This week, Year 4 went to visit the famous Hampton Court Palace which was once the home of Henry VIII. We have been learning all about the Tudors as part of our History topic this term.
We started our day by walking to the tube and changing at Waterloo for the train out to Hampton Court. On the train, we had our snacks and played some games to help pass the journey time. Once we arrived, we walked up the palace gates and started our trail to find out lots of interesting information in King Henry VIII apartments. We started by watching a short film which detailed all about his life with his six wives and children. We then explored the Great Hall in which Henry VIII would eat his meals and host banquets for his royal staff and sat in the Council Chambers where deep discussions would be had about key topics. We even got to look at King Henry VIII’s crown in the vast and beautiful chapel in which we had to walk around in silence as a mark of respect. By then we were very hungry so we decided to enjoy the sun and eat our lunch outside in one of the beautiful gardens. It made a nice change from the normal loudness of the lunch hall!
After lunch, we made our way over to the famous Hampton Court maze and had a go at trying to find the middle. Some of us managed to do so before we had to speed off to our workshop all about the Tudor palace and trade. We were met by Best (no lies, that was her name) who was our guide into everything Tudor trade related. We started off by understanding why the Tudors had to trade different things and what types of transport they would use to do that. Best took us on a tour of the palace whilst she detailed all about the vast places in which the Tudor would want to trade things from such as nutmeg, cinnamon and tobacco. We ended our workshop by studying a world map which showed all the trade ship routes from around the world.
Lastly, we made our way back to the station to head back to school. Lots of us were very tired from all that walking so it was nice to sit down for a bit whilst we looked at the London skyline as it got busier before we arrived back at Waterloo.
Year 4, what was your favourite part of our trip to Hampton Court?
My favourite part of the trip was watching the short film about King Henry VIII. I also really liked doing the maze as well even though it was in the sun I was running everywhere and I kept on going in the same path.😂😂