What an incredible day we had at Bletchley Park! Our recent trip was perfectly timed with our learning journey about World War Two and the remarkable codebreakers, including the brilliant Alan Turing. We were buzzing with excitement as we stepped into the secretive world of espionage and cryptography.
Our first stop was the iconic huts where the skilled codebreakers worked tirelessly, translating crucial messages from German into English. It was fascinating to see the Bombe machine that Alan Turing and his team masterminded – a real marvel of ingenuity that played a vital role in the war effort.
During our guided tour, we had the opportunity to assume the different roles of those who worked at Bletchley Park. The children experienced how they would have been welcomed, signing the Official Secrets Act before embarking on their important missions. This interactive experience truly brought the history to life and highlighted the importance of secrecy in their work.
The Manor House offered a splendid glimpse into the lives of those who contributed to this monumental undertaking. Hearing stories from former employees added a personal touch that made history come alive for us. We were captivated!
In the afternoon, we had the chance to get hands-on experience with a genuine Enigma machine, just like the one used in the film Imitation Game featuring Benedict Cumberbatch! We eagerly took turns attempting to crack codes, and celebrated each time we succeeded.
All in all, our visit to Bletchley Park was not only educational but also tremendously fun! We left feeling inspired by the incredible legacy of the codebreakers and the pivotal role they played in shaping the future. We can’t wait to share more about this fascinating chapter in history in the classroom!
In other news this week, we tested the strength of our Anderson shelters. With some nervousness we tried out different weights on top of our shelters. We were absolutely delighted to find that our shelters could easily hold over 1kg. Our choice to include strengthening supports in the design of the roof was a truly successful aspect of our scale models. We evaluated our Anderson shelters, identifying other successes and ways we might adapt our design in the future.
In maths, we have been learning how to use long division. We learnt two different methods and then solved problems using long division. At first it was really tricky, but we soon became long division experts and feel ready to tackle more complex calculations applying what we have learnt.
World Record Breakers…we hope! Last Thursday was National Poetry Day. During the morning, we worked with poet Laura Mucha and 60,000+ primary aged pupils from across the country to co-write a poem about ‘what counts’ and break a Guinness World Records title for the largest poetry lesson! We were joined by Lime Class for this exciting event. In preparation for the lesson, we had collected ideas about ‘what counts’ and ‘what matters’ to us. Our ideas included ‘the right to be respected’, ‘the power of hugs’, ‘my family’, ‘feeling safe from harm’, ‘a peaceful world to live in’. We sent our ideas to Laura Mucha for her to include in the collaborative poem.
During the ‘largest poetry lesson’, we then voted with other children from across the country and made decisions about what to include in our poem. Laura Mucha then had the task of putting all our ideas and suggestions into a finished poem. The poem is to be displays all over the country, on the children’s Poetry Archive, on billboards, buildings, in newspapers and will be made into a poster! We had a great time during the lesson and are excited to share the finished poem with you soon. We are equally excited to receive news from the people at Guinness World Records to confirm we are World Record Breakers! Words really do have power!
And finally, in Science we learnt about switches. Our task was to create an innovative switch that can control two circuits so we can have each lamp lit separately or both lit together. We used our knowledge of conductors and insulators and of simple circuits to complete this challenging task. There was much problem solving to be done but there are some budding electrical engineers amongst us as we managed to successfully complete the task!
