Rumble Museum's Green Season Launched!
On Friday 19th January, the Rumble Museum, in partnership with Cheney School's Environmental Impact Team, held a Green Festival. The event involved stalls and workshops aimed at raising awareness of a range of green and sustainable initiatives to the Cheney community. Over the next few weeks and months, the Rumble Museum is working with Cheney School's Environmental Impact Team to explore the vital issues of sustainability and conservation.Londinium: Amphitheatre and Museum of London visit
This week, Year Eight and Nine classics students set off for the city of London to explore the Roman remains and learn about life in “Londinium”. The students were split into their year groups on arrival to take part in two different activities.World War One Collection Day
This Friday 10th November, the Rumble Museum held its first ever collection day. In partnership with the University of Oxford, as part of their national Lest We Forget project, the museum opened its doors to the community, who came with a wide range of items, including stories, photographs, medals, letters and diaries.
Linear B workshops for primary school students
This October, we were delighted to welcome two Year Five/Six classes from East Oxford Primary School to the Rumble Museum and Classics Centre to explore the Minoan Civilisation and Linear B!
The Year Fives and Sixes had been learning all about the ancient Greeks this term at school, so these workshops gave them a glimpse into the period of history before Greek civilisation began to emerge - around 3000 - 1200BC when the Minoan Civilisation flourished. The first thing both groups did on arrival was to have a go at chalking the outline of a labyrinth onto the concrete outside! All sorts of different shapes and sizes of labyrinth appeared. We then went across to the Classics Centre to talk about the cilivisation and site in which the labyrinth story originated.
Imagined Worlds: Writing, Art and D&T Competition for Schools
In celebration of our Iris Festival of Imagined Worlds on 9th February 2018, we are delighted to be launching a competition for schools! The Festival is themed around the fictional worlds of many different authors, and there will also be four distinct 'worlds' which visitors will be able to walk through and explore: J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll.
Living Landscape Exhibition 15th July
Several Year Eight students have submitted photographs from around Oxford, along with paragraphs introducing them, to be a part of the Living Landscape Exhibition this Saturday at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock from 10.30 - 4.30pm today (15th July).Ancient and Medieval Medicine Days
On Thursday 29th and Friday 30th June, over 500 local primary school children took part in our Ancient Medicine Days at Cheney. The first day involved a series of Ancient and Medieval Medicine Pantomime shows delivered by TV Presenter Simon Watt. These fun, lively and frequently grisly shows included ancient doctors and surgeons from the past, ranging from Hippocrates to Louis Pasteur, talking to the host about their discoveries and practices, a talking and singing rat, maggots, amputations, and many opportunities for lively audience participation!Trip to the Museum of the History of Science
On Friday 10th March, 61 Cheney School students from Year 11 spent the day in the Museum of the History of Science, exploring the development of penicillin. The day, which had been specially designed by the MHS education officers, was called "Back from the Dead", a title which referenced both how the discovery of antibiotics brought people back from the brink of death, but also, how bacteria are now making a worrying comeback, with the rise of drug resistant superbugs."Reading the Romans" workshops
This term, the Rumble Museum, in partnership with Egizia-Maria Felice from the University of Oxford, has been holding a series of "Reading the Romans" workshops for primary and secondary school children.
We have been deeply privileged to have been loaned a beautiful fragment from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus from the University of Oxford. The Temple of Artemis was an enormous and very famous building in classical times, and has been called one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The fragment, which dates to the first century AD, has an inscription in Greek which appears to be listing the names of temple wardens. Year 3s from Bayards Hill primary, Year 4s from St Michael's primary and Years 8, 12 and 13 Cheney students are being introduced to this fragment, and also to a range of other ways in which the Romans preserved writing, including papyri and wax tablets.
Student Curators trip to see Manuscripts at Merton
On Thursday 9th February, six students made history when they became the first ever students to view a collection of beautiful manuscripts from a collection owned by Merton College.
Buried Bones
This week, classics students in Years 8 and 9 have been experiencing what it is like to be an archaeologist uncovering Roman remains!
Students were given gloves and trowels, and asked to explore a site in the far corner of Cheney School, where several bones lay buried. The students uncovered the bones, filled out a "find sheet" to record the immediate details of the items - their location, what they looked like, what they had been buried with - and then discussed what they could learn from the bones themselves.
Papyrology Artefact Workshops
We are very fortunate to have welcomed Dr Dirk Obbink, specialist in Papyrology from the University of Oxford, to deliver workshops in the past few weeks to Year 8 Latinists and Year 12 Classical Civilisation students.