Today, 5S were shocked to learn that Victorian children as young as four had no choice but to work up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in mines to earn money and support their families.

In order to consider the hard work and suffering they experienced, we discussed the different jobs available to people in the mines and the gruelling work they had to undertake. We role played these jobs in groups then got back together to write about how we felt.

We all came away feeling really sorry for our ancestors who had to work this hard at such a young age. I want to praise the class for their sympathy and engagement with this lesson as it was tough to hear about.