KS2: Learning sessions
Note: for this session, we encourage children to come to us dressed as evacuees.
Overview:
Using object handling, document analysis, discussion and role play, children will explore the important role played by the railways in the evacuation process. They will find out more about rationing, investigate the contents of an evacuee’s suitcase before finally facing the ultimate ordeal: being chosen by a new family. Some will be lucky – others not so much…
Curriculum Links 2014:
- A study of an aspect of British History beyond 1066: A significant turning point in British History: The Second World War
- Address and devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.
Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources
Focus:
Beginning by exploring the context behind ‘Operation Pied Piper’ the session investigates what life might have been like for a child during the Second World War, encouraging children to make comparisons with their own lives.
KS2: Victorian Britain: How did the railways change people’s lives in our locality?'
Focus:
Setting the scene by exploring aspects of pre-railway life such as transport, communication, diet and politics, the session explores how the railways became a defining part of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, changing people’s lives throughout the Victorian period and establishing the framework of the modern world.
Overview:
Using object handling, picture analysis, discussion and role-play, children will be encouraged to explore how the GWR and its branchlines changed the life of ordinary people in the South West. Investigating the views of different groups of people in character, children are invited to consider whether they would be ‘for’ or ‘against’ the building of the railway.
Curriculum Links 2014
- A study of an aspect of British History beyond 1066: A significant turning point in British History: The First Railways
- A local history study
KS2: Deadly Forces: Exploring safety on the railway – ‘Why did the Railway Children become heroes?’
Focus:
Exploring some of the forces involved on a railway and understanding why safety is so important and what
measures are taken to prevent accidents.
Overview:
Using extracts from the book, along with contemporary newspaper articles on rail accidents, children are
invited to consider what might have happened if the Railway Children had not been on hand to prevent the train from hitting the landslide. The session includes a series of STEM investigations designed to demonstrate what happens when a moving object impacts upon a stationary one. It concludes by introducing some of the systems put in place by the railway to ensure safety.
Curriculum Links 2014
Science
- Working Scientifically
- setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
- making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using
standard units
- Forces
- Explore falling/moving objects and raise questions about the effects of resistance.
- Recognise that some mechanisms, including levers, pulleys and gears, allow a smaller force to have a
greater effect.
