The Most WOW Classroom in the World
At Ayers Rock Resort, the gateway to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, a myriad of experiences await your school group. From the heart of the Australian Red Centre, you can delve into an array of activities, perfectly tailored for educational exploration. Craft your own itinerary as there's an abundance to see and do. Whether staying at Ayers Rock Campground or Outback Lodge, students will be immersed in astronomy tours, cultural storytelling experiences using ground-breaking drone technology, bush food and tool workshops, art gallery tours, and guided nature walks - all thoughtfully designed to align with the Australian curriculum.
Uluru and its surroundings aren't just landscapes; they're immersive classrooms reflecting sustainability, Anangu histories and culture - integral aspects of the cross-curriculum priorities.
Explore our World Heritage-listed areas and national parks that present endless opportunities for outdoor activities blending sustainability, earth sciences, environmental studies, history, and culture.
Embark on the learning adventure of a lifetime, where key learning areas, general capabilities, and cross-curriculum priorities converge harmoniously and education seamlessly merges with exploration, respecting and honouring the rich heritage of Anangu.
School Curriculum Link
Recognising the significance of linking educational trips with curriculum goals, we view journeys to the Red Centre as immersive classroom experiences in the Outback. Collaborating with educational experts, we've identified numerous learning avenues that resonate with your specific classroom topics and curriculum focal points. Our aim is to provide students with a memorable, interactive, and enriching experience that elevates their educational objectives while fostering a lasting experience appreciation for cultural diversity.
Study Areas
Experiences delve into a range of study areas and general capabilities, including:
- Science + STEM
- Geography
- Creative Arts + Music
- English + Language
- History
- Health & Education
- Design & Technologies
General Capabilities
- Literacy: Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing. Composing text through speaking, writing and creating.
- Personal & Social Capability: Self-management, self-awareness, social management and social awareness.
- ICT Capability: Applying social and ethical practices when using ICT. Managing and operating ICT, investigating with ICT, communicating with ICT, and creating with ICT.
- Ethical Understanding: Exploring values, rights, and responsibilities. Understanding ethical concepts and issues. Reasoning in decision-making and actions.
- Intercultural Understanding: Recognising culture and developing respect. Reflecting on intercultural experiences and taking responsibility. Interacting and empathising with others.
Accommodation Options
Outback Lodge
Welcome to the Outback Hotel & Lodge, where comfort, affordability, and warm Australian hospitality converge to create an ideal retreat for school groups. Tailored to meet the specific needs of budget-conscious travellers, our facility offers a range of amenities amidst the captivating Outback landscape.
The Outback Lodge boasts single-sex dormitory-style accommodation options, providing a secure and comfortable environment for school kids. Our commitment to fostering an enriching experience for educational trips is reflected in our thoughtfully designed lodging facilities with each dorm offering 20 beds.
Students have access to communal single-sex shower and toilet facilities, self-catering kitchen, and shared self-service laundry facilities. Complimentary Wi-Fi is available in public areas.
Teacher lodging options available nearby dormitory accommodation.
Ayers Rock Campground
Located 20 kilometres from Uluru, Ayers Rock Campground offers an exceptional home base for fully immersing in the sites and experiences of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Our Campground boasts a variety of amenities and services tailored to ensure a truly enjoyable outdoor experience.
Ayers Rock Campground is a gateway to iconic Uluru experiences, including the mesmerising Wintjiri Wiru, a world-first drone and cultural storytelling experience; the enchanting Field of Light, where 50,000 radiant frosted-glass spheres gently bloom with rhythms of coloured light; and Outback Sky Journeys, where an experienced guide takes students through the evolution of the Universe.
At Ayers Rock Campground, we aim to provide dedicated areas for school groups, ensuring a comfortable and convenient stay for both students and teachers alike.
Go Outback to School
Students have the opportunity to be immersed in astronomy tours, cultural storytelling experiences using ground-breaking drone technology, bush food and tool workshops, art gallery tours, and guided nature walks - all thoughtfully designed to align with the Australian curriculum.
Unique School Group Experiences
Read more about each of our unique experiences, and how these can contribute to your students' education.
Wintjiri Wiru
Wintjiri Wiru, meaning 'beautiful view out to the horizon' in the local Pitjantjatjara language, is a breathtaking cultural storytelling experience that brings to life a chapter of the ancestral Mala story through choreographed drones, lasers and projections that illuminate the night sky.
Students may learn to:
- Analyse how people in design and technologies occupations consider ethical, security and sustainability factors to innovate and improve products, services, and environments.
- Analyse needs or opportunities for designing; develop design briefs; and investigate, analyse, and select materials, systems, components, tools and equipment to create designed solutions.
- Analyse and make judgements on how the characteristics and properties of materials are combined with force, motion and energy to control engineered systems.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9TDE10K01, AC9TDE10K06, AC9E10LA07, AC9MA10E02, AC9S9U05, AC9S10U05
Study Areas: Design & Technology, Science, English
General Capabilities: Ethical Understanding, Intercultural Understanding, Personal & Social Capability, Literacy
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $95, Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Transfers to and from the Campground or Outback Lodge
- Soft drink/water and light snack
- 20-minute immersive sound and light show depicting a chapter of the ancestral Mala story
Tour Duration: Approx. 1 hour
Acknowledgment Statement: As custodians of the land, Anangu hold the Mala story from Kaltukatjara to Uluru. To share their story, RAMUS designed and produced an artistic platform using drones, light and sound to create an immersive storytelling experience.
Field of Light
The Field of Light exhibition, aptly named Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku or 'looking at lots of beautiful lights' in local Pitjantjatjara language, is Bruce Munro's largest work to date. Overwhelming in size, covering more than 7 football fields, it invites immersion in its fantasy garden of 50,000 spindles of light, the stems breathing and swaying through a sympathetic desert spectrum of ochre, deep violet, blue and gentle white.
Students may learn to:
- Investigate the ways that artists across cultures, times, places, and/or other contexts develop personal expression in their visual arts practice to represent, communicate, communicate and/or challenge ideas, perspectives, and/or meaning.
- Reflect on the way they and other visual artists respond to influences to inspire, develop, and resolve choices they make in their own visual arts practice.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9AVA10E01, AC9AVA10E02, AC9AVA10D02, AC9AMA10E02
Study Areas: The Arts - Media
General Capabilities: Not linked
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $31.50. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Transfers to and from the Campground or Outback Lodge
- Entry to the Field of Light
Tour Duration: 1 hour
Outback Sky Journeys
This stargazing tour takes students on a fact-finding journey through the southern night sky, enhancing student knowledge on astronomy. The guides will take you through the evolution of the Universe.
Take a moment to explore the vast night landscape with the use of telescopes. Learn how stars are formed, why they produce light, the life cycle of a star, the theory of the 'Big Bang' and much more.
Students may learn to:
- Represent the carbon cycle and examine how key processes including combustion, photosynthesis and respiration rely on interactions between Earth's spheres (the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere).
- Describe how the Big Bang theory models the origin and evolution of the universe and analyse the supporting evidence for the theory.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9S9U03, AC9210U03
Study Areas: Science
General Capabilities: Intercultural Understanding
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $30. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Stargazing tour
- Learn about astronomy and its beginnings
- Interactive tour with the use of telescopes
Tour Duration: 1 hour
Guided Garden Walk
Touring Resort Gardens with a guide, the desert landscape and its significance to the Anangu community will be shared. The seasonal, local flora, bush foods, native trees, and the traditional medicines will be identified. The desert ecosystems and plant evolution will be discussed and how the plants developed, are used, and where they are most found.
Students may learn:
- The environmental, economic and technological factors that impact agricultural productivity in Australia.
- Describe the form and function of reproductive cells and organs in animals and plants and analyse how the processes of sexual and asexual reproduction enable survival of the species.
- Use the theory of evolution by natural selection to explain past and present diversity and analyse the scientific evidence supporting the theory.
- First Nations Australians' approaches to custodial responsibility and environmental management in different regions of Australia.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9HG9K03, AC9HG10K03, AC9S9U02, ACSSU185, AC9S10U02
Study Areas: Geography, Science
General Capabilities: Intercultural Understanding
Other Details:
- Cost Per Student: $15. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Private guided tour
- Learn about local flora and its uses for food and medicinal purposes
Tour Duration: 45 minutes
Bush Food Experience
Learn about Australian and local bush tucker and how Indigenous groups hunt, gather and prepare these bush foods. Recommended to follow on from the Guided Garden Walk, this activity delves deeper into the relationship of Anangu and the landscape, discussing different techniques in finding food, how animals are hunted, the seeds and berries that are harvested, and how fire plays a part in land management.
Students may learn:
- The environmental, economic and technological factors that impact agricultural productivity in Australia (biomes and food security).
- The effects on environments of human alteration of biomes to produce food, industrial materials and fibres.
- First Nations Australians' approaches to custodial responsibility and environmental management in different regions of Australia.
- Reasons for, and consequences of, spatial variations in human wellbeing in Australia, including for First Nations Australians.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9HG9K03, AC9HG10K03, AC9HG9K02, AC9HG10K07
Study Areas: Geography
General Capabilities: Intercultural and Ethical Understanding
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $15. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Introduction to Indigenous bush food
- Private guided tour
Tour Duration: Approx. 45 minutes
Bush Yarns
Listen to the stories of Aboriginal culture and tradition. These are accompanied with demonstrations of men's weapons that were used for hunting and women's tools and techniques to gather bush tucker in the central desert. These sessions may also provide an opportunity to learn aspects about the local Pitjantjatjara language.
Students may learn to:
- Investigate the ways that drama created and/or performed by First Nations Australians celebrates and challenges multiple perspectives of Australian identity.
- Challenges to sustainable food production and food security in Australia and appropriate management strategies (biomes and food security).
- Reasons for, and consequences of, spatial variations, in human wellbeing in Australia, including for First Nations Australians.
- Understand how language can have inclusive and exclusive social effects, and can empower or disempower people.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9ADR10E02, AC9HG9K04, AC9HG10K07, AC9E9LA01
Study Areas: The Arts - Drama, Geography, English
General Capabilities: Personal & Social Capability, Intercultural and Ethical Understanding
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $15. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Private guided tour
- Learn about traditional Indigenous "survival kit"
- Experienced Indigenous guide
Tour Duration: Approx. 30 minutes
Didgeridoo Workshop
Listen to the enchanting sounds of the didgeridoo. Yidaki, the traditional Aboriginal term for the didgeridoo, was discovered in East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Dwain Phillis is our resident player and has been based at Uluru for over 10 years.
Please note, we adhere to traditional cultural practices in this workshop. The didgeridoo is traditionally a men's instrument, and only boys and men play the instrument in this region. The basic techniques of circular breathing and how to use the didgeridoo will be taught in this workshop.
Students may learn to:
- Investigate the ways that First Nations Australian performers and/or composers celebrate and challenge multiple perspectives of Australian identity through music.
- Reflect on the relationship between cultures and identities.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9AMU10E02, AC9HP10P05
Study Areas: The Arts - Music, Health & Physical Education
General Capabilities: Intercultural Understanding
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $15. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Private didgeridoo workshop experience
Tour Duration: Approx. 45 minutes
Gallery of Central Australia
The Gallery of Central Australia (GoCA) celebrates creativity and culture. It aims to educate and inspire through revolving exhibitions, enriching discussions and shining a light on emerging artists through artist in residence programs.
Students may learn to:
- Investigate the ways that artists across cultures, times, places, and/or other contexts develop personal expression in their visual arts practice to represent, communicate and/or challenge ideas, perspectives and/or meaning.
- Reflect on the way they and other visual artists respond to influences to inspire, develop and resolve choices they make in their own visual arts practice.
- Select and manipulate visual conventions, visual arts processes and/or materials to create artworks that reflect personal expression, and represent and/or challenge ideas, perspectives and/or meaning.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9AVA10E01, AC9AVA10D02, AC9AVA10C02, AC9AVA10E02
Study Areas: The Arts
General Capabilities: Ethical and Intercultural Understanding
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $15. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 25 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Private guided tour
Tour Duration: Approx. 40 minutes
Capturing the Cosmos
This astronomy documentary reveals the current research and technologies about dark energy and Australia's role at the forefront of radio astronomy. It is narrated by Geoffrey Rush and written by astronomer Dr. Tanya Hill. The screening is followed by a brief Q&A session from the Resort's resident Astronomy Guide.
Students may learn to:
- Represent the carbon cycle and examine how key processes including combustion, photosynthesis and respiration rely on interactions between Earth's spheres (the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere).
- Describe how the Big Bang theory models the origin and evolution of the universe and analyse the supporting evidence for the theory.
Australian Curriculum Links: AC9S9U03, AC9S10U03
Study Areas: Science
General Capabilities: Intercultural Understanding
Other Details:
Cost Per Student: $15. Minimum 10 Students, Maximum 30 Students. 01 April 2024 - 31 March 2025.
Inclusions:
- Astronomy documentary
- Followed by a brief talk and Q&A with an Astronomy Guide
Tour Duration: Approx. 45 minutes
Suggested Itineraries
For inspiration on how to get the most of of your school excursion, check out our suggested itineraries:
Save and Learn in the Northern Territory
School groups from outside the Northern Territory are invited to submit an application for travel in 2024 to receive $2,000 in funding support to assist in delivering your Northern Territory school excursion.
The planned excursion simply needs to meet the following requirements:
- Minimum of 10 students in the group
- Staying at least five nights in the Northern Territory
- The itinerary must include three or more NT Learning Adventures (NTLA) operators.
Application forms and a list of current NTLA partners can be found here.
All applications must be received at least four weeks prior to departure.
For help planning your excursion and to apply for the NTLA Save and Learn funding program, or to request a copy of the NTLA Guide, please Tourism Northern Territory via phone, email, or via the website.
How to Book
To book your school excursion, or for more information, get in touch with our team.
