School Resources

This book by the National Museums of Scotland is a good primer. Click on the image below to order from Amazon

or from The National Museum themselves at this link. https://shop.nms.ac.uk/collections/books-scotland/products/the-romans-in-scotland

School outings can take place in museums or Roman-themed play areas. Museums are free and listed below. Contact me if I should be adding any. Always check the website links for up-to-date information.

Museum Visits

Check out this museum’s map in Scotland of museums with Roman exhibits which you will be able to visit. Listed below are museums that detail their offerings.

Primary School

• Antonine Wall organised visits – see https://www.antoninewall.org/learning-centre/primary
• Edinburgh National Museum of Scotland – no Roman specific page https://www.nms.ac.uk/schools/visit-our-museums/national-museum-of-scotland/
• Glasgow Hunterian Museum – see https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/learning/museumeducation/
• Melrose Trimontium Museum, Fort and Amphitheatre https://www.trimontium.co.uk/learning/
• Perth https://www.culturepk.org.uk/learning/schools/
• Newcastle -Upon-Tyne Great North Museum https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/learning/primary-romans

Secondary School

• Antonine Wall organised visits – see https://www.antoninewall.org/learning-centre/secondary-education
• Edinburgh National Museum of Scotland – no Roman-specific page https://www.nms.ac.uk/schools/visit-our-museums/national-museum-of-scotland/
• Melrose Trimontium Museum, Fort and Amphitheatre https://www.trimontium.co.uk/learning/
• Perth https://www.culturepk.org.uk/learning/schools/
• Newcastle -Upon-Tyne Great North Museum https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/learning/secondary-schools-other
• The Antonine Wall secondary learning area of their website has a large number of resources

Online resources

The BBC has an excellent resource aimed at Primary children with 17 videos as part of People, past events and societies. This can be filtered according to age group.

The National Geographic Kids UK site has Romans Primary Resource Discover the secrets of the Roman Empire and Life in Ancient Rome – targeted at Scottish Curriculum.

The British Museum has a varied schools pack for Key Stage 2: Ancient Rome

These Antonine Wall comics have been produced for schools by schools. https://romansinscotland.com/antonine-wall-comics-for-schools/

The Antonine Wall website has a large number of online resources for primary schools and for secondary schools each area with excellent educational notes for teachers which are comprehensive. You can also go to Downloadable Resources Some examples of these are below – there are too many to link.

• Make a legionary badge
• Make a Roman coin hoard
• Picture of a Roman Auxiliary
• Picture of a Roman Legionary
• Plan of a Roman fort
• Roman Gods and Goddesses on the Antonine Wall
• Roman helmet – Instructions
• Roman helmet template (black and white)
• Roman helmet template (colour)
• Roman Recipes
• Roman Soldier Drill Practice
• Roman Women

Edinburgh National Museum of Scotland – check out Digital Schools Sessions

• The Romans ( trail guide to be used in the museum)
• Roman word search (PDF)

The Glasgow Hunterian Museum has a number of online Antonine Wall Resources.

• Latin is the Language of the Romans.  Watch this Learn Latin video to learn some basics for meeting new friends at Roman school.
• It’s all about the numbers! Download Roman Numerals to find out about how the Romans used letters to make numbers.  Try out some sums Roman style.
• Become a Roman Newswriter! Download Roman News Activity to learn about how the Romans shared their News and have a go at your own version.

• Puzzle 1: A distance slab (distance markers along the wall) 
• Puzzle 2: A bust This was a companion of Bacchus, God of wine. What is his name?
• Puzzle 3: A sign of family life Some of the things found along the wall were everyday objects. These objects come in different sizes but what are they made of?
• Puzzle 4: Altars The Romans in Britain made food offerings to the gods in these altars. What names can you see? These are names of the gods they were dedicated to.
• Puzzle 5: The Final Frontier

Perth Museum have

• Topics covered include, The Daily Life of Soldiers, Families and Food and Celtic Life and Living: The Edge of Empire – Additional Information for Teachers (link opens in Pdf)
• Roman Story Making Printables. (3 PIECES IN TOTAL). Roman Fact fight (link opens a Pdf), 
• Roman Cut Out 1 of 2 (link opens a Pdf),
• Roman Cut Out 2 of 2 (link opens a Pdf).

The Vindolanda charity has published an online interactive game announced at Vindolanda Adventure: New free to access online game brings Roman fort back to life. The game can be accessed at https://vindolandaadventure.com/

The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (SCARF) have a Telling Scotland Story 15-page summary suitable for teenagers done with added graphics.

Mozaik Education offer 3D models and videos of the Romans – 3 free a week and subscription service otherwise. Some interesting material on Roman camps and military equipment.

LatinNow Teaching and Learning has various resources

• Codebreaking in the Roman Army (Teacher-led session) – English
• Decode a Roman Military Message! (Teach yourself worksheet)
• Curse like a Roman!

Visits to Schools

The Antonine Guard can visit your school in full Roman dress ( for a fee). Their website at http://www.theantonineguard.org.uk/tagschools.html says

“The Antonine Guard have been re-creating history in schools for many years and have a number of members who specialise in school talks for children. We can normally cater for all years from P2/3 upwards and into S1/2, and can usually tailor the presentation to the requirements of the individual school.”

Other School Resources

The Heritage Resources Portal from Archaeology Scotland has a lot of interesting material.