Parliamentary Education Office
Administered by the Department of the Senate, the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) is a joint office and receives part funding from the department. Its mission is to provide parliamentary education services to schools, teachers and students. It also provides parliamentary education support services to members and senators.
The two departments liaise closely on the PEO’s strategic direction and the content of its teaching, educational material and online resources through the PEO Advisory Committee, jointly chaired by the Deputy Speaker and Deputy President. The committee may also advise the Presiding Officers on the support needs of members and senators in relation to parliamentary education. The committee met in November 2014 and June 2015. The Clerk Assistant (Table) attended as an observer.
Programs at Parliament House
In 2014–15, 90,132 students from around Australia participated in the PEO’s experiential role-play program at Parliament House, compared with 87,657 students in 2013–14. This represents an increase of 2.8 per cent, and signals a return to normal class demand after a slight reduction in 2013–14. Attendance figures reflect the program’s continued popularity. The cumulative total of students who have participated in role-play programs since the Parliament House building opened in 1988 is more than 1.89 million. The PEO also conducted a number of specially targeted activities at Parliament House involving students, trainee and qualified teachers, parliamentary visitors and Indigenous groups. These activities included overseeing the long-running Rotary Adventure in Citizenship program in budget week and supporting several National Youth Science Forums in January.
Minor changes were made to the PEO’s operating procedures for school groups to ensure compliance with the enhanced security requirements at Parliament House.
The parliamentary Venue Management System, which includes school tour bookings, continues to undergo refinement. When fully functional, the system will provide improved information and services to schools and tour operators booking student programs at Parliament House. A welcome feature of the new system is the provision of more comprehensive information for members and senators on visiting school groups.
Outreach activities
The PEO continues to invest in a comprehensive range of outreach strategies to ensure it is able to provide parliamentary education services to a broad student population, not just those able to travel to Canberra.
The PEO website (www.peo.gov.au) remains a highly effective and popular vehicle for disseminating parliamentary education material and resources to teachers and students located around Australia. PEO website patronage increased in 2014–15 to 907,523 visitor sessions. When compared to the 719,124 visitor sessions in 2013–14, this represents an increase of 26 per cent. The increase may reflect the addition of considerable new content and improved functionality, which has broadened audience appeal and allows the site to better support the draft national curriculum in civics and citizenship. The introduction of rolling advertisements on the homepage for web content is also likely to have expanded the website’s appeal.
During the year, the PEO continued to revise and update web content and developed significant new content, including new videos, expanded resources supporting the national curriculum and a new feature, ‘Your questions on notice’, which allows students to ask questions of parliamentary educators. To commemorate the significant anniversaries of the sealing of Magna Carta and World War I, new educational resources focusing on these important historical events were developed and posted online. The PEO also continued to develop and field information about current parliamentary events and the achievements and statistics of the Forty-fourth Parliament.
In recognition of its national responsibilities, the PEO continues to explore the potential of new technology for the remote delivery of PEO programs and resources, including interactive video conferencing, which was trialled successfully during the year.
School visit program
The PEO continued its work with members and senators on a limited scale through a targeted school visit program called Parliament Alive. In 2014–15, visits took place to schools in regional eastern Victoria, suburban Adelaide and north-central regional New South Wales. These activities provided participating students with an invaluable opportunity to learn firsthand about the role and work of their federal member or senator.
Educational resources
The PEO continued to produce a wide range of educational resources, both in print and online, including several new educational videos for students and teachers. A series of lesson plans for teachers, based on the draft national curriculum in civics and citizenship, were also developed. Demand for PEO publications and resources from both teachers and parliamentarians continued to be strong over the course of the year.
A new personalised resource for members and senators, ‘Representing you’, was developed to support member and senator interaction with students in their electorates and states and territories. PEO publications and resources were regularly reviewed and updated to ensure their currency, accuracy and ongoing relevance.