Fitzalan Return Visit – 05/06/2025

On 5^th June, we hosted year 7s from Fitzalan High at the university for a return visit. We welcomed them and began the day with an introduction and a mini lecture by Dr Ruth Westgate titled “At Home with the Romans”. We then ran our Mesopotamian Society workshop, where students got to create their own clay cylinder seals and tributes for the ‘king’ (their teacher). They were able to participate in a tribute procession, presenting their gifts to the king and kneeling before him.

The young people were then taken to one of SHARE’s teaching labs where they were able to learn about different animal bones and play a game of ‘bone snap’ trying to match the bones to the correct animals. The students were then split into teams to play ‘guess to bone/animal’ with replica cat and dog skulls, with one team managing to guess correctly!

There was then time for a final Q&A and plenary before we waved goodbye to the school for another year. We are very much looking forward to working with Fitzalan again in the future.

Some examples of pupil feedback:

• I enjoyed the arts and crafts especially the tribute (gift)
• I liked the bone stuff; it was very interesting.
• My favourite part was the arts and crafts because it was entertaining, funny, and included the audience whilst learning bits and bobs.
• Thank you, Cardiff University! I really liked how we got to touch and feel the bones.