Year 3 were spirited back to Ancient Greece, for a memorable day of physical challenges, mental puzzles and cunning military tactics.

Theo, who was adopting his Greek name as our guide for the day, introduced the theme for the children and gave them some background on the Ancient Greeks, their culture and their way of life. We then split into two groups, with half taking a quiz all about Ancient Greece with their new knowledge and the other half becoming engineers and trying to solve Archimedes’ puzzle!

Next, we put on our dramatic hats to learn about Greek theatre, through the medium of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. There was more comedy than tragedy and nobody actually got gored, so we just had time to fit in a quick Greek game before lunch.

In the afternoon, Theo showed the group examples of Greek warfare weapons and armour and explained some of the tactics the soldiers used to look taller and more mighty – fringes on their helmets increased their height and a rather aspirational 12-pack rippled across their body armour breast-plates, giving the appearance of might and muscle. He explained how the fringing on the skirts was designed to stop a sword cutting through the thigh muscles but still allow mobility, and he gave us the low down on all the psychological tricks they devised in battle to help conquer their foes.

We enjoyed marching in formation like Greek soldiers and what better peak to any day than to act out our own mini-Olympics? We learned a huge amount and had a lot of fun, in true Grecian fashion.