In history, we looked at the Viking era and discussed how crime and punishment was handled. We looked at the system of wergild and trial by ordeal - the children took on the roles of Viking criminals, accusers, witnesses and community members and created their own 'Thing' (a Viking assembly) where they decided on the appropriate punishment for the criminals. Through using drama to drive our learning forwards, the children worked on their oracy skills as well as their critical thinking and source evaluation skills.