Stone Age Thrive or Survive Specials - Starring your class, in your school Workshop

From the dawn of time we have been learning the key concepts of citizenship. From what we perceive as being the lawless uncultured past of our Neanderthal cousins we are beginning to discover a different narrative. Where rules become laws and where justice prevailed. But that is also a question in itself - where does justice sit inside a sphere of subjective processing. What happens when two cultures collide and each have different laws and identities? Who is right? Is the written word the measure of a cultures worth and if so why? What of the author? Have we measured their morality? Is there an agenda? Was their perspective skewed? History is a great place to explore all of this. Monarchy vs Democracy - we think this is a new concept. What about the Viking history or the Saxon kings and queens versus monastic life where elections selected leadership. What of international relations where trade was intrinsically linked to power and alliance. In a world full of different languages and cultures how did our ancestors not only manage but thrive before modern technology broke down many of these barriers? Our workshops use these principles to engage with your pupils and get them thinking and asking question themselves using historical principles as the guide for shaping modern day practices.

Art is the expression of what the world means to us as individuals, communities and cultures. It is our story and an echo of our souls which resonates for ever onwards throughout history. So within our workshops your pupils will get to express their unique artistic flair using a variety of mediums ranging from sculpture, carving, sketching, and paints. They will learn about the history of art and the use of different mediums, binders and pigments. How to use colour for effect and what to do when your colour choices are limited. They will discover the secrets of fresco painting and the use of tempura and gesso and what colour actually meant to ancestors as a spiritual and cultural guide.

When we talk about bushcraft in todays terms what we are really referring to is the skill set that everyone of our ancestors would have needed in order to survive. Our workshops offer a huge array of opportunities for your pupils to not only learn, reinforce or enhance their bushcrafting knowledge, they will also be able to apply these skills practically within the contact of the period of history you are studying. We can teach and resource tracking, den building, fire lighting, cooking weapon and tool making, survival skills, wood carving, foraging, hunting, gathering, navigation, camouflage and concealment, plant and tree identifying, use of woods, use of plants, shelter building and a nomadic lifestyle to your pupils. Our skillset comes from an army background and after that years of living in the field and being at home with nature. For this reason our workshops flow with the seasons. They harmonise with nature and use the resources that are at hand rather than striving to create a false image of what bush life is meant to be. We will teach your pupils how to plan ahead and to use what nature provides. That foraging isn't just about food - it is everything else.

Archaeology provides a window through time from which we can use artefacts to recreate the narratives of that time period through the thoughts and ideas of your pupils. Here they will learn chronology and how different methods are used to date artefacts. They will learn how evidence is acquired, correlated and disseminated. They will discover how to form questions and how to use artefacts to form a narrative based on form, function and use. They will explore similarities/differences; cause and consequence and why things might change or stay the same. Whilst also exploring what we don't know and what archaeology alone cannot help us understand.

What do we know of culture from pre-history? In truth very little and what we do have is often overlooked in favour of the materialistic manner that we attach to our ancestors. Here is a farm tool so these must have been farmers. The reality is though that it takes away the person and dehumanises our ancestors. Yet we should know better. We only need to watch young children at play before they get hooked on technology to witness that humans want to express themselves in all manner of different ways. Some are artistic, some musical, some love the drama and the same is true throughout history. It is just a different perspective. So here we explore the hidden sides of our ancestors - the human side.

The wonderful thing about music is that somewhere every piece you have ever heard means something to someone. It invokes feelings and humans have been attempting to tame and train it to their narrative from the Dawn of humans as a species. Now today we will have timbre, notes, scales and many other conventions of musical form or so it would seem. Is our scale the same as in other places today? What makes a good song? A good tune to dance to? What does music actually mean and where does it come from. Well in the Stone Age it came from nature and you will be surprised how much melody is inert beneath our feet. We will teach your pupils about the history of music in the best way possible by letting them explore it, play it and recreate it. Songs, dance, performance - melodies, notes, tunes, percussion, beat and choreography on a different scale. A scale that taps into our ancient roots and follows them all the way up through the ages to the modern period if that is your desire. Or instead you could just stay and hang around with the original 'Rock Band'.

Focussing purely on the Stone Age (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic) is all very well and good but it covers such a grand chasm of time that it is almost impossible to grasp even as an adult. So whilst we do centre our journey within the Stone Age period we look at the humanistic side of life in the period. Is it enough just to survive? We use artefacts from the period to drive the narrative as first your pupils use or make the tools of the period. Creating flint tipped arrows, handling axes, flint scrapers, comparing fossils and animal bones, discuss housing such as round houses versus dens/shelters/ caves. Learn tracking skills and hunting techniques. Then we look at thriving and how this is established through settlements, music, art, pottery and pots. Using archaeology as the evidence but very importantly filling in the gaps driven by their enquiry and their understanding of what makes a human being human - rather than just a neanderthal or homo sapien.

We always endeavour to ensure that our delivery is relatable and meaningful to your pupils in terms of where they live and the local area. To that end we will, where relative to the period they are studying, build in the links to local heritage sites or events within their area. A great example of this is through simple everyday words that originate from varying cultural changes in our society and are often found in village or street names today. The variety and depth of this will really depend on where your school is located and what you also share with us. We will of course do our own research but if you have worked on something previously it would be great to add to this from a different perspective and build depth to their learning and knowledge.