Bella Feltwell: East End housewife Gallery drama for KS2

Bella Feltwell: East End housewife Gallery drama for KS2

Contents Curriculum links, session descriptions, gallery time 1 Timetables 2 Practical guidelines 3 Visit preparation and pre-visit activities 4 Follow-up activities 5 Background to Docklands at War 1939-1945 gallery 6 Planning your visit 8

Curriculum links History World War II, Local history Session description Travel back in time to Poplar during the Blitz to meet Bella Feltwell, local housewife. Find out about wartime life in the East End, rationing, evacuation and much more. Learning can be extended through a self-directed gallery visit using the resource pack provided on booking. The gallery drama lasts 40 minutes and you have also been allocated a 50 minute self-directed gallery visit. Gallery time In this pack you will find pre-visit and follow-up acitivities to help you and your pupils make the most of your visit to the Museum of London Docklands. You have also been sent a link to a separate activity pack containing worksheets for use in the London Docklands at War gallery. These are in Microsoft Word format so they can be adapted to suit the needs of your pupils, and they should be photocopied prior to your arrival at the Museum. Alternative activities can be found at www.museumoflondon.org.uk/sch/store. The Museum cannot take responsibility for edited content. 1

Timetable Your group has been allocated ONE of the following programmes: please check your confirmation letter carefully for session and gallery times. A pre-visit is strongly recommended as you will not be escorted between activities. Group 1 10.00am 10.30am Arrival 10.30am 11.15am Bella Feltwell: East end housewife session (Docklands at War, 2nd floor) 11.15am 12pm Self-directed time in Docklands at War gallery (2 nd floor) 12pm 12.30pm Lunch (Lee Boo Room, basement level) Group 2 11am 11.30am 11.30am 12pm 12pm 12.45pm 12.45pm 1.30pm Arrival Lunch (Lee Boo Room, basement level) Bella Feltwell: East end housewife session (Docklands at War, 2 nd floor) Self-directed time in Docklands at War gallery (2 nd floor) Group 3 12.30pm 1pm 1pm 1.30pm 1.30pm- 2.15pm 2.15pm 3pm Arrival Lunch (Lee Boo Room, basement level) Bella Feltwell: East end housewife session (Docklands at War, 2 nd floor) Self-directed time in Docklands at War gallery (2 nd floor) The sessions will run once only and at the times stated in your confirmation letter so please arrive on time. There will be schools booked for the other sessions and you will not be able to overrun your allocated time. 2

Practical guidelines Arrival, cloakroom and toilets Please use the museum entrance on West India Quay. When you arrive you will be met by a member of the Visitor Services team, who will brief your group and direct you to the Learning Centre where you will be able to leave your coats and bags and go to the toilet before entering the galleries. Please do not leave valuables in the cloakroom area. Lunch You will be allocated a 30 minute slot in the lunch area when you arrive at the museum. There is no eating or drinking in the galleries, so please ensure that all food stuffs are left in the cloakroom. Please ensure your students leave the area clean and tidy for the next school. Special Educational Needs provision The museum is fully accessible. Parking is available for SEN groups. Please contact our SEN Programme Manager to discuss any specific needs on 020 7814 5549 or SEN@museumoflondon.org.uk Shop The shop sells a variety of books and products to support learning, as well as pocket money items. Please request a time slot in the shop or if you would prefer the shop offers a time saving goody bag service. Please visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk/buy-online/museum-of-london-docklands-goody-bags for details. Photography Photography during schools session is welcomed. You are also welcome to take general photographs (ie not close-ups of individual objects) within the museum galleries without flash or tripod use. These images may only be reproduced for personal or educational purposes, which include reproducing the image as a classroom teaching aide or as part of a school project. Any publication of the image for any other purpose is forbidden, which includes publication on any website. As an alternative pictures of many of our key objects are available to download from the Picturebank on our website, www.museumoflondon.org.uk/picturebank. Postcards and posters can be purchased from the shop and prints may be purchased from our on demand print website www.museumoflondonprints.com Risk assessments It is the responsibility of the group leader to carry out a risk assessment and teachers are encouraged to make a planning visit and to carry out their own assessment. The museum makes regular assessments of our public spaces and activities and this document is available on request, but this is only for teachers information and does not constitute an official risk assessment. Pre-visits are free of charge and do not need to be booked. Please inform the Information Desk of the nature of your visit so they can help you make the most of your time in the galleries. Organising your group Split your class into small groups for working in the galleries and visiting the shop. Please ensure that you have at least one adult for every six pupils and that the adults accompany them at all times. Please ensure the children know the following information: work quietly other groups and members of the public will be using the museum please do not lean on the glass cases only use pencils in the galleries. Teachers should provide clipboards and pencils and photocopy gallery activity sheets PRIOR to their visit so that each pupil/group has a copy for use in the museum. 3

Visit preparation activities To maximise the enjoyment and value of the visit please consider the following: introduce to the group some general background about the Museum of London Docklands undertake at least one of the suggested pre-visit activities. Pre-visit activities We highly recommend doing one or more of these activities before the session. 1. Do an image search on Google or Yahoo for pictures of wartime London. 2. Read extracts from Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (or watch the ITV adaptation) for experiences of evacuation. 3. Find out about your own area in the war. Do your grandparents or greatgrandparents remember the war? www.bombsight.org is a useful resource for finding out how London was affected by the Blitz. 4. Discuss the effects of the Blitz on children and how their lives compare to today. How would children feel if they were evacuated, separated from their relatives or caught in an air raid? 5. Study photographs, articles, posters or letters to find out more about real events, the reactions of everyday people to wartime and the approach of the government in controlling the lives of civilians. 4

Follow up activities for the classroom 1. Write a letter or a diary extract about a wartime day. Imagine that you re Bella or one of her children and write it from their point of view. What happened to you? What new experiences have you had? Where have you been and what have you been doing? How do you want your reader to feel worried about you or reassured? 2. Imagine you had to stay in an air raid shelter. As a class talk about what it would be like and what emotions you would be feeling. Draw a picture of yourself in a shelter. You might like to find images by war artists like Henry Moore to help you. 3. Find out about the different types of jobs people did in England during the war, including ARP wardens, RES and WRVS. Which jobs would you like to do? 4. Design a poster encouraging people to Make do and mend!, make the most of their rations, or find another propaganda campaign that you could illustrate. 5. Find out what a person s weekly ration was during one of the war years (Norman Longmate s fascinating book How We Lived Then is a wonderful source of information on the Home Front in World War II). Keep a food diary of what you eat in a week today what are the differences in diets? Talk about why foods were rationed and who decided what people should have to eat. Was the food good for you compared to what we eat today? 5

Background to Docklands at war 1939-1945 The port and its communities bore the brunt of enemy attack during the Second World War. They also played a vital part in Britain s fight in the war. When war was declared in 1939, few Londoners were surprised. A Port Emergency Committee had existed since 1936, and the Port of London Authority had already built 200 shelters like those in the Docklands at War gallery. London s boats, including tugs, sailing barges and launches assisted in the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk in May 1940. Dockyards and riverside factories, who were employing more women in the workforce, supported the war effort. Tate and Lyle manufactured aeroplane parts as well as refined sugar. Cable works produced much of the Pipe Line Under the Ocean (PLUTO), used to supply fuel oil for the Allied advance from Normandy in 1944. Many of the Phoenix Units of the Mulberry Harbours, used at the Normandy landings in June 1944, were built in the docks and along the river. Over 2300 vessels and craft were converted, maintained and repaired on the river. Even after victory was in sight, attacks by V1 and V2 rockets brought further destruction to the area in 1944 and 1945. Black Saturday and 90 days of bombing In late afternoon, 7 September 1940 Black Saturday the Luftwaffe launched a massive daylight raid on London, targeting the docks and the riverside works and marking the start of the Blitz. Thirteen weeks of continuous bombing followed, seeing a rain of incendiary and high explosive bombs fall on London. Incendiary bombs, designed to start fires quickly, were particularly effective as most dock warehouses had timber interiors which quickly ignited. Warehouses often stored highly flammable cargoes. The molten column on display in the gallery would have melted at 1525 degrees Centigrade during a warehouse fire. The fire and smoke from the docks soon silhouetted the river. The docks, factories and residential communities suffered extensive damage, destruction and fatalities. Civil defence and fire-fighting units were kept constantly occupied. Anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons protected the river approaches. 6

The River Emergency Service (RES) The RES came into being in 1939 as a river based civil defence unit. The RES was responsible for rescue and ambulance duties and maintaining communications. Around 1500 volunteers operated a fleet of 170 small craft and fourteen ambulance vessels. On display is an RES stretcher, photographs, certificates and an emergency whistle. William Ware (1915-1997), war artist William Ware, excused from military service because of childhood injuries, worked in a plastics factory during WW2, but at night spent time painting and sketching the Blitz from the rooftops. Refusing to take shelter during air raid attacks he depicted bombing, raids and rescue, and salvage crews at work. Human chain by William Ware 7

Planning your journey Admission to the museum is free Museum of London Docklands West India Quay Hertsmere Road London E14 4AL 020 7001 9835 www.museumoflondon.org.uk/docklands schools@museumoflondon.org.uk Open Mon to Sun 10am 6pm Last admission 5.30pm Travel By Tube: Canary Wharf By DLR: West India Quay By bus: D3, D7, D8, 277, N50, D6, 15, 115, 135 By coach The museum does not have a coach park. Coaches may drop-off at the designated area on Hertsmere Road. By river Canary Wharf Pier is a few minutes walk from the museum. Free travel: All schools within the Greater London area can take advantage of Transport for London s School Party Travel Scheme. See www.tfl.gov.uk/schoolparty or call London Underground Customer Services on 0845 330 9881 for details. NB Travel under this scheme is only available from 9.30am. Cancellation charges We are able to offer these sessions free to schools thanks to generous funding. However, any cancellations will incur a charge. For details of cancellation charges please see www.museumoflondon.org.uk/schoolsbookings 8