‘Placement Checkers’ – WW2 Evacuees
Author: Luke Abbott l Suitable for: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3+, Planning
Suitable For: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3+
Theme: WW2 Evacuees
Designing The Expert Frame
Situation
They have worked together in the past and have checked many many homes and settings to assess their suitability for placing children from London.
Field of Expertise
Quality Control people or ‘Placement Checkers’ during the 2nd WW PRIOR to the EVACUATION system starting. A team of people are called together to check the houses and people who have volunteered to take children from London.
Client(s)
Civil Servants at the Home Office in 1930′s
Commision(s)
The team are to check residential settings in the remote parts of Essex villages in the 1930′s-40′s and will be travelling to the village of Little Hedingham where a number of people have volunteered to take in children.
The team have clear sets of instructions created by the Home Office-they are to look for certain conditions …and of course make assertions about the people who want to help out in the war effort by taking London children into their homes.
Steps In
FOUNDATION BLOCKS
We will need a map of the village of Little Hedingham-to mark all those people who are offering a place for children. This will be created by the class so that they can have ownership of the work as far as possible. Younger members of the class can work in groups with older ones as well as adult helpers. I will base the key ‘givens’ on the village I know well-Sible Hedingham on the Suffolk/Essex border.
We will also need some key names of people in the village (on cards) as well as a ‘memo’ from the Home Office at the time, commissioning the team to do the checks.
We will agree and create the criteria for checking together-again to ensure the class have a sense of ownership beyond participation.
CREATING THE TEAM IN ACTION
From the above activity we can move into an imaginary representation of the world as it was in WW2 and how the houses and dwellings would be like inside-we can do this from the viewpoint of the team having done similar work in the past. (This creates the history of the team and gives the work depth).
CREATING THE CURRENT JOB
The village will be ‘checked’ as well as arranging where we will need to stay overnight together (this will be a ‘problem’ to be solved in the fiction)
We will have our first encounter with Mr Thomas-an elderly person who has one room to spare. Mr Thomas will be ‘read’ by the class using a range of dramatic/literary conventions (called List 33 by Dorothy Heathcote).
Judgements will be made about the suitability of Mr Thomas.
We will create other residents of the village together from the model shown to the class.
NEXT STEPS AND IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE
We will have to write down the VALUES of the group of checking people which will be reflected in any communications made back to authorities of children’s houses and families. A logo will have to be designed to capture the values of this organisation-even if it is only to be in existence for a shortish while. Though many may feel the organisation should always be on hold.
Publishers have shown an interest in creating the memoirs of the team and of course many national news papers are keen to keep their readers up to date about where the children have gone to and what they make of it in the first few months.
Each villager we have created will need a family history, a way of life, pets, etc. Each class can create their own people on large pieces of paper or 3D depictions with the details signed appropriately. These can be shared amongst the classes.
Mr Thomas would be the exception as he will need to be created and investigated by all KS2 children. There will be a range of questions that will need to be answered about him-who should the checkers advise be placed at his village home-a boy a girl or no one?
The quality control people (aka ‘checkers’) will need their previous jobs logged and written up or recorded in some way.
NEXT STEPS- i.e. tomorrow or next time………………..all that has been invented is a NEW CLIENT
- As they have such expertise in placing people and checking the quality of provision- there can be no surprise when they are invited to Downing Street to discuss the best way to save Mr Churchill’s life and all his cabinet in the time of an evacuation of London. Looking at the plans for the underground method of evacuation may be a shock to them…………
- Reports have been coming in that at a later date after the evacuation-children have been trying to run away back to their homes. Others it is said-are hiding in local woods and forests rather than live in the families they were placed with…………
- More ideas will I am sure follow on as the work occurs and we have an open mind for the next steps of the curriculum to be unlocked.