Reviews and Articles

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." John Locke 1632 - 1704: Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690).

Presentation Poster for Year 9 work on how Hitler kept control

by Rosie, Celia and Ellie

Film about the development of penicillin, by Beth, Ollie and Leo

Victorian Dressing up Game by Megan and Kate

$Megan\\\\$

Pearl Harbor by 9EC

Homework activity - "write a folksong to lay out the problems faced by handloom weavers as the machine-age began"

by Alice and Lauren:)

Ohhhhhhh, I'm a hand-weaver and I don't have much pay,

To support my family I need more than a minimum waaaaaage.

My pockets are empty - please fill them with dosh,

Somehow I need some real good nosh.

Machines are taking over, taking over our jobs,

We want the same wages as carpenter Bob,

We'll rise and we'll riot till you give us more,

Or we'll just keep a-throwing big rocks at your door!

We have flint and kindling to strike up a fire,

We'll burn down your houses you selfish, fat liars,

We're not joking, Mill Owners, or pulling your leg,

So give back our business before we drop deaaaaaad.

King Tutankhamun Exhibition and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.

by Clarissa Ingram

Our journey started in Warwickshire, during the summer holidays. We caught the 9 o’clock train to London. Once in London we travelled on the underground and Thames Clipper to the O2 Arena, where King Tutankhamun’s most treasured possessions were displayed. Everything in the exhibition was Black and Gold, the theme was carried throughout. Beautiful, detailed sculptures and ancient manuscripts, you can just imagine the history behind each artefact. There were more than 130 extraordinary artefacts from King Tut’s tomb and other ancient Egyptian artefacts, including over 50 of his burial objects, including his royal diadem and one of the four gold and precious stone inlaid Canopic coffinates contained his mummified internal organs. The display was magnificent, with intricate detail to every object, with tiny hieroglyphics each one carved by a skilful tradesman.

We learnt many gruesome details of how the pharaohs and Egyptians were mummified and how their internal organs were extracted from their dead bodies. In a 3-D film we watched as scientists did research on an ancient Egyptian mummy and took DNA samples then created their own modern mummy and followed the same procedure as the ancient Egyptians used.

Unfortunately, King Tutankhamun’s corpse was too fragile to be moved from one place to another, therefore his body and sarcophagus are still in Cairo in his tomb; at the end of the tour there was an electric tour to allow you to look at his tomb in Cairo through a web camera. However there was one of his relatives in their mummified state inside a beautifully crafted Sarcophagus inscribed with gold hieroglyphics, pictured on the right. You can see behind her sarcophagus the beautiful golden artefacts that stand out in the darkness of the room.

There were several rooms displaying the history of Egypt and how King Tut came to the throne and how he became so popular with his subjects due to him restoring all the traditional faiths and beliefs in different Gods that his fore-fathers demolished the belief of. King Tut even changed his name to Tutenkhamun, “amun” being the name of a deity in Egyptian Mythology. His original name, Tutankhaten, means "Living Image of Aten", while Tutankhamun means "Living Image of Amun". This showed his loyalty to the Gods and his people.

We learnt of Howard Carter’s discovery and how he came to be famous for his findings, which marked a very important milestone for History and for finding about what life, was like during that era. Howard helped in our understanding of the treatment of pharaohs and the dead. It was truly a fantastic day - not only did we see the sights of London but we saw a major part of the history of Egypt and one of the greatest pharaohs to roam the Earth. It is definitely worth seeing the exhibition, as it’s an interesting experience I’ll never forget.

History Report

By Jake Maclachlan

I really enjoyed the arms and armour lesson. At the beginning we started to look at arrow heads and their design. If an arrow went into you it would be hard to get it back out. We then looked at the Bayeaux Tapestry and learnt about what happened to Harold Godwineson. Some people think he was killed by a sword but others think he died because he got an arrow through his eye. This is partly because of a picture in the Bayeaux Tapestry which shows a man with an arrow in his eye with Harold's name over the top of it, and another man next to it with "is killed" above it. It could have been either way, but he would have needed to change his socks because in the pictures his socks are different colours.

We then looked at spears and axes and how they were quite expensive to make. Because the Vikings only had about two throwing axes they would need to retrieve them after they were thrown. Then we were told that the Vikings did not have the horned hats that everyone thought they had. We looked at two helmets and some (chain) mail. Mrs. Edge put a cricket pad on the table and hit it hard with an axe. All that happened was that the front was cut a bit but it didn't go through, because padded cloth makes good armour.

    Diana and Tom were chosen by Mrs. Edge to dress up in the armour and padding. She then tested the helmets by using an arrow to show which gave most protection. One of the helmets was made of separate bits of metal and that meant an arrow could stick and go through more easily, but the other one was made of just one piece of metal and that meant it would just slide off. Everyone wanted to take pictures of Diana but she wouldn't let them.

    The armour was passed around the tables so we could see how heavy it was and what it felt like. It was quite heavy and Mrs. Edge told us about her friend who spent months making a whole shirt of mail and how he went a bit crazy and dreamed he was drowning in a bowl of hula hoops. Micheal really wanted to hold a mace which was a bit scary. We also looked at swords and what kinds of swords different people would have used like kings and ordinary soldiers. The king's swords looked really nice because they were made of a mixture of bits of iron and steel made into a pattern.

My thanks to prefects Joey Davies and Nancy Hewitt without whose help it would have been difficult to offer the arms and armour lesson to Year 7 classes - ed.

Book Review
C.J. Sansom - Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign and Revelation
Pan Books 2004-7
sovereign novel

Sansom pursued careers as an historian and a solicitor before he wrote this series of "detective" novels set in the England of Henry VIII's reign, and his in depth knowledge of both Tudor times and the Law make these books a very convincing and entertaining read. The main character is a hunchback property lawyer based at the Inns of Court and Chancery Lane in London, whose wish is a quiet life, but whose former friendship with Thomas Cromwell during his student days means that he keeps being called upon to conduct covert investigations - work he finds dangerous rather than exciting. Rather like Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, he can be somewhat melancholy and is keenly intelligent. He is also a very sympathetic character, because he has been mocked all his life for his disability and can therefore understand the suffering of others. He is accompanied by a gutter-snipe made good, Jack Barak, the son of a Jewish cess-pit clearer, who knows London's underworld and can handle himself in a fight.
The plots take the reader from Kent to York and impact upon both beggars and the infamous names of the age such as Sir Richard Rich and Lady Rochford, as well as those attainted for treason - Richard Aske and poor, silly Catherine Howard. I found the books difficult to put down, so it was lucky I read them in the summer holiday, or I would not now be getting much work done. I thoroughly recommend them to anybody interested in a good murder story, or in the social upheavals of Henrican England - or indeed, both.