If you’d like to take a trip through time, then let me recommend a visit to Penshurst Place in Kent. The Year 8 Historians went on Tuesday to support their study of Early Modern England, and were able to see for themselves the rooms that Elizabeth I walked through when she visited her friends, the Sidneys, who acquired the estate from the Crown in 1552. The upholstered furniture in the Queen Elizabeth Room generated questions from the girls, and strolling down the Long Gallery, where the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall was filmed, immersed us all in the spirit of the 16th century.
But they also could revisit their knowledge of Medieval England in the Baron’s Hall, where the striking chestnut ceiling, 60 feet high and 65 feet across, appears to be held up by 14th century workers from the estate! Our guided tour ended in the Victorian kitchen, which gave the girls a foretaste of the modern era that they will be moving on to in their studies in History in Year 9.
We are keen to explore links between subjects at FHS, and so we sketched in the stunning gardens in the afternoon, with Mr Edes, the Head of Art, joining us by video message – such are the wonders of technology! He reminded us not to try to do everything, and this was good advice with 48 acres of grounds around us, but to zoom into a detail, a flower, brickwork, a plant, and to create a sketch which could later become a lovely study with colour.
Every good day out ends with an ice cream, and the Year 8s thoroughly deserved their refreshments after their concentration and hard work.
Miss Boon, History Teacher
