The Fairytale Travel Company

Oh dear, the FTC are in a spot of bother this week. They have promised that whoever you are, wherever you want to go, they will get you there. It's a bit of a nuisance that a gnome called Wilf has asked to go to St Lucia. They don't usually go there ...

Well luckily, the employees at the travel company were up for a big challenge. They have been researching the country, but then decided they ought to fly over it to see what it was like. At a first glance, this is what they could see.

Meanwhile, we have had another message from Wilf. He wants us to write him an itinerary. I think we can do that and put it as an example in the travel brochure. He also wants us to tell him what to pack. I'm not sure that's our job! But maybe the other employees will decide that we can.

We have been checking the weather for Wilf though and comparing it to the UK. It's a bit warmer there! We've got to make sure we don't send him in hurricane season. He might not like that.




The manager is very pleased with our work so far, but he's a little grumpy because we forgot to take photos the last time we went and we need some good ones for the brochure. He said we could have a balloon ride for our hard work. It would be better as it's slower and we could get a better look. We could then add to the notice board.


Lucy has been hard at work in St Lucia creating travel videos to play in the shop. The voiceover doesn't work on one of them though. Someone's going to have to do that again.

Mystery solvers - year 2/1

A very old looking suitcase was found in the corridor this week. The 2/1 children thought it might have belonged to Mr Parris (the headteacher) but were sure it couldn't possibly belong to Miss Bailey (she wouldn't carry a bag like that!)

The class reasoned who else it could belong to and why it was there. Jess took it down to the office, but Mr Parris said it wasn't his. Everyone decided that they need to become 'Mystery Solvers' and find out more about it.

We weren't sure whether to open the suitcase or not. There were so many good reasons for and against. We decided by using 'decision alley' ...

and opened the suitcase.

At first we thought it belonged to a maid, because there was a hat in there and an apron. Then we found a sash with the word Scutari on it, and an old looking letter from someone called Florence.

Jess read out the letter, which gave us some clues. We thought it was a good idea to do some research to find out more about who it could have belonged to.

Especially since Mr Parris had sent us a video message.

We found out the that contents belonged to Florence Nightingale. We wondered what to do with it. Some of us thought that we should put it back where we found it, others said no, because it might get stolen. Somebody suggested that it should go in the cupboard safely, but then someone else said no, people should be able to see it because it's interesting. The final thoughts were that it should go to the British museum, but Henry had found out that there is a Florence Nightingale museum, so he thought it should go there. The mystery solvers voted, then decided to send a letter to the Florence Nightingale museum, to tell them about the suitcase and to see if they wanted it.

Children in role as 'letters'.

The next day some 'letters' arrived at the museum and read themselves out to a very grumpy curator. She received so many letters each day that she was fed up with them and would only read interesting ones that made sense. She was so grumpy that she threw some in the bin! Then, some of the letters that day started to interest her ...

Teacher in role as a museum 'grumpy curator', listening to the letters. This is how a teaching point can be put across. No introduction to the letter, 'I don't know what this letter is about! I can't be bothered to read it! In the bin!' etc. This is done with care to individual children's feelings and by knowing how they will respond.

The museum curator decided she would dearly love to see the suitcase described in some of the letters.

The hospital in Scutari

The Mystery Solvers were hooked by what they had learned about Florence Nightingale and wanted to find out more about her. They uncovered a tableaux of Scutari hospital where she went to work and found out that conditions there were not very good.

Children had time for role play, then tried freeze frames and finally created a tableaux of Scutari hospital.

Nurses were trying really hard to look after soldiers in cramped, dirty conditions. Listen to the soldier's thought bubbles.

Thought tracking - a great way to assess children's understanding.

'Interview with a nurse'
Did you see that programme on tv last week? The chat show? There were some nurses/soldiers from Scutari on there! This introduced a new type of role for the children. After asking 'Do we have any Scutari nurses here now?' I selected three children to be the interviewees. I then initially took on the role as the compere, to model how it could be done. I welcomed the audience and the nurses in a game show style, hooking the children. The films are not staged at all, but I did have to stop and start them again sometimes when my filming wasn't perfect. That was the only role I had - filming. All ideas, responses are the children's.

Interview with a soldier

Children show their learning.

After the interviews, we thought about the letters that the soldiers and nurses might have written home to their families. I wanted them to all write in role but before they did so, I asked if there were any 'letters' in the room. The short film clips that follow are some of the children's spontaneous responses to this. Believe it or not, they are all struggling writers! Amazing!