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25 September, 2019 Academic

The 2019 Year 8 Mock Election: Party politics, debates and House spirit

The Year 8 Mock Election is held annually at the end of Term 3 and is designed to help students understand the Australian political system and learn more about Australian political parties.

Over the course of three days, Year 8 students work in their House groups to run an election campaign which culminates in both a staff and student vote to decide the successful party.

“The annual Mock Election is an immersive program designed for students to learn about the democratic election process in Australia,” said St Michael’s Head of Humanities, Ms Stephanie Kortum. “Each student is allocated to either the leadership, policy making, publicity, marketing, multimedia or press committee to then specialise in those teams to promote their parties’ leaders and policies.”

During the campaign, each House became a political party, took on the policies of that party and developed a political campaign based on their party’s beliefs.

There’s so much to think about other than policies such as budgets and strategy. This was one of my first experiences of leadership and I’ve really enjoyed working with everyone in my House.Leader of the Sarum House Nationals Party, Alec

The students all created fantastic campaigns and utilised various tactics to reach their constituents, the students and staff of St Michael’s, such as press releases, email marketing with the support of Heads of Houses, creative party slogans, surveys, promotional videos, and speeches.

“I had the role of speechwriter in my party,” said Member of the Breen House Labor Party Policy Making Committee, Olive. “It was a lot of fun seeing people in my House reading out the speeches I had written.”

Watch the Mitre House Australian Greens Party promotional video below.

 

Each day the entire Year 8 cohort came together for a policy debate where they addressed issues relating to the environment, healthcare, the use of mobile phones in schools and international relations.

On the final day of the campaign, each party hosted morning tea in their party rooms which was a chance for the students to share their policies with staff and Year 12 students before they went to the polls.

“The Year 8 students all did an amazing job with their Mock Elections, their campaigns are really impressive,” said Year 12 Student Leader, Bella.

This year saw the Mitre House Australian Greens Party win the election with their policies around zero waste, saving marine life and reducing screen time for children.

The Year 8 cohort did a tremendous job in their campaign to win the 2019 Mock Election. We witnessed strong teamwork, informative policy debates, humorous media creations, unique party slogans and much more.St Michael's Head of Humanities, Ms Stephanie Kortum

Well done to our Year 8 students on their creative, strategic and engaging campaigns, it was wonderful to see the students involved and passionate about their parties and policies.