As you’ll know, Stonehenge didn’t exist in splendid isolation but was part of an extraordinary complex of monuments ranging in size from just a few posts in the ground to a ‘super-henge’ 500m in diameter. This workshop introduces Key Stage 2 children to some of the key monuments including Stonehenge itself. Among the monuments we explore are Durrington Walls, the Greater Cursus and Amesbury 42 long barrow. These date to the Neolithic period and I was fortunate to be part of t

It has been really busy of late, but we thought we’d share with you the fantastic time we had with the children of Class 5 at Taxal & Fernilee Primary School in Whaley Bridge. We’d been invited by their teacher Mr Darley to do a workshop as part of the children’s history theme  – Ancient Mesopotamia. They had been reading the fantastic Varjak Paw books which had given them quite a bit of background information on Ancient Mesopotamia, and Mr Darley told us they were really exc

Well its been another busy week here at Enrichment with KS2 workshops in Halifax and more locally – at the school where three of my lovely children go, and there was no favouritism asked for or given before you ask! My first workshop was at Christ Church CofE Junior School in Sowerby Bridge, W Yorks. As part of their ‘History Week’ I was asked to deliver a full day of activities for the whole school, which included excavation workshops with me and a range of teacher-led activ

KS3 at Thomas Middlecott Academy in Kirton, Lincs get to grips with archaeology! Yesterday Enrichment, in the form of Ian and I, were at Thomas Middlecott Academy in Kirton (Lincs) where we took part in their Enrichment Week. We ran a total of 8 workshops between us during the day covering a range of archaeological skills – some of which the children didn’t know they already had! We worked on excavation, drawing and photography, aretfact analysis and that old favourite strati

I was privileged enough to be invited to take part in the Year 9 Classics Day at Loughborough High School. Designed to encourage the girls to think about the relevance of Classics beyond the classroom and to try to promote the three Classical subjects (Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation) that they offer at GCSE, the day involved a number of workshops focusing on different ways of engaging with the Classical World. Alongside in-house workshops and one delivered by Sonya Nevi

What a wonderful day we had in Cheshire! Armed with our trenches, tools and artefacts, Dr Ian Parker Heath (trusty archaeologist husband and colleague) and I, made our acquaintance with Lower KS 2 at Offley Primary School in Sandbach. We explored prehistory from the Palaeolithic to the coming of the Romans, covering what the new primary history curriculum calls ‘Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’. After ‘training’ to get the children thinking like archaeol

After delivering a workshop covering the Stone Age to Iron Age to Y4s at St Andrews CE Primary School in Levenshulme in October, the beginning of 2015 saw me returning to delve deeper into the Stone Age with Y3s. The second visit saw me ensconced in a brand new ‘dance studio’, which proved to be the perfect place for our excavations of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Animal bones, charcoal, waste flakes and artefacts of each period (with ‘toolkits’ provided by the

Y3s at Aughton St Michaels CE Primary School in Ormskirk became archaeologists for the morning when they excavated artefacts from the Stone Age. Over three hours, the children were ‘trained’ to become archaeologists, to think like archaeologists and to understand how we excavate. Armed with these skills, they dug up objects from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic and analysed what they had found, thinking about what objects can tell us about how people lived in the pa

I love delivering Archaeology Days, because Archaeology Days allow time for me to really develop children’s interest and enable them to progress from one activity to another. Hopefully, by the end of the day they leave for home with a good grasp of what archaeology is, what it sets out to achieve and some information about the period they are studying, as well as smiling faces at a day well spent! One such day was had at Garstang Community Primary School in Lancashire, when w

After being invited back for the third year in a row, we are top news story on the Derby High School Website! Read all about it! http://www.derbyhigh.derby.sch.uk/ #workshop #excavation #school #KS3amp4 #artefact #stratigraphy #education #Archaeology #timeline #dig

I’m pleased to announce that over the past few weeks I have delivered my first archaeology workshops relating directly to the new primary history curriculum – namely “changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age” a.k.a. prehistory. Two of these covered the whole of prehistory – an overview from the Palaeolithic to the end of the Iron Age – one over a whole day, the other over an afternoon. That was some feat I can tell you! Of course, we couldn’t cover everything in

It was up to County Durham that I travelled last week, to meet the time detectives of The Links Primary School in Stockton-on-Tees, and what fantastic time detectives they were! I really love what I do and to hear the comments from the teachers that suggest they and their pupils love it as much as I do – well, there’s nothing better! This is what Miss Daly, one of the teachers involved, wrote to me regarding the presentation of the workshop: “Children warmed to you straight a

I had a brilliant time recently at St John’s Primary School in Sandbach Heath.  I was thrilled by the sea of eager faces grinning up at me as I explained how archaeology was “rubbish” and demonstrated how archaeologists excavate artefacts. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, but I am repeatedly amazed at how children as young as 5 and 6 years old can engage with the subject of archaeology and contribute so thoughtfully to the workshops. I could tell you all about it

What a great day we had at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School in Doncaster! Recently back from excavating in Egypt ;-), Dr Catherine and Dr Ian  were keen to train a new generation of archaeologists and Egyptologists.  Starting with training in how archaeologists think and analyse evidence, followed by an activity teaching how archaeologists go about dating artefacts, the ‘trainees’ were soon ready to dig up Ancient Egyptian artefacts themselves. The training mu

Well, ok, this workshop took place way back in September 2013, but I now have some photos to share with you and have a found a few minutes to sit down and write about it! The workshop, designed to support the Y9s topic on the Trojan War, followed much the same format as the previous year (see The Trojan War at Derby High School:  The day began with the aim of introducing archaeology and the way archaeologists think with two activities – Archaeology is Rubbish and Archaeologis

Below is the edited transcript of a presentation I gave at Dearne Valley Archaeology Day in 2012.  I’ve also uploaded it as a PDF document onto Academia.edu. Children, Archaeology and Unexpected Interpretations The Teletubby House I recently read a book, Unquiet Pasts (Koerner & Russell 2010), which focussed on how different people engage with and use archaeology and heritage in today’s world.  In a chapter discussing a long term project involving children in archaeology, Tho

This was the conclusion of the girls at Northampton High School! Let me tell you a little more about it… Thursday 14th November saw me and fellow archaeologist Ian, travelling down to Northampton to deliver an Archaeology day to KS1 and KS2 pupils at Northampton High School. (Ian also happens to be my husband – for those of you who didn’t know). Despite the dreaded traffic on the M1 and an accident near Watford Gap attempting to scupper our efforts to get there, we were able

I returned to St Richard’s Primary School in Atherton last week to deliver an Anglo-Saxon archaeology workshop. After training the children how to think like archaeologists and helping them to understand concepts such as stratigraphy through a variety of activities, we began to excavate a range of Anglo-Saxon objects. After closely analysing our finds, ranging from pottery and animal bones to spearheads and jewellery, we were able to show each other what we had found.  We eve

For the past few days, my house and garden has looked rather like a Samian Ware factory… For those of you who don’t know, Samian Ware is a distinctive type of pottery used across the Roman Empire. Its other name is Terra Sigillata and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it is only British archaeologists that use the term Samian Ware.  Why? Well, I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, the pottery is a glossy red slip-ware, sometimes plain but also decorated, and was used as tablewar

Recently, I was asked to work with a Y5 class at The Croft Primary School in Armitage, Rugeley, whose current topic was ‘Treasure Island’.  As the school is only approximately 8 miles from where the Staffordshire Hoard was found, they had looked at this archaeological treasure quite closely and were now interested in finding out more about archaeology. Of course I said ‘yes’ to working with them, but didn’t want to encourage a belief that archaeology is all about finding trea