Springfield pupils learn from their mummies on British Museum trip

Year Five pupils at Springfield came face to face with ancient history recently when they visited the British Museum’s world renowned Egyptian collection as part of the studies into the ancient civilisations of Sumeria and Egypt.

The Museum has one of the world’s most highly regarded collections of Egyptian artefacts, and the students got to see the very best of it, observing death masks, sarcophagi, artefacts, jewellery and even mummified bodies thousands of years old.

“Ancient Egypt is always one of the most fascinating and popular elements to the history curriculum, but seeing these genuine items first hand transforms the pupils’ level of engagement and appreciation of the subject,” said Mr Chris Gough (Year 5 teacher), who ran the trip. “The whole topic of mummification and preparation for the next world is particularly interesting – some of the mummies still even had some of their own hair. It’s ironic that seeing so many things associated with death have actually helped bring the subject to life in a way that no number of text books, pictures or DVDs can possibly do.”

Mr Gough said the feedback he had received from the pupils had shown that they were genuinely inspired by the trip, and that despite the heat and traffic of central London on one of the hottest days of the year, it had been worth the effort. “History may be the study of the past, but there are so many ways that you can make it live, and the British Museum is one of the very best places at doing that,” he added. “They’ve told me how much they loved it, and I can see it in their work.”