Anne Frank #notsilent

Recently, as part of our work on World War II and in honour of Anne Frank on the 70th Anniversary of her tragic death, Year Six took part in the #notsilent campaign promoted by the Anne Frank Trust UK. The children read one minute extracts from Anne Frank's Diary to each other and discussed their thoughts and feelings about Anne Frank and what she experienced. Here is an example of one of the extracts which was read by the pupils.

“We’re much too young to deal with these problems, but they keep thrusting themselves on us until, finally, we’re forced to think up a solution, though most of the time our solutions crumble when faced with the facts. It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. 

It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquillity will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll be able to realize them!”

 – 15^th July, 1944, ‘Diary of A Young Girl’

Below is a video of one Year Six class sharing these extracts:

Mock General Election

Today, all Year Six children took part in a mock general election to help them understand the process taking place nationally.
Initially small groups of children were selected to form parties and they were given time to come up with pledges for their manifestos in a range of key areas such as education, technology and health.
Whilst this was happening, the other children were developing questions which were asked at our very own hustings.
The children asked pertinent searching questions which our 'political parties' had to develop answers for on the spot. A challenge for even the most experienced politician!

Between the time of the hustings and actual election, each party delivered a party political broadcast throughout Year Six using the speaker systems and were allowed to revise their pledges based on the feedback from the electorate.

As the polling station was set up by a group of volunteers, the other children were given time to review their opinions on each party; ask further, clarifying questions and reread each parties manifesto.

Finally, each member of Year Six was given the opportunity to vote, the chief counter collated the results and the returning officer announced that the Progress party had won the election.

The children were engaged by this process, asked excellent questions and all turned out to vote.