Growing Up in Roman Britain
A short information text about what life was like for children in Roman Britain, with eight questions on finding facts, word meanings and headings.
Read the passage
A different world
Almost two thousand years ago, Britain was part of the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers, traders and families lived in towns such as Londinium, which is now London. Children growing up there had a very different life from children today.
School days
Not every child went to school. Families who could pay sent their sons to school at about the age of seven. Pupils wrote on wooden tablets covered in wax, using a pointed tool called a stylus. If they made a mistake, they simply smoothed the wax and started again. Many girls and children from poorer families did not go to school. Some girls from wealthy families were taught to read and write at home.
Time to play
Roman children still found time to play. They rolled hoops, spun tops and played board games with counters. One popular game used knucklebones, which were small bones from sheep or goats. Players tossed them into the air and tried to catch them on the back of the hand.
Rich and poor homes
Wealthy children lived in houses with painted walls and warm floors, heated by a system called a hypocaust. Poorer children often lived in small, crowded rooms, many of them in or above shops. Many children began helping their families with work while they were still young.
Answer the questions
- Which modern city was built on the Roman town of Londinium? (1 mark)
- At about what age did boys from families who could pay start school? (1 mark)
- What did Roman pupils write on? (1 mark)
- Find and copy one word that names the tool pupils used to write on the wax. (1 mark)
- Why was a wax tablet useful for someone learning to write? (2 marks)
- Which two groups of children often did not go to school? (2 marks)
- The text says poorer children “often lived in small, crowded rooms” and “began helping their families with work”. Why do you think they started work while still young? (2 marks)
- The text says Roman children had “a very different life from children today”. Give one way their lives were different. Use the text to explain your answer. (2 marks)
Answer key for parents and teachers
1. London. (1 mark)
Finding information (2b). A fact stated in the first section: children practise finding it quickly.
2. About seven. (1 mark)
Finding information (2b). Retrieval from the “School days” section.
3. Wooden tablets covered in wax (accept “wax tablets”). (1 mark)
Finding information (2b). The answer is a short phrase in the text, so the child must copy it accurately.
4. stylus (1 mark)
Word meaning (2a). Practises finding a specific word that matches a description.
5. Mistakes could be smoothed away and the pupil could start again. (2 marks)
Explaining from the text. The child explains a reason from the text in their own words, which goes a step beyond copying.
6. Girls and children from poorer families. (2 marks)
Finding information (2b). The child pulls two pieces of information together from one sentence.
7. Their families needed the help or the money, so children had to work instead of staying at school or playing all day. (2 marks)
Inference (2d). The text gives two facts but never joins them. The child has to work out the link, which is what inference means.
8. Any supported difference, for example: many children did not go to school (“Not every child went to school”); they wrote on wax tablets with a stylus; they played with knucklebones; wealthy homes had a hypocaust. (2 marks)
Inference (2d). The child makes a comparison with their own life and backs it up with a detail, a step towards inference.
What this practises
Finding information (2b), Word meaning (2a), Explaining from the text, Inference (2d). The codes in brackets are the reading content domains from the national curriculum test framework. Marks and answers are a guide: accept any sensible answer that is backed up by the text.
Now try the writing task
Imagine you are a Roman child in Londinium. Write a paragraph about your day.
Aim for eight to twelve sentences. Read it back aloud together and fix anything that does not sound right.
Want feedback on your child's own writing?
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More Year 4 worksheets
Free to print and copy for your own family or classroom. Please do not sell or republish. The passage and questions were written for LiteracyLab AI.