Farlington School experiences Tudor life

The court is a beautiful Tudor manor house and was once the home of a powerful Tudor family. It now offers children the opportunity to experience Tudor life.

The girls took part in several different activities from designing Tudor boats to trying on Tudor costumes.

Building a model galleon was great fun for the pupils.

The boats looked fantastic and were all able to set sail.

Pupils spent a morning in the cookery room preparing Tudor gingerbread, knot biscuits and custard tarts, followed by weaving and candle making.

Prep 5 then experienced a Tudor classroom: they chanted Latin verbs and learned how to write with a quill.

One of the most popular activities was trying on Tudor costumes.

Tudor dancing lessons were also on the agenda and the girls were put through their paces, learning that a ‘brawl’ was a type of dance.

The highlight of the visit was the Tudor banquet.

Everyone, including the staff, looked magnificent in their Tudor costumes as they paraded into the banquet.

The food was delicious and pupils and staff tasted the latest new world vegetable - a ‘solanum tuberosa’ (potato).

Good manners in Tudor times were very important and, unfortunately, two members of the party were beheaded, as they upset the royal guests, but luckily their identical twin sisters were able to take their places at the banquet.

A murder mystery took place later that evening and the girls solved clues and investigated witness statements to find the killer.

Before coming to Hooke Court the girls had raised money for Hooke Court in Malawi, a charity which supports schools in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Farlington School was delighted to present a cheque and several boxes of mathematics equipment to Sarah McConnell at Hooke Court.

The pupils got to see all the donations being loaded into the container ready to be shipped out to Malawi.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time at Hooke Court and the competition to have the tidiest dorm was fierce. The pupils returned home tired but having had a memorable experience.