CHILDREN and adults spent the day learning about the realities of Roman culture and medicine at Cheney School in Headington.

The school’s East Oxford Community Classics Centre hosted workshops for pupils during the day, and afternoon and evening sessions for primary school children and adults.

Dr Lorna Robinson, project director, brought along her four-year-old daughter Rachel, who said: “I liked having my face painted.”

While Rachel, from Barton, had intricate designs painted on her face, other youngsters chose to have gory ‘gladiator wounds’ painted on instead.

Dr Robinson, 35, said following the workshop last Thursday: “It was great fun – we had loads of stalls and activities for the kids, and talks and exhibitions for adults later in the evening.”

Open University lecturer Professor Helen King, an expert on Roman medicine, gave a lecture, and an exhibition of Roman medicine was put on display.