The Silk Route to Sheldon

Camels pay visit to local school.

Children in Year 5 at Mapledene Primary School in Sheldon were lucky enough to have a visit from two world-famous camels. The camels were invited into school by the Year 5 class teachers, Mrs Humphries and Miss Faulkner, as part of an exciting introduction to the children’s new topic, ‘Silk, Spice and all things nice: can you discover the hidden treasures of Ancient Baghdad?’ in which the children will be learning about the importance of the Silk Route.

Berty and Baxter are two Bactrian camels who were on hire from Joseph’s Amazing Camels and they really did do an excellent job of ensuring that the children were extremely engaged with their learning. The children were given a very informative talk from Joseph and Rebecca Fossett, who own the camels. Jackie Stephenson, headteacher of Mapledene, said, “It is lovely to see how excited and enthusiastic the children are after such a difficult year. It is experiences like this that the children will remember for the rest of their lives.”

As part of the visit, the children got to ask lots of questions – they were particularly fascinated to hear that the gestation period for a camel is a long 13 months, and they were amazed by the size of the camels’ teeth. Ava in 5H enthused, “It was really interesting, I was surprised by how tall they were!”