We had a wonderful day at Hever Castle. We travelled there by minibus and the children enjoyed talking about the times that they had travelled along the same roads. William noticed a castle sign on the side of the road – “Is the castle soon? I can see a sign!” Finn noticed a pub in Hever – “Oh, that is Henry VIII!” (on the pub sign). Tuppence waved at her house as we passed and many of the children noticed that we were passing the entrance to Playschool.
After arriving at Hever, we found a lovely spot for an early lunch and the children chatted to each other about what they were looking forward to most about the trip. They enjoyed playing a game of ‘put your hand up if you like grapes, raspberries, Sonic etc.’
The children loved feeding the ducks and we talked about the importance of giving them the right food and that bread was not very good for their tummies.
Playing in the maze was great fun and the children loved working together to find the centre. There was great teamwork finding the centre of the maze together.
Sami remembered that the entry to the castle was called a portcullis and we looked at the chains that held the drawbridge in place. Ruby talked about the moat and how it stopped people from being able to get into the castle.
We all spotted ornamental fish as we walked across the drawbridge.
In the castle, we looked at lots of different models and artefacts. We saw a model of Anne Boleyn and Finn said “It must be Anne Boleyn because she has a ‘B’ on her necklace!” Ruby told the class that Anne Boleyn had had her head cut off when “Henry didn’t love her any more.” Finn also noticed a model of Henry VIII. “It must be Henry VIII because he always wears that hat.” Alfred also spotted that model and commented, “That is Henry VIII. He must be really hot under all of those clothes!”
We enjoyed looking at the stained glass windows and the children talked about the similarities with the ones at St. Mary’s church and strolled through the grounds and looked at the fountains and sculptures, before going to the playground.
