Learning Programs by Stage
Find a learning program for your Stage
This list shows our learning programs relevant to each Stage. Please ask the Bookings team for more information or contact learning@slm.com.au
Stage 1
Stage I programs transport students back in time to develop understandings of the past and present through direct experience. As they do lessons and drills in an 1880s schoolhouse or visit the sprawling harbourside estate where 8-year-old Laura Wentworth lived with her large family, wash clothes, go shopping or plant seeds, students compare their own lives with the lives of children and their families in the past. All Stage 1 programs have a strong emphasis on experiential learning using historical artefacts and technologies, costumed interpretation and imaginative recreation.
Stage I programs transport students back in time to develop understandings of the past and present through direct experience. As they do lessons and drills in an 1880s schoolhouse or visit the sprawling harbourside estate where 8-year-old Laura Wentworth lived with her large family, wash clothes, go shopping or plant seeds, students compare their own lives with the lives of children and their families in the past. All Stage 1 programs have a strong emphasis on experiential learning using historical artefacts and technologies, costumed interpretation and imaginative recreation.
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Students learn about what it was like to live at Vaucluse House for the wealthy family of William Charles and Sarah Wentworth, with their ten children and many servants. The students explore the ways of life for different household members at Vaucluse House, and make comparisons with their own lives today.
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This Stage 1 History program gives students the opportunity to explore the working areas of the former farm, and investigate what life would have been like for children living there 120 years ago.
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Students investigate how food is grown, discuss healthy food choices and play 19th-century games within the inspiring surroundings of a historic working estate and its lush gardens.
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Integrating outcomes from History, PDHPE and Creative Arts, this program gives students the opportunity to learn first hand about what school life was like in the late 19th century.
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As students are guided through the property, they discover that the household lived without the benefits of running water, bathrooms, electricity, appliances or paved roads.
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As they explore Susannah Place, a row of terraces in Sydney’s Rocks area, students find out how residents shopped, lived and played in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and make comparisons with their lives today.
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Students investigate how home life has been changed by the domestic and leisure technologies introduced since the late 19th century as they explore Meroogal, built in 1886.
Stage 2
In Stages 2 & 3, the focus shifts to explaining cause and effect, developing empathetic understanding and linking individual people, places and events to broader social and historical contexts. Students begin to develop skills in using and evaluating sources and understanding issues of subjectivity, perspective and bias as they investigate stories of the First Fleet and settlement in Australia, convicts, the impact colonisation on Indigenous people and their cultures, the changing environment, the gold rushes and bushrangers.
In Stages 2 & 3, the focus shifts to explaining cause and effect, developing empathetic understanding and linking individual people, places and events to broader social and historical contexts. Students begin to develop skills in using and evaluating sources and understanding issues of subjectivity, perspective and bias as they investigate stories of the First Fleet and settlement in Australia, convicts, the impact colonisation on Indigenous people and their cultures, the changing environment, the gold rushes and bushrangers.
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As they explore the home of the Macarthur family, which dates from 1793, students learn about the lives of the family and their convict servants and the impact of colonisation on the traditional owners of the Parramatta area.
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What was it like to be a convict living at Hyde Park Barracks?
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Students discover historical evidence by exploring the World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks and examining a range of sources.
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What was life like for convict servants at the estate of John and Elizabeth Macarthur in 1828?
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During this thought-provoking and engaging program, students learn that the Museum of Sydney is built over the site of first Government House, from where Arthur Phillip governed the young colony of NSW.
Stage 3
In Stages 2 & 3, the focus shifts to explaining cause and effect, developing empathetic understanding and linking individual people, places and events to broader social and historical contexts. Students begin to develop skills in using and evaluating sources and understanding issues of subjectivity, perspective and bias as they investigate stories of the First Fleet and settlement in Australia, convicts, the impact colonisation on Indigenous people and their cultures, the changing environment, the gold rushes and bushrangers.
In Stages 2 & 3, the focus shifts to explaining cause and effect, developing empathetic understanding and linking individual people, places and events to broader social and historical contexts. Students begin to develop skills in using and evaluating sources and understanding issues of subjectivity, perspective and bias as they investigate stories of the First Fleet and settlement in Australia, convicts, the impact colonisation on Indigenous people and their cultures, the changing environment, the gold rushes and bushrangers.
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Students investigate the role of artists during the early colonial period and consider how they contributed to the development of the colony.
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Students explore the impact of the gold rush on law and order in the colony of NSW, and of bushrangers on the Australian identity.
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Students explore the former farm and examine a range of sources to learn about the expansion of NSW in the 19th century and investigate its impacts on the environment, the people of the Boorooberongal clan and the colonisers.
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During this program at Museum of Sydney, on the site of first Government House, students have a unique opportunity to explore links between Indigenous and European histories, cultures and perspectives in the expanding Sydney colony of the 1800s.
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What was it like to be a convict living at Hyde Park Barracks?
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In this virtual excursion your students will go back in time to the 1880s to meet a mounted trooper (played by a costumed interpreter) as he talks about the challenges of policing during the gold rush, and how the NSW police finally gained the advantage over bushrangers.
Stage 4
Programs for Years 7–10 focus on exploring concepts of cause and effect, significance and contestability and on reading historical and other sources in increasingly complex ways – whether a standing building or archaeological remains, artefact or document, image or word. As students pursue a historical inquiry, they develop their skills in analysing and evaluating primary and secondary sources, and in processing and synthesising information. As they explore past lives and events, they also explore the nature of history and the role of museums and heritage sites as places that interpret and reconstruct the past.
Programs for Years 7–10 focus on exploring concepts of cause and effect, significance and contestability and on reading historical and other sources in increasingly complex ways – whether a standing building or archaeological remains, artefact or document, image or word. As students pursue a historical inquiry, they develop their skills in analysing and evaluating primary and secondary sources, and in processing and synthesising information. As they explore past lives and events, they also explore the nature of history and the role of museums and heritage sites as places that interpret and reconstruct the past.
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In partnership with WestWords, Sydney Living Museums is offering Stage 4 & 5 students the opportunity to connect with young writers and learn how to get started on their own historical fiction stories.
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As they experience historical archaeology first hand, students learn to differentiate between the roles of historian and archaeologist.
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Students conduct an historical investigation into the process and impact of the British colonisation of Australia, examining sources and perspectives.
Stage 5
Programs for Years 7–10 focus on exploring concepts of cause and effect, significance and contestability and on reading historical and other sources in increasingly complex ways – whether a standing building or archaeological remains, artefact or document, image or word. As students pursue a historical inquiry, they develop their skills in analysing and evaluating primary and secondary sources, and in processing and synthesising information. As they explore past lives and events, they also explore the nature of history and the role of museums and heritage sites as places that interpret and reconstruct the past.
Programs for Years 7–10 focus on exploring concepts of cause and effect, significance and contestability and on reading historical and other sources in increasingly complex ways – whether a standing building or archaeological remains, artefact or document, image or word. As students pursue a historical inquiry, they develop their skills in analysing and evaluating primary and secondary sources, and in processing and synthesising information. As they explore past lives and events, they also explore the nature of history and the role of museums and heritage sites as places that interpret and reconstruct the past.
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In partnership with WestWords, Sydney Living Museums is offering Stage 4 & 5 students the opportunity to connect with young writers and learn how to get started on their own historical fiction stories.
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Within the setting of a historic police station and courthouse, this program gives students the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the interrelationships between the law and society.
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This challenging and thought-provoking program develops students’ skills in historical research and critical thinking, and their appreciation of history as a study of human experience.
Stage 6
Stage 6 programs are as much about the future as the past. As a bridge between school and tertiary study, our programs aim to challenge, provoke, inspire and encourage, to help students prepare for their final exams and their future learning. Equally, our Stage 6 programs are a bridge between theory and practice. Key priorities are to provide opportunities for students to apply and practise high-level skills and understandings in authentic contexts and to meet a range of practising professionals, such as researchers, historians, curators, archaeologists and authors.
Stage 6 programs are as much about the future as the past. As a bridge between school and tertiary study, our programs aim to challenge, provoke, inspire and encourage, to help students prepare for their final exams and their future learning. Equally, our Stage 6 programs are a bridge between theory and practice. Key priorities are to provide opportunities for students to apply and practise high-level skills and understandings in authentic contexts and to meet a range of practising professionals, such as researchers, historians, curators, archaeologists and authors.
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Within the setting of a historic police station and courthouse, this program gives students the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the interrelationships between the law and society.
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While visiting the conserved interiors of Susannah Place Museum, students learn about historical archaeology and how combining research into artefacts with archival sources can develop a richer understanding of the past.
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In 2017 we will continue our successful collaboration with the State Library of NSW to bring you The Project, our annual full-day History Extension seminar focused on the History Project.
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In 2020 we will continue our successful collaboration with the State Library of NSW to bring you The Project, our annual full-day History Extension seminar focused on the History Project.
