Year 5

Home Learning Pack 6

Name: ____________

Week beginning: Monday 1st June

Monday Reading –

vocabulary focus

Writing –

Newspaper

report features

Maths -

understanding

percentages part 1

Science –

Biography

research

Tuesday Reading –

retrieval focus

Grammar – Formal

and informal

language

Maths -

understanding

percentages part

2

Art – Picasso

Wednesday Reading –

inference focus

Grammar –

Newspaper

report features /

introduction

Maths -

percentages as

fractions and

decimals part 1

E-Safety – Play

Like Share

Thursday Reading –

response activity

Writing – Planning

your own

newspaper report

Maths -

percentages as

fractions and

decimals part 2

R.E – Ramadan

Friday Reading – Poetry

text

Writing – Writing

a newspaper

report

Maths -

percentage

problems

History – Roman

baths

In addition to the activities set for each day, included in this week’s pack is a set of spellings for you

to practice which have been taken from the Year 5 and 6 spelling list produced by the government.

Why not try to include some of the words you practice in the writing activities for this week!

Spelling Practice: Look, say cover, write, check

Year Group: Ospreys – Year 5

Look Say Cover Write Check Write Check Write Check

aggressive

average

communicate

curiosity

disastrous

environment

forty

nuisance

persuade

sacrifice

Now choose four of the words to write in sentences:

1.__________________________________________________________

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2.__________________________________________________________

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3.__________________________________________________________

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4.__________________________________________________________

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This week’s comprehension activities will be based on the next chapter ‘May you never know

what it means to be a refugee’ from our class book, Letters from the Lighthouse written by

Emma Carroll. Each part of the chapter, which you’ll need, has been typed up and included

with the set of questions/activities for each day. The full chapter has also been included at

the end of this pack. On a Friday, we’ll look at a separate, poetry text.

Reading – Monday – vocabulary focus

1.) Find and copy a word from the text which suggests that Olive was admitting to something.

2.) When Olive invited Esther for tea she shrugged “quite casually.” What does the word casually tell

you about Esther’s reaction?

3.) Which word from the text tells you that Olive and Esther intend to return the coats back to their

owner’s once they’ve finished with them?

4.) “….. rounding up more coats than we could sensibly carry.” What does this tell you about the

number of coats Olive and Esther had and how they were carrying them?

What happened next – almost next – I can only describe as miraculous. Esther Wirth had an idea

that didn’t involve her big mouth or her fists. Instead, it called for sewing. I confess I was so

taken aback I had to ask her to repeat it when she told me.

“What you said about telling my story,” she said, “It got me thinking.”

We were at the lighthouse, having tea. When I’d invited her, Esther had shrugged and said, “Why

not?” quite casually. Yet once she saw the lighthouse ladder we had to climb and the lovely rooms

inside, her whole face lit up into the hugest of smiles. She was a dab hand at making toast too. We

ate a big pile of it topped with Ephraim’s crab-apple jam, and made Pixie beg for the crusts. It

was the nicest tea I’d had in ages.

“We’ll ask if we can borrow the refugees’ coats tomorrow,” Esther explained, wiping crumbs from

her mouth.

“What for?”

“You’ve seen the badges?” She meant the yellow star badges with Jude on them, some people

didn’t get the chance to remove them. “It’s time they came off. And I’ve an idea who’s going to do

it.”

The next morning being a school day meant we’d find the local kids in class. Bright and early, we

visited all the refugees, rounding up more coats than we could sensibly carry. By the time we

reached school, my arms were ready to drop off, but we kept going until we arrived at the

classroom door.

“What now?” I asked Esther, since neither of us had a free hand to knock. Esther did that thing

Mum said girls should never do: she winked. Then pushing down with her elbow on the handle, she

managed to open the door.

Writing – Monday – Newspaper report features

This week, we are going to be reminding ourselves how to write newspaper reports.

Remember, a newspaper report needs to…

Key features of a newspaper

report

Lead / Introduction

Tail / Conclusion

Your task – Read the example newspaper report below and around the edge, try to spot the

features of a news report (listed above).

Were any of the feature missing?

Did you spot the 5 Ws (who, where, when, why, what)?

Is there any other information you would have liked including?

A small group of Year 5 students, from Newport Primary School, have created a brilliant plan to raise money for a local charity that assists people in the community. Following a visit to the school from a charity representative, back in March, the students set out to create a way of raising much needed funds. The students presented the fundraising idea to school principal Mrs Justine Knight, who saw great potential in the plan to sell produce from the school’s vegetable garden to local restaurants and, in turn, raise money for the local charity. She stated that ‘the children have displayed a true sense of community in their fundraising plan.’ Following a meeting with teachers, it is hoped that the students can begin to implement their four-phase plan. ‘The school would support students wholly in the fund raising venture,’ Mrs Knight added.

The school plans to sell the garden produce to two local restaurants, beginning in early September. For more information on this fundraising plan, visit the Arkwood Primary School website (www.arkwood.sch.com).

School Children Raise Funds for Local Charity Frances Trackall, Education reporter

From left to right: Sarah,

Libby, William, Martha,

Finley, Harry, Jack and

Emma.

Maths – Monday - understanding percentages part 1

JIGSAW NUMBERS – write in the missing value to make 100

a.) 14 + _____ = 100 b.) 47 + _____ = 100 c.) 33 + ______ = 100

d.) _____ + 27 = 100 e.) _____ + 53 = 100 f.) 100 = _____ + 94

Remember: a percentage means out of 100!

1.) Complete the sentence for each diagram

2.) Complete the table below

3.)

4.) Is 1% of the bar model shaded below? Explain your reasoning

Science – Monday – Biography research

Today, you are going to learn about some

significant naturalists and animal behaviourists and

explore the importance and impact of their work

within the scientific community.

Naturalists study plants and animals

Animal behaviourists are people who love animals

and study them to learn and understand animal

behaviour – why they do things and act in certain

ways. They look at the animal’s environment and

try to find what caused the behaviour.

Biography Task - research a significant

naturalist or animal behaviourist and create a

poster that showcases their life, achievements

and significance.

Suggested websites for significant naturalists research

David Attenborough: http://web.archive.org/web/20140629072518/

http://davidattenborough.co.uk/biography/

Jane Goodall: http://www.janegoodall.org.uk/jane-goodall

Steve Backshall: http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/ http://www.stevebackshall.com/

Steve Irwin: http://www.crocodilehunter.com.au/crocodile_hunter/about_steve_terri/

George McGavin: http://speakingofscience.juliegould.net/science-communication/speaking-to-dr-george-

mcgavin/

Reading – Tuesday – retrieval focus

1.) How many children were in the class when Olive and Esther arrived?

2.) What lesson was Olive and Esther interrupting?

3.) Which member of staff did Mrs Simmons threaten to get?

4.) How did the class react to what Esther was telling them about?

5.) What does the teacher retrieve from her cupboard?

Mrs Simmons, the teacher, shrieked in surprise. “Good gracious!”

It must have been a bit of a shock to be fair. We were little more than two enormous piles of

coats, with legs sticking out the bottom. Unable to hold on to mine anymore, I placed them as

gently as I could on the floor. Straightening up again, I got my first full view of the class: twenty

Budmouth Point kids staring right back at us. My mouth turned dry. Without really meaning to, I

edged nearer to the door. Esther had no such qualms. Only this time, instead of squaring up to the

local children, she laid out her father’s coat on the front desk.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Mrs Simmons said shrilly. “But you’re not doing it in my

classroom.”

Taking Esther’s arm, she tried steering her towards the exit. Esther dug her heels in, and I

blocked the way. Thinking it all good entertainment, the Budmouth kids started to slow clapping

and cheering. Already, we were more interesting than their geometry lesson, and we hadn’t yet

said a word.

At the second attempt, Esther managed to display the coat properly, holding it by the shoulders

so everyone for a good view of the yellow star.

“I’m going to fetch the headmaster,” Mrs Simmons spluttered, but didn’t leave the room.

Bit by bit, the noise died away. The pupils began to look quite intrigued. Some sat forward, chins in

hands. You could see the mockery still lingering in their faces like they were waiting for something

to make fun of. But as Esther explained the yellow stars and what they meant, their expressions

changed.

It was like watching newspaper catch light when you made a fire. Once it took hold, the flames

began to spread and glow. At last, the class were starting to understand. This was someone their

age, who they sort of knew, explaining what prejudice felt like from the other side. That horrible

sense that if people were your enemy meant they didn’t feel, didn’t breathe, didn’t think like you

did. Really, they were hardly proper people at all. So it was all right to drop bombs and destroy

people’s lives, or treat them no better than animals.

Except it wasn’t.

The mood grew ever more sombre. By the time Esther finished talking, a few pupils were wiping

their eyes. The rest of the class looked stunned.

“Thank you for listening,” Esther said, her chin held high. I was close enough to see the tiniest

tremble in her bottom lip. And it made me think her even more magnificent.

It was Mrs Simmons who moved first, opening a cupboard at the side of the room and bringing out

half a dozen sewing tins.

Grammar – Tuesday – Informal and Formal language

Formal Language

Formal language is used for more official and serious purposes. The correct grammar should

always be used.

Informal Language

In informal situations and informal writing, a more relaxed casual and chatty style can be

used. Slang words and abbreviations are more acceptable.

Task 1 - Sort the following criteria into formal or informal language conventions. You can either cut

and stick these on a different piece of paper or label each statement Formal/Informal.

Task 2

Some vocabulary is more formal, whereas other words have a more informal tone. Can you match up

these formal words with their informal partners?

Task 3 – Write a sentence to match each picture, using a formal word in place of the informal word

given!

Formal

sufficient

injustice

profession

opportunity

sacrifice

immediately

Informal

now

chance

enough

job

give up

not fair

need tell you swap

buy sorry glasses

Did you get them right? ANSWERS

Do you think newspapers generally use a more formal or informal style? Why might this be the case?

Maths – Tuesday - understanding percentages part 2

Yesterday you looked at this bar model for question 4!

Were you able to work out what percentage was shaded in, even though there are only 10 parts to the

bar model instead of 100?

We know a per cent (%) means out of 100. We also know that this bar model only has 10 parts. We

therefore need to share the 100% equally between the 10 parts! This means that each part is worth

10 %.

1.) What percent is shaded in the bar models below?

2.) Shade in 20% on the bar below

3.) Shade in 55% on the bar below

3.) Passengers are boarding a plane. The plane has 100 seats.

a.) 10% of the seats are already full. 15% of the seats have not been booked. How many passengers

still need to board the plane?

Art -Tuesday – Picasso

Picasso’s cubist artwork of people and objects uses a combination of different angles and shapes.

Below are a set of steps which you can follow to make your own cubist piece of art! Please share your

creations on Twitter! @gilberdykerocks @ospreys2020

1) Begin by drawing a simple object, like a

butterfly or perhaps a flower.

2) Use a rule to to draw lines through your

picture to break it up into smaller shapes.

3) You can then use crayons, felt tips, paint (or

even collage!) to fill each section in with

different colours

4.) Here are some compelted examples to give you idea as to what it could look like!

Reading – Wednesday – Inference

Imagine you are one of the characters from Austria whose coat and star is being returned to you.

Using your understanding of the story and what life was like for these characters, explain whether or

not you would choose to keep your star and why you would make that choice.

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“Right, class,” she said, all shrill again, “Take a coat each from the piles. Unpick the stars

carefully – no snagging the fabric, please – these are people’s best coats, remember.”

Within moments, the room was noisy again, only this time with the buzz of activity. Each pupil had

a coat spread in front of them on their desk. Some people got straight on with the task. Others

took a moment to look at the garment, as if it was a person they were meeting for the first time.

One boy, I noticed, lifted a sleeve to his nose and sniffed it. Another fastened the buttons and

tidied the lapels.

Of the two coats left, I took one over to a spare desk and sat down. This coat was knee-length

with a belt at the waist. It smelled of face powder and the sea. Made of grey wool with tiny red

flecks in it, its buttons were shaped like budding roses, and I’d a feeling I’d seen Frau Berliner

wearing it. With a few snips the star came off. After I’d smoothed away any trace of stitch marks

on the fabric, it was, once again, just a coat. A lovely, elegant coat. All it told the world about Frau

Berliner was the she had excellent taste.

It didn’t take long to remove all the stars. “What do we do with them now?” a boy at the front

asked.

Mrs Simmons gestured to the coal stove that burned in the corner of the classroom. But Esther

shook her head: “Can everyone put their stars into the pocket of the coat they removed it from,

please?”

Mrs Simmons looked confused. “Can’t we throw them away?”

“They’re not yours to get rid of,” Esther replied firmly.

“What happens to each of these stars is entirely up to the person who had to wear it.”

She was right: those stars were other people’s stories, not ours.

Then we had the task of delivering a huge heap of coats back to their owners. Returning them was

much easier, mind you, because the whole class came with us to help.

Grammar – Wednesday – Newspaper report features

Task 1: Some key features of a newspaper report have been highlighted in the example

news report below. Read through the text and then try to work out which feature has

been highlighted in which colour. Complete the key below to show your answers.

Key:

Formal, reporting language

Adverbials to link paragraphs

Headline

Caption

Written in the past tense

Written in the third person

Direct speech

Facts and evidence

Price: 1 magic bean Sunday, 22nd Feb

WICKED WOLF GETS HIS JUST

DESSERTS Pinocchio, Junior Correspondent

Yesterday afternoon, a young girl and her grandmother miraculously survived a run-in

with a ravenous wolf. Little Red Riding Hood was visiting her grandmother’s cottage in

the forest when both were swallowed alive by the creature. However, luck was on their

side, as a local woodcutter was on hand to cut them free.

At approximately 1:15 p.m. on 21st February, witnesses claimed that they saw Miss

Riding Hood, a young girl aged 10, skip into the forest carrying a basket of cupcakes.

The path from the village through the forest is a well-trodden route, used by

everyone from school children to village elders. Local resident Goldilocks (12) of

Porridge Drive said, “I’ve used that path hundreds of times and it’s always seemed

perfectly safe.” Mr Hansel (35), who runs the village orphanage, commented, “Of

course, I warn the children not to approach any gingerbread houses. But avoid the

woods entirely? Nonsense.”

Miss Riding Hood claims that she was nearly at her granny’s cottage when she was

approached by a wolf posing as a polite gentleman. She reports that the wolf acted

kindly at first, and even pointed out a shortcut to her granny’s cottage. However, all

was not as it seemed. Miss Riding Hood explained that from the moment she arrived at

her granny’s cottage, she could sense that something was not quite right.

Once inside, Riding Hood found her

granny in her nightgown, tucked up in bed,

apparently ill. However, after a short

bout of questioning, Red soon realised

that the person to whom she was speaking

was not her granny at all, but the wolf in

disguise.

Miss Riding Hood alleges that both she

and her granny were gobbled whole by the cunning

beast. “I found Granny alive, but very

uncomfortable, inside the wolf’s stomach,” she told

The Once Upon a Times.

After ten traumatic minutes inside the wolf, the pair were freed by an axe-wielding

woodcutter.

“As soon as I saw the wolf on the bed, I knew that something was wrong,” stated the

heroic woodcutter. “You didn’t have to be a genius to work out where Granny and Red

had ended up. He’d had the old lady for starters and her granddaughter for the main

course.”

Miss Riding Hood and her grandmother are now staying with Miss Riding Hood’s mother

in the village, where they are said to be recovering well. Meanwhile, Mayor Gretel has

announced plans for an investigation into the cunning, wolfish activity in Fairytale

Forest. If she fails to act, could our beloved forest be lost forever?

Task 2 – Now, choose your own fairy tale or nursey rhyme and have a go at writing the

beginning of your own news report. You must include a headline, byline and first/lead

paragraph and try to use as many of the key features featured above as you can!

Maths – Wednesday – Percentages as fractions and decimals part 1

Here is a shaded hundred square. We know that 65 squares out of the 100 are shaded. We can

represent this information as a percentage, fraction and a decimal. See the example below!

1.) Below are four shaded hundred squares. Use them to complete the table.

65 squares shaded out of 100 is the same as …

65 % 0.65 65/100 (we could simplify this fraction by

dividing both the number and denominator by 5 to get 13/20)

2.) Below is a blank hundred square. How

could you use this to prove that 0.2 is the

same as 20%?

3.) Complete the fraction, decimal and

percentage equivalences.

E-safety – Wednesday – Play Like Share

Begin by watching the video clip and then think about the questions below

Task

Can you create an information poster to explain the ‘Block

it’ rule! When you have finished ask your parents to share

it with us on Twitter so the rest of our community can

learn your important ‘Block it’ rule!

Reading – Thursday – Response activity

Your task: Design an invitation which Olive and Esther would have given out inviting people to their

tea party.

It didn’t change everything, not straight away. Twenty pupils unpicking yellow stars was just the

beginning. Yet on my way home from school that afternoon Mrs Moore came out of her bakery

to speak to me. “I’ve been hearing all about you,” she said rather mysteriously. “You and your

friend were very brave, taking on the class like that. Bravo to you both.”

At school the next day, I told Esther. It was break time and we were sharing the jam

sandwiches Ephraim insisted on putting in my satchel.

“Has anyone started speaking to you in the street?” I asked.

“The street?” she laughed, almost choking on her sandwich so I had to thump her on the back.

“They’ve been queuing up to meet Papa. Everyone’s heard how he saved Cliff’s life and now

people are coming from the next village. Someone this morning even brought him their cat!”

I looked at her in amazement, especially when she told me the cat’s owner was Mrs Wilcox the

farmer. “We need another idea now,” I said eagerly. “Removing the stars made people think,

but-“

“We have to build on it. Bring people together,” Esther finished for me.

“Well, we bonded over jam sandwiches,” I said, holding up the empty wrapper. Esther grinned.

And just like that she had another brilliant plan, though I like to think Ephraim’s sandwiches

helped.

Esther’s idea was to hold a tea party. So, working together at Queenie’s kitchen table, we

designed invitations on whatever scraps of card we could find. These we then delivered to all

the villagers and the refugees, also asking them to bring cake or sandwiches to share. The party

was to take place that Sunday afternoon. By chance it fell on the same day Cliff was due to

leave hospital, which was brilliant because I knew he’d not want to miss it for the world.

Writing – Thursday – Planning your own newspaper report

Have a look at some of these fun lockdown images that have made the news.

Choose your favourite fun lockdown

story and plan a news report for the

Gilberdyke Gazette.

Use the blank planning sheet on the

next pages to help you!

Name of newspaper: Price:

Date:

Story headline:

Interviews

Who will you interview?

How are they involved in the

events?

What did they have to say? Will you use direct or reported speech?

Body - Break up the story in time order.

Paragraph 1

Introduction/Lead

Who was involved?

What happened?

Where did the event

take place?

When did it happen?

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 3

Final paragraph/Tail

What are the subjects

(people/animals) doing now

and what might happen in

the future?

Maths – Thursday - Percentages as fractions and decimals part 2

1.) Choose the correct inequality sign < > = to complete each statement below.

2.) Write each set of values below in order from smallest to larget

3.) Complete the decimals and percentage equivalences.

R.E – Ramadan -

During Ramadan, Muslims try to give up any bad habits or negative

behaviour and try to do more good deeds.

What bad habits would you give up and what good deeds could you do?

Draw a picture or describe your habits and deeds.

Good deeds Bad habits

Today’s comprehension is based on a separate, poetry text. The rest of the chapter from Letters

from the Lighthouse is included at the end of this booklet for you to read.

Reading – Friday – Poetry

The Revival of Crumbledown School

Truth to tell in years gone by,

Crumbledown School, no word of a lie,

Was an awful place,

Full of woe,

Where no sane child would want to go.

Morale was low, detentions high,

Hard to say exactly why…

Years had passed

With no respite,

It kept the head awake at night.

Mr Watkin did whatever he could,

But nothing he tried seemed to do much good.

Pupils walked with shoulders down,

Teachers dull,

Their clothes all brown

Until one day a girl arrived -

9 years old and

In Year 5 -

Her name was Sue and she had a dream,

Of starting up a football team.

The PE teacher was sadly lacking,

Shrugged his shoulders and

Sent her packing

“It’s a daft idea by any token,

And anyway, my whistle’s broken.”

Undeterred, Sue went away,

And made a plan that very day,

A buzz began

Around the school,

A football team might be quite cool!

A squad was formed that self-same week,

So Mr Watkin took a peek,

To call them ‘chaotic’

Would be understating,

Even ‘a shambles’ would be overrating.

They lost every game, not just by a few

(I believe the last score was 30 to 2)

That being said,

They never gave up;

Sue was determined to lift the league cup.

Then an odd thought occurred, worth

supposition,

That important as training

Might be their nutrition…

Carbohydrates and protein – they were the

key!

She would plan their whole diet, as strict

as could be.

So she banned crisps and pop, “Be gone

chocs and sweets”,

And made special veg smoothies

With cabbage and beets,

And a secret ingredient which nobody knew

And Sue won’t divulge, not even to you!

The sensational smoothies made the team

more resilient,

And not only that -

They were actually brilliant!

They won every game, getting better each

day

The children were thrilled by their new reputation

And Sue’s special smoothies

Were quite the sensation!

The school was transformed from where boredom was rife

To a place full of energy, vigour and life!

This tale has a moral, you must understand

That health and nutrition

Work best hand in hand.

So please don’t ignore what good it can do

To eat 5 a day and get exercise too.

Cut your sugar right down, be the best you can be,

You’ll feel so much better, just try it, and see!

And as for Sue’s smoothies,

The word got about

Now it’s rumoured that England are trying them out!

Questions about the poem

1. What is the name of the head teacher?

2. Line four uses the word ‘woe’. Think of a synonym for this word

3. What does the phrase ‘with no respite’ tell us about the feeling around the school?

4. How old is Sue?

5. a. Find two adjectives which are used to describe the football team?

5.b. Can you think of two others that could have been used instead?

6. Circle the word that you believe is closest in meaning to divulge.

Lie Tell Eat Sell

7. The author chose to use the word ‘rife’. Can you explain what rife means

8. Write a short poem about your school and what you like about it. It doesn’t have to rhyme. It

could even be an acrostic poem, e.g.

G

I

L

B

E

R

D

Y

K

E

Writing – Friday – Writing a newspaper report

Using your newspaper plan from yesterday, write a fun/happy lockdown story. There’s a

checklist on the next page to help you!

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Try your best to include all of the features below in you writing.

If you are really pushing yourself, the features in yellow will take your writing to the

next level!

Punctuation and Sentences

Punctuation: Full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas in lists,

commas to separate off extra bits of information, speech marks

Punctuation: colons, semi-colons, brackets, dashes, ellipsis

Sentences:

Use some description

Make sense

Be in the correct tense, i.e. past or present

Write in 3rd person

Use different words for the same thing, e.g. Peter…, he…, the boy….

Use a wide range of connectives, e.g. because, if, although, while, despite, meanwhile

Vary sentence length and structure, e.g. use openers; drop extra bits into the middle of

sentences between bracketing comma; add extra bits to the end of a sentence

Sentences:

Carefully structure sentences to make sure the reader focuses on the key points and

doesn’t get bogged down with less important bits

Move between tenses within your report

How your writing is organised

Write in paragraphs

Well-developed introduction/lead and ending/tail

Develop a clear focus for each paragraph

Write several sentences in each paragraph so that ideas are fully developed

Make links between paragraphs so that writing flows in a sensible order

Vary structure and length of paragraphs to create the best effect for the text type

Try to link your paragraphs (using adverbial openers)

Ensure your final/tail paragraph explain the ‘what next?’

Effect of writing on the reader

Stick to the same view all the way through

Think carefully about who the writing is meant to be for and adapt the style to suit

Adapt content of writing so that you only include relevant details

Include facts

Include direct speech (quotes)

Use a wide selection of carefully chosen vocabulary, linked to the subject

Use alliteration, personification, metaphors (where relevant)

Write as if you are an expert

Maths – Friday – percentage problems

1.) Dexter has £1 to spend. He buys some stickers. What percentage of his money did he spend?

2.) Aisha and Brett have been selling tickets for the school play.

There are 100 seats available. On Monday they sold 34% of the tickets.

On Tuesday they sold 42 tickets.

By the end of the Wednesday, 95% of the tickets had been sold. How many tickets did they

sell on Wednesday?

3.) Circle all the fractions below which are either equal to or are greater than 50%. (Hint:

remember that 50% is equivalent to a half)

4.) Jack and Dora go shopping with the same amount of money.

Jack spends 1/3 of his. Dora spends 30% of hers.

a.) Who spends more money?

b.) Jack and Dora each started with £300. How much money do they each have left?

History – Friday - Roman baths

The Romans loved to keep clean and bathing was a sociable experience which they enjoyed sharing

together. Follow the link below to watch a short clip explaining the three main bathing experiences –

and how they got hot water! https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/z8grkqt

Here’s a birds eye view of what a Roman bath might have looked like:

Using information from the clip and your own research, answer these questions below:

1.) How did the Romans get water to the baths? Was this the case for all baths?

2.) What was the ‘Tepidarium’ used for?

3.) Were all rooms hot in the Roman baths? If not, which were and which weren’t?

4.) How did the Romans create heat?

5.) Who was able to use the baths?

6.) What other activities could the Romans do at the baths?

7.) What was a strigil used for?

Letters from the Lighthouse – May you never know what it means to

be a refugee

What happened next – almost next – I can only describe as miraculous.

Esther Wirth had an idea that didn’t involve her big mouth or her fists.

Instead, it called for sewing. I confess I was so taken aback I had to ask

her to repeat it when she told me.

“What you said about telling my story,” she said, “It got me thinking.”

We were at the lighthouse, having tea. When I’d invited her, Esther had

shrugged and said, “Why not?” quite casually. Yet once she saw the

lighthouse ladder we had to climb and the lovely rooms inside, her whole

face lot up into the hugest of smiles. She was a dab hand at making toast

too. We ate a big pile of it topped with Ephraim’s crab-apple jam, and

made Pixie beg for the crusts. It was the nicest tea I’d had in ages.

“We’ll ask if we can borrow the refugees’ coats tomorrow,” Esther explained, wiping crumbs from her

mouth.

“What for?”

“You’ve seen the badges?” She meant the yellow star badges with Jude on them, some people didn’t

get the chance to remove them. It’s time they came off. And I’ve an idea who’s going to do it.”

The next morning being a school day meant we’d find the local kids in class. Bright and early, we

visited all the refugees, rounding up more coats than we could sensibly carry. By the time we reached

school, my arms were ready to drop off, but we kept going until we arrived at the classroom door.

“What now?” I asked Esther, since neither of us had a free hand to knock. Esther did that thing Mum

said girls should never do: she winked. Then pushing down with her elbow on the handle, she managed

to open the door.

Mrs Simmons, the teacher, shrieked in surprise. “Good gracious!”

It must have been a bit of a shock to be fair. We were little more than two enormous piles of coats,

with legs sticking out the bottom. Unable to hold on to mine anymore, I placed them as gently as I

could on the floor. Straightening up again, I got my first full view of the class: twenty Budmouth

Point kids staring right back at us. My mouth turned dry. Without really meaning to, I edged nearer

to the door. Esther had no such qualms. Only this time, instead of squaring up to the local children,

she laid out her father’s coat on the front desk.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Mrs Simmons said shrilly. “But you’re not doing it in my

classroom.”

Taking Esther’s arm, she tried steering her towards the exit. Esther dug her heels in, and I blocked

the way. Thinking it all good entertainment, the Budmouth kids started to slow clapping and cheering.

Already, we were more interesting than their geometry lesson, and we hadn’t yet said a word.

At the second attempt, Esther managed to display the coat properly, holding it by the shoulders so

everyone for a good view of the yellow star.

“I’m going to fetch the headmaster,” Mrs Simmons spluttered, but didn’t leave the room.

Bit by bit, the noise died away. The pupils began to look quite intrigued. Some sat forward, chins in

hands. You could see the mockery still lingering in their faces like they were waiting for something to

make fun of. But as Esther explained the yellow stars and what they meant, their expressions

changed.

It was like watching newspaper catch light when you made a fire. Once it took hold, the flames began

to spread and glow. At last, the class were starting to understand. This was someone their age, who

they sort of knew, explaining what prejudice felt like from the other side. That horrible sense that if

people were your enemy meant they didn’t feel, didn’t breathe, didn’t think like you did. Really, they

were hardly proper people at all. So it was all right to drop bombs and destroy people’s lives, or treat

them no better than animals.

Except it wasn’t.

The mood grew ever more sombre. By the time Esther finished talking, a few pupils were wiping their

eyes. The rest of the class looked stunned.

“Thank you for listening,” Esther said, her chin held high. I was close enough to see the tiniest

tremble in her bottom lip. And it made me think her even more magnificent.

It was Mrs Simmons who moved first, opening a cupboard at the side of the room and bringing out

half a dozen sewing tins.

“Right, class,” she said, all shrill again, “Take a coat each from the piles. Unpick the stars carefully –

no snagging the fabric, please – these are people’s best coats, remember.”

Within moments, the room was noisy again, only this time with the buzz of activity. Each pupil had a

coat spread in front of them on their desk. Some people got straight on with the task. Others took a

moment to look at the garment, as if it was a person they were meeting for the first time. One boy, I

noticed, lifted a sleeve to his nose and sniffed it. Another fastened the buttons and tidied the lapels.

Of the two coats left, I took one over to a spare desk and sat down. This coat was knee-length with a

belt at the waist. It smelled of face powder and the sea. Made of grey wool with tiny red flecks in it,

its buttons were shaped like budding roses, and I’d a feeling I’d seen Frau Berliner wearing it. With a

few snips the star came off. After I’d smoothed away any trace of stitch marks on the fabric, it was,

once again, just a coat. A lovely, elegant coat. All it told the world about Frau Berliner was the she

had excellent taste.

It didn’t take long to remove all the stars. “What do we do with them now?” a boy at the front asked.

Mrs Simmons gestured to the coal stove that burned in the corner of the classroom. But Esther

shook her head: “Can everyone put their stars into the pocket of the coat they removed it from,

please?”

Mrs Simmons looked confused. “Can’t we throw them away?”

“They’re not yours to get rid of,” Esther replied firmly.

“What happens to each of these stars is entirely up to the person who had to wear it.”

She was right: those stars were other people’s stories, not ours.

Then we had the task of delivering a huge heap of coats back to their owners. Returning them was

much easier, mind you, because the whole class came with us to help.

It didn’t change everything, not straight away. Twenty pupils unpicking yellow stars was just the

beginning. Yet on my way home from school that afternoon Mrs Moore came out of her bakery to

speak to me. “I’ve been hearing all about you,” she said rather mysteriously. “You and your friend

were very brave, taking on the class like that. Bravo to you both.”

At school the next day, I told Esther. It was break time and we were sharing the jam sandwiches

Ephraim insisted on putting in my satchel.

“Has anyone started speaking to you in the street?” I asked.

“The street?” she laughed, almost choking on her sandwich so I had to thump her on the back.

“They’ve been queuing up to meet Papa. Everyone’s heard how he saved Cliff’s life and now people are

coming from the next village. Someone this morning even brought him their cat!”

I looked at her in amazement, especially when she told me the cat’s owner was Mrs Wilcox the

farmer. “We need another idea now,” I said eagerly. “Removing the stars made people think, but-“

“We have to build on it. Bring people together,” Esther finished for me.

“Well, we bonded over jam sandwiches,” I said, holding up the empty wrapper. Esther grinned. And

just like that she had another brilliant plan, though I like to think Ephraim’s sandwiches helped.

Esther’s idea was to hold a tea party. So, working together at Queenie’s kitchen table, we designed

invitations on whatever scraps of card we could find. These we then delivered to all the villagers and

the refugees, also asking them to bring cake or sandwiches to share. The party was to take place that

Sunday afternoon. By chance it fell on the same day Cliff was due to leave hospital, which was

brilliant because I knew he’d not want to miss it for the world.

All morning we set up tables in the village hall, with some of the Budmouth kids coming to help – boys

called John, Clive and Arthur, and two girls, Gillian and Pamela. They’d brought snowdrops and early

primroses, which we put in jugs and white cloths that made the tables look smart. Meanwhile, Mrs

Henderson and Miss Carter hung up a huge banner on the wall, which said, ‘Welcome to Budmouth

Point.’ I kept listening out for the Plymouth bus until Mrs Henderson said it didn’t come until three

thirty. Though I couldn’t wait to see Mum and Cliff, I also knew that being together would make us

notice who was missing. There was still no news on Sukie – not even a sighting. Maybe I was being

over-sensitive, but Miss Carter’s cheerful reassurances were starting to sound rather strained.

At three o’clock the guests began arriving. I shook hands with Jim the cabbage man and Mr

Barrowman as they came in. I said ‘hullo’ to people whose names I still didn’t know; I had a quick

cuddle with baby Reuben, whose mum had brought him along; thanked everyone who’d come with

plates of food, which I took and put on the white-clothed tables. In fact, I smiled so much it made

my face ache.

As more of the refugees arrived, the Budmouth kids started whispering with interest. Pamela said to

Gillian, “That’s the coat I unpicked,” and nodded at MR Schoenman.

“That’s mine,” Gillian replied. She was pointing at Fräulein Weber. Giggling shyly, she went over to say

hullo. Esther was busy showing people where to hang their things.

“You alright?” I asked as we passed each other.

She puffed out her cheeks. “It’s hard work being nice, isn’t it?” Yet you could see she was loving

every minute.

Even in our wildest dreams we hadn’t expected so many people to come. There had to be over a

hundred people from Budmouth Point alone, and though the Austrians hovered a little tentatively

around the edges still, Dr Wirth couldn’t move for adoration.

I wouldn’t have put it past Ephraim not to come at all. So I was awfully glad when he arrived. He’d

made quite an effort too, wearing a smart grey suit and carrying a tin of homemade carrot fudge.

He’d even tied a red ribbon round Pixie’s neck. It crossed my mind he was hoping, on this big occasion,

that Sukie might miraculously appear like people did in stories or at the end of films. Or maybe that

was wishful thinking on my part.

I was about to tell him how nice he looked when Pixie barked. In a scrabble of paws, she shot off

across the room to greet someone she knew who was coming in the door. The person was wearing

short trousers that didn’t cover his scabby knees and my heart leaped because it was Cliff.

I rushed over at once to give him a hug, though it was hard to with Pixie squirming at his feet.

“Careful!” Cliff winced, “Mind my stitches.”

“Hullo darling,” Mum kissed me. “He’s tired, so we won’t stay long.”

“I am here, you know,” Cliff remarked, grinning cheekily. He looked a million times better than when

I’d last seen him but was still very thin in the face. Once we’d got him comfortable in a chair, with

Pixie at his feet, Mum went in search of tea.

“Want to see my scar?” Cliff asked, the minute she was gone.

I nodded eagerly.

Without a flicker of embarrassment, he untucked his shirt to show me the four-inch purple scar

between his right hip and belly button, criss-crossed with thread where the stitches were still in.

“Cor!” I gasped. “That’s the wasp’s ankles!”

“Isn’t it?” Cliff looked extremely chuffed. Unfortunately, the hospital hadn’t let him bring home his

appendix in a pot, so he said, but it was alright because he could make his scar pull faces. “Watch

this, look!”

We were still laughing when Mum returned with two cups of tea. “Olive, love, Mrs Henderson’s asking

if you’ll pop down the road and fetch Queenie. She seems to have forgotten what the time is.”

“Her clocks are stopped, that’s why,” Cliff explained. “And all at the same time.”

“Still?” I asked. “Last I heard Dr Wirth was trying to fix them. Maybe she doesn’t want them working

again.”

Mum looked surprised. “Why ever not?” Then, as if the answer had come to her, her face paled. “Oh.

Oh dear. The poor thing”

“It’s all right,” Cliff replied. “They’re not very nice clocks.”

Somehow, I didn’t think that was what Mum meant.