Alfred Street Junior
ALFRED STREET
Junior School

Telephone: 01933 353762

Shakespeare Class News

World War II – Anne Frank and the Holocaust

During Hitler’s reign over Germany he enforced lots of rules that discriminated against Jewish people. In our classroom after lunch our teacher allowed some of us to choose any drink we wanted – orange juice, milk shake or water but she told some of us (we later found out it was those of us in Tigers) that we could only have water. We then learned that this was to represent how the Jews were treated. Those of us who were only allowed water were not told why.

Kaycie-Mai said she felt hurt, like she didn’t matter, and didn’t know why she wasn’t allowed a choice.

Ellie felt like the teacher didn’t care about her or that she must have done something wrong.

Ellie B, who was given a choice of drink, refused because she felt bad for her friends who could only have water.

We looked at different sources of evidence to find out about the rules which included:

  • Jewish people being forced out of their homes
  • Having to wear yellow stars
  • Being forced to leave their towns and villages to live in ghettos
  • Having to give up all of their valuable belongings
  • Not being able to marry non Jews

 Later, we all wrote letters to express our shock and horror at the treatment of Jewish people.   

By Ellie B and Csongor (Shakespeare Class Councillors)

IMG 1485IMG 1483

Disability Awareness Day

Yesterday was Disability Awareness Day and we learnt about lots of different disabilities; mental as well as physical. Some of the disabilities we learned about included: blindness, deafness and also autistic spectrum disorder.

We were lucky enough to have a Zoom call from a lady called Helen who works for Blind Dogs for the Blind. She told us that some blind people use guide dogs to find their way out but some choose to use white canes. Guide dogs have white harnesses so you we were asked not to distract or pet these dogs whilst they are working as it could distract them.

For deaf people, we learnt the alphabet to spell out words in sign language. We also learnt how to sing Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday. We learned about the different causes of blindness, there was: retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and glaucoma, and we were actually able to see what it was like to have these conditions using special glasses.

We also watched a special presentation from Kayla, one of Alfred Street’s own, who made the brave decision to have her leg amputated when she was a pupil in Year 4. She told us that she lets nothing get in her way or stop her doing what she wants to do. Her bravery really inspired us all. We asked her brother Joshua to thank her for sharing her amazing story with us all.

We learned an important message, that all people no matter what their disability, just want to be treated with respect and kindness the same as everyone else.

By Bradley and Courtney (Shakespeare Class Councillors)

IMG 1488IMG 1504

WWII Day

WWII day with Portals from the Past, who provided us with an inspiring history workshop, was a great success today. Children enjoyed the chance to dress up wearing some fabulous costumes including: evacuees, Walter Tull, soldiers, land girls and air-raid wardens.
They were taught, in great detail, the events that led to Britain and her allies defeating Germany and the axis powers. The children impressed our visitor with their extensive knowledge of the key events but were able to extend their understanding of life during the blitz, the home front and home guard, rationing and evacuation.
There were also a range of WWII artifacts to observe including soldier's uniforms, survival kits, helmets, weapons, including rifles and ammunition. They had a go at testing how steady their hand might have been for bomb disposal and also code braking.
The afternoon was rounded off with drill practice; a great time was had by all.

COLLAGE1COLLAGE2

Anti Bullying Week

Shakespeare Class discussed different types of bullying and thought about how people feel in these situations. We thought about ways to prevent bullying and how we might help if we suspected someone might be being bullied. We designed posters on jigsaw pieces to show our determination to stop bullying and also to celebrate the fact that we are all unique and wonderful.
Some of us rehearsed, and then performed an anti bullying play which told the story of Charlie who was being put under pressure by a group of older children. We learned about the need to speak out and do the right thing rather than ignore bullying.
                                                                                                                                       

IMG 0195  IMG 0223IMG 0226IMG 0238  

PROBLEM SOLVING 

Y6 love Maths and some of us are very skilled at problem solving. Tallyn and Bradley showed great resilience today.

IMG 0261IMG 0261

WWII Rationing

When World War 2 started Britain suffered a shortage of some food types. They were able to grow a lot of their food but the rest came over on ships from abroad. The Germans tried to make the British people give up by bombing the ships, hoping that the people would starve and surrender. To make it fair, the government started rationing to ensure that people were given an equal amount. Due to the fact that sweets were rationed there were not a lot of overweight people during wartime.

We were surprised when we weighed out the small amount of rations that each adult received. Even though we were learning about history we also did some maths to convert ounces to grams and shillings to pence. By Amelia

IMG 0559IMG 0563

 

 

Week 1 Autumn Term 2 

It's great to be back after a week off to recharge our battteries! Everyone has seemed really happy to be back at school this week. As the weather has been mostly dry we have been able to have some fun at breaktimes playing a new game introduced to us all by Jaden. We also completed our next Commando Joe Mission which involved building shelters out on the playground. This linked closely to our history and DT work. We have displayed many great examples of creativity and teamwork this week, and supported each other both in lessons and during our social time.

IMG 0216IMG 0222IMG 0225IMG 0228

 

Week 7 Autumn Term 1

This week Shakespeare class have been busy researching the different air-raid shelters used during WWII. They designed their own Anderson shelters and 'Dig for Victory' gardens. They used a range of materials and were extremely creative with their designs - take a look at some of their finished shelters.

csongoecsongoeellieHarveyjaden

Week 6 Autumn Term 1

This week Y6 had great fun during their science lesson. they were tested different ways to prove that light travels in straight lines. Mr butler was extremely impressed with their ability to use scientific vocabulary to explain their findings.

Grace ScienceGrace Science

 

 

Year 6 also impressed Mr Butler and Mrs Smith this week showing excellent communication skills when working on our new Talk for Writing topic. We are looking at information texts and the features that they include to enable us to be able to write our own. Mr Butler fooled many of us (including Mrs Smith) with some photographs and news reports of dragons out on the rampage! Today we worked enthusiastically on our Cold Writes, about one of the dragons from Harry Potter - next week we will work on our new targets to improve our writing further.

 

values board