Street Detective Visitors

As part of our ‘Street Detectives’ theme learning, the children have been lucky enough to welcome some extremely knowledgeable visitors to our classroom over the last couple of weeks who have been able to talk ‘all things Farway’!

The children had some really interesting questions to ask both of our visitors, including why they love Farway and what makes it special!

First, David joined us to discuss how Farway has changed over the years. From school days in the forties, to prominent figures linked to Farway, the war years and evacuees, to employment and delivery rounds, David was able to offer a wealth of historical knowledge that afforded us a glimpse into the past and enabled to consider how Farway might change in the future. The children asked some fantastic questions that enabled them to consider whether or not the changes were good or bad, though they were a little frustrated that their findings proved somewhat inconclusive, since they could agree that there was a good deal of both positive and negative impact on the local area! The best part was that we were able to plot some local landmarks, previously unbeknownst to us, on our maps, for example where there was post office, a pub and a local blacksmith, as well as where a German pilot made craters when he dropped his ammunition!

Next, Steve came to talk to us about his job as a thatcher. The children learnt what a thatcher does and how! He was able to talk to us about how thatching has changed over time and the different equipment and resources that a thatcher uses. We dug out the map to look at Romania and Poland since much of the straw, as well as the hazel for the spars are now imported from here. Remembering their learning from our previous topic, the children were quick to find out that thatching on modern buildings is decidedly safer than that on those that they investigated when learning about The Great Fire of London since they now include a fire proof mat. Given that many of us live in older thatched properties we thought it was interesting that due to the fact that older buildings are simply repaired and re-thatched, these however are much the same as they were in 1666 and the straw on the lowest layer will likely be the straw arranged there when the property was first thatched!

We would like to thank David and Steve for talking their time to come in to talk to the children about all things Farway, we all learnt lots and it has been so useful to support our learning in the geography and history of our valley!