A day of swashbuckling adventure for Year 4 at Ufton Court

Year 4 made an intrepid journey to Ufton Court, a beautiful Elizabethan manor in the Berkshire countryside, for their Tudor Explorers Day.

The whole day brought our topic alive and the children left excited and exhausted after such an active day. They began by looking at the timeline of Francis Drake’s life, which was full of pirateering, battles, disease, trading and discovery. Having ‘applied’ for a job on the ship, the children set sail outside in their galleons (created with pride from three wooden poles, string and sails) on a journey of discovery and raiding through the Americas, to Asia and Africa before returning back to Plymouth, their ships laden with new-found treasures, and stolen cargo. The ships’ crews handed their precious goods to Queen Elizabeth I (regally portrayed by Rosie S).

The children also had the opportunity to examine famous portraits and discuss their clothes, posture and the message of the paintings, as well as cutting their own quills and writing a letter home from their voyage.

The children were excellent company all day and we were so impressed by the level of their thinking and questioning.

Click here to see the photographs in our flickr album