Electoral Commission Wallace Awards
to teachers for learning delivery
using the general election context.

The Electoral Commission has announced Wallace Awards or commendations to teachers from seven schools and a private training establishment to acknowledge excellence in teaching using the 2005 general election context.

Wallace Awards

Wallace Award for running an election

Correspondence School (Toby Durney and Christine Cummins)

Kids Parliament ran over 15 weeks with year 4-6 students, over the internet.  Covered leadership roles, parties and party formation, campaigning and the election.  The intention was to facilitate the students to direct and provide the leadership for the parties.

Judges comments: Ambitious with very good range of curriculum coverage.  Planning and execution was true to the student focussed philosophy.  Covered a range of concepts that underpin democracy.  Great response from the students and supervisors.

Wallace Award for use of the election context in Social Studies in Secondary School

Kathy Grey, Horowhenua College, Levin

Summative Level 3 Achievement Standard, conduct a comprehensive social inquiry, researching an aspect of the 2005 General Election, Year 13 Social Studies class. 

Judges comments: Very good example of using assessment for good learning.  Teacher was very clear on learning objectives, relevant and issues driven, and focus on what students were interested in.  Resulting student interest and discussion shows sophisticated thinking and interest, and indicates participation and informed voters.

Wallace Award for running an election in a primary school

Tapora  Primary, Wellsford (Mrs Bridget Rika, Mrs Judy Herde, Mrs Jenny Casale, Miss Cara Brittliff)

Ran an election for 'principal for the day' with the winning party running the school for a day.  All 57 students were involved, covering years 0 to 8.

Judges comments: Courageous and imaginative, with total follow through in allowing the winners to run the school.  Real whole school involvement, and impact which rippled out to the community.   Learning across the range of achievement levels, including students from all ages.  Good learning about the responsibilities of being elected as well as the ideas of democracy and elections.

Wallace Award for a student teacher

Shauna O'Malley, teaching at McAuley High School, Otahuhu

Current affairs unit with low ability, year 10 social studies class, many of whom speak English as a second language. 

Judges comments: Very conscious of student needs so included literacy,  numeracy and consideration of values.  Good reflection on how the unit could be changed if repeated.  Students were motivated and thinking about participation, with a big knowledge increase which demonstrated an immediate impact.

Highly Commended

Highly Commended for use of the election with adult learners

Ms Lynda Araya, English Advantage Ltd.  Dunedin

An ESOL unit to familiarise students with the New Zealand election context and to provide a framework in which to explore current media high frequency words.

Judges comments: Used a good mix of strategies and linked to student needs.   Information rich with  imaginative use of specific media coverage.  Created confidence and interest amongst the students and they learnt the role of teacher, taking their new knowledge to their families and communities.

Highly Commended for use of the election with a whole secondary school

Alfriston College (Ms Impey)

Election conducted during a three-day whole-school programme which aimed to allow students to explore citizenship and social responsibility both as a citizen of New Zealand and as a citizen of Alfriston College.

Judges comments: A great idea and good planning.  Using the context of a new school and the role of whānau houses made the process relevant to the students, if time restricted. 

Highly Commended for use of the election in a primary school

Dianne Dunn at Opotiki primary School, with Amy Williams student teacher

Integrated approach to the election including: preparation for the school speech completion, a social studies unit on the election, a poster art unit, and the student teacher's collage lesson.  Used a co-operative learning approach with all work done by all members of each political party. 

Judges comments: Clearly structured, integrated, and child centred with clear learning focus, great integration and obvious student involvement.  Went into the details of the steps to follow in creating a party and running an election. The pre and post test showed incredible increase in interest and knowledge amongst the students.

Highly Commended for running an election with a class

Deidre Senior at St Joseph's School, Oamaru

Power to the people teaching unit culminating in an election with a year 8 class.  Students played the roles of candidates, returning officers, and the media.  Winners get to run the classroom for 1.5 hours a day for the last week of term.  The initial focus was to allow the children to experience and understand the processes and happenings within a general election.  The essential skills of communication and self-management became a major part too.

Judges comments:  Strong understanding of use of curriculum with good assessment and planning.  Great innovation to have a media group in the election campaign.  Students clearly engaged with the various roles and the connections between their election and the general election.

Judging criteria

1.      Evidence of good  teaching practice

2.      Relevant and imaginative use of the election context

3.      Extent to which it encouraged political knowledge, interest and participation and/or the development of confident, informed and socially active students who participate responsibly in New Zealand society

As entries were invited for any age group, for a teaching unit or a whole school project and in any subject area, each entry was considered against the criteria rather than in competition against all other entries.

Judging process

Phase 1 -Shortlisting

Two separate panels considered a number of related entries and used the judging criteria to place them in one of the following four categories: excellent, merit, ordinary, disappointing.  The two panels were:

Entries that included holding an election: Kaye Webber and Alison McRae, teachers at Palmerston North Normal Intermediate School, Dr Helena Catt of the Electoral Commission

Entries for Secondary Schools: Mark Sheehan and Mike Taylor of Wellington College of Education, Dr Helena Catt of the Electoral Commission.

Phase 2 - Awards

Those entries that had received merit or excellent from the two panels were considered.  Entries were considered individually and the panel determined those to receive a Wallace Award, a Highly Commended and no award.  The panel was Carey O'Hagan, President of ANZFSSA, Dr Helena Catt &  Peter Northcote of the Electoral Commission.

Call for entries

Many teachers will be using the general election to occur no later than 24 September 2005 as a context for student learning.  The Electoral Commission wants to reward the best of this teaching in 2005 with Wallace Awards. 

The awards are named for the first President of the Electoral Commission, Sir John Wallace, who also chaired the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System which recommended MMP. 

Education on electoral matters is one of the key jobs of the Electoral Commission.  We are focused on encouraging political knowledge, interest and participation of groups in society where political engagement is currently low: young people, Maori and Pacific peoples.  We seek to encourage activities which contribute to the development of confident, informed and socially active students who participate responsibly in New Zealand society.

This page, including entry details, entry form and the optional entry template are available for download at the bottom of this page.

Entry scope

Nominations are welcome for any teaching (unit or lesson) delivered in 2005 which makes use of any of the range of activities which comprise an election or provide its context, for example: democracy as an idea, reasons for electing politicians, political parties, candidates and MPs, who participates in politics and why, how people decide whether and how to vote, election results, the electoral system, electoral boundaries, political campaigning, media coverage, opinion polls, and so on.  While much of the teaching and learning around elections is in the social science subjects, other subjects like maths, English and media studies all provide opportunities.

The awards

Awards will consist of certificates and cash prizes from a total prize pool of $30 000.  Regional prizes will be judged and awarded in association with by regional social studies teacher associations or senior practitioners.  Regional judging will feed as many finalists through as are felt deserving of national consideration.

The national judges will determine the individual prize amounts and their spread across the categories, based upon the entries.  There may not be an award made in every category or region.  The categories to be used are:

• Year categories of 0-3, 4-8, 9-10, 11+
• Teaching unit delivered over time or single lesson/activity
• Best use or adaptation of existing social studies resources, such as Hands Up!
• Best original plan or resource in social studies
• Best use of the election context outside of social studies or a social science
• Best use of the election context for a teaching syndicate, year-level or whole school project
• Best use of the election context in te reo Maori

Judging criteria

1.      Evidence of good  teaching practice

2.      Relevant and imaginative use of the election context

3.      Extent to which it encouraged political knowledge, interest and participation and/or the development of confident, informed and socially active students who participate responsibly in New Zealand society

Nomination process

Teachers, individually or as a group, can nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else.

The nomination form is available as a word download at the bottom of this page.

Nominations are to be sent to

Electoral Commission,

Or by e-mail to helena@elections.govt.nz

Closing date

Nominations to be received by 4pm on 30^th September 2005 Judging will be completed and awards presented before the end of the school year. 

For more information

Check out this website or for inquires about the competition or the election contact Helena Catt  helena@elections.govt.nz  04 474 0676   or Peter Northcote  peter@elections.govt.nz 04 474 0671

Entry form

Nomination for the Electoral Commission Wallace Awards to teachers for learning delivery using the general election context.

Please tick/mark the boxes to indicate which categories the entry is in

Use of the election context through:

What is the character of the class or school?

How much class time was spent on the activity? 

Please attach:

Either

A brief description (no more than 4 A4 pages of printed text 11pt minimum size) of what you did, the learning aims and achievements and some reflections on its use including what worked best and what you would change in the future.

or

A description of the activity and your reflections, using the following entry template (no more than 4 A4 pages of printed text 11pt minimum size).

In either case feel free to enclose photographs or examples of the classroom experience or student output.

Optional entry template

Planning

Focus of lesson/unit: (including how it links to the election context)

Curriculum linkages

Identify key understandings/concepts and/or strategies for teaching and learning you wish to implement:

What resources will you need?

What will I observe when the lesson(s) occur?

Delivery

Give a brief overview of the learning delivery and experience, including any who, what, where, how and why not covered under other sections.

Feel free to attach copies of resources developed or used, sample student work, or pictures or other evidence of the activity.  These cannot be returned.

Evaluation and reflection

What did I notice when I used this strategy or aspect of teaching and learning?

What impact did it have on student learning?

What impact did it have on student knowledge?

What impact did it have on student attitudes and beliefs?

Was the aspect of teaching and learning effective? How did you measure this?

What would I do differently in the future?