Year 5 - Victorian vocabulary

Year 5’s class novel - ‘Street Child’ - was brought to life this week, as the children donned top hats and bonnets to become characters from the book. In both English and drama lessons, they have enjoyed creating dialogue and body language to showcase the malevolence and mean-spiritedness of the Stick Man, Mr Spink. They have been truly immersed in the Victorian era, and have loved learning about how a Victorian householder might have addressed their servants by surnames only and have summoned them by ringing a bell. The language of the period has been fascinating Year 5 too; they have been collecting vocabulary to use in their own writing, so as to set it more clearly in the past. Do encourage your child to discuss their understanding of shillings and pence, sculleries, pinafores, bonnets, broth and matrons.

Taking on the character and language of characters from the past can be a powerful tool to encourage a deep understanding of how life has changed for children through the ages. The workhouse beckons for the character in ‘Street Child’. We anticipate some interesting discussion next week about the rights and wrongs of child labour and how to deal with the working poor.