Willow class went to Hever Castle to learn more about the Tudors and Anne Boleyn. Along with the other children in years 3 and 4 in the Federation, we learnt a lot about the Tudors in a really fun and engaging way. We also saw many different types of Tudor houses on our journey which allowed us to discuss our learning at school in a real context.
As we are coming up to Christmas, we started off by looking around the Christmas Trail that was set up in the gardens to the Castle, which helped us to explore the gardens more fully in a way that the children found fascinating. We also went around the Yew Maze and in to the Mirror room to allow us to have some fun whilst learning about the crops in the Tudor gardens.
After eating our lunch, we looked around the castle and in the Tudor gardens, which showed the type of herbs the Tudors used and showed the topiary that they often had in the form of a giant chess set! At the entrance to the castle, we were greeted by Anne Boleyn – we managed to get a picture with her afterwards!
We absolutely loved looking around the castle and trying to find as many things as we could that we’ve learnt in school so far this term, but also looking for new pieces of information about the Tudors from the castle. We were able to see the type of furniture rich people had during the Tudor times, how rich people would dress in the Tudor times and how people prepared for battle in the Tudor times. The portraits that were positioned all around the house were a real highlight too. One of the main things we didn’t realise before was quite how short they were – their beds and doorways were tiny! On our way out, the guide also told us that we had to be careful walking down the stairs on the way out, as they were all uneven to trip up any potential attackers to the castle as they wouldn’t be concentrating on where they were placing their feet.
Before we came back to school, we had a quick play in the Tudor Towers. It was so much fun but was very slippery, so we had to be very careful. But we had a great time anyway.
We’d all like to say a massive thank you to our parent helpers and also to all of our parents who have allowed us to go on the trip.
Impact and Knowledge Gained
The children were able to deepen their knowledge about the Tudors, both by learning more about what we had been doing in class and by allowing us to learn extra facts about the Tudors, as we are unable to learn everything there is about the Tudors at school. They enjoyed being able to see how the rich Tudor homes were set up, and the furniture and clothes they would have had. Finally, the children were able to see what the rich people’s gardens would have been like in the Tudor times to compare them to ours and to see how they used them in different ways to us.
