Schools

Learning experiences

The NSW Schoolhouse Museum is open for pre-booked school excursions. Students interact with artefacts and use the skills of observing, questioning and discussion to investigate the past. We offer three programs:

• Stage 1 – School communication in the past
• Stage 1 – School life of the past
• Stage 2 – Continuity and change

Object based learning

Our authentically restored schoolrooms contain a varied collection of historic objects and images showing aspects of the past and changes and continuities in schooling, communication and daily life.

Students use and examine objects in context – they touch, observe and experience – enabling evidence-based comparisons, inferences and conclusions to be made. 

Stage 1 – School communication in the past – 2024 HSIE syllabus

Supporting the 2024 HSIE syllabus topic The Way People Communicate has Changed Over Time, Stage 1 students examine and engage with objects, images and stories to learn about the past. Immersed in historic spaces they use historic objects in context that provide evidence of changes in communication over the past 150 years. Reflecting on their experiences, students can then draw evidence and make conclusions on how and why communications have changed. 

Past communication modes and technologies include written communication, hand printing, postal transport, telephones, 3D viewers and projection technologies. Read about a School Communicaton in the Past typical visit.

Note – this is a re-focused version of School Life in the Past. Working within our existing spaces and collection we have re-focused our displays with objects that show changes in communication technologies in the school setting – handwriting, printing, projection, telephone and post. We have kept our hands-on focus, and most of our past activities, so that students can use and experience early writing,  printing and 3D viewing technologies. We have added telephone role-plays and a felt map play-based postal tranport activity. We’ve also added an option to peak into the projection technologies of 1950s and 60s but your students may enjoy the chatter and laughter of outdoor games instead. 

• Receive a handwritten letter in the mail in anticipation of their visit
• Dip a metal-nib ink pen to write Copperplate – dipping, copying, blotting, dipping
• Write with a genuine slate pencil onto a slate board
• Examine student work created in the era of pen and ink and decorative bookwork
• Hear the sharp ring of a 1940s rotary dial telephone, feel the weight of its handset and slowness of dialing
• Observe telephones over time, from a 1900s crank handle candlestick to 1980s push-button
• Print using raised rubber stamps and a gelatin hectograph that saved time in laborious writing and drawing
• Tap the keys of early typewriters
• Role-play delivering letters between cities and country by mail trucks, steam train, mail cars and horseback
• Respond to the concise two-word commands of dumb-bell exercises
• Experience skipping around a maypole as children enjoyed at displays and community events
• View photographs of the world in 3D through 1890s stereoscopes and 1950s to 70s viewmasters
• Peak into the 1950s and 60s to observe projection technologies that brought the world into classrooms, or
• Play co-operative outdoor games such as ‘fly’, skipping and bowling hoops, laughing and chattering during play.

Stage 1 – School life in the past – 2012 History syllabus

Supporting the topics Present and Past Family Life and The Past in the Present, Stage 1 students are immersed in aspects of daily school life of the past.

Students compare daily school life past and present, use changing technologies and analyse and interpret remains of the past. Read about a School Life in the Past typical visit.

Students:

• Experience snippets of 1880s school lessons sitting at long-toms
• Examine artefacts and discuss the stories they hold
• Explore exhibits of old objects and consider changes over time
• Look at early crafts and work samples treasured through generations
• Write on slates with genuine slate pencils
• Dip an ink pen to write Copperplate with pen and ink
• Use early technologies such as rubber stamps and jelly pads
• Dress in pinafores and sailors’ collars if they wish to
• Dance around a maypole
• Practise precision exercises using wands or dumb bells
• Play with early toys such as knuckles, marbles and spinning tops
• Eat toast cooked over the fire in winter months
• Enjoy early playground games such as ‘fly’, skipping and bowling hoops
• Compare life of the past to that of today.

Stage 2 – Continuity and change – 2012 History syllabus

Supporting the topic Community and Remembrance, Stage 2 students use primary sources and immersive experiences to investigate the continuities and changes in education from the 1880s to the present. 

Students use changing technologies, compare teaching and learning methods and analyse and interpret sources such as artefacts, photographs and recreated classrooms. Read about a Stage 2 typical visit.

Students:

• Experience recreated 1880s school lessons and technologies 
• Examine early student workbooks and crafts treasured through generations
• Explore past educational objects and consider changes and continuities
• Write on slates with genuine slate pencils
• Dip an ink pen to write Copperplate and label a map
• Create twisted threads, weaving or knitting as past school crafts 
• Assemble hand-crafted wooden toys as a past manual skill
• Construct a Cuisenaire rod mat to complete number sentences
• Use a gelatin hectograph as an early printing technology
• Practise precision exercises using wands and skip around a maypole
• Play mid-20th century schoolyard games such as skipping and ‘fly’
• Dress in lacy collars and sailors’ collars if they wish to
• Toast bread over the fire in the winter months
• Compare education of the past to that of today. 

Related units of work

Learning experiences at the NSW Schoolhouse Museum support the teaching of content and understandings in the 2024 HSIE K-6 syllabus and concepts, skills and content in the 2012 History K-10 syllabus.

Activities provide enriching first-hand experiences for topics and units such as:

Students with additional needs

Groups of students with additional needs are welcome. We provide a modified program to cater for their interests, needs and abilities. Minimum numbers do not usually apply to these groups. A portable wheelchair ramp and accessible toilet are available.

School anniversaries

The NSW Schoolhouse Museum has rooms representing three different periods in education: 1870s-1900s, 1910s-1940s and 1950s-1960s. An excursion to the Schoolhouse Museum can bring the past to life as part of your school’s anniversary celebrations.