Year 4 had an exciting day out at St Albans Cathedral, as part of our History topic ‘Turning points in time’. We have been finding out all about the history of the Cathedral and how it has changed over time.
We learnt about the monastery that was attached to the Church and found out about some of the jobs that the monks did. Some of the monks worked in the scriptorium, copying out religious texts and creating ‘illuminated letters. The children all dressed as monks and had a go at creating their own illuminated letters. They had to work in silence and did an amazing job! When we put the letters together, they spelt out the words ‘Saint Alban’.
We learnt that the church was first built on the site where Saint Alban was martyred and we visited the shrine of Saint Alban.
We learnt about the ‘Dissolution of the monasteries’, which happened during the reign of King Henry VIII. We learnt that one of the reasons why Henry didn’t want the church to be ruled by the pope, was so that he could be divorced from the first of his six wives. We acted out what happened during this time, dressing up as the Abbott and the monks that lived there at the time.
We learnt such a lot and the children were really respectful throughout the day. We would like to thank all of the parent volunteers who gave up their time to come with us and to make the day such a success.