Year 7 HASS – Term 1 (WA Curriculum): Ancient Cultures and Continuing Connections

What this unit covers

In Term 1, Year 7 HASS in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Ancient Cultures and Continuing Connections”.

Students explore the world's oldest continuing cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples alongside ancient civilisations, developing skills in historical inquiry and analysis.

Lesson sequence (30 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Introduction to Deep Time: Understanding Australia's First Peoples
2. Archaeological Evidence: Uncovering 65,000 Years of History
3. Oral Traditions: How Stories Preserve Cultural Knowledge
4. Songlines: Ancient Navigation Systems Across Australia
5. Aboriginal Astronomy: Reading the Stars for Navigation
6. Traditional Hunting Technologies: Boomerangs and Woomeras
7. Engineering the Land: Fish Traps and Weirs of the Menang People
8. Art Through Time: Changing Styles in Aboriginal Creative Expression
9. Protecting Our Heritage: Why Cultural Conservation Matters
10. Mungo Man and Mungo Lady: Evidence of Ancient Burial Practices
11. Primary vs Secondary Sources: Identifying Historical Evidence
12. Recording Historical Information: Creating Graphic Organisers
13. Planning Ethical Historical Inquiries
14. Ancient Egypt: How the Nile Shaped Civilisation
15. Life Along the River: Transport and Trade in Ancient Times
16. Egyptian Beliefs: Death and the Journey to the Afterlife
17. Tomb Building: Engineering for Eternity
18. Pharaoh Ramses II: A Powerful Ruler's Legacy
19. Akhenaten: The Revolutionary Pharaoh Who Changed Egypt
20. Interpreting Ancient Art: Reading Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Images
21. Analysing Perspectives: Different Views of Ancient Leaders
22. Ancient China: Geography's Influence on the Middle Kingdom
23. Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di: Uniting China Under One Rule
24. Confucius: Philosophy That Shaped Chinese Society
25. Ancient Rome: How Geography Built an Empire
26. Julius Caesar: Military Leader and Political Revolutionary
27. Translating Historical Data: From Tables to Timelines
28. Communicating Historical Findings: Creating Visual Displays
29. Comparing Ancient Societies: Similarities and Differences
30. Reflecting on Cultural Continuity: Past Connections to Present

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Skills codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 1

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 1 runs from Monday 2 February to Thursday 2 April — 9 weeks for WA public schools. With 30 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.