Last week, students in Upper 3 had a combined History and Design interdisciplinary lesson. 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.
We saw the return of our TH target shooting competition in which the girls had to try to hit a target, which proved far more difficult than it seemed. Incredibly, the final arrow of the day fired by Healey in U33P hit the bullseye which meant she was crowned champion archer of the day. 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.
A fantastic day. I – Mr Morris – bid thee farewell.
