Latin students explore Roman baths
The Year 8 and 9 Latin students recently set out via Watling Street and Fosse Way to the Jewry Wall Museum in Leicester. This museum incorporates the 2nd century AD Roman baths complex which served the people living in the town of Ratae Corieltauvorum (Ratae for short).
Our first activity was an artefact handling session where we matched up Roman objects with their modern-day equivalents, decided whether other artefacts were Roman or replicas, and explored what a third group of artefacts were used for.
That was followed by a tour of the Roman baths remains outside, where we could see in real life the various sections of the baths complexes that Year 8 have just been learning about in our Suburani Latin course.
After lunch, we watched a short immersive film about Marcellus, an 11-year old living in 2nd century AD Ratae with his family and dog, Ferox. That led into the exhibition section of the museum where students enjoyed the interactive activities, including matching Roman archaelogical finds from Ratae with their places of origin across the Roman Empire, creating virtual dishes for a feast, designing mosaics, and even dressing up as Romans!
Chapters 7 to 10 of our Suburani Latin course are set in Roman Britain, so our visit brought to life what we have been learning in lessons.
All of our students were a delight: attentive and engaged, showing polite and mature behaviour throughout the visit and Mme Smith and I were very proud of them. We plan to return to Leicester with next year’s Year 7 and 8 Latin classes.
Mrs Albans
