Year 4 write fantastic reports about the fearsome Florentines!

This week, Year 4 have immersed themselves in the painting, ‘The Battle of San Romano’, as part of the Gateway ‘Take One Picture’ project. We discovered that the painting was commissioned by a family of wealthy Florentines. This led to some interesting discussion about the reliability of this as a source of historical evidence about the battle, since we thought it would be biased towards this side. We then looked at different examples of bias in news reporting, where one side is clearly supported. We found that these reports often exaggerated and used emotive language, including positive adjectives when describing the favoured side. They were also selective about which facts were included or left out! Next, we took factual statements about The Battle of San Romano and changed them into biased ones, to create our own news report showing support for the Florentines. Here are some example lines:

Unexpectedly, the immense battle took place in June 1432 but the skilled and well organised Florence were ready to attack their weak rivals.

To be successful, the mighty Florentines deployed 4000 brave cavalry and 2000 strong infantry men.

The bloodthirsty battle went on and on but the brave Florentines walked away victorious.

The ferocious and long lasting battle took place over many hours in June 1432, until the mighty Florentines completely overwhelmed their enemies, Siena.

We look forward to sharing our news reports and much more with you during the Take One Picture Exhibition!