Archaeology in Kent

Archaeology in Kent On the Friday prior to enrichment week, Year 9 went on a history trip to the Centre for Experimental Military Archeology

We departed from school at 06:30 and after a trouble free journey arrived roughly three hours later at our destination in Kent. Upon arrival we were greeted by a range of different people who served in the military and also one of our own teachers, Mr Sadden. During our stay at the centre in the morning we did five different activities in a rotation.

The students were split into five groups where we would take part in different activities: medicine during warfare, weapons and uniform, a quiz on the effects of war on our school, rations and a tour of a recreation of what trenches would have been like in WW1. The main highlights of the sessions were: the close observation of real medical tools used even today in modern warfare, how the food rations were shown to affect the soldiers, we got to experience the sound and witness the firing of real blanks despite it being a little deafening and seeing real weapons of war. Finally, the trench which was just in general interesting and probably due to the fact that it was made to be accurate in all forms as it was the set in a movie.

The activities of the morning were interesting and very intriguing however, due to a positive COVID19 test reported to the school the trip was then suspended. The students that were in close contact with the student were separated and from there the afternoon activity of going to a cemetery didn’t take place. Due to the lack of enough transport some students were made to stay at the centre while we waited for another coach to arrive. We travelled back in separate coaches with some experiencing a much longer journey than others!

For this, I would like to thank all of the teachers that accompanied us on the trip: Miss Bush, Mrs Clay, Miss Jones, Mrs Erricker, Ms Burns, Mr Gillies and Mr Sadden. I would like to thank them for helping all students return to school safely despite the commotion of isolation.

Sophia Cheng