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Medieval Life:
Age group: Keystage 3, for 9 - 12 year olds depending on ability level Display time: 2 -2 & a half hours Max number of students: 60 Number of displays per school day: 2 (so 120 students in a day max) Minimum number of teachers required: Two Display area: School hall, gym, drama room, dance studio, or similar large indoor space. Introduction "I think it was a good idea for you to award points for correct answers, because it encouraged more people to put their hands up and have a guess". - A pupil "I really enjoyed the drama side of things, like the dressing-up and seeing all the medicines and how they would treat different injuries and illnesses. It really helped me to understand and injoy (sic) medieval life". - A pupil "I thought everything got explained very well and I thought the idea with the four nobel families was very good". - A pupil Clothing We start by giving a short intro to ourselves and by bringing volunteers to the front to dress them in medieval costume. We dress 17 students in full medieval clothes, with a lord & lady in each household (this works fine in single sex schools too as there are plenty of volunteers!). There are household tabards, coifs and belts for all the other children to wear. We also dress one up as a priest. We then describe to them what each piece of clothing is and explain what it was for. The clothes are worn over their normal clothes.
"I felt like I was in the medieval period. My favourite part of the journey was dressing up. We might have thought the costumes were silly and wierd to wear, but it was worth it." - A pupil "I liked learning the names of the clothes and shoes and dressing up and gathering points for our teams. I enjoyed everything and didn't dislike anything. Again thank you very, very, very much." - A pupil
From here we move on to talking about house and home.
"I would hate to live in medieval times because I would have to get married when I am 12 (the legal age for a girl) and I am 12 now. Also, I would have an extremely short life, that would be horrible." - A pupil
Feast & food
Meanwhile the peasants are left rather humbly serving themselves with some bread & ale (not real!) . We explain what foods were available to rich and poor people and what foods weren't available at all such as chocolate and potatoes as these were yet to be discovered.
"The weddings and food showed me the difference between poor and rich people and hat we eat and what medieval people eat". - A pupil
"I loved every second of it, especially when we made our medicine". - A pupil "My favourite part was when we did apothecary and our teachers was the Guildmasters!"- A pupil "It was really fun when we made the boxes, my group got 10 out of 10 so we were excepted (sic) into the guild members group! I truly learned a lot, once again thank you." - A pupil "I really enjoyed doing the weaving for the master craftsman (in the guilds section) when I was helping to make the apron, it was really fun and I still remember how to make it". - A pupil
"It made it feel like the plague was around. I was shocked when (I learnt) how many people could die from it". - A pupil "My favourite part was the black death it was so cool". - A pupil
Catholicism is obviously a hugely fundamental part of English medieval history and held huge sway of the people, which is a point we stress. We always handle this subject sensitively and place it in the context of the past, that this is what medieval people in England believed in at that time. None are made to take part, should they object on the grounds of faith, but to date we have not had any objections and have visited many multi faith and non catholic schools. This item can be dropped from the display however should you wish. A second marriage! Huzzah for the Yorkists! They have been trying throughout the day to get permission for their two great families to marry and at last they can. They have received a papal blessing and their fathers have agreed the terms of marriage. Our young priest unites the two households in marriage and at this point the Yorkists are usually the victors with more points, but of course the Lancastrians aren't happy about their new powerful foes....
If the students have been well behaved and time is permitting we give a demonstration using pupils or teachers on how they would use a sword or poll axe and are allowed to hold the swords. A safety talk is always given first and armour and swords are requested to be handled with utmost care or they will be removed and the entire display stopped. All replica swords are blunt edged reenactment swords for display purposes and are free from any burrs or sharp edges.
"I loved the way you had the armour and that we all got to try it on, as you're not able to do that in museums so what you did was great fun". - A pupil
Not all students are interested in armour, and as the surgery items are all quite small we choose about 12 students to come and visit the surgeon instead and learn how to mend instead of maim! We talk about the following (time permitting), we have a volunteer amputee and we demonstrate the technique for amputation in this period with our blunt surgery tools, we then show them bloodletting with the knife and the much loved real live leeches! They can learn about the gruesome wound man and how a medieval doctor would analyse a urine sample. They can learn how toothache was treated and how arrows were extracted. They can also learn what medieval people thought the cause of disease was, the theory of the 4 humours. If there is time we can split pupils into groups and swap them between armour and surgery so they can see both. "I learned loads and especially enjoyed making a medicine and finding out about surgery. It was really gruesome, and so were the leeches. Thank you very much it was an excellent day." - A pupil "It was really exciting, especially when I had my arm 'chopped off'!" - A pupil
The victors! Then the favourite part of the day, to decide who has won they have to shout out their battle cry and see who can shout the loudest! A York a York! A Lancaster a Lancaster! Teacher then decides who has won. It's a fantastic way to end the morning/afternoon and a superb way to unwind. We explain that in history it was the Tudors who won and see if they can remember their Tudor Kings and Queens. "When it had finished and we all had to change back into our uniforms again, we were all going, 'Awwww!' because we were having such a fun time." - A pupil
Cost CRB Disclosures Insurance
Please replace (at) with the @ symbol if you wish to e-mail us. Tel: 07910 264735 e-mail: karen(at)discoveringmedieval.co.uk
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We then lead the happy couple off to a wedding feast where they will sit at the high table. On the table down from them are 2 of the local Yorkist peasantry. Dish upon dish of fine medieval food will be bought out by the Lord & Ladies servants (the other students). The food that we use is very 
The Guilds
Plague - the great leveller
Surgery - Blood sucking leeches and amputations
The displays above take from 2 to 2 & a half hours but can be varied slightly in time or subject to suit. Discovering Medieval are hired on a daily basis and we can do a morning and an afternoon session (or 2 morning sessions depending on the structure of your day) although the cost for a half day is however similar to a full day as although there is a couple of hours less work, we can not use the time for another job. The price is dependent on what you are hiring us for, how far we have to travel and how many days you are hiring us for. For most schools the cost should be somewhere between £3.75 and £5.00 per head and to help your funds stretch further you could ask the parents to subsidise the day by donating an amount towards it. In addition you will be saving money and hassle by not having to organise travel to an outside venue. There will usually always be the 2 key members attending and we hire in additional people as we need them, usually where there are over 40 students attending per display, which gives us the benefit of being able to involve larger groups at once but still speak to them on a personal level. We usually work on a ratio of one Discovering Medieval staff member to every 15 to 20 pupils. We provide a fun and interactive learning experience with lots of reproductions of medieval items and our combined experience and knowledge.
What is the maximum number of students per session?
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