Last week, students in Upper 3 had a combined History and Design interdisciplinary lesson where they studied the longbow from the middle ages and learned what an incredible weapon it was. Students looked at how traditional bows were made from yew because of the structural properties of the heartwood and sapwood of this species of tree. They had to consider forces, trajectory and even how the musculoskeletal frame of archers changed as their bodies adapted to the huge draw weights of the longbow. After the theory lesson, the girls then had the opportunity to actually try out a full size longbow with real arrows; it was a bow-tiful day for some archery and not too arrowing for the girls!
Mr Morris saw the return of the TH target shooting competition in which the girls had to try to hit a target which proved far more difficult than it seemed. The girls also learned how a trebuchet worked and experimented with using different size counterweights to make the projectile go further. They also had the opportunity to study a siege tower by looking at our scale model with a working drawbridge. There was of course medieval mead (non-alcoholic) and authentic medieval recipe honey biscuits to sample whilst listening to the sounds of a medieval band.
Thanks go to Mr Morris and the design department for offering this unique learning experience.
