In January, we have an exciting event for the children in Year 4 to launch our new topic.

Roman Day!
In the Spring term, Year 4 children will be studying the Romans. To support our learning, we have arranged a ‘Roman Day Experience’ to launch our new topic. This will take place in school, on Monday 9th January for Hazel Class, Tuesday 10th January for Maple Class and Wednesday 11th January for Oak Class.

During the day, children will take part in a workshop which will enable children to understand more about the Romans, their way of life and what life was like as a Roman soldier. The children will take on the role of Celts, and find out what it would be like to live under Roman rule. They will have the opportunity to handle artefacts, and piece together evidence to aid discovery. 

As part of the day we will be asking children to dress up as a Celtic Briton and to bring in their shields that they have designed and created for home-learning on the day of their workshop. The Britons were renowned for wearing clothes of brightly coloured woollen or linen material, often with striped or checked patterns.

Woman’s Tunic
A woman’s tunic is just a tube of material, long and baggy, with either two decorative brooches pinning the shoulders of the tunic together to make holes for the head and arms, or sewn to do the same thing. They are tied at the waist with a leather or fabric belt.

Man’s Tunic
Dumnonii men wore a shorter tunic with trousers. They are made much the same way as women’s tunics but are shorter (knee to mid thigh length) and are sewn at the shoulders, not pinned. They are also worn with a fabric or leather belt.
A long baggy T-shirt, belted at the waist, could be worn.

War paint and spiky hair
The name Britain comes from the Latin ‘Britannia’ which itself comes from the Greek ‘Pritannia’. It means ‘painted people’. Julius Caesar, in his book ‘The Conquest of Gaul’ also mentioned that the Britons ‘dye their bodies like glass, which produces a blue colour’. This suggests that the warriors tattooed, painted or stained their skin. In battle this would have helped them to look fierce and frightening.

The children might like to use face paints or eye liner pencils to display ‘Celtic’ style designs on the face; arms etc. or perhaps be done with parental help at home on the morning of the workshop. It also seems that in some British tribes the men, at least before going into battle, used lime to whiten and stiffen their hair into spikes. While it is not suggested that they actually use lime (it is actually corrosive!), the boys might like to use hair gel to spike their hair up.

Please log on to your ParentPay account for payment of these events by Friday 6th January to give permission for your child to attend the event and to pay your contribution. It will be shown as a payment item at the top of the home page. If you require any assistance with ParentPay please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

Many thanks for your continued support.
Miss Williams, Mr DeCruz, and Mrs Guest

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