History students design 'attack-proof' castles

Students across the Schools have been itasked with the challenge of designing their own creative castle or historical model using the knowledge they have learned throughout the term.Students were given the option to digitally design a castle or build their own model using their own methods.Those digitally designing have been using 'active history', where the site provides tailor made stories related to their chosen design features, even allocating budgets and showing how the castle would withstand a virtual attack.Some students, such as Matilda, have opted to design and build a castle themselves. Matilda, a Year 7 student at SHS, has combined her history knowledge and her baking skills together to build a 'motte-and-bailey castle cake'.Matilda showed excellent research skills and has modelled her 'motte-and-bailey cake' on the castle that once stood in nearby village, 'Castle Bytham' which is aptly named after the castle.Cakes have proved a popular medium of which to create models, with Noah creating an excellent depiction of a WWI trench out of chocolate cake:Here is another excellent example of a Motte-and-bailey castle made from cake, even featuring mashmallow teacakes, rolos and chocolate fingers!Elizabeth has reconstructed her castle entirely out of clay, and has featured a drawbridge, tower blocks and the symbolic arrow slit windows:Celia has been creative with reused materials for her castle design, including a keep and gatehouse into her model:Rebecca has been inspired to use lego to create her castle, which includes a centre courtyard and working drawbridge:Y11 James has recreated a trench scene using chocolate brownie, flapjack and shaped melted chocolate:Henry, Year 7, has also taken a food based approach, choosing to create a model of the Naval battle of Trafalgar (1805):The Crusader shield below, made out of cake, was created by Dom in Year 7.A few more crafty designs are shown below:Some of our students' digital creations are shown below: For more news from the Stamford Schools' community, please click here.