Our Ancient Adventure took place in the first half of the summer term and saw the children across the school exploring different time periods from ancient history:
Early Years Foundation Stage – Stone Age
Year 1 – Bronze Age
Year 2 – Iron Age
Year 3 – Romans
Year 4 – Anglo Saxons
As part of the Learning Adventure, the children had the opportunity to work with Anthony and Jen (ancient history specialists), who provided bespoke, practical workshops in / around our roundhouse to provide them with first hand experiences of what life would have been like in their respective periods of study. For example, during the Early Years Foundation Stage workshop, the children had the opportunity to take part in a range of practical activities, including butter making, creating necklaces, using a Stone Age axe and grinding flour. The workshops were planned to be highly child centred, enabling children to move freely between the different activities and to spend time exploring the specific aspects that were of interest to them. Through these experiential workshops, the children built their knowledge and understanding of the time period being studied in a highly motivating way. You can find photos of our Year 4 Anglo Saxon workshops at the bottom of this page.
In addition to these practical workshops, the Learning Adventure was also delivered through our innovative drama-based approach to teaching and learning, where children carry out their learning by imagining that they are living a story together. For example, our Early Years Foundation Stage children carried out their learning by imagining that they were Stone Age people building shelters, hunting for food and making fires to keep warm, whilst our Year 1 children imagined they were Bronze Age farmers helping to set up their own Bronze Age farm. In Year 2, the children imagined they were building and setting up their own hillfort settlement, whilst in Year 3 the children imagined that they were a Celtic tribe preparing to go into battle with the Romans. In Year 4, the children carried out their learning as if they were Anglo-Saxons preparing to defend their village from an imminent raid. By learning in this way, the children are more deeply immersed in their period of study, enabling deeper curriculum learning within the classroom.
The time periods explored in each year group build chronologically across the children’s time at the school, enabling them to build an understanding of the key changes and differences between the periods studied. By the end of their time at the school, we aim for the children to gain a clear overview of ancient Britain from the Stone Age through to the Anglo-Saxons. On this basis, the school’s history curriculum is both unique and innovative, enabling children to develop their love of historical learning and to make high levels of progress within the curriculum area.
. 
. 
.