Work Examples | Year Five

VE Day Celebrations End World War 2 Topic

On Friday 11th December, Year 5 ended their World War 2 topic in a very special way. We had a VE Day Party all day with several memorable activities and events.

The morning started, with all the children being separated from their parents as if they were being evacuated at the start of the War. The children filled in their billeting cards, while several parents seemed quite cheerful when told they might not see their children again for the next few years! All the children came suitably dressed as evacuees, with the teachers and TAs dressed as military personnel or as members of the Land Army. A special mention to Miss Farrow, who is still washing out all the hair spray used to hold her hair in an appropriate and very fashionable 1940's style.

The children were then put with a partner and set to work to design and make model Anderson Shelters as part of the art curriculum. Corrugated card, tissue paper, hessian and many other materials were all put to use in imaginative and original ways. The Anderson Shelters had vegetables growing out of the soil on the roof; many of the gardens had paths, bonfires, wheelbarrows and vegetable patches. Many of the groups also made furniture (beds, tables, benches) out of lolly sticks for their shelters and gardens.

All of these Anderson Shelters were then used in an ICT project for the last week of term, which saw all the Year 5's making animations and presentations using Photostory3 with suitable dialogue and background music added. We are hoping to upload these to Merlin all the parents can be shown their work at home.

During the morning, the air raid siren kept sounding and all the children had to dive under the tables as there was no time to make it to the Anderson Shelter at the bottom of the school grounds! Even Mrs Sancto and Mrs Drayton had to duck under a table at one stage!

Perhaps the highlight of the day was the visit by the residents of the Guiness Trust home in Toothill. Twelve of their residents came to share their memories with the Year 5's including one lady who was 93 years old.

Mrs Terri Rhine (who has been teaching Year 5 to Jive) with some friends came along to help too. The afternoon started with a cup of tea for the Guiness Trust residents. Mrs Trelease welcomed everybody and Roger Ogle from the Link Magazine took lots of pictures and interviewed those taking part. Then Terri and her friends sang some of the favourite World War 2 songs such as "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "Pack up Your Troubles". Lots of the residents joined in heartily and the children waved and clapped in time too.

While those from the Guiness Trust had another cup of tea and a piece of Victoria Sponge, the Year 5 children had drinks, a digestive biscuit and a slice of apple in keeping with the VE theme. Then came one of the most special moments of the afternoon. The children sat and talked to the residents and listened to their memories of the War.

Many of the residents had brought special artefacts along, such as medals (including the Burma Star) won by their relatives, presents and toys that they had as children and the message sent from King George VI to all children at the end of the War to celebrate their help, support and achievements in helping the Allies to Victory.

In turn, the Year 5's shared their Anderson Shelters, an acryllic painting of a spitfire and information they had learnt as part of their topic and asking questions about how our guests had been involved.

Both classes then shared their dancing skills and jived to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood". Mr Stowe's Class sang "She'll be coming round the mountain" and Mrs Trelease's Class sang "It's a long way to Tipperary" to see which class could sing the best. Our Guiness Trust vistors decided unanimously that both classes were equally as good.

The afternoon finished with more singing - "We'll meet again" followed by some carols such as "Away in a Manger." Both classes sang "Party On" from the "Aspects of Christmas" Christmas Production of the previous two evenings. The members of the singing club sang "Silent Night" especially for Mrs Kinsey's mum and there was hardly a dry eye in sight!

The Guiness Trust residents were very kind in giving all the children sweets to say thank you.

Everybody had a very special time. Both the Year 5's and the Guiness Trust residents could not stop talking about the event for days afterwards. The children all said how much easier it was to talk to the residents than they thought it was going to be and how much they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. One of the Guiness Trust residents said that they had completely changed their minds about how the children of today behave!

A very successful afternoon. Thank you to all the residents and wardens of the Guiness Trust who shared their wonderful memories with the Year 5's; thank you to Mrs Medcraft and Mrs Sanderson who have help us learn the Jive and paint the spitfire; thank you to all the TAs for helping make the Anderson Shelters in the morning and with the entertaining and providing the refreshments in the afternoon; a thank you to Terri Rhine's husband Paul (and The Lions Club) for providing the minibus transport to enable the Guiness Trust to visit and a big thank you to Terri Rhine and her friends for teaching us to Jive and for the fantastic singing and entertainment that you shared with us.

We look forward to repeating and developing similar events in the future. We are hoping the article about our VE Day and the pictures taken will be in the February edition of the Link Magazine.

Year 5 Celebrate Christmas by Making Christingles at Shaw Church

Year 5 had a great visit to Shaw Church on Thursday 17th December. We arrived at the church at 10.30am and had a very warm welcome from several members of the church who provided drinks and biscuits for everyone!

Mr Carter then explained what we would be making while Rev Carter showed the Year 4's from Brook Field round the church following their Christingle service.

Mr Carter began by telling us that the orange represents the World and showed how to attach the red ribbon around the centre of the orange. The red ribbon reminds us of God's love for us and the fact that Jesus was crucified at Easter time to show this love and forgiveness to us. The red ribbon represents the blood of Jesus.

Once the ribbon is attached to the orange, four cocktail sticks are pushed into the orange. These four sticks remind us of the four changing seasons; spring, summer, autumn and winter. The sweets that are threaded onto the cocktail sticks symbolise the different fruit, vegetables and crops harvested for our use.

Finally, a candle is put into the top of the orange to remind us that Jesus came to be the light of the World. Silver foil is put round the base of the candle to stop the wax dripping into the orange.

Rev Carter came in half way through the explanation to make sure Mr Carter was remembering it correctly!!

Members of the church and the teaching staff then helped the Year 5's assembly their Christingles which was great fun and enjoyed by all. The children could remember the siginificance of the different parts of the Christingle and especially enjoyed putting the sweets onto the cocktail sticks and sticking the candle into the top of the orange!

Once all the Christingles had been made, we all went into the church part of the building for a very special service led by Rev Carter. Rev Carter began by asking the Year 5's what they were looking forward to most of all about Christmas. We sang "Away in a Manger," then watched and joined in with a song/video that helped explain the importance of the Christingle.

We also sang "Silent Night" and following the lighting of our Christingles, there was a time of reflection and prayer when we were encouraged to think about other people who might be in need over Christmas time.

Everyone was given a chocolate on the way out and took their Christingle home, being encouraged to share with their families what thay had learnt and what each part of the Christingle represented.

Thank you to all those from Shaw Church for helping with the refreshments, making the Christingles, playing the piano and for the special act of Worship at the end of the morning.

All the children really enjoyed making their Christingles and looked forward to sharing them with their families at home. Lots of them said on the way back to school what a warm welcome they had received from the church and those taking part and how much they learnt from making the Christingles.

Year 5 World War 2 Class Assembly

On Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November, Mr Stowe's Year 5 Class shared their World War 2 work with their parents and the rest of the school.

The Assembly started with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's speech of the 3rd September 1939, when war was declared on Germany.

Six members of the class then acted a freeze frame imagining they were evacuees who had been evacuated away from the East End of London on the 1st September 1939. They described how the evacuees might have been feeling and why children were evacuated at this time.

Several of the class then shared one of the highlights of the World War 2 topic - our trip to Coleshill, where we were trained to be spies and part of the British Resistance. The children popped up all around the stage and even from underneath a camouflage net to describe all the different tasks they had to learn to become top class Resistance fighters. The Mission Impossible theme tune provided a suitable sound track as we found out about hiding ammo boxes, sending coded messages, throwing grenades and the secret, mysterious bunker.

Following a diary extract about being a trainee at Coleshill and hearing tales of Mrs Mabel Stranks, the Post Office mistress in Highworth who was on Hitler's wanted list, the class shared information about the Blitz and a picture of a spitfire painted in acryllic paint during Golden Time with the help of one of the parents.

Descriptions of bombed houses written in Literacy and memories of Rob Abbott and the 4th Wiltshire Living History Group's visit to Year 5 were shared, when the Year group had had the opportunity to try on different uniforms, sit in World War 2 vehicles and experience different artefacts from the War.

Year 5 were also fortunate to have had a visit from Captain Dean who had fought in World War 2 including on D-Day and had formed the guard to Lord Mountbatten when the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Based on information from Captain Dean, Rob Abbott and our visit to Coleshill, the class had written letters home as if they were soldiers fighting in World War 2. These were read out as part of a Drumhead service to commemorate those who had shown so much courage during the War. With the background music of "Coming Home" by The Soldiers, this was a very moving part of the Assembly.

The Assembly finished with another highlight from the topic and made everybody leave on an upbeat note as despite the War and its difficulties and heartbreaks, people also had lots of happy times and fun. In PE, Year 5 have been learning to Jive with Mrs Rhine. The class gave a great performance of the Jive to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" with everybody in the class smiling the whole way through the routine and having a starring role at some point. Mrs Rhine was given some flowers to say "thank you" and the whole assembly came to a pleasing and joyful conclusion.

Thank you to all the parents for coming, Mrs Kinsey, Mrs Newton, Mrs Jefferies and Miss Farrow for all their help in preparing for the Assembly and making nettle tea and vinegar cake for all the parents and all our visitors (Mrs Rhine, Rob Abbott and Captain Dean) who have made the topic so special for everybody in Year 5.

‘Allo, ‘Allo! – Year 5 at Brook Field train to be World War 2 British Resistance Fighters

On Monday 28th September Rob Abbott and 3 members of the 4th Wiltshire Living History Group made a grand entrance into Brook Field School as their World War 2 cars and Jeeps roared onto the school playing field.

Year 5 then spent an exciting afternoon with a series of hands-on activities, including trying on German & British clothing and uniforms, including some very fetching long-johns! They were also able to explore the vehicles, which they all really enjoyed. They crawled into the tents and sat in a bath, but were shocked to find out that these facilities were only available to officers! Having seen the spade and shovel, they realised how basic the toilet facilities actually were. Children could also not believe the size of the mobile phone radio, which was bigger than a house brick! Lots of photos can be seen of this event outside Year 5.

The following Wednesday was the highlight of the term when Year 5 went on a Top Secret Mission to Coleshill, a National Trust Property outside Highworth. This Estate was where the British Resistance were trained in readiness for a German invasion. The brother of Ian Fleming (the author of James Bond) was one of the people trained here and Highworth’s Postmistress, Mrs Mabel Stranks, who secretly helped organise the spy network, was even on Hitler’s hit list!

Everybody who went on the trip said they’d had a brilliant time and it was one of the best trips they had been on. The children trained to be British Resistance Fighters and dressed in camouflage clothing, blacking out their faces, as well as those of the adults. They practised throwing grenades accurately, crawled through camouflage nets, worked out which one of the villagers could be a double agent, sent each other coded messages and had to hide an ammunition box so no-one else could find it. They also visited the hidden bunker at the top of the Estate, which some children were a little nervous about, (especially those with the broken torch!) and had to return to base without being spotted by other trainee recruits. Most of the groups were fortunate enough to have the man who had discovered the bunker 50 years ago, when he was aged 14, to show them around. Despite signing the Official Secrets Act, the children are still talking about this very special trip.