Jorvik Viking Centre

As part of our summer topic, Year 4 have been looking at the role of the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings in Britain. In order to really understand daily life of the Vikings we had the opportunity to visit the JORVIK Viking centre in York.

During our visit, we worked with a modern day Viking witch, who was very convincing! She shared some examples of Viking costume with us and some children even got the chance to take on the role of a Viking noble or slave.  We got to see first-hand what a Viking would have looked like during their time in Britain and learnt all about the different weapons they carried, what they represented and how they were used. The shield really came in handy when the Viking witch showed us how the hook axe works.

We travelled through time back at the JORVIK centre, where we stood on the remains of a 1000 year old Viking house excavated by the archaeologists at York. The remains showed us just how small the houses were and our Viking guide explained that there could be up to 14 people sharing one house; without any beds! After that, we entered a ride and took a tour through a Viking town recreated by the archaeologists based on what they found during their dig.  During the ride we saw different Vikings at work; we could smell the fire from the forge, the stew from the houses and even saw the old man on the toilet.

Our Viking guide showed us some famous discoveries under the microscope and we had a chance to explore the JORVIK museum in more detail. 

Throughout the day we had the chance to ask lots of different questions to the various Vikings and learned about how different life would have been during this time in Britain. 

Everyone who came on the trip thoroughly enjoyed their day and were well impressed with the children’s behaviour.  All staff were proud of everyone and their attitude towards learning during the day. A great success!!