Sapphire’s trip to Caerleon by Remus and Freddie Y4
On Friday 15th May 2026, the whole of Y3/4 set off to Wales for our Roman trip. When we arrived, we walked to the Roman Gallery where we met a museum guide who took us to the museum and showed us so many different things. The first thing he showed us was a mosaic floor that had been discovered underneath the church floor. Whilst some of us went around the museum to see what else had been dug up, the rest of us went into the barrack rooms where we got to wear replica (child sized) armour. We soon realised that you would’ve needed a lot of strength to walk around in all day because you would’ve also needed to have carried your kit bag, weapons and a huge shield. In the museum, there were lots of artefacts including, coins, gems, pottery, helmets and even the remains of a Roman soldier in his coffin!
We learnt some Latin phrases including constiti which means stop, sin for left and dex for right for when we marched and testudo which was one of the formations in battle which basically means tortoise shell.
After the museum, we went to the Roman baths where we saw a hologram of Romans swimming in one of the baths. We also saw replica artefacts including the sponge on a stick, hygiene kit, sandals and oil lamps. We learnt how Romans would relax after having a swim/bath.
The final part of the day was cool. We went to see the remains of the barracks where the Roman soldiers would’ve been based. Nearly 5000 soldiers were based at the fortress at the height of the Roman Empire! We ended the trip by playing in the amphitheatre which was huge! We could imagine what it would’ve been like for the Roman soldiers who would’ve trained there.
Our trip to Caerleon by Oscar and Miles Y3
Our favourite bit was visiting the amphitheatre. It was so cool to see where the soldiers would’ve fought and trained. There were 2 huge slopes facing each other which we think for where the gladiators and soldiers would’ve entered. We also think that they had animal fights like bear vs bear in the arena too.
One of the other fun things to do was trying on the Roman armour. We wore helmets too and then picked up some fake food like carrots and pretended they were our weapons! We also saw a replica room which was made to look like a bedroom that the Roman soldiers would’ve slept in. Each room slept 8 as it had 4 bunk beds.
The Roman baths were really cool because they had a projector to make it look like people were swimming in them. We also saw how the Romans would’ve heated the floors up by using underfloor heating! We learnt that during the digging up of the remains, archaeologists discovered hundreds of gemstones that had fallen off the Romans who swam in the baths. These gemstones were put in the museum in cabinets for visitors to see close up.
In the museum, there were lots of examples of the weapons the Romans used like javelins, spears, swords and pickaxes. There was a coffin that had the skeletal remains of a Roman soldier who the archaeologists thought would’ve been 40-45 years old.
The Romans didn’t have banks, but they did have pots like piggy banks to keep their money in and one of the pots discovered had roughly 500 silver coins in it!
We loved being trained up as Roman soldiers. We had to learn how to walk in formation, then charge in formation and finally try out different positions like the testudo which is where you form a tortoise shell to protect the soldiers from being attacked from above. This was not always a good formation because you could still be attacked from the sides. We also learnt the orbit formation which was where the soldiers formed a circle to attack from while protecting whoever was in the centre of the circle.
