Times change for students

CRANBOURNE Secondary College students experienced first-hand a world of jousting and chain mail this week.
The school’s year eights participated in all sorts of medieval activities on Monday and Tuesday as part of their school curriculum studying medieval history.
Humanities coordinator Erica Sherlock said the activities, run by medieval education company Days of Knights, gave the kids a hands-on experience of how life would have been like in medieval times 600 years ago. Activities included learning medieval dances, writing with a quill, making chain mail, spinning wool, taking part in peasant games and watching tourney combat.
Ms Sherlock said the students learnt what was different from today, for example most people didn’t go to school and therefore could not read or write, and what was similar, such as trades.
“They loved it, they really enjoyed throwing themselves into it and not having to just sit and listen to it,” she said. “It was a really good practical thing to do – real life stuff. It’s much easier to step into the medieval shoes rather than just learn about it and they seemed to be having a ball.”
Ms Sherlock said they were particularly excited about watching the jousting by the professionals.
“They used real swords and said they came away with quite a few bruises.”