Year Seven History and Religious Studies Trip

Following the success of last year’s half-day visits, this year the Philosophy and Religion Department joined together with the History Department to run a full day visit to Worcester Cathedral for all Year Seven pupils. On Monday and Wednesday last week, our pupils enjoyed a guided tour of the Cathedral and three interactive workshops. The activities had a dual focus: firstly, to gain an insight into the Cathedral as a significant and long-standing place of Christian worship and, secondly, to build upon pupils’ knowledge of King John from the History curriculum.

Pupils and staff learned a great deal from the extremely knowledgeable guides, from the tale of Bishop Wulfstan and the goose to the sad story of Arthur, Prince of Wales, who is buried in one of the chantry chapels. Pupils were shown several key features of Cathedral worship and some fortunate volunteers got to model some of the garments worn by the clergy during a service of Holy Communion. In the King John History Hunt workshop, the pupils enjoyed getting up close to John’s tomb and examining the details on the effigy. Other highlights included getting to try on black hoods like those which were worn by Worcester’s Benedictine monks and learning about the interesting and at times disgusting ‘cures’ used for illness and injury during the time of King John.

Once again, it was a pleasure to visit what is, as we were reminded on the visit, ‘our Cathedral’ and we came away with a greater appreciation of its role and history.

Mrs Susanna Soman, Teacher of Philosophy and Religion and Assistant Head of PSHCE