Year 7 History Trip to Portsmouth

Shackles, guns and smoke - were just a taste of the things to come as the Year 7s explored the naval dockyard in Portsmouth. To support learning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Napoleonic Wars, the children spent the day exploring this truly historic dockyard. This was a fantastic opportunity to bring ‘history to life’.

Navigating through decks, only 1.5 metres high and clambering up and down stepladders throughout the HMS Victory, proved a challenge for some of our taller children! However, they all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and many were confident that they could have survived life on the HMS Victory. I guess it helped that the ship was secure in a dry-dock!

This tour, on the pride of the British fleet, enabled the children to become totally immersed in late 18th and 19th century naval life and helped them gain a real understanding of warfare during the period.

The workshop at the Museum of the Royal Navy was both informative and sobering – the children had the opportunity to see and handle a number of objects that were actually used in the Slave Trade. The shackles and cat’s tail whip were particularly poignant. This was no doubt a lesson that really brought home the horrors of the slave trade.

After a picnic-style lunch, we had just enough time to blitz through the war museum, which was full of model ships and artefacts from both Nelson’s life and the Royal Navy. The children were outstanding ambassadors for the school and many a passer-by commented favourably on the behaviour of our children. They were all great company and they no doubt benefitted from experiencing history in the flesh!

Mr Capozzoli
Head of History

“We spent and exciting and fascinating day discovering new facts about the Slave Trade and life on-board HMS Victory. It was amazing to see the ship in real life and learn the story about how Lord Nelson heroically led our sailors to victory over the French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar! We also learnt that history is all about perspectives and this can influence how we look back in history. Trafalgar is very different from a Spanish viewpoint than a British one!” Laila, Ella and Cecily.

Click here to see the photo album of the history trip in Flickr.