Commendations

"The children were absolutely enthralled! Everyone spent lunch hour and home time talking about 'their' story. We will be incorporating the work into Literacy, History and ICT. Thank you!" [Mrs Mulligan, Teacher, Three Lane Ends Primary School]

"This was our third visit from the Captain and as always the children thoroughly enjoyed it (as well as the staff!) It really fit in well with our topic and the children could really relate to what was going on." [Miss K. Higgs, Teacher, Asquith Primary School]

Captain Eynos, Elizabethan Sea Rover

For Year 3 - 6 and older

A creative curriculum resource for the historical (and cross-curricular) study of the Tudors, and a very appropriate component part of a study of sea farers like Drake and Ralegh in the Age of Exploration.

Sea Rover


This late Elizabethan character can either work with one class for a full day or do two sessions (morning and afternoon) with two different classes. The exact format of the session depends on your preference and the numbers involved. The roleplayed story, for example, takes half a day. If I am working with one class, the whole morning is taken up by this activity and then in the afternoon we move onto other activities. If there are two classes involved in one day, then either we do the roleplayed story twice (once with each class) or do the other activities twice.

I bring a variety of artefacts to show the children during the session. These can include navigational instruments, swords and a musket. The roleplayed story session needs a large(ish) space, perhaps the school hall or other open floored area, but the other activities are more suited to the classroom.


Session Format for Key Stage 2

The Adventure

This role-played adventure is usually the main component of either full or half-day sessions. To create the story the children must use their imagination, as well as their listening, speaking, co-operating and decision-making skills. It is very motivational, for boys and girls alike, and sets up a written literacy task - the reporting of their story - for them to do later.

I, Captain Eynos, sailed on a cruise with Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595 to try to find 'El Dorado'. I begin telling the story of that adventure, but soon decide there are enough children to crew a ship, and from then on the session turns into an imagined, role-played journey where the children are the adventurers hacking their way through the forests of Guiana chasing after Spanish gold. As the the story causes the party to split up, individuals and groups of children end up with quite different stories to tell, and can come to a variety of grisly ends!


The Art of Navigation

Navigational Instruments

If I am working with a class for the whole day who have been studying Elizabathan Sea Rovers and exploration, then this activity is a very appropriate component part of the afternoon. It is something of a puzzle to solve.

I lay out a variety of artefacts for the children to look at, including a mariner's astrolabe, a nocturnal, a pair of dividers, a compass, a traverse board, a hand lead line, a rutter and a sandglass. Working in groups the children must decide what they think each item is used for, and how it helps to determine where the ship is. The groups then present their conclusions to me and the others so that I can decide which group is the closest to the truth. I then explain and demonstrate how each artefact really is used.

Note: If the children are Year 3 or 4 to help them along a little I can instead list several functions at the start of the exercise and ask the children to decide which artefact performs which function and how it might do so.



Cards

Written Stories

If I do a half-day session with a class, then the children are left with their own exciting stories to record after my session, involving possibly several well motivated written literacy lessons.

If I am working with a class for the whole day and the focus is squarely on motivating literacy, then in the afternoon the children might begin working on their stories. This gives me the chance to visit them a group at a time to talk with them, answer their questions (perhaps aboput parts of the story), and perhaps play a game of dice or cards with them, or look at a map of London, or count money, or demonstrate my sword and musket, etc. This ups the level of interaction with individual children, as well as being simply fun for them.


Option: Question and Answer

To finish, I sometimes have a "Q&A" style discussion, perhaps 45 minutes in length for a full day session, perhaps 20 minutes for a half day session. Whether your children have already been studying the Tudors or have only just started, they can ask questions about whatever they want (food, drink, houses, places, Queen Elizabeth, sailing ships, the Armada, famous people, soldiers, London, law and order, etc), and Captain Eynos can tell them all other little tales.


Visits to schools all over Yorkshire and nearby

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