The children in Elder, Mulberry and Oak came back to school to a surprising discovery in the school attic. It was an old diary from the year 1818 with a handwritten note that said, “If this diary is found, you need to look in the ground. Westwood Primary School is where you’ll find the time capsule. Charlotte Smith that is me. Can you complete my family tree?” After a lot of thinking and searching we found a time capsule buried in the vegetable patch! There were a couple of clues and the family tree that needed completing in time for Christmas so the children got to work!

After that, they looked inside the time capsule again and found some coal. They wanted to explore what the conditions in the mines would have been like. They met their boss (Mr Salt) and imagineered going down the mines in the lift.

When there, the children found their classrooms transformed into coal mines: the lights were turned out, the windows covered in black paper and black bags hung from the tables. This led the children to writing a setting description. They imagineered going in the mine and shared lots of ideas about what the miners would have experienced.

The children in Oak class wrote their ideas on post-its during a Burn 2 Learn and put these onto pictures of the mines.

In Mulberry they included expanded noun phrases based on what they had seen down the mine and after looking at photographs.

In Oak class they then took all they had learnt about coal mining to write a non-chronological report. They first had to hunt around the classroom for some conjunctions to then use in their writing.

The children in Mulberry then found another clue that led them to a Victorian Mill. They investigated what life would have been like for children working in a Victorian Mill before writing a diary as a child worker.

They then put themselves into the shoes of the mill worker again to imagine they were weaving. The children in Oak and Elder class wove Christmas place mats before writing instructions focusing on using prepositions or adverbs of time.