Subjects: Prehistory, Science, D&T, Literacy, History, Art & Design, Music, Numeracy, ICT, Geography, RE, PSHE & Citizenship
Venue: Celtic Harmony Camp, Hertfordshire
Key Stages: 1, 2 & 3
Celtic Harmony is a charity that offer educational sessions inspired by the heritage of ancient Britain, and aims to develop pupils understanding of the natural world by using experiential learning within a real Iron Age settlement.
The charity provides a program of events and archery courses to encourage participation in healthy recreation, and a greater understanding of ancient crafts from archery to storytelling.
Pupils can experience first-hand how the people of the Celtic Iron Age made food, clothes and shelter from the natural environment, whilst protecting natural habitats by harvesting in the traditional way.
Schools can book onto prehistory residential stays, outreach half-day sessions and themed learning days such as a Stone Age, Warrior, Farmer, Chieftain and Hunter Day.
Key Stage 1 itinerary
A typical Key Stage 1 Hunter Day consists of activities like an introduction to face painting in the Roundhouse, den building in the woods, grinding on quern stones, making salt dough arrow heads, hunting and gathering in the forest, trading with Celtic coins and storytelling.
Whereas a morning is more activity based, an afternoon is typically split into two parts. Part one gives students the chance to swap real artefacts whilst roleplaying as Celtic characters, using numerical problem solving in a trading game to barter for goods.
The second part allows pupils to trade with Celtic coins as they swap their pocket money for Catuvellaunni coins to trade for more produce in the shop, where there’s a wide range of heritage produce on sale supporting local craftspeople.
The Hunter Day meets many cross-curricular objectives such as houses and homes, micro-organisms, mental arithmetics, animals and their environment, beliefs and responsibility for the environment.
Key Stage 2 and 3 itinerary
The Chieftain Day, for Key Stages 2 and 3 will help students discover if they have what it takes to lead tribes as they are separated into small clans and complete timed feats to earn gold coins.
The day will consist of team building opportunities such as learning the art of target archery, fire lighting without matches, crafting Tork necklaces, tracking and orienteering, preparing sufficient food to survive as if in the Iron Age and traditional trading and bartering with Celtic coins.
Much like a Key Stage 1 Hunter Day, the afternoon will again be split into two parts and will consist of trading, roleplaying and using numerical problem solving.
Early years options
For early years, younger children can attend a Forest School Day which will consist of multi-sensory activities based on the four elements, using materials found in the woods. These activities vary between an introduction to face paint in the Roundhouse, storytelling and four activities based around Earth, Air, Water and Fire.
Celtic Harmony can also arrange prehistoric days over winter where they will come to a school to help students learn about Key Stage 2 topics such as the study of changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, and subjects such as late Neolithic hunter-gatherers from Key Stage 1.
For more information visit www.celticharmony.org.
