This year the Anglo-Saxon timetable was spread over two days so our pupils could immerse themselves in their way of life. The company ‘Portals from the Past’ introduced the experience with a brief history lesson on the Anglo-Saxon era, followed by board games, role-play and quiz questions. The pupils dressed up as Anglo-Saxons, made styled brooches, and then performed as scops (songwriters) singing the own verses and choruses with a given melody.
Although we were told that the majority of Anglo-Saxons could not read or write, our pupils wrote their names in the font based on the famous Book of Kells. The whole experience then concluded with a Battle of Hastings scene between the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. All in all, a very enjoyable experience, which pupils said they would do again.

West Stow, Suffolk, is an authentic reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon village, together with a modern museum tactfully hidden from general view!