Cathays High School Visit – 24/04/24

Cathays High School Visit 24 April 2024

The SHARE with Schools team had a fantastic day at Cathays High School last month, where we delivered extended versions of our “Medieval Society” and “Turn of the Century Wales” workshops to pupils from Year 7 and 8.

We began the day with learning about life in south Wales at the turn of the 20^th century. Year 8 pupils had to recreate a family tree through investigating  materials such as census data and birth and marriage certificates. In small groups, they then got to explore archive materials such as photographs and newspaper clippings as well as artefacts to discover more about the life of a particular individual. They developed a museum exhibition proposal which was then presented in an elevator pitch to the rest of the class.

In the afternoon, pupils from year 7 got to discover about what life was like for medieval peasants, knights, and monks. Activities included designing their own heraldic shields, decoding monastery maps and understanding monastic roles as well as experiencing a year in the life of a medieval peasant through an immersive role-playing game.

We received some great feedback from both pupils:

“I loved that we had activities and games”

“My favourite part was when we used the census. I found that fun.”

“My favourite part was talking/figuring out for ourselves.”

Thank you to our volunteers Scott, Natalie, Joanna, Charlotte and Paige for doing a fantastic job delivering the activities, and to the school staff for facilitating the visit.