Rippon Lea Education Programs

Education program VIC

This program at Rippon Lea Estate examines the past through family history, children's life, schooling and domestic work. It includes toys, games, sports, period clothes and exploration activities.

Rippon Lea House and Gardens is one of the largest surviving nineteenth century grand suburban estates in Australia and was included on Australia’s premiere heritage listing, the National Heritage list in 2006.

The house was completed in 1868. It was built for Frederick Sargood. Sargood made his money selling soft-goods on the goldfields. The house is named after his mother’s maiden-name, Rippon. Lea is an English word for meadow. The property was a large, self-sufficient farm, about twice the size it is now. The mansion was originally 15 rooms; it currently has 33 rooms. Sargood moved in with his first wife, Marian, and their 9 surviving children. There were 7 maids, a butler, 7 gardeners, a coachman and a groom.

NTV Education offers a lower-primary level program, as well as a VCE Geography resource pack available for purchase.

Then and Now: Upstairs Downstairs

Foundation – Level 2

Join our costumed educators, and step back in time to learn about life in the 1800s. This full-day program is jam-packed with activities that will have students taking on the role of children of the mid-1800s; playing, working, and exploring in four hands-on activities.

Explore the beautiful Rippon Lea Estate as guests of the Sargood family, discovering differences in daily life, investigating past toilets, and learning some of the rules of etiquette.

Step into the shoes of one of Rippon Lea’s 36 servants in a series of activities that will see students discover the impacts of changing technologies on people’s home and work lives from the 1800s to today.

Get ready to work together as detectives in the Creature Catcher activity, inspired by Rippon Lea’s past zoo, hunting for clues in Rippon Lea’s beautiful and expansive garden.

Uncover the changing nature of children’s pastimes with a series of outdoor games from the 1800s like croquet, quoits, and skipping.

Curriculum Links - Foundation to Level 2

Subject	Strand	Sub-strand	Content descriptions	Students will…
History	Historical knowledge and understanding	Personal histories	differences in family structures and roles and how these have changed or remained the same over time	Uncover the societal pressures faced by families in the past, and how the life of the Sargood family differs from families today.
			VC2HH2K02
			differences and similarities between students’ daily lives and how these have changed or remained the same over time	Discover what life was like for some children in the past; the games they played and the social pressures faced, and realise some similarities as well as some differences.
			VC2HH2K03
		Community histories	the history of a local historical site of social, cultural or spiritual significance and how it has changed over time	Learn about the social significance of Rippon Lea and how it has changed since the 1800s.
			VC2HH2K05
			the consequences of changing technologies on people’s lives at home, and the ways they worked, travelled and communicated in the past	Get their hands dirty, using 1800s domestic technologies to discover how they affected daily life and the differences to today.
			VC2HH2K06
	Historical Concepts and Skills	Continuity and Change	identify examples of continuity and change by comparing the past and present	Compare lives in the 1800s to lives in the present day.
			VC2HH2S05
		Causes and Consequences	identify the causes and consequences of changes	Discuss how the invention of new domestic technologies had an influence on daily life.
			VC2HH2S06
Personal and Social Capability	Social Awareness and Management	Collaboration	simple skills required for collaboration with peers	Work together to solve a mystery during the Creature Catcher activity.
			VC2CPFO03
			broader skills required for collaboration with peers and ways to monitor contributions to group tasks
			VC2CP2O04

Further Program Details

Available	Monday - Friday during school terms
Duration:	4 hours - 10am-2pm.
Numbers:	minimum 20, maximum 60 students.
Teacher/carer:student ratio:	1:10
Resources:	Social script for parents and teachers of students on the autism spectrum. Teachers will receive a detailed resource pack that includes suggested pre- and post-visit activities upon booking.
Cost:	$17 per student.
Safety:	Click here to access the Rippon Lea Education Task Risk Assessment document.
Accessibility:	Please advise our bookings team if your students require wheelchair-friendly access; some accommodations can be made. The mansion has a set of stairs which is not acessible.
Bookings:	To book in: Online booking form For enquiries: Email bookings@nattust.com.au Phone: (03)9656 9889

We visited Rippon Lea Mansion with two separate groups. We had a fantastic experience and will definitely be visiting in the future with more school groups.

Grade 1 & 2 teacher, Ripponlea Primary School, November 2023.

Tourism: Issues and Challenges - VCE Geography

Rippon Lea Estate is a significant tourist venue, attracting over 80,000 visitors annually, presenting an outstanding option for VCE Geography students to undertake on-site or remote fieldwork as part of Unit 2: Tourism: Issues and Challenges. Students will complete a range of physical and social geographic investigations, practising key fieldwork skills, and then applying and processing the data they collect.

The fieldwork program provides a comprehensive guide for students and educators on the site, with activities linked to the Unit 2 Study Design. It includes information and fieldwork tasks focused on change, distance, distribution, movement place, process, region, scale, spatial association and sustainability. If conducting fieldwork on site at Rippon Lea, you and your students will have the opportunity to meet the property manager to discuss the challenges of managing Rippon Lea Estate (subject to availability, bookings essential).

Further Program Details

Available:	Monday-Friday during school term time.
Duration:	Self-guided
Capacity:	minimum 8 students.
Teacher/carer:student ratio:	1:12 for onsite visits
Cost:	Remote Fieldwork: Purchase the fieldwork resource pack for $45, and use that to deliver remote fieldwork in your classroom. Onsite fieldwork: $15 per student (min 8 students), includes the resource pack, entrance to Rippon Lea gardens for each student, access to statistics, and a 30 min meeting with a Rippon Lea manager where students can ask questions about visitor safety, visitor enjoyment, animal health, property maintenance. (Meeting with manager is subject to availability.)
Accessibility:	Please advise our bookings team if your students require wheelchair-friendly access; some accommodations can be made. The mansion has a set of stairs which is not acessible.
Bookings:	To book in: Online booking form For enquiries: Email bookings@nattust.com.au Phone: (03)9656 9889

Plan your visit

Rippon Lea Education Programs

Address:

192 Hotham St, Elsternwick VIC 3185

Phone:

9656 9800

Email:

bookings@nattrust.com.au

Website:

https://www.ripponleaestate.com.au/

What we offer:

Book your school program

Simply fill in our online booking form with your details to make a booking request

Go to booking form

Our students loved the role play tasks; learning to dance in the ballroom and pretending to be servants by washing clothes and serving drinks. They were full of ideas and thoughts about these experiences in the days following the excursion.

Teacher feedback

Rippon Lea Education Programs