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Viking & Saxon School Visits

Since 1991 members of DAHRG de Belne have been using Arts projects with a historical theme to inspire and motivate children and create links to many areas of the school curriculum. Members  have also organised teacher training sessions (INSET) for several Local Educational Areas and a Jewellery through the ages day for Birmingham Museum School Service.

School visits by a "VIKING" in authentic costume, along with a traveling museum of artefacts has proved extremely attractive especially when compared with the cost of taking children to visit external museums and specialist centres.

As well as the cost incentive, communication and enquiry skills can develop better when pupils can talk with a ``Real Viking,'' as well as touch and handle clothing and other artefacts, often with elements of role play included to emphasise a point.

Slow learners and other special needs children often seem to respond well to the practical nature of a visit. The full day option includes a choice of practical skill bases where children can make their own reproduction artefacts in a choice of ........

Cross Curriculum Links

Wherever possible attention in given to Cross Curriculum
Links and a few examples are given below.

Mathematics: Weaving, money, ship building & navigation.
Science:... Cloth dyeing, leather curing & tanning, metallurgy, pottery, food.
Geography:... Trade routes, battle sites, artefact finds.
English:.. Effects of invasions on place names,  links to words in current English Vocabulary.
Modern foreign languages:... Effects of Old Norse and Anglo Saxon on the international scale.
The arts:... Viking music, development of Viking and Celtic art through the period.
Design and technology:.... Metallurgy in arms and armour, weaving
and clothing design, jewellery making, pottery and ceramics development,
use of computers in archaeology.
Religion:... Norse and Anglo Saxon Gods, Odin Thor etc, links to Christianity.

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