Year 8 have been studying the English Civil War in their History lessons this term.
Recently, they have turned their focus to the ‘New Model Army’. At the outbreak of the Civil War both the King and Parliament relied on untrained volunteer soldiers, often led by local landowners. These soldiers were often completely untrained, inexperienced and reluctant to fight outside of their local area.
After two years of fighting the conflict had reached a stalemate. To break the impasse, the New Model Army was formed. This was the first standing army of Britain, consisting of 22,000 professionally trained soldiers.
To study this topic in more depth, Year 8 have been researching the lives of these new highly disciplined, well organised military men. This week, the students have been conducting interviews with (very young looking) ex New Model Army soldiers. They have even been using Mr Scarboro’s replica musket to help them to get ‘into character’!
