Admire our persuasive techniques!

Enjoy reading Max & Joshua's persuasive letters from Year 5.

Following our trip on Monday, they twisted a set of facts to try to persuade the Victorian prime minister Mr Disraeli to improve working conditions for children.

Can you spot their techniques?

Dear Mr Disraeli

I am writing to tell you that the mining conditions are horrible! Please change the way miners are  working or at least the child miners mainly because millions of rats live with the poor workers .

Secondly ,more than half of the workers  have seen a serious injury or had the roof collapse on them in fact I’m surprised you  have any workers left!

Also, there are no toilets down the mines so it will be difficult to go to the bathroom and millions of poor children are losing limbs doing your dirty work  .

Although you are getting rich and it’s all happy for you, it’s terrible for your poor workers  

Therefore no child under the age of ten should do down a coal mine and that is final!

Yours sincerely

lord shaftesbury

Lord shaftesbury

History Mystery Tour

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

Written by inspector Blake

When you’re down the mine, if you don’t keep your feet in, a coal cart could come and chop off your foot!  My step dad always brought a candle, but he took it with him, and it’s so dark you cannot see a thing. If you sang like I did, and missed the coal cart you would get beaten, or worse you would die!  While you're down there, you could even hear the the rats scattering about.

If you die, the people who own the mine don’t care, they just hire some more people for the job. The worst thing would have to be going down into the mine, because it was only a piece of rope and a stick and if you fell off it you were DEAD!  You even had to work naked because it was so hot. Also if you fell asleep you would more likely to have your legs sliced off!

After interviewing the poor Sam who worked in the mines at just the age of five I went home.

History Mystery Tour

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

Inspector Lauren M

When I   went down the mine I was so scared and frightened because of my step dad said” keep your feet in or they will get chopped off and it wouldn't be a pretty sight."

If you sat there like I did singing you would get battered or even worse!

  My step dad came  in and said “you have to open the door for the cart to weal in were my mother and father would fill it up ready to come out  but I didn’t understand I was only five years old” .  

It was that warm it was ladies and men also children had to take all there clothes off.

All I could hear in the mine was the rats scuttling all over wounded men and women   even children how horrible.

The biggest amount of money you could get was three and a half p if you worked hard enough but the men only got paid   I worked  for nothing as a boy because apparently the men worked harder than all the other people .

Nobody liked the job because it was very scary and deadly.

Lots of my friends died because of one of the planks of wood had fallen and all of my friends died on that day and I used to carry a snack wrapped up in a cloth but when I’d finished  my job I went to grab my food but it was gone the rats and mice ate it .

The first time my dad told me what I had to do I sat there in darkness singing.

The worst part was getting down into the mine because all the lifts did not have safety nets on the sides   so nobody dared stand by the net .

History Mystery Tour

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

Inspector Leah:

When I was down in the mine I was very scared and frightened because my mean step dad took the candle with him and left me sat there with no candle and  it was very dark. I had to open the doors with a string to let the go cart in. If I didn’t open the doors in time my step dad would come out and beat me. Boys the age of 8 had to pull a car full of coal and it was as heavy as an elephant. Girls were not allowed to go underground. If you fell asleep your leg would get chopped off by the go cart. You was not allowed to sing down the mine because you wouldn’t hear the go cart coming and your dad would beat you again and it hurt. You had to be 8 and over to go down the mine. Boys that are 8 and 9 had to pull go carts full of coal he found it very hard. They had to go down in a metal cage with no front or back most people who went in the metal cage fell out and got trapped or killed. Sometimes when you went down you had no food or water. When you was a trapper you had to work very hard so you don’t let the air out of the doors if you did you would suffocate. Samuel’s father had to see if it was real or not and the women had to see if there was stone with the coal if there was stone they had to throw it away. Women had to do hard work as well not just sit around doing  nothing women found it hard but not as hard as the men did. When I was down the mine my step sister and brothers got trapped under a collapsed roof of the mine. It took them 3 weeks to get out. Do  you think it sounds easy?  I got found on a door step by the orphanage when they looked out and found me they took me in and after someone had they called me samual

                                      

History Mystery Tour

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

Inspector Alisha:

“I hate the mine.” Said an eight-year old boy named Samuel Fletcher.

“It is pitch - black down there – when you get down there you can’t see a thing. On my very first time my Father stayed with me for only a few seconds – and when he left he took his lantern with him so I was left all alone in the dark. Another horrible job to do is pull a heavy cart of coal while my step – sister pushes. One mistake I did when I was about five years old was to take a piece of nice, creamy cake down with me to the mine. I put it next to me so I could shovel up the coal at the same time. When I was finished, however, I reached out for my delicious piece of cake – but it wasn’t there! Some horrid, greedy mice had eaten it!

“As scary as this was I couldn’t blame my Father for making me work hard. I mean, he himself must have once needed to work hard to earn his two-and a half pence a week.  All of these things seem scary, but the most scariest thing is the cage. The cage is a contrapment which takes you down to the mine. It might be safer than the rope but if you fall through you can face much worse consequences. I’d better lower my voice now – I need to tell you something that the mine – people cannot hear me saying. I personally think that they force me and the other children to work overly hard.”

History Mystery

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they had heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

Inspectors Katy & Kayleigh:

When I was down In the coal mine I smelt the horrible, running sewage dripping down the mouldy pipes. I had the worst job just sitting there in the the pitch black mine holding a rope just waiting for my mother or farther to knock on the door for me too open ( I was named a trapper boy )

Once my mother made me a currant bun I was delighted. I put it down next to me (BAD MISTAKE) one of the rats eat it.

It was scary in the coal mine my father only had one candle but he took it in with him so I was left alone in the dark and the only live things I could talk to were the scurrying rats.”I hated it!”

They were horses working in the mine pulling carts full of coal. Only ponies pulled the carts because they were smaller than the other horses and they could.

If all of the candles get put out there would be no light in the coal mine and most of us will get hurt or even worst killed.

That is how dangerous it is in the coal mine.

History Mystery Tour

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they had heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

INSPECTOR MEGAN

“The hardest job to do down in the dark and dusty coal mine is when a boy has to pull a cart full of coal”. Said Samuel Fletcher.

“When my dad took me down to the coal mine for the first time I was only five and I didn’t know what to do because I had never been down in a coal mine before and then he took a light down so we could see and then he went with the light and left me alone with no light just nothing and I was left in the pitch black all on my own”.

“Once my mother made me a creamy delicious cake and I took it down to the mine and I put it down on a piece of brown dirty cloth and then I went to grab a lovely piece and then it was gone the ugly, vicious rats had eaten it all I can still imagine how massive the rats were”.

“When a boy (aged 8-9 years) had to pull a cart full of dusty coal his older sister (aged 11-12 years) also had to help but instead of pulling she had to push. She had to wear a scarlet damp cloth but if she didn’t wear a cloth on her forehead she would have a bald patch in the middle of her head”.

Fabulous thank you letter

Glenaire Primary School
Thompson Lane
Baildon

BD17 LY


Dear Mr Pearce

I am writing to tell you how good I thought you were in Robin Hood.

I liked the way you went in the waterfall it was cool, I loved the way you made the words in the waterfall. Did you enjoy doing it?

Next year I would like to see you doing Snow White as it’s my favourite pantomime and last time I saw you do it, you were only a mirror! Could you please please please play Snow White though as this would be very funny!

Yours sincerely

Caitlin B

Eye witness homework report from Caitlin B

The door of doom

Caitlin M worked on this at home. What a fabulous and entertaining story.  Well done! 


The door of doom

Once in a vast city a family lived. There was a mum, a dad and 3 children, but there was something not quite right about their home. There was a door that was always locked and had never been opened. The children were called Electra, Zoe and Tammie and they were very curious about what might be behind the door. One of them (Zoe) even tried to open the door just for a quick look but it was like steel. Although they had been told never to go into the room they were always writing in their old school books and thinking about what might be behind the mysterious door. One idea was that it was full of little evil elves that were planning on taking over the world and turn everyone into frogs (except girls of course) or maybe a lion that was so hungry when it came out it would scoff everything in sight WARNING: Including humans. 
But the best idea was that it was a little pixy from the end of the rainbow and it had the biggest pot of gold ever and gave everyone £20,000.


These ideas probably weren’t right but still the 3 of them spent hours and hours making up stories of what might happen if they ever opened the door!

One cold Saturday morning the Electra woke up to the sweet smell of bacon, eggs, sausage and fried toast. This was the most glories smell ever she sat up and shot down the stairs and saw a fresh fry up laid on the table. So she took her seat and began to eat this mouth-watering breakfast.

Later that day her mum came out and told her to go to the posh shop (this is the name of the shop) and pick up some new earrings for her and Electra wondered why.


As she returned with Zoe and Tammie they heard a boom from an unknown place. It came from a place in the house that was for sure so they sprinted up the stairs to the locked door. It was open and ebony black is what they saw and started to wander in… 


As they approached the door knob a creak came from inside the room and the quickly ran in and saw…………

NOTHING it was black and full of boxes how would they find anything in this room it was so bad Tammie fell over and landed on something that wasn’t hard and wasn’t soft it was both.  They ran out of the room and got torches they raced up the stairs to find something enormous in the corner and they walked slowly towards it

The THING they found was wet and slimy well wet and snotty. This unusual thing sneezed and blue bogeys splatted all over the girls and they screamed with discuss and the animal of some sort said “sorry I have a, a, a”
“Oh no” screamed all the girls together and they ducked like a lightning flash just as blue bogies splashed all over the walls of the room.
“Who are you” asked Zoe 
“Well I, I, I… false alarm!”
“Good.” Electra said 
“Any how I am professor Bluetrue the goblin AND I WANT TO GO HOME!”
“Okay we will help you how can we get you home”
“Well you need to cure my sneezes and I can get home myself”
“How do we cure your sneezes then” Asked Zoe
“With medicine of course my oh my where do you come from America?”
“What normal medicine like our medicine”
“Yes what other kind of medicine”

So the girls rushed off and got cold medicine and cough medicine luckily they worked and soon professor Bluetrue was home again
(Hopefully)


P.S if you see a green looking elf that sneezes blue bogies than put him in a spacious place you don’t want to be carrying blue bogies all the way back to the girls home do you!!!