Year 6 study a new topic about flashbacks

Year 6 began a new topic this week called Flashbacks. They watched a touching animation called The Piano, which tells the story of an elderly man who, prompted by the sad piano music he is playing, reflects back on episodes in his life. He remembers his wife, his time in the war, his own childhood and those who he has lost. The children have also read the short story, The Red Gate in which a young man remembers a caravan holiday during his childhood, when he revisits the site.

The idea of a flashback is that it begins in the present, moves to the past and comes full circle to the present again. The skill the children learn to acquire, is to manage the different tenses and to express the emotional responses to the flashback.

They are planning and then writing their own version of the story in the film. Perhaps you could talk to your child about the film and about any sounds, smells, sights or touches that provoke a flashback for you. For example, a glimpse of the sea over the hill always takes me back to childhood holidays and the excitement of that first sighting.