6.ROME AND BRITAIN
6.ROME AND BRITAIN
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In this exploration of Roman life in Britain, Italy, and across the Roman Empire, pupils engage with the latest academic research and archaeological discoveries to uncover a civilisation that may appear familiar, but operated according to very different values and ways of life. Through interactive lessons and creative workshops, the sessions explore housing, public buildings, and everyday life, showing how Roman architecture, art, and domestic spaces reflected status, innovation, and cultural exchange across the Empire.
In this exploration of Roman life in Britain, Italy, and across the Roman Empire, pupils engage with the latest academic research and archaeological discoveries to uncover a civilisation that may appear familiar, but operated according to very different values and ways of life. Through interactive lessons and creative workshops, the sessions explore housing, public buildings, and everyday life, showing how Roman architecture, art, and domestic spaces reflected status, innovation, and cultural exchange across the Empire.
KEY
Session 1.1 Carefully designed sessions led by academics experienced in bringing the latest research into the classroom. Available in person or online.
Workshop 1.1 Hands-on workshops that engage pupils in experimental archaeology, designed to help them test hypotheses, explore processes, and evaluate evidence. Available only in person.
6.1 - A Day in Roman Life
6.1 - A Day in Roman Life
One of our most popular sessions, this lesson on everyday life in ancient Rome invites pupils to explore what it was like to live as an ordinary Roman citizen, child, or enslaved person. Through an interactive, story-led approach, pupils follow a typical day from sunrise to sunset, learning about meals, markets, schools, religion, work, hygiene, and leisure. Using replica artefacts and written sources, pupils compare Roman routines with their own daily lives, developing historical empathy and a deeper understanding of life in the past.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
6.2 - Living in a Roman House
6.2 - Living in a Roman House
This lesson on Roman housing invites pupils to explore how architecture and decoration reflected daily life, social status, and Roman values by comparing the elegant domus (townhouse) with the more crowded insula (apartment block). Pupils examine replica artefacts, images of wall paintings and mosaics alongside floor plans and digital reconstructions, to understand how Romans lived, worked, and socialised in homes shaped by wealth and class.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
This AI generate image is for illustration purposes to reflect the nature of the workhsop offered.
6.3 - Colours in stone: Roman mosaics
6.3 - Colours in stone: Roman mosaics
In this hands-on workshop, pupils design and create their own Roman-style mosaic tiles, inspired by real mosaic patterns from Pompeii. As they work, pupils explore how Romans used images, symbols, and repeated designs to communicate ideas about status, taste, and identity within homes and public spaces. The workshop introduces mosaics as a highly specialised craft that required careful planning, skill, and teamwork, helping pupils understand the time, knowledge, and labour behind these artworks. By recreating mosaic designs, pupils learn to read the visual language of Roman art and discover how archaeologists use mosaics to understand Roman life, values, and the organisation of space.
Duration: 1.5 hours.
Price: £120
Level: KS2
Session requirements: a room with a projector for presentations and tables for the workshop.
Delivery: This session can be delivered in school.
This AI generate image is for illustration purposes to reflect the nature of the workhsop offered.
6.4 - Walls that speak: Roman wall painting and their meaning
6.4 - Walls that speak: Roman wall painting and their meaning
In this workshop, pupils explore Roman wall painting as a way of understanding life inside the Roman house, learning how images were carefully chosen and placed to communicate ideas about identity, status, and taste. By looking at the themes and subjects of Roman frescoes, as well as the rooms in which they were displayed, pupils discover that wall paintings were not just decoration but played an active role in shaping how spaces were experienced and understood. In the practical session, pupils design and paint their own wall panels inspired by authentic Roman styles and motifs, using templates and paint or coloured pencils to experiment with colour, pattern, and symbolism. Through making and discussion, pupils gain hands-on experience of how images functioned in Roman homes and learn how archaeologists use wall paintings to interpret domestic space and social life in ancient Rome.
Duration: 1.5 hours.
Price: £120
Level: KS2
Session requirements: a room with a projector for presentations and tables for the workshop.
Delivery: This session can be delivered in school.
6.5 - Life as...a Roman Woman in Britain
6.5 - Life as...a Roman Woman in Britain
In this session, pupils explore the lives of Roman women across society, from empresses to enslaved women, focusing on how legal status shaped their rights, responsibilities, and freedoms. Using archaeological and historical evidence such as inscriptions, buildings, objects, and written sources, pupils learn how a woman’s status affected her ability to travel, own property, inherit wealth, marry, work, and take part in religious life. The session highlights recent research showing that while some women had considerable independence and influence, others lived under strict legal control, revealing a wide range of experiences within Roman society.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
6.6 - Life as...a Roman Child in Britain
6.6 - Life as...a Roman Child in Britain
In this session, pupils explore Roman childhood and household organisation using the latest archaeological research, examining how new evidence is changing the way we understand children’s lives within Roman homes. Drawing on archaeological analysis of household spaces, activities, skeletal remains, material culture, and decoration, pupils discover what this evidence can tell us about how many children lived in Roman households, how they used domestic space, and how they played, learned, and interacted with pets and toys. Using case studies from elite urban houses in Pompeii and from non-elite provincial households, including the military homes of ordinary soldiers, the session shows how children were active participants in household life and how archaeologists use domestic evidence to reconstruct everyday practices and social relationships in the Roman world.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
6.7 - Life as... a Roman Soldier in Britain
6.7 - Life as... a Roman Soldier in Britain
In this session, pupils explore the life of a Roman soldier by examining how archaeology helps us understand daily routines, work, training, and life beyond the battlefield. Using archaeological evidence such as forts, weapons, equipment, buildings, inscriptions, and personal objects, pupils discover where soldiers lived, what they ate, how they trained, and how they spent their free time. The session also explores recent research on military families, showing that soldiers’ lives often included partners, children, and households living alongside forts. By learning how archaeologists interpret material evidence rather than relying only on written sources, pupils gain insight into the everyday experiences of Roman soldiers across the Empire and how new discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of the Roman army.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
6.8 - Life as... a Roman Citizen in Britain
6.8 - Life as... a Roman Citizen in Britain
In this session, pupils explore how people in the Roman world belonged to society in different ways, such as being citizens, non-citizens, enslaved, or freed, and how these categories shaped everyday life. Using archaeological evidence including inscriptions, homes, objects, and burials, pupils discover how legal status affected rights, duties, and opportunities, and how people could move between categories over a lifetime. The session also introduces the idea of universal citizenship, explaining how, later in the Roman Empire, citizenship was extended to most free people, changing what it meant to belong in Roman society and helping pupils understand how law and power shaped social organisation in the past.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
This AI generate image is for illustration purposes to reflect the nature of the workhsop offered.
6.9 - Showing Who You Are in Ancient Rome: statues and portraits
6.9 - Showing Who You Are in Ancient Rome: statues and portraits
In this workshop, pupils explore Roman statues and portraits as one of the main ways people in the Roman world expressed who they were. By examining statues and portrait busts, and considering where they were displayed, pupils discover how Romans used posture, hairstyles, clothing, size, material, and location to communicate status, role, and identity. Pupils learn that statues were not simply decoration, but powerful images that shaped how people were seen and remembered in Roman society. The workshop ends with pupils designing and crafting their own small portrait using air-drying clay to display in the classroom.
Duration: 1.5 hours.
Price: £150
Level: KS2
Session requirements: a room with a projector for presentations and tables for the workshop.
Delivery: This session can be delivered in school.
6.10 - Life as... a Roman Merchant in Britain
6.10 - Life as... a Roman Merchant in Britain
Imagine you are a Roman merchant arriving in Britain with a cargo of wine, olive oil, pottery, and fine goods from across the Empire. You land at the busy port of Richborough and begin your journey inland, travelling along Roman roads to the crowded markets of London, where traders, officials, and craftspeople gather from across the province. From there, you head west to Bath, selling goods to visitors who have travelled to bathe, worship, and seek healing at the hot springs. Your journey then takes you north to York, supplying soldiers and their families, before reaching the dramatic frontier at Hadrian’s Wall, where forts mark the very edge of the Roman world. Through storytelling, maps, objects, and recent archaeological discoveries, pupils experience Roman Britain as a lively, connected province and discover what travel and trade felt like for people on the move.
Imagine you are a Roman merchant arriving in Britain with a cargo of wine, olive oil, pottery, and fine goods from across the Empire. You land at the busy port of Richborough and begin your journey inland, travelling along Roman roads to the crowded markets of London, where traders, officials, and craftspeople gather from across the province. From there, you head west to Bath, selling goods to visitors who have travelled to bathe, worship, and seek healing at the hot springs. Your journey then takes you north to York, supplying soldiers and their families, before reaching the dramatic frontier at Hadrian’s Wall, where forts mark the very edge of the Roman world. Through storytelling, maps, objects, and recent archaeological discoveries, pupils experience Roman Britain as a lively, connected province and discover what travel and trade felt like for people on the move.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
6.11 - Building an empire. Roman cities and Urban Planning
6.11 - Building an empire. Roman cities and Urban Planning
In the footsteps of ancient architects and engineers, we explore one of Rome’s most enduring legacies. During the lesson, pupils explore how Roman engineering and architecture helped shape the ancient world. They discover the materials, tools, and techniques used by Roman builders to create roads, aqueducts, and monumental public buildings. Using 3D models and animations, they examine the workings of key innovations such as the hypocaust, the arch, and layered road construction.
In the footsteps of ancient architects and engineers, we explore one of Rome’s most enduring legacies. During the lesson, pupils explore how Roman engineering and architecture helped shape the ancient world. They discover the materials, tools, and techniques used by Roman builders to create roads, aqueducts, and monumental public buildings. Using 3D models and animations, they examine the workings of key innovations such as the hypocaust, the arch, and layered road construction.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
This AI generate image is for illustration purposes to reflect the nature of the workhsop offered.
6.12 - Building an empire. Roman aqueducts
6.12 - Building an empire. Roman aqueducts
In this hands-on workshop, pupils become Roman engineers, exploring how aqueducts were designed to carry water across long distances. Working in teams, pupils carry out simple experiments to test how water flows, how gradients work, and why Roman engineers needed precision and planning. Using this knowledge, pupils then design and build their own aqueduct models, learning how different structures and supports affect stability and water movement. The workshop highlights Roman engineering as a specialised skill and shows how experimentation, teamwork, and problem-solving were essential to innovation, giving pupils a memorable insight into how Roman technology shaped ancient cities and continues to influence modern infrastructure.
Duration: 1.5 hours.
Price: £120
Level: KS2
Session requirements: a room with a projector for presentations and tables for the workshop.
Delivery: This session can be delivered in school.
Session 6.13 - Romans beyond Britain: India and the Mediterranean Through Trade
Session 6.13 - Romans beyond Britain: India and the Mediterranean Through Trade
Pupils investigate one of the most surprising aspects of the ancient world: the maritime and overland networks that connected India to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean in the early centuries BCE and CE. Using archaeological case studies, they examine how scholars identify long-distance exchange through objects that travelled—Roman coins in South India, Mediterranean amphorae and glass, Indian beads and pepper, and shipwreck cargoes from the Red Sea—asking what counts as evidence for trade, migration and cultural contact. The session emphasises how archaeology reconstructs global connections through the movement of things: materials, manufacturing styles, and even tiny traces such as residues inside containers. Pupils learn that trade is not just “buying and selling”, but also infrastructure—ports, routes, seasonal winds, merchant communities and safe passage—and they explore how recent research is refining our understanding of who moved, what moved, and how ideas and technologies travelled alongside goods.
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.
Prices
Prices
Prices include all equipment, teaching and workshop materials and FREE preparatory and follow up activities for your classroom.
Discounts are applied when three or more sessions/workshops are booked together.
Travel costs may apply for schools located more than 20 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne (UK).
Number of pupils: Each in person session is designed for one classroom, typically around 30 pupils. Online sessions can be extended to larger groups.
Info and Booking
Info and Booking
To contact us for more info and for booking please check our Contact Us page or write us at archaeotrek@gmail.com
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