Belgian Gardens State School offers a range of student camps and excursions that align with the school's curriculum, support student leadership development and assist with Junior Secondary Transitions.
Year 6 Canberra Trip
Belgian Gardens State School encourages Year 6 students to participate in our Year 6 trip to Canberra.
Why do our Year 6 students visit Canberra?
- Curriculum-based excursions build on the concepts taught in the classroom and enhance learning outcomes, Canberra particularly covers Humanities and Social Science.
- Excursions provide opportunities for students to discover new things for themselves, through participation in hands-on activities.
- Students also develop independence, life skills and social skills away from school and home environments.
- Students are introduced to the concept of travel-based learning, gaining confidence to explore their world through further, independent travel in adulthood.
We book our trip using Macquarie Educational Tours as their excursion packages include:-
- meticulously planned itineraries,
- complete tour bookings of venues,
- all transport (flights and coaches), accommodation, linen, meals and activities and
- 24/7 support during our excursion.
As a school we fundraise to assist with the cost for each student through: -
- School based fundraising events, for e.g., chocolate boxes, Trail runs (sausage sizzle),
- P&C support each child with a cash donation, and
- Our Federal Government actively encourages every Australian student to visit their National Capital, by providing a travel subsidy.
The Parliament And Civics Education Rebate (PACER) is a sliding scale rebated based on schools' travelling distance to Canberra. The PACER rebate is deducted by the school off each students costing.
Venues and activities we participate in while we are visiting Canberra: -
- Parliament House
- Anzac parade
- National museum of Australia
- Questacon
- National Electoral Education Centre
- Australian Institute of Sport
- Snow Play
- Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
- Mount Stromlo Observatory
Excursions:
Throughout the year students in various year levels throughout the school will go on excursions to support the contextualised connected curriculum and enhance Junior/Secondary Transitions.
A sample of excursions are listed below:
Rowes Bay Rangers:
Students design and construct a tool that can pick up rubbish on the Rowes Bay beach area.
Reef HQ Turtle Hospital:
Students visit the local turtle hospital at Reef HQ to gain background knowledge on turtles before they begin writing their information text in English.
Townsville State High School Transitions:
Throughout the year students in Years 5 and 6 will take part in transition activities with our feeder High School. Some activities include STEM Days, Sports Days and student for a day.
Jezzine Barracks:
Townsville has a rich history dating back to World War 1 and before. Jazzine Barracks gives our students a great account of how Townsville contributed in safe guarding our country. The visit helps build student knowledge when undertaking History and Social Science Units.
The Strand:
Students visit the strand and learn about water and its journey from the 'Rainforest to the Reef'. Helping students understand how fresh water run-off and associated pollutants and micro-plastics can affect our Great Barrier Reef.
Magnetic Island:
Being in such close proximity to Magnetic Island enables students to investigate the natural habitats of marine and island wildlife. Students do the Fort Walk and also, learn about the history behind some of the structure that still remain on the Island.
Incursions:
BGSS also hosts many groups at the school that provide our school witch support our curriculum and cultural heritage.
A sample of school incursions are listed below:
Hands on Wildlife:
Ranger Dan visits the school annually from the Billabong Sanctuary bringing various native species with him. Students get a chance to interact with a host of animals and then learn about their characteristics in class.
Wulgurukaba Walkabouts:
As part of our NAIDOC week activities we host the Wulgurukaba Walkabouts who put on a captivating performance for our school and community. They also guide our Year 2 students in dancing which helps support the Arts curriculum.
Dance North:
BGSS contracts local dancers from Dance North to instruct our students in Prep, Year 2, Year 4, and Year 6 and culminates in an end of year performance at the Townsville Civic Theatre.
Drill Hall:
Local artists from the Drill Hall guide our students in creating unique pieces of art which are displayed during our Gully Ephemera evening, where our parents and community are invited to view these pieces placed throughout our gully.