PROCESS

Sometimes knowing where to begin is the hardest step to take. Follow these steps and they will help you on your way.

For the Concerned Students

The first step is to allocate one of the events referred to in the Scenario to each person in the group. If you have more people than the four events mentioned there, go back to the home page and find some more events to investigate. Life skills students should begin to prepare posters, leaflets, banners and stickers for this campaign.

The second step is to investigate each of these events to find out what steps people took to protect these environments which may or may not have caused a rethinking by the government. Use the links on the Resources page to find out about these events.

In the third step each person prepares a short draft paper on how their particular event progressed and what the outcome was. This information will contribute towards the creation of your plan of action. Here is some advice as to the sorts of questions you should be answering for this draft report. Make sure that, if you finish early, you help other people to finish their work. This is important in working effectively in groups. Be careful as you work on this section of your task. Do not let "the opposition" discover what your plans are.

Fourthly, when everybody has found out their information come together and share your information, clearly working out what was effective and what was not effective in the actions taken by people in the past. Appoint one person to collate the information during and after the discussions so that they can prepare the draft submission. Other members of the group should be collecting ideas for the plan of action.

Fifthly, from the information gained in the above step some members prepare the written submission by compiling everyone's draft reports. Other members of the group develop a plan of action for you to take to protect your school. Some ideas for that plan of action can be accessed here.

Second last step, as a group, prepare a PowerPoint presentation to show to the Land and Environment Court and other interested parties why your school should be preserved. Make sure that everybody in the group takes part in this preparation by allocating specific jobs to specific people. There is advice on how to prepare an effective PowerPoint presentation at this site and there is also a slide for you to use. Just click on this link and the slide will open. Then go File and Save As and save to your own files then you can copy as many of these slides as you want to use.

Lastly, present this piece of work to your peers who are the Land and Environment Court and other interested parties.

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For the Council, the Developer and the Real Estate Agent

For each group, the first step is to investigate the rights, responsibilities or role of your businesses in the planning and creating of such re-developments. Allocate a member of your group to look at each of the specific issues listed below for your group. These are not exclusive and, your research you might find more. These are the main ones. Find out how each business carries out these tasks. Work out how each of these actions would impact upon the school site. Use this link to see a document especially for you regarding the roles of Councils, Developers and Real Estate Agents in developments and sub-developments.

The second step is to draw up a list of actions you can legally take to make sure that this re-development is approved by the Land and Environment Court.

In the third step each person prepares a short draft paper on their particular right/s or responsibility/ies.

Fourthly, when everybody has found out their information, come together and share your information, clearly working out what can be done by you in this particular case. Make sure that, if you finish early, you help other people to finish their work. This is important in working effectively in groups. Do not let anybody else from another group discover what is in your draft paper.

Fifthly, from the information gained in the above step some members of your group develop a plan of action for you to take to make sure that the best possible action is taken to support your plan for the re-development. At the same time other members of the group prepare the written submission and there are some suggestions here about that paperwork.

Second last step, as a group, prepare a PowerPoint presentation to show to the Land and Environment Court and other interested parties clearly putting your case for re-development. Make sure that everybody in the group takes part in this preparation by allocating specific jobs to specific people. There is advice on how to prepare an effective PowerPoint presentation at this site and there is also a slide for each of your groups to use ( Council | Developer | Real Estate Agent ). Just click on this link and the slide will open. Then go File and Save As and save to your own files then you can copy as many of these slides as you want to use. You might find it helpful to get each person in your group to prepare a slide on their findings but make sure that all the slides have a "common" look and are not too different in their animation.

Lastly, present this piece of work to your peers who are the Land and Environment Court and other interested parties.

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For the Land and Environment Court

The first step is to investigate the rights, responsibilities and role of the Land and Environment Court. Allocate someone to do this job. You are a court of appeal which means that other government agencies have already made decisions regarding this issue. Your job is to review those decisions.

Your group must also find out why other authorities would already have had some hand in making this decision, in particular the Heritage Council, the EPA and the Sydney Harbour and Foreshore Authority. Allocate the other people in the group to investigate the role of these other government authorities. Collate this information on the role of these authorities and prepare a one page summary sheet for everyone in your group.

The second step is to allocate one of the events referred to in the Scenario to each person in the group. If you have more people than the four events mentioned there go back to the home page and find some more events to investigate. Your particular interest is in finding out what decisions were made and why those judgements were made. The decisions regarding Kelly's Bush, The Rocks and the Queen Victoria Building are of particular importance because they relate to the green spaces in urban areas and heritage buildings.

In the third step each person prepares a short draft paper on how their particular event progressed and what the outcome was.

Fourthly, when everybody has found out their information come together and share your information, clearly working out what was decided and why that decision was made. Make sure that, if you finish early, you help other people to finish their work. This is important in working effectively in groups.

Fifthly, from the information gained in the above step develop an overall idea of how the Land and Environment Court has responded to these cases in the past. Draw up a summary sheet, a framework for that sheet can be accessed here, so that you can have the information in front of you during the submissions.

Second last step, as a group, sit in judgement as the Land and Environment Court and consider the presentations made by the other interested parties. You will need to appoint a Senior Judge, who will run the proceedings; a Court Recorder, who will make notes to assist in the final decision making; and two assistant Judges to assist in the judgement. If you have more than four people in your group make sure that the number of judges sitting on the bench is always uneven - 1, 3, 5 - that way you will always have a majority decision.

Lastly, present your decision to the interested parties, as the Land and Environment Court deciding whether or not the School should be re-developed. Create a PowerPoint presentation for this task. Use the slide provided on this site. Just click on this link and the slide will open. Then go File and Save As and save to your own files then you can copy as many of these slides as you want to use. There is also advice on how to prepare an effective PowerPoint presentation should you need this.

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