THE KS2 class at East Worlington Primary School enjoyed a fantastic learning opportunity through a Roman Day funded by the school’s PTFA.

Senior teacher, Suzie Pinn, explains: “The children did research beforehand on the Britons so that they had a good idea of who they were role-playing at the beginning of the day.

“We started in the tribal hut, sat in a circle, and got into character by discussing who we were, and listening to some background information on our tribe.

“Then we listened to an oral storytelling of the invasion of a neighbouring tribe by the Romans. We then took a look at a range of artefacts including clothing, pottery, weapons and jewellery, some of which dated back to 50AD and would have been used by the Britons.

“At this point a Roman soldier marched into our tribal hut and spoke to us about the imminent arrival of the Roman army and made clear the choice we had to fight or to come under Roman rule peacefully.

“The children were told about the advantages of Roman rule, and heard dire warnings of what happened to tribes that chose to fight.

“We then went down to the hall and learnt about Roman society everything from food, to baths, money, clothes and of course the uniform of the Roman soldier which the children were able to try on and which were incredibly heavy.

“Next we had the chance to try out some of the weapons including the Eastern Bow and the sling shot.

“In the afternoon we had a discussion, using all that we had learnt to decide what we would do about the imminent invasion.

“In the end the children voted to pretend to allow the Roman rule but to learn what we could from them, such as the army training, and then to ally with other tribes and fight back. Some quite sophisticated reasoning went into this decision.

“We were then trained in the art of becoming a Roman army with our own shields and several formations.

“Finally having mastered this we went to the playground to fight the enemy who fought valiantly but were inevitably defeated by our well-trained army.”

The workshops are run by Oliver Martin working with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, and are designed to increase children’s knowledge and understanding of the Roman invasion and its impact on Iron Age life in SW Britain.

East Worlington School is an idyllic rural Devon village school with 60 pupils and forms part of Chulmleigh Academy Trust.

Full details of the school can be found at http://www.east-worlington-primary.devon.sch.uk and staff are always happy to show families around.

Pic in 1109 downloads: Roman mock battle.JPG

East Worlington Primary School children dressed in Roman uniform ready for a mock battle.