for more than 200 countries. The indicators fall into the following categories: population, health, economy, environment, work, infrastructure, energy and education, with over 500 sets of data in total. Each set of data can be ...

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Teaching active citizenship guidance for teachers

Active citizenship is a teaching approach that uses active learning to equip students to take informed action aimed at making a positive difference in their communities. This guide has been co-constructed with British teachers and researchers to distil principles and practical advice about what constitutes an effective ...

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Name it and explain it: Citizenship

This resource provides an opportunity for teachers to introduce questions surrounding the topic of citizenship such as What is citizenship?; Why do we need it?; and What would happen if we didn’t have it?

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Global citizenship in the classroom

This framework is designed to help teachers build the key elements of global citizenship into units of work on a wide range of topics. Find a wide range of teaching strategies to support creating questions, interrogating images, creating an issues tree, creating ‘mysteries’, an opinion continuum and others.