Some may see this as an ambitious visit with these two year groups; however, this iconic exhibition of The Roman Army was proving so popular that we could not miss this opportunity. Add to that the location of the British Museum and you have a must have experience.
The pupils embraced the exhibition, which followed the journey of the Horrible History style Terentianus the Rat through his lifetime in the army, with interest and enthusiasm. This exhibition was well structured with enough to fascinate adults but at the same time allow the pupils to access lots of interesting facts and plenty of hands on activities! They could test their strength to see if they were ready to apply, use the height chart to see if they were tall enough (some of us failed big time!), smell the contemporary camp smells – even smelly socks and play the games the soldiers could pass the camp free time playing. Their favourite activity was trying on the helmets and lifting the shields – not as easy as it looks, hence the strength test at the start.
The artefacts were many and varied but some of the standout ones were the beautifully hand painted shield, the soldiers’ jewellery and the stack of gold for retiring legionnaires. There was even possibly one of the earliest ever birthday party invitations from a camp commander’s wife to her friends while stationed on Hadrian’s wall. Still legible!
Our groups then explored other galleries in the museum; some went into the Egyptian Room, some to the Sutton Hoo Room with Mrs Lelliott as they recalled their Year 5 lessons and all of us went to the Roman Britain area. So much left to see for you all to explore later.
I must thank all the staff on the trip for making this a memorable experience, Mr Newton, Mrs Lelliott, Mrs Walker, Mrs Houchin and Mr Hastie.
Mrs Budd, Head of History and Latin