The year is 1355 and it’s time for feasting and revelry. The hall is decked with coats of arms, the floor is strewn with straw and sprigs of rosemary and the air is full of the sound of medieval music. Dane Court grammar school is holding its annual Chaucerian banquet for Year 7. The idea was dreamt up six years ago as a joint project between the food technology and history departments as a way of making the past more exciting. Since then it has grown and now involves the whole school. The menu, vegetable pottage mopped up with bread for the peasants, spiced fish, pears steeped in wine, chicken and dates for the lords and ladies, comes from the food technology department. The theatre studies and English A-level students perform plays and different year groups provide the music. This year headteacher Robin Curtis added to the music with a song in Latin and his deputy, PE tacher Gloria Clarkson, performed a tumbling act. After the feasting the pupils try their hands at activities such as wool spinning, pot making, calligraphy and games such as apple bobbing and skittles - and for miscreants, there’s a place in the stocks. It takes an afternoon to consume the food but the organisation has taken half a term since just after Christmas.

Cut it out: Philip Marringer, left, and Luke Chapman demonstrate sword play

Cap that: Lady of the manor Catherine Charley

Hand me down: Jadean Mclaughlin receives bounty from Lisa-Marie Ketteringham

In a twist: Joanna Guariglia, centre, teaches drop spinning

Stock taking: peasants Darius Sarafan, left, and Aaron Shilling in the punishment block

His lordship: otherwise known as Rob Pugh, head of humanities

Filthy peasants: Simon Routhorn, left, and Bobby Brewin restore order

Snaps: Judith Baker and Maggie Banbury, food technology department