Twelve Yr 8 students took a trip to Bethlem Museum of the Mind to further explore psychiatry in the Victorian and early modern period. Yr8 have spent this half term learning about how attitudes to mental health have changed over the last 300 years.

Here's what some of the students had to say about the trip...

Saheba said:

"On Wednesday 1st December, Mr Perkins and Miss Kaur organised a trip to Bethlem Museum of the Mind in Wickenham. The trip taught me so much! As a group of 12 we ventured off in hope of knowledge and that is exactly what we gained. The experience was unforgettable. When we entered we were greeted by the statues of Raving and Melancholy Madness (the two main mental illness classification types at the time) We studied and analysed documents written by doctors, that were kept by the hard-working informative archivists there. We completed true or false questions that grew our wider knowledge on the way patients were treated in the asylums situated inside and on the outskirts of London. We learnt and got the once in a lifetime chance to study and look at equipment used at the asylum, used for confinement, hobbies, the kitchen and the laboratory. Did you know people of the upper class could pay to come and “entertain” themselves by walking through the hospital wards? Overall we learnt so much and it was a privilege to go on this trip!"

Sarina said:

"I enjoyed the trip because it was really informative and we were able to learn more context about this term’s topic. We were able to explore both together and by ourselves. There were really helpful guides who shared the history behind mental illness and the hospital then quizzed us on it. We were able to interact with appliances used in the past. We scanned through real archive books of the mental hospital. It was fun as well as educational."

Sukhraj said:

"I was given the opportunity to go on a trip to the Bethlem Museum. I think everyone who went was in agreement of how interesting the site was. During the visit we were given many fun activities to do and were shown around all their exhibits. Our time at the museum was divided between a brief history of the building(s) and how it accepted all kinds of people. We also got to look at archives holding hundreds of accounts from doctors to do with certain patients as we had to find out about their visit and what was ‘said’ to be wrong with them. I enjoyed the trip as it was a nice experience and it links with our current topic on mental health throughout the c.1700-c.1900 which was very helpful with our next few history lessons. We all were very happy and glad that the history department had put this together. The museum's hosts were very kind and open to all questions making our visit 10 times better."