Year 8 were treated to an interactive Tudor Day provided by two talented historians and actors. The day included a variety of different activities. These included a role-play timeline of the Tudor dynasty, a clothing and Tudor dress workshop and a weaponry showcase.
By James Huxley, Year 8
The day started with a Tudor timeline in which volunteers from the audience would come up and act one of the thirty parts provided by the actors. The timeline took us through all the Tudor monarchs and their lives right from Henry VII to James I. This was both engaging and really interesting as all of Year 8, whether acting or not, had fun dressing up in role and laughing at their fellow pupils wearing humorous hats and garments.
After break we started with the Tudor dress in which the year group got to see the materials, styles and clothing in the different ranks of society. We also saw how the clothing evolved through the different monarchs. It was fascinating to see how different the clothing of someone like the king was compared to the clothing of the peasants. This encouraged many pupils to have a go at wearing the outfits and asking questions about them and their functions.
Finally, to end the day we enjoyed a talk and touch experience with the weaponry. This ranged from olden day, heavy, close range weapons and armour to the modern long and short-range light armour which influenced the weapons we know today. Personally, this part of the day was my, and likely others, favourite part of the day as I am into olden day warfare and weaponry. My experience of this included holding a heavy sword and a long bow and arrow. Others also came up and tried armour and jousting, close range and long-range weapons.
This year I have thoroughly enjoyed all the opportunities and activities the school has to offer but this was by far my favourite and I am sure the rest of Year 8 will agree. We all individually enjoyed the day, from the timeline to the weapons and armour. However, the day would not have been possible without our History Department , so on behalf of all of the year group I would like to say a big thank you to Mr McKie for arranging this visit from Black Knight Historical.