About The Schoolhouse
Programmes for Students
Today the sounds of children echo through the classroom again. Dressed in clothing similar to what children in the late 1800's would have worn, a new class of 21st century students visits each day during the school year. Over 4000 children a year experience what a day in a Victorian classroom would have been like.
The Britannia Schoolhouse programme is like no other educational programme offered in the Peel area. Through role-play students are able to take on the life of a school child from long ago. They experience what it felt like to write on slates, keep their correct posture, sit in the hard wooden desks, be punished and play with stilts, skipping ropes or graces.
The Schoolmaster teaches two educational programmes specially designed to complement the Ontario elementary school curriculum - a programme for grade three based on school life of the early settlers and a drama programme for grades seven and eight. Programmes can be adjusted to fit other grades or youth groups.
School Programme Summaries
Grade 3 Pioneer Studies - School Days
School is a large part of children's daily experiences. This programme allows students to experience a school day of long ago and compare it to their own experiences. A day spent at the schoolhouse offers them a chance to bring their Grade 3 Pioneer Studies to life through role-play. They are put through their paces as students of long ago as they experience the rural education of the time first hand. The students are encouraged to reflect upon different aspects of life in a rural community and the changes that have taken place over the past 150 years. The programme also provides excellent opportunities for cross-curricular activities with the Drama and Language Arts curriculum.
Grade 7 and 8 Drama Units
This programme takes the traditional day of role-playing at the schoolhouse - a wonderful living context for the Ontario history curriculum - and links it to the Drama curriculum. Through a series of pre- and post-visit activities students have a chance to research a character, practise writing in role, create a simple costume for their character, develop their role-playing and public speaking skills and produce a review of the performance. The visit to the schoolhouse brings their characters to life through a day of drama and role playing in a vibrant historical setting. The teacher is provided with detailed lesson plans for the activities and a marking rubric for evaluation purposes. Experience shows that this hands-on, interactive approach to learning best engages intermediate students and encourages them to embrace drama as a tool for learning and expression.
For further information please contact The Old Britannia Schoolhouse at info@britanniaschoolhousefriends.org or 905-890-1010 ext.2911
Programmes for the Community
Volunteers from the Friends of the Schoolhouse offer presentations about the schoolhouse and its history to interested community groups.
