Friday Headlines
the weekly newsletter from EHS
Exploring Chedworth Roman Villa
27 May 2022
This week, Year 7 went on the highly-anticipated Latin trip to the Chedworth Roman Villa and the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, arranged by the Classics department. The goal of this trip was to inspire the pupils for their upcoming project on Roman Artefacts after half term.
The coaches departed school at 8:30 am with a long drive ahead. Despite the early start, this didn’t stop the singing and shouting of Year 7s to be heard throughout the whole journey. Here is what happened next from the perspective of the pupils.
Pupils had 30 minutes to find all the items in their booklets and many were frantically rushing to discover the next thing on their list. The museum had many information boards and interactive activities for Year 7 to use and many were interested in the Roman tabletop game ‘Tabula’ and the interactive tombstones – these told the tales of the people whose names were on them. One of the girls said, “I particularly enjoyed looking at the Roman jewellery because of the variety of colours and seeing the similarities of Roman and modern-day jewellery.”
Once the coach had arrived in Cirencester, we were given a booklet to fill out. We were so excited to see that we had to do a treasure hunt around the museum! We had to locate different artefacts and write down why they were important and what they looked like. We learned a lot from the experience and enjoyed every second.
After visiting the museum, Year 7 went to the Chedworth Roman Villa where they ate lunch and were given a tour around the ruins. At this location, they were able to see the longest mosaic in the United Kingdom, the ruins of Roman baths, kitchens and toilets and even the ruins of a temple where the Romans prayed for the water to continue running all through the year.
A pupil commented, “The best part about the Roman villa was definitely the hypocaust (Latin for heat from below: keeps rooms warm) and it felt really incredible even looking at the longest mosaic in Britain.”
Later on, the pupils created their very own Mosaics using inspiration from the one at the site. To the left is a few images of what they did. Many wrote the first letter of their name, some created an image and others just made a beautiful pattern.
Finally, it was the end of the day and Year 7 headed back to school. We wanted to say a big thank you to the Classics Department and accompanying staff for guiding us around the sites, organising the trip and keeping us safe so that we could all have a wonderful time.
Grace Bennett, Year 7
Chedworth Roman Villa
Click image for full view
