Trips to the Royal Armouries Museum

Year 3 had two fantastic trips to the Royal Armouries Museum this week. We hope you enjoy looking at these photos from our visits!

Burn it down!

Once we had arrived at the museum and been greeted by our hosts for the day, we got into role as members of the Iceni tribe. We helped tell the story of Boudica, and imagined how we would feel if the Romans took our land, forced our friends to work as slaves and made us pay taxes. The chants of ‘Burn it down’ as we marched to Colchester were certainly enthusiastic! We had the chance to hold some Celtic weapons, and some of us chose to put blue ‘woad’ on our faces to show our commitment to the tribe.

Sin, Dex, Sin, Dex

Then, we tried out life as a Roman soldier, learning about some of the benefits Roman life brought to Britain, including baths, roads, wheels and toilets! We looked more closely at Roman armour and weapons. Then we learned how to march, left (sin), right (dex) before having a go at using a sword (gladius) and shield (scutum). Finally, the children used the tortoise formation to protect themselves from axes (soft ones!) thrown at them by their teachers!

After trying out life as a Celt and a Roman, the children voted for who they would like to support. It was a close call, and some children were keen to vote for both sides, but I think the Iceni tribe just about won the vote!

Time for a battle!

We were then lucky to watch a demonstration of a fight between a Roman and a Celt. During this re-enactment, we learnt more about the strategies involved and the differences in weaponry and armour between the Celts and the Romans. We were glad that the Celt was not naked, as he would have been in real life!

Museum Galleries

After a well-earned stop for lunch, we then followed a Roman trail around the museum galleries. There were lots of interesting things for us to see.

We were really impressed with the children’s behaviour and engagement throughout the trip, and with how much knowledge the children retained. Well done Year 3!

Special mentions this week went to Harry, Ayra, Ayaan H and Theo.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes from the Year 3 team.