02 Dec What’s happening in Year 6 – Week 5
Year 6 have been writing persuasive letters to Winston Churchill this week, from the perspective of Ruth Balicki, who is a character from the text they are reading in class – The Silver Sword by Ian Serallier. The Balickis are a Polish family, who had their family torn apart during the war, due to the Nazis and Adolf Hitler’s regime. The class have been using emotive language to try and plead for help from the British Prime Minister during World War Two. They have also been working on using colons and semi-colons to mark a boundary between two independent clauses. Miss Bienias was so impressed with the writing that the class produced. Have a read of Fabian’s introduction to his letter.
Dear Mr Winston Churchill,
I am writing this letter to you, as I wanted to tell you that I have been devastated for some time: my parents have been sent to a concentration camp and my brother has run away. My name is Ruth and I am thirteen-years-old. I am in desperate need of your help, as everyone in this country is in despair because of the Nazis.
Have a read of Anthony’s final paragraph, where he explains what he needs from Mr. Churchill. He makes two very clear points using a colon to introduce his two requests. He has also used a semicolon to separate some; others. Well done Anythony!
Looking to the future, I have just two requests: I want my family back and please support General Bor. Some believe General Bor is a strong, powerful leader; others believe he should have no power in Poland. I strongly believe he does not have the strength to win this war and we need your army to support us.
Also this week, as part of our Diverse Britain Curriculum, Year 6 have been learning about a very inspirational lady, called Noor Inayat Khan.
The children used their historian skills to unpick some primary sources of evidence and discovered that Noor was a spy, who was sent on special missions during World War 2. She spent most of the War in France, where she worked undercover to try and break codes that the German forces were sending to each other.
Noor was born in 1914 in Moscow, however her family heritage has links to India and the US. As a young child, she spent most of her life living between England and France; she was very well travelled by the time the War broke out in 1939.
After making lots of interesting discoveries about her past, the children concluded that Noor Inayat Khan is a very inspirational role model, because she spent a large chunk of her life working really hard to make sure that other people were kept safe, even when the Nazi’s put her in immediate danger. Year 6 also found out that since her execution in 1943, Noor Khan’s bravery and acts of heroism have been recognised across the world, with the most recent being a bust of her unveiled at a memorial sight in Gordon Square Gardens, London. This particular token of recognition is very special as it is not only very close to the home that Noor Khan was raised in as a baby, but it also the first stand-alone memorial that pays tribute to an Asian woman in the United Kingdom.