Posted on: October 14th 2016
On Wednesday, 5th October, Form 1 were lucky enough to have a special visitor. Essie Frenchman’s Grandma, Mrs Michelle Lewis, offered to support the children’s history topic by describing her childhood experiences of seaside holidays.
Mrs Lewis explained that she only ever had one holiday each year and that she and her parents and sisters would travel by car to the seaside, often Margate. They would play “I spy” all the way as entertainment, asking “Are we nearly there?” for much of the journey - some things never change!
The children were fascinated to hear about donkey rides, popping seaweed, collecting shells and playing with bats and balls and were astonished to learn that there were only 3 varieties of ice cream available - strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, rationed to one each day.
Mrs Lewis brought a number of family photographs to share and the children noted how much more formally the adults dressed at that time, men wearing long trousers and shirts and the ladies in smart blouses and skirts, even while sitting on the beach.
Pupils were given the opportunity to ask questions and discovered that although some aspects of seaside holidays have changed over the years, there are also many similarities. For example, children still love to paddle, swim and build sandcastles, using buckets and spades.
Very many thanks to Mrs Lewis for providing such an exciting lesson and for stimulating the children’s enquiry skills, a key component of this week’s core value, “Thinker”.
