After arriving very early at school the children in Year 6 were delighted to be on the coach and heading for a day in London.  Our first stop was the Winston Churchill Britain at War Experience.  Everyone piled into an old lift which trundled down to a replica of an underground station where people would shelter from air raids during London's Blitz.  The whole museum was full of interesting artefacts and displays as well as hands on experiences such an Anderson Shelter to sit in and plenty of wartime clothing to dress up in. 

History came alive for the children in Year 4 when they visited Hampton Court Palace. The building looked beautiful in the spring sunlight, but thinks took on a more serious air as we were guided through the cellars and corridors by a palace servant. We were told tales about the King, his queens and the many secrets of the palace.

As well as visiting the royal apartments, Great Hall and Chapel Royal, we had a tour of the palace kitchens. Here we learnt how to roast meat over a huge fire and saw an amazing demonstration of how the Tudors would create fire.

On the 30th March 3S and 3B set off for a day at Butser Ancient Farm. When we got there we all met Gwen and her two dogs, Monty and Moss, the sheep dog. We went in two Celt houses. The second house we went into we sat on some silky animal skin and the teachers sat on a bed, while we sat around the fire and found out more about the Celts.

I really liked the thatch on the Celtic house. When we went outside the house we saw the toilet that the Celts used. When we finished looking at the toilet we went to dig. I found a bone in the soil. We also did some pottery and I made a finger pot. The third activity was making a mosaic.

On 18th March, Year 6 went to the Curtis Museum in Alton, to see what Alton was like in the past. I was in a group with Mr Lyons. First we went round the museum and a lady briefly told us about the activities we were going to do. First our group wnt upstairs to go 'Through the Keyhole'; we all answered the questions one by one about the people who lived in Alton in 1881 and 1891 using information from the census. Next we went to 'Whose am I', I personally found this the best bit: my person was called Mary-Anne and she was a maid to the Curtis family. After that we went to 'Mapping Changes', and I found out that Alton has got a lot bigger since 1871. We went downstairs to find out about W T Kenward, who was a soldier in the First World War. Finally we had to sort out which pictures whent into the four sections for children, hop pickers, street and occupation. I wnt away having learnt lots of new information about Alton in the past.

For our history lesson with Mrs Riches, we had a lesson on the Aztecs and how Columbus discovered America by mistake. It was a good lesson because we learnt a lot about the Aztecs and how they lived by just talking about them. The thing most of us found interesting was that when the Spanish tried to steal gold from the Aztecs, many of them drowned as they tried to get away, because there were little rivers between the areas of land instead of roads. They drowned as they tried to get across because they were weighed down by the gold in their pockets. We enjoyed the lesson and found some of the facts very interesting.

On Tuesday 4th November, Mrs Parratt came to talk to year six about the second World War. she explained about all of the different types of gas masks for the different ages and about all of the different clothes. She had some volunteers: Eleanor and Harry got to dress up as poor evacuees. Sara was dressed as someone from WRVS and Grace had to dress in an evening gown. Izzy dressed as a bride in a dress made of parachute silk. Matthew dressed as a warden and had to put on a  big metal helmet and had a whistle for when he saw any light on at nightime and had to shout "put that light out". Mrs Parratt was great fun and told us a lot of history that we didn't know before. It helped us to imagine what it must have felt like to be a child in World War II.

On Monday 29th September, Year 3 went to Fisbourne Palace in Chichester. We saw a model of the palace before it burnt down. It had four wings but only the east wing is left today. We went into one of the rooms where we could write our names in roman writing.
Some of my class made mosaics in a frame of sand. I saw a model of the gardener who told us how hard it was in the olden days. His face scared me!
After we had a picnic lunch, we went to the shop and I bought a red, twirly, whirly cup and a dolphin necklace.
After the visit we went back to school on the minibus. It was a great day!

Year 4 spent a brilliant day at Hampton Court Palace on Wednesday as part of their study of the Tudors. Despite the weather the class's first impressions of the palace were very positive, with many overwhelmed by the scale of this great Tudor building. We were met at the Buttery stairs by the mistress of the wardrobe, who regaled us with insider gossip of the King and his many marriages as we sat entranced in the wine cellar, before taking us up to explore the Great Hall itself, with its magnificent tapestries and stained glass. After a hasty lunch in the Buttery, we spent a while longer studying heraldic devices, carvings, glass and portraits in the state apartments before making our way into the Chapel Royal, which provided an interesting opportunity for comparisons and contrasts with our own chapel. We quickly toured the Young Henry exhibition in Wolsey's apartments, playing 'Where's Harry' with a number of epic paintings. For many, the highlight of the day was the multi-sensory tour of the palace kitchens with Hampton Court's two wonderfully entertaining and informative food historians. The whole day provided a wonderful opportunity to really enhance the children's understanding of the age of Henry VIII. Parents may be interested to know that the Palace has a very full programme of events both this and the next bank holiday weekend.

When we walked in to class after lunch on Thursday we were in for a shock: a lady dressed in 1940’s clothes was standing there! It turned out to be Mrs Denby, she was here to tell us about war time and the 1940’s. She had also brought a lot of objects from the time as well. I found out that girls would go a long way to look good.
She went on to talk about jobs during the war and how everything changed. It was really interesting learning about war time with Mrs Denby and at the end we got to try out some of the arefacts