What did the Romans ever do for us?

To round off our studies of Romans in Britain, we spent the afternoon trying to answer the question 'What did the Romans ever do for us?'

First, we recapped what we had learnt so far about the Roman Empire and its achievements, then we turned our attention to the many inventions and improvements introduced to Britain by the Romans.  The children worked with their talk partners to gather information from various stations around the room, and then had to work together to decide which of the 15 different innovations would make it into a 'Top Nine.'

Then, they had to rank the chosen items in order of importance and impact on life in Britain.  This gave the children an opportunity to practise their oracy skills - debating with their partner about which of their inventions belonged in the top spot, and why.  

At the end of the debate, the children shared with the rest of the class their conclusions about which invention was the most important.  An overwhelming majority had chosen the Romans' introduction of free, clean water for all as their most important innovation, but votes were also cast for language, the legal system and the road network. 

The children debated their choices very politely and sensibly, and were able to speak very eloquently in favour of their choices; they are becoming increasingly confident public speakers!