Sticks and Stones: Year 6 explore conflict through creative writing
Published on 09/02/21
Throughout the academic year, Year 6 explore a variety of themes that are woven into their everyday lessons. These themes help to explore wider concepts or events alongside normal lesson plans. In the Autumn term Year 6 looked at the theme 'Sticks and Stones'.
The theme gives the class the opportunity to look into conflicts; understanding what a conflict is, why they happen and to study some examples.
In English, the theme was explored through reading Billy the Kid by Michael Morpurgo. The novel is narrated by the eponymous Billy who, now at 80 years old, looks back at how his life was affected by World War 2.
Year 6 were then tasked with writing a letter as Billy to his brother Joe, who dies in the story. The class were excellent at putting themselves in Billy's shoes and mirroring Morpurgo's writing style in their letters. You can view a selection of them here:
To further explore the Sticks and Stones theme, as well as to commemorate Remembrance Day, the class learnt more about the world wars and wrote poems about what war and remembrance means to them. The use of descriptive and emotive language by the class was impressive as they thought about what soldiers must have been thinking and feeling. You can see their Remembrance Day poems below: