medieval madness
Katherine Houston
Head of Learning - Humanities
Learning can take place in many ways.
Becoming a life-long learner does not just refer to structured study: so much can be learned by interaction and experience - and this is what makes Medieval Day such fun for us all. While wielding 'swords', students discover that there is technique to battle and find out just how tough competition must have been in the 'olden days'. Feeling the weight of coarse fabric and clothing shows students the rough and unrefined nature of life in medieval life - just as hearing minstrels producing music on rustic instruments reminds them that itunes has not always been an option!
'Hands-on' experiences outside of the classroom such Medieval Day actively invite and encourage further investigation. More often than not, the experiences result in the students leading the way - asking lots of questions, sharing insightful observations, trying new activities, pursuing and discussing the interesting details of their studies. What better way to learn?
It was great to see students engage so well and to use the opportunity to combine learning and fun!
Erdem Kurucu
Year 8
Wow!!! What a wonderful experience this was - a trip back in time!
At first, we saw an exhibition of the different costumes that were worn by people during the medieval period. There were significant differences between the clothing styles of peasants and nobles. The nobles wore unnecessarily long pieces of fabric to show off their great wealth. For example, they would leave long pieces of leather dangling from their belts to show they could afford it, while the peasants and the less wealthy wore plainly coloured clothes and wasted very little fabric.
We explored what music was like during medieval times - it consisted of basic instruments like trumpets, horns and flutes. They were mostly created out of natural materials like bull horns and bones. Music could only be afforded by wealthy people such as the King and nobles. Lower class people would have to create their own instruments and learn to play them themselves. It was very common to see people singing for entertainment because it was free and easy to do.
Furthermore, we learned to play the games that were played by people back then. These games used skills such as throwing and running. They offered great entertainment for the people while also teaching them basic life skills.
Finally, we handled the different pieces of armour worn by knights. We wore chain mail armour, helmets, gauntlets, leg armour and arm armour. The armour was very heavy and made it hard to move but it offered great protection against all different types of weapons. We also explored a variety of weapons like swords, long swords, maces and others and got the chance to duel our friends with fake swords.
Overall, Medieval day offered an unforgettable chance to explore the past and truly learn what life was like back then.
Dylan Sebire
Year 9
We participated in 4 activities - dress ups, music, war games and sword fighting.
My two favourite activities were the sword fighting and the music. I found these entertaining because the man who performed the music was hilarious and with the sword fighting, we actually got to sword fight!