Pre-visit Activities

Prior to your visit to Sovereign Hill Costumed Schools, we strongly recommend that your students:

• view Bound for the Colonies

• complete and submit a character profile

Character Information

Role play is an essential component of the Costumed School experience. When in costume, students become a living exhibit of Sovereign Hill Museum and therefore must play the part of a child on the diggings.

To support the development of their character, and to become familiar with the children of the diggings and their past, students are asked to complete the pre-visit character profile under the guidance of their classroom teacher.

To maximise the safety of all students, it is important that they use their own name not a character name. 

Each section of the character sheet serves a specific purpose:

• The first section is for administrative purposes. It allows Sovereign Hill Costumed School staff to distribute information to the appropriate Costumed School teacher.

• What would you like to know encourages students to ask pertinent questions to broaden their knowledge. Their questions will enable Costumed School staff make adjustments to the program so that students' learning needs are met. This is your students' opportunity to have voice and agency in their learning.

• Information about the country/town of origin and parent occupations encourages students to learn about family life prior to coming to Australia, and the social class to which they belong.

• One statement about their experience of the journey to Australia allows students the opportunity to think about life on the ship and the hardships faced by immigrants. 

• A short family tale enables students to further develop their understanding of life in the 19th century and to add detail to their character. 

When all of these sections are completed, staff at the Sovereign Hill Costumed School are able to determine your students' level of understanding and can tailor the experience to suit their needs.

Hints:

• Pre-visit character sheets are best completed after reading/watching Bound for the Colonies and active involvement in the subsequent class discussion and explicit teaching. 

• When completing the character sheet, students must take into consideration the Sovereign Hill Costumed School that they will be attending and note the appropriate country of origin, social class and parent employment. Some students may require support to complete this activity.

The class character sheets are to be emailed to Sovereign Hill School one week prior to the Costumed School program: sovereign.hill.sch@education.vic.gov.au

For ease of access, character sheets are best sent in one Word document or as one PDF for each separate Costumed School. Please do not send sheets as a Zip file or as individual documents.