School Excursions - Pre-school to HSC
Whether you are looking for a fun outing or for something more structured (but just as much fun), we will put a programme together specially for you.
Useful Documents
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Unique benefits of a Walkabout School Workshop
Connecting with Country workshops include a full 2½ hours of ranger-led learning activities!
If your students have attention difficulties, you can choose a Condensed Workshop with 3 x ½ hour sessions with 2 breaks, so students and teachers can rest or decompress.
You can choose Aboriginal culture modules to be incorporated into your workshop.
Your students will step into the animals’ natural world, experiencing their native bushland habitat.
The ranger will take your students Walkabout with the animals (instead of being seated in an auditorium).
Learning Environment and Resources
170 acres of old growth Australian bushland, unspoiled nature and rich cultural landscape
Friendly wildlife roaming free
Heritage listed Aboriginal art and shelter sites
Bush tucker and bush medicine growing along the tracks
Knowledgeable rangers
The real Australian bush
Native wildlife and small farm animals
Structured Learning Outcomes
Our Education Team
Our ranger guides are experienced in animal care and handling, as well as in conducting in-field workshops with all groups of all ages and abilities.
Cultural Permissions
Our Education Coordinator is both an educationist and an anthropologist, and works with our cultural advisers to ensure that all Aboriginal content in our programs is both appropriate and respectful, and that any knowledge shared is always with permission.
Tailored for Age and Stage
Our workshops offer combinations of activities including animals, the bush and traditional Aboriginal content.
Our team adapts each workshop for age and ability, as well as special interest areas. and tailors the workshop for you to deliver prescribed syllabus-based learning-outcomes.
Please tell us what you are doing in the classroom, so we can map the day’s experience to the syllabus to ensure you get the learning outcomes you need.
All workshops are adapted and tailored for students of all ages, stages, interest areas and abilities:
- Pre-school and Kindergarten – Early Stage 1
- Primary School – Stages 1, 2 and 3
- High School – Stage 4, 5, 6/HSC
- Students with Disabilities and other Special Needs
- International Students seeking a Cultural Exchange experience
International Students’ Cultural Exchange Workshops
– $POA (price on application)
We tailor workshops for international student groups taking into account age range, interests, language, how much time you want to spend in the sanctuary, whether you want a sunset walk and campfire (sunset timing depends on time of year), catering requirements (refreshments, lunch or dinner), and if you want a cultural experience such as didgeridoo playing.
Aussie Schools Walkabout Workshops
– $400 for up to 20 school student participants
– Price $20 per additional participant
Your students will have great fun learning in our bush classroom.
Tell us what you are doing in the classroom so that our rangers can deliver your workshop in a way that supports the learning outcomes that you are looking for.
Module 1: All workshops include this module
1 “Spikes, Scales, Feathers & Fur”.
Meet the Australian native animals, as well as the farm- and pet-animals, that live in our wildlife sanctuary. Learn how people and animals can share our world fairly and safely.
Module 2: Choose your second module from the following 4 options
2A “People’s Shelters & Animals’ Homes” - All ages/years/stages
- Visit an Aboriginal “Humpy” to learn how original Australians built shelters. Head out along the tracks to look at how animals make their homes in the bush, from tiny termites’ giant nests, to bandicoot burrows and goanna hollows.
2B “Bush Tools” - All ages/years/stages
- Make ochre face- and body-paint and learn about the uses and significance of ochre, throw a boomerang, wash your hands with bush soap, and handle Aboriginal traditional tools. Examine how tools were made and what they were used for.
2C1 “Bush Tucker & Bush Medicine” - All ages/years/stages
- Go walkabout with your ranger to harvest bush tucker and bush medicine the way Aboriginal people have done for thousands of years. Learn about the seasonal nature of foods and the medicinal properties of plants.
2C2 “Bush Tucker & Bush Medicine with Aboriginal Sites Extension” - Stage 3/Year 5 and older
- Go walkabout with your ranger along the bush tracks to visit ancient Aboriginal engraving and ochre painting sites. Along the way, learn about bush foods, medicines and rope-making, plus other bush lessons that reveal themselves.
Suggested Day Plan for 2½ hour Workshop – Yes we can vary this on request
- 10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
- 10:30 ranger-led activities 1¼ hours
- 11:45 break for BYO lunch
- 12:15 ranger-led activities 1¼ hours
- 1:30 workshop ends
- 1:45 departure
Special Interest Groups' Workshops
– $POA (price on application)
We have a wonderful network of specialists, some on our team, some close associates, who we can call on if you need something in a special area of interest such as the environment, art, night sky, photography, archaeology, tracking and bush survival. Tailored workshops are designed for you and individually priced on application.
Condensed Workshop (single session) – Small School Groups
– $260 for up to 10 school student participants
– Price $26 per additional participant
Designed to make workshops more affordable for small school groups.
Ranger-led activities for 1½ hours – single session.
Teachers guide the students for the balance of the visit.
Choose one, or a combination of, animal encounters, bush tucker, boomerang throwing and ochre facepainting.
Suggested Day Plan for 1½ hour Workshop (single session) – Yes we can vary this on request
- 10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
- 10:30 ranger-led activities 1½ hours
- 12:00 break for BYO lunch
- 12:30 teacher-guided walk to sites or animals
- 1:30 departure
Condensed Workshop (3 short sessions) – Students with Special Needs
– $260 for up to 10 school student participants
– Price $26 per additional participant
Designed for students with behaviour or concentration issues, or intellectual or physical challenges.
Ranger-led activities for 1½ hours – 3 x 30-minute sessions with 30-minute breaks between each.
Teachers guide the students for the balance of the visit.
Choose one, or a combination of, animal encounters, bush tucker, boomerang throwing and ochre facepainting.
Suggested Day Plan for 1½ hour Workshop (3 sessions) – Yes we can vary this on request
- 10:00 arrival and BYO morning tea
- 10:30 ranger-led activities 30 mins
- 11:00 break
- 11:30 ranger-led activities 30 mins
- 12:00 break
- 12:30 ranger-led activities 30 mins
- 1:00 workshop ends
- 1:30 departure
Deposit and Refund Policy
A $100 deposit secures your booking.
The deposit is non-refundable because, once your booking is confirmed, Walkabout will turn away other bookings (and income) for that day.
In the event of bad weather, your deposit is transferrable to another date or as credit for a future booking.
Wet Weather Policy
Make sure the students and teachers bring their rain gear.
Except in extreme weather, the program will go ahead in the rain.
If the weather is expected to be too extreme for the rangers to be able to run the program, or if it might be dangerous, Walkabout will contact you to reschedule your excursion or give you a credit for a future excursion.
If Walkabout does not assess the wet weather conditions as too dangerous but you would like to reschedule anyway, we respect this and will work with you to find an alternate date.
Calga weather patterns are quite different to the Sydney Basin and the Central Coast. It can be pouring with rain down the road in Kariong or Hornsby, but dry in Calga. You can contact Walkabout Park up to 5 days before your excursion to make general enquiries about expected weather conditions, with more accurate weather information available 48 hours prior.
