Educational School Programs
Providing engaging learning experiences.
Primary School Educational Programs
At Q Station we believe that children learn by doing. The educational school excursions for Primary children are focused on an exploration of the Quarantine Station site.
Meaning-making for these primary students comes through interaction with the place of the Quarantine Station, exploring the natural and built environment, handling artefacts, following paths of migration on large maps, experiencing past technologies, interacting with primary sources, playing games and hearing stories.
All of Q Station’s school excursion programs have significant links to the NSW and Australian National Curriculum across multiple subject areas, however these are also able to be customised to meet particular needs of the group.
HISTORICAL DETECTIVES
Learning from the past
Why is the Quarantine Station a significant site? Students will love the immersive learning experiences presented, as they learn to hunt for clues in the present to reveal the stories of the past. Visiting our former key operational buildings; hospital, disinfecting showers and autoclaves, will provide opportunities for them to learn about how technology has changed over time to improve our daily lives and to consider why it’s important that we preserve these buildings today.
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
MINDFUL EXPLORERS
What evidence can be found and what is missing from the Quarantine landscape story? Using the site itself as a primary source, students will reflect on the nature and consequence of first contacts between Aboriginal people and the early European settlers in Sydney Harbour. In doing so, they will gain an empathetic understanding of the differing cultural perspectives of this significant site and its historical human occupation.
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
SUITCASE STORIES
Migration through Quarantine
Who were the people who came to Australia via the Quarantine Station in the 19th and 20th centuries? Students will discover the migration stories and differing perspectives of some of thousands of people whose lives include time spent at the Quarantine station. Using the site as a primary source we challenge students to learn about the significance of the Quarantine station site and how changes in Australian society were reflected within the quarantine landscape
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
GHOST BOY - BOOK
Bring Felicity Pulman’s book to life; discuss the representation of characters, settings and events in this imaginative text. Whilst learning about the differences between Tad’s world of the 1880s small pox epidemic and our own. Students will enjoy visiting key locations from the text and will have the opportunity to create their own inscription. Includes activity Making Your Mark.
Themes: Speaking and listening, thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretively, first contacts, the Australian colonies and applying skills of historical inquiry.
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
Secondary School Educational Programs
Secondary school excursion programs at Q Station provide engaging learning experiences in an ever-evolving historically and geographically significant context. Opportunities for historical enquiry are included in every program as students consider the themes, of medical technology evolution and infectious disease, migration, segregation of class, gender and race, and the personal stories of love and loss all come into focus in the amazing natural landscape of North Head.
Activities are designed to develop critical, creative and reflective thinking skills. Exploration of the natural and built environment, handling artefacts, interacting with primary sources and hearing stories fosters empathy with the past and ongoing consideration of how the site has been valued by different constituencies throughout its history. From curricular-aligned programs to two-day art or writing retreats with students, Q Station has so much to offer!
Our education programs can run with a minimum payment to the equivalent of 20 students. The maximum number of students we can host on one day is 150. If you have a larger group, we can arrange your group to visit across multiple days.
SECRETS UNCOVERED
Site studies enable students to understand their historical environment and participate actively in historical inquiry. The Quarantine Station Site Study reveals the historical phases and changes of the site throughout its history. Exploration and investigation of artefacts, primary and secondary sources allow students to use historical language and locate, select and organise information in the context of this evocative place.
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
The Ancient to the Modern World
Topic 6b The Black Death in Asia, Europe and Africa
Topic 6d Aboriginal and Indigenous Peoples. Colonisation and contact history
MIGRATION PERSPECTIVES
Site studies enable students to understand their historical environment and participate actively in historical inquiry. The Quarantine Station Site Study reveals the historical phases and changes of the site throughout its history. Exploration and investigation of artefacts, primary and secondary sources allow students to use historical language and locate, select and organise information in the context of this evocative place.
Capacity: Min. 20-120 students
Price: $25 per student
The Making of the Modern World
Topic 1b Movement of peoples (1750-1901)
Topic 2a Making a nation
The Modern World and Australia
Topic 5c Migration Experiences (1945-present)
DEATH, DISEASE & DIVISION
Students investigate our significant historic site; stories, sources and artefacts including the built environment, consider the contribution of archaeology and science and apply historical inquiry skills to gain a greater understanding of the chronology of the former Quarantine Station.
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
Q Station is suggested as a site to investigate in the NSW Modern History Curriculum and has a dedicated chapter in the textbook Modern History Transformed by Cambridge University Press – The Investigation of Historical Sites and Sources: Death, Disease and Division at the Quarantine Station.
Includes activities Wharf Exploration and Inscriptions – Archaeological Tools, and Stories from the Sandstone.
SEARCH FOR BETTER HEALTH
For over 150 years, the primary purpose of the Quarantine Station was to protect Sydney from infectious disease; Sydney’s smallpox and plague epidemics, the 1918-19 Spanish Influenza pandemic and maritime quarantine protection. Evaluate this historical strategy and the evolution in medical technology in the context of the causes of infectious disease, how they are transmitted and spread, and consider the human body’s response to pathogens and the technologies employed to control disease transmission.
Students participate in activities focusing on medical history, diagnosing disease and the immune response.
Capacity: 20 – 120 students
Price: $25 per student
QUARANTINE STATION UNWRAPPED
Customise your experience!
The Quarantine Station is an evocative place; a rich source of historical significance, geographical splendour and human endeavour. The learning possibilities are endless and are as unique as your students.
A Quarantine Station Unwrapped program can be customised to meet your particular needs or learning goals. Talk to our Tour Reservation team about your requirements; select aspects of our standard programs or activities or envision your own.
Capacity: Min. 20 students
Price: Dependent
