7. Key Stage 3 Norman Conquest of England What happened at the Battle of Hastings?

This is the seventh lesson in the Norman Conquest series of lessons, which explores how William the Conqueror was able to take control of England. This lesson aims to give students an understanding of what happened at the Battle of Hastings through re-enacting the key moments from the battle itself and is therefore, a very popular lesson with students. During the re-enactment, the students learn about the different types of soldiers that made up the Saxon and Norman armies, the layout of the battlefield and the tactics used by William that helped him to win the battle.

This resource is a power point including the full lesson and all resources needed. It includes:

• A title slide with a scene of the Battle from the Bayeux Tapestry fro the students to explore once they have written the title and date
• Clear smart differentiated learning objectives
• starter- students attempt to answer the questions about the Battle of Stamford Bridge
• Activity 1: Re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings

1. Ask the students to stack their chairs and move the desks to the sides of the room so that you have a big space in the middle. Once finished, students to sit down in front of you. Even better if you can go outside to the playground if convenient and weather permitting.
2. Run through the rules for the re-enactment as students will be excited and it is important to be very clear otherwise time will be wasted waiting for them to be silent.
3. Choose up to ten students to be the Saxons and ask them to stand on the right hand side facing the other side of the classroom. Line 5 chairs up in front of them.
4. The rest of the students will be the Normans. Choose one student to be King William and ask them to stand on the left hand side of the classroom facing the Saxon army. Then choose 6-8 students to be cavalry and ask them to stand alongside King William, 6-8 students to be foot soldiers and stand in front of the cavalry and finally 4 students to be archers with 2 standing each side of the row of foot soldiers.
5. Now ask King Harold and the Saxons to line up silently outside the classroom in a single file line.
6. Run through the re-enactment step by step using the instructions- focus the students by reminding them that they must remember every detail as they will be performing this without your instruction and re-creating it in a diagram after the re-enactment. Be very rigid with the rules as usually students will be very excited.
7. Once the run through is completed, ask the students to re-enact the Battle without your instruction led by King William
8. Once finished ask the students to get their exercise books and a pencil and then sit crossed legged in front of the white board.

• Activity 2: re-enactment recap. Students must describe the battle to you, which you then draw on the board and the students must also draw in their exercise books. Star with

• Homework. students create a storyboard explaining what happened at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.