History brought to life: A trip back in time.

King’s St Alban’s pupils in Year 5 were taken back in time as part of their history topic, as they visited the Tudor House Museum, situated just a short walk away in Friar Street, in Worcester city centre. As usual, the children were exemplary ambassadors for King’s St Alban’s as they walked from the school campus to the Tudor House to experience life in Tudor times.

Upon arrival at The Tudor House, pupils discovered that they would have the opportunity to explore four different areas of Tudor times. Exploring Tudor Past-times, they looked closely at a painting by Breughel which depicted an amazing scene, full of children playing a whole array of Tudor games; to our pupils’ surprise they would have the opportunity to play some of these games. Firstly, pupils used knuckle bones, actually playing with pig toe bones, throwing them in the air and catching as many as possible on the back of their hands. They then tried their hand at playing cup and ball.

The Year 5 cohort then explored weaving in Tudor times. Discovering how incredibly important wool was, the pupils were shown the process of weaving from the raw wool material to the woven product. The children took it in turns to use the loom and created their own weaving card – the children loved the hands-on learning experience.

A few volunteers then had the opportunity to get dressed up in Tudor costume, including underwear that was worn at bedtime too. The children were shocked to discover that in Tudor times clothes were only washed a couple of time of year! The children were also fascinated to see costumes for ordinary boys and girls, as well as clothes for the gentry; there was quite a contrast!

Finally, the pupils were told about the Tudor school day, which began at 6am (when most of the King’s St Alban’s pupils are still fast asleep!) and didn’t finish until 5pm, with only two short breaks for breakfast and lunch. Pupils were amazed to discover that many children did not go to school, especially the girls, with only the most wealthy boys attending school, and Latin and reading, maths and writing only taught as extra paid lessons. The King’s St Alban’s pupils looked at ‘horn’ books, which were the first sort of reading material, and then experienced writing with a quill pen.

This was a fabulous experience for all of our Year 5 pupils, bringing history to life; we are sure that the trip will have fuelled their enthusiasm to discover more about their current history topic.