Today, Year 4 got a true taste of Roman army life, with Marcus Quintonius, a high ranking legionnaire, visiting Penpol Year 4 children for the day.  Focussing on the Roman invasion of Britannia, students came into school armed with shields, swords and Roman legion attire, ready to join forces with the impressive Roman army.

To begin with, the Year group were greeted with Roman army commands: Consiste! (Halt!), Laxate (at ease), silentiurm! (Silence!) and Sin/ Dex (Left/ Right!), which would come in hand later on in the day.

Next, both classes were thrown into the melee and had to use their best codebreaking skills in order to crack a hidden location written by the emperor himself, Julius Caesar.  The hidden message revealed one of Rome’s greatest engineering feats in the Roman empire – Hadrian’s Wall.

“I loved using my knowledge of Roman numerals to crack the code.”  Joseph, Class 9

Next up, both classes got to play some classic Roman games, such as Rummy and Hadrian’s Wall card game.  The atmosphere in both classes was as if you had walked into a Roman army barracks in the evening!

The grand finale, however, had to be experiencing what it was like to march like a Roman.  Led by Roman Legionary Marcus’ booming commands, Classes’ 9 and 10 both marched up and down the playground, to embed their understanding of Roman commands.  Next, the students practised forming the defence shape, which is the ‘testudo’, or the tortoise.  This proved an effective barrier against incoming missiles aimed by the teachers.

All in all, the children had an excellent day immersing themselves in the Roman life and learning first hand how the Roman army worked.