KEY STAGE 2 (Year 3/4)

This is the second part of the drama unit linking to QCA History Unit 9: What was it like for children in the Second World War? and in particular section 4: What was it like to be an evacuee?

• If you try this with your group, I would be delighted to hear how it went! 

Arrival and Selection Procedure

Read aloud extract two by Margaret Webb (Arrival and Selection Procedure) to the class. Follow this by playing Audio 2: Evacuee Interviews. Now read aloud extract three (New Family). Explain that the groups should create three more photographs, showing moments from the same day. The first will show the children arriving at their new destination, the second will show them being picked out by a parent from the host family and the third will show them meeting the new family.  If you have less time, you could pick two of these. The children will need five to ten minutes to complete the task.

The groups will benefit from support and encouragement during this process, particularly in moving on from one freeze frame to the next.  They will need time to discuss, but encourage them to try ideas out as soon as possible. Once they have worked out the three images, they should go through them one by one to check that everybody remembers their positioning.  Groups that finish earlier than others could be encouraged to think about adding spoken thoughts for each person in each image.

When all the groups are ready, sit the class down and spotlight each group in turn by asking them to show their three images.  Count from one to three to lead them through each image. Encourage the rest of the class to observe each member of the group carefully, so that they can try to guess what character and emotion they are representing. It is useful for the class to see all three images once through without any thought-tracking, as it encourages them to analyse the images for themselves. When a group has shown all three images you could ask them to go through them again, this time using thought-tracking for each photograph, so that the audience can compare their ideas with the group's.

After showing the work of some or all the groups in this way, you can move onto the next technique - Bringing the scene alive.  Choose a group that looks confident with their work.  When they have made one of their images, explain that you will ask them to bring the scene alive for just a few moments.  This is a useful step for moving from the use of still images to improvised drama.  The group will of course have no time to discuss and will be performing the action for the first time in front of the rest of the class.  However, still-images and thought tracking are surprisingly effective ways of instilling confidence and establishing the basis for drama. Give a signal by clicking your fingers to begin and end the sequence.  The action begins with the freeze frame and ends at a suitable moment of your choice - before the performers run out of steam.

Living with the New Family 

Teacher in role and hot-seating could be used in a number of ways in this unit. For example, you could play the role of Mrs Webb (Margaret's mother) or her sister Joyce (who was four years older than Margaret), or Mrs Tofts (the foster mother). Explain to the class that you will be playing the role and simply give them the opportunity to hot seat you as the character. If you wish, you may use an item of costume to denote when you are playing the role. Other ways to make this clear are leaving the room and re-entering as the character or simply turning your back on the class for a moment before you take on the role.

It is likely that the class will have lots of questions to ask you, but be prepared by having one or two issues that you can talk about. For example if you play Mrs Webb you could talk about how much you miss your daughters but how hard it is for you to afford to visit them. (Mrs Webb did visit Margaret and Joyce a month after they had arrived with Mrs Tofts - you can find more about this on the BBC website). However, you will also need to improvise feelings and facts about the character depending on the children's questions. As part of this activity you could also give the whole class a role.  For example they could pretend to be other young evacuees in the village. Mrs Webb could ask them how they are finding their new lives and whether they know how Margaret and Joyce are settling in. The children may find it valuable if you also give them the chance to hot seat Mrs Tofts, so that they get both sides of the story.

The children can also take turns in being hot-seated individually.  One child at a time could be hot-seated as Margaret, Joyce or a fictitious evacuee. This will be a good opportunity to find out how much the children are thinking about the feelings of the evacuees and what they have picked up about the events and the story behind them. Encourage the others to ask questions to find out how the character feels and to build up a background for the character - how and why they were evacuated, for example. If the children are less confident, there is no reason why you should not hot seat two of them at a time as Margaret and her sister.

To help the children reflect on this activity and to consolidate the learning so far, play the following two audio extracts, which supply further background details about the host families  and their expectations. Play Audio 3: Host child and Audio 4: Host families to the group.

War Declared

Two days after Joyce and Margaret arrived at their new home, war was declared. Read aloud the next extract of Margaret's account: extract four (War Declared). Give out a handwritten version of Mum's letter to each group to read. When they have all read it, give the groups ten minutes to devise a 30 second scene showing what Margaret decides to do. Share the presentations. When all the groups have shown their work, you can move onto the next activity.

Conscience Alley is a useful strategy for exploring any kind of dilemma faced by a character. The class forms two lines facing each other. One person (either the teacher or a child) takes the role of the protagonist and walks between the lines as each member of the group speaks their advice. Set up a Conscience Alley for Margaret at the point when she is deciding what to do about the letter.  The children can whisper their advice, based on what they have seen in the improvisations, as she walks down the alley. When Margaret reaches the end of the alley she can make her decision.

Further Activities: 

• Write a letter or diary extracts of an evacuee
• Describe how evacuees might have felt by adding text to thought or speech bubbles on photographs
• Write a poem describing the feelings of an evacuee on the first night in their new home
• Make and write a label showing their name and address which they can wear
• Draw a picture of an evacuee and add thought bubbles showing their feelings
• Create a display of appropriate photographs and artefacts

Other Resources:

• WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC.
• The Imperial War Museum has a range of information on evacuation.

• Drama Unit Part One