Victor Schoelcher was Frenchman who travelled to Mexico, Florida, Louisiana and Cuba on a business trip. During his travels he realised how appalling the slaves were treated and became a leading figure in the abolitionist movement. He is seen as the father of the abolition of Slavery in the French colonies. He was appointed in 1848 as under-secretary of the navy and the colonies. As part of the provisional government of the brand new Second Republic in France he wrote the decree abolishing slavery in all French colonies signed on27th April 1848. In the decree he stated that Slavery is a violation of Human dignity. The government rejected his proposal to compensate the former slaves with grants for plots of land. Sources used People of Peace by Sandrine Mirza Wikipedia

Mildred ‘Babe’ Didrikson was born in Port Arthur, Texas. Her parents were immigrants from Norway. She was the sixth of seven children. The family moved to 850 Doucette in Beaumont, Texas aged 4. Her mother called her ‘Bebe’ from a toddler. She was nicknamed Babe - after Babe Ruth - when she scored 5 home runs in a chidlhood baseball game. She left school without graduating and went on to become an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, plus track and field. At the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics she set 4 world records. 80 metres hurdles -11.7 Javelin 43.69 metres - the first woman Olympic champion high jump 1.657 metres then 1,67 (same height as Jean Shiley who got the gold because Mildred used an improper technique). (Apparently she also twice broke the long jump record but the judges ruled them as fouls.) Mildred is the only athlete, male or female, to win individual Olympic medals in separate running, throwing and jumping events. In 1934 she tried Baseball . Mildred is still recognized as the world record holder for the farthest baseball thrown by a woman. She then became America’s first female golf celebrity and was the leading player of the 1940s and early 1950s. As an amateur and professional she won many golf tournaments. Serious illness ended her golfing career in the mid 1950s. Mildred was indeed a very talented sports woman. Sources Wikipedia Amazing Athletes by Jean-Michal Billioud

Madge was a figure skating champion. She participated in the Men’s category in 1902 because there was no women’s category . She came second smashing everyone’s expectations! Madge Syers was world figures-skating champion in 1906.and 1907. At the London Summer Games in 1908 she won the Olympic title in the ladies competition, and bronze, with her husband and trainer,Edgar. She is the only female skater to win both individual and pairs at the same Olympics. She always wore a hat when performing. She also took her ice-skates every where she went. Madge was the first to perform technically perfect jumps. She retired shortly after 1908, due to poor health, and wrote books about the art of figure skating 1920 was the last time figure-skating was included in the Summer Games. In 1924 it became part of the first Winter Olympic Games held in Chamonix, France. Sources used Wikipedia Amazing Athletes by Jean-Michel Billioud

Richard Branson fulfilled a personal dream by going to the edge of Space. The picture I have chosen shows a very happy man fulfilling a dream. He beat his fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos by days to be the first billionaire space company founder to ride in his own spacecraft. Originally he was to fly on its second last flight but it was brought forward. I have created a phrase and vocabulary sheet - I created a blank so you could choose which of the 3 pictures you preferred. There is also a blank comic strip. I hope the children enjoy using the sheet.

Recently there has been a lot of news about Climate Change and the number of serious fires we are now experiencing . Over the years I have created several Phrase and Vocabulary sheets. Friend or Foe/ could be a good discussion/ starting point I have included a short story when, during a dispute, the green goddesses were trundled out in England - written by myself. There are also 2 poetry aids with a few ‘couplets’ included for starters. There is also a blank ‘comic’ strip and 2 best copy sheets. I have included 3 pages from a book called Emergency - the author describes how to put out a fire and describes the use of basic firefighting equipment. There is also a page about breathing apparatus. There is a general Rescue sheet. Finally I have included information about fire-engines/lorries/trucks and other vehicles. There are lots of FREE photocopiable sheets on firemen/fighters and fire engines available on Google. Sources Challenging the Physical Elements by Tony Batchelor Wikipedia What to do in an Emergency Reader’s Digest

I have put together several sheets about rivers and flooding. I have tried to put onto a phrase and vocabulary sheet some thoughts about the catastrophic event in Germany. I have included a picture of a river plus other vocabularies I have used before, Source Center for Disaster Philanthropy

Mary Moffat Livingstone was the wife of David Livingstone the missionary and explorer. In the history books she has been forgotten They said he had three wives - the river Nile,the struggle against slavery and religion. In the article in the Daily Mail Mrs Livingstone i Presume written by Jane Fryer she looks at the life of his real wife. She was strong, educated, fearless and spoke 6 African languages. She was the daughter of missionaries and was renowned in South Africa. . It was Mary who opened doors in remote parts of Africa for her singularly driven husband with her languages and connections. Tribal leaders would insist on addressing her first. Together they crossed the Kalshari desert surviving on biscuit and beans. They survived an entire week without water. She endured appalling hardship, long separations, a sporadic paralysis caused by a post natal stroke after her fourth child Elizabeth was born in the bush and the final battle aged 41 with malaria. Mary and David met when he was recovering from being bitten by a lion. Within weeks his life long vow to marry ‘went up in smoke’. They married in 1845. In 7 years they built their own house, created 3 mission stations from scratch and weathered 2 years of drought. In 1849, with 3 children and Mary pregnant they started a 1,500 mile trek across the Kalahari desert. Read the full article by Jane Fryer. Visit in July (2021) the revamped (9.1 million) David Livingstone museum In Lanarkshire where finally Mary’s contribution will finally be given due credit They obviously loved each other. He just loved exploration and adventure a bit more. Sources Daily Mail Wikipedia

Saint Aldhelm (c.639-7090 was Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, a writer and scholar of Latin Poetry. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex. Aldhelm was educated by an Irish hermit called Maildulf (also known as Maemaidub, Maidubh and Meldun), who had a small school near what is now Maimesbury (which was named after him). He remained with him for many years. In 668 Pope Vitalian sent Theodore of Tarsus to be Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time Hadrian, the North African scholar, became abbot of St. Augustine’s at Canterbury. Aldhelm, now aged about 30, went to Canterbury. There his studies included Roman law, astronomy, astrology, the art of reckoning and the difficulties of the calendar. He learned Latin and Greek, plus possibly Hebrew. He used Latinized Greek words in his works on poetry and prose. Due to ill health he left Canterbury and returned to Malmesbury Abbey where he was a monk under Maildulf for 14 years, dating probably from 661. It was a small community that had grown from Maildulf 's pupils On the death of Maildulf he was appointed as the first abbot of Malmesbury.He introduced Benedictine rule and secured the right of the election of the abbot to the monks he founded 2 other monasteries - Frome in Somerset and Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire. He also built a new church at Malmesbury and obtained grants of land for the monastery. He was the abbot there for 35 years He was a learned man and also a poet, It is said if his hearers would not listen to his sermons he would sing his own songs to them. There is a story that his sermon at Bishopstrow in Wiltshire was so long that his staff, which he stuck into the ground when he began, had ash buds on it at the end! His fame as a scholar spread to other countries. Artwil, the son of an Irish king, submitted his writings for Aldhelm’s approval As far as we know he was the first Anglo Saxon to write in Latin verse. ( For more detail go to Wikipedia entry) HIs fame reached Rome. He was successfully involved in solving the controversy of the dating of Easter. He reluctantly became the first bishop of Sherborne when the huge diocese of West Sussex was divided into Winchester and Sherborne. The monks at the abbey did not want to lose him so he was both abbot and bishop. His territory stretched right to Land’s End, Aldhelm was now in his mid 60s but he was very active as a bishop. He built the cathedral church at Sherborne. He was known to sing hymns and passages from the Gospels, interspersed with entertaining tales, in public places, so he might draw attention from the crowds and then preach to them. He is known as the Apostle of Wessex. He died on 25 May, 709 five years after he had become bishop. He was buried in the church of St. Michael at Malmesbury Abbey. HIs friend, St. Egwin, Bishop of Worcester, set up crosses at Aldhelm’s various stopping places. His feast, on May 25th, is in the Sarum Missal.

Catherine Wilkinson (1786-1860) was an Irish migrant who became known as the *Saint of the Slaves *. In 1832 during a cholera epidemic she had the only boiler in her neighbourhood so she invited those with infected clothes or linen to use her boiler at the cost of a 1 penny a week. She saved many lives as a result. This became the first public washhouse in Liverpool. She showed them how to use a chloride of lime to get them clean. Boiling killed the cholers bacteria. Kitty pushed for the establishment of public baths where the poor could bathe, 10 years later, with the support of the District Provident Society and William Rathbone, plus public funds, the first combined washhouse and public baths in the U.K. was opened on Upper Fredrick Street in Liverpool . In 1846 she was appointed superintendent of the public baths . She died in 1846 aged 73 having already been recognised for her Indefatigable and self denying during her lifetime by the mayor of Liverpool that year. KItty was born Catherine Seaward in County Londonderry, Ireland. Aged 9 she was coming with her family to Mersey. The ship ran aground and her father and her younger sister drowned. Aged 12 she went to work at a cotton mill in Caton, Lancashire as an indentured apprentice. Aged 20 she left the mill and returned to live with her mother in Liverpool. They both worked in domestic service. While living with her mother she married Emanuel Demontee and had two children. Demontee drowned and they returned to domestic services. She was gifted with a mangle and set herself up as a laundress. In 1823 married Tom Wilkinson, a warehouse porter. They continued to rent a house in Denison Street. In 2012 marble statue unveiled in St. George’s Hall. May 2017 students voted one of the rooms in Liverpool Guild building to be changed to Kitty Wikinson room 2018 a lnon-profit washhouse In Everton was name Kitty’s Laundrette Two biographies are available 1910 and 2000 The Life of KItty Wilkinson

I have put together some differentiated work about British Birds. The first 4 sheets are about the early stages of a bird’s life. The 5th sheet is a phrase and vocabulary sheet. There are then 2 illustration sheets followed by a Bird Cycle sheet. Nest Boxes comes from my Debate file - which might prove . I have differentiated my Poetry Aids and put together some simple’ couplets. There are 3 sheets for their final poetry efforts to be neatly written up on. Finally i have included 3 differentiated word searches with answers. Hopefully there is some material you will find useful. All the drawings used were created by David Woodroffe an established illustrator. Source Nature and Seasons by Tony Batchelor

John David Pawson (1930-2020) was an evangelical minister, writer and prominent Bible teacher based in the U.K. He was not afraid of tackling the controversial topics. All he wanted people to do was to read the Bible for themselves. He was born in the northeast in England. His parents were H. Cecil and Jean Pawson. His father was head of Agriculture at Durham University and Vice President of the Methodist conference. From childhood he had always wanted to be a farmer but by the time he had completed a B.Sc. in Agriculture at Durham University he felt God was calling him into full-time Christian ministry. He studied for an M.A. in theology at Wesley House, Cambridge. On graduating he joined the Royal Air Force as a chaplain and served in Aden When he left the RAF he served as a Methodist minister. He found he was uncomfortable with infant baptism. Following a doctrinal meeting of the Methodist church he volunteered to leave the denomination. Shortly afterwards he became pastor of Gold Hill Baptist church in Buckinghamshire. Later he moved to Guildford Baptist Church, Millmead, which helped design. Here he established a reputation amongst the evangelicals and charismatics as a Bible preacher. He began to create teaching tapes for the church’s sick and elderly members- these tapes became popular world wide. Under his ministry Millmead became one of the largest Baptist churches in the U.K… David left Millmead in 1979 and began an itinerant worldwide Bible teaching ministry. His ministry, predominantly through seminars for church leaders, took him to Asia, Australia, Africa, England, Europe and the USA. MILLIONS of copies of his teachings have been distributed in more than 120 countries. He was a writer and speaker with a reputation for urgency, clarity and uncompromising faithfulness to the Scriptures. he wrote over 80 books. His extensive and accessible overviews of the books of the Bible have been published and recorded in Unlocking the Bible, available on CDs, DVDs and YouTube. Steve Dally worked alongside him during his last ten years. In 2013 he was still preaching at events across the globe. David now in his mid 80’s had a mini stroke and was found to have advanced prostate cancer which had spread to the bones but he fortunately was not in significant pain. As his public appearances became fewer he worked on making his teaching accessible online. David died on Ascension Day, 21st May 2020 aged 90. David is considered to be one of the world’s finest biblical expositors *All he wanted was for people to read the Bible for themselves. Steve Dally Sources used Wikipedia this includes summaries of 10 of his books Christian News Read Not as bad s the truth -David’s autobiography

In the Woods includes differentiated work covering the Primary years. The work was originally for Key Stage 2 pupils but I have added more pictorial work which hopefully the younger child will appreciate. It divides into 3 sections - prose, poetry and word searches Along with the In the Woods sheet I have included The countryside Code. I have put together several different best copy sheets, 3 having illustrations and 2 set up like a comic strip. For the poetry section I have started with the famous poem Starting by Woods by Robert Frost. I have then tried to build up away for the children to attempt writing poetry. First by taking 2 words and trying to write simple couplets, then encouraging them to attempt simple poetry. I have included 2 word searches. One is very simple - I wanted to included David’s picture of a hedgehog All the illustrations, are the work of David Woodroffe, a professional illustrator, except the last sheet.

I have put together 5 simple nature word searches with answers. British Birds On the farm In the Woods Pets Wild Animals in G.B

I have put together 2 word searches, with answers, plus pictures of cricket equipment

The task is for the children to see how many words they can find in the words ‘spring’ and in ‘sunshine’. They place their words in the ‘mini’ crosswords. They choose 2 and add clues. They can then ask their friends to fill in the crossword. Please note the ‘master’ sheets contains words which are NOT in the Collins English Dictionary. Something a little different to try, There are also 2 Spring word searches.

I have attempted to create 2 mini crossword sheets, one on Climate Change, the other on the environment. The idea is that the pupils look for words within the two main words. They then make ‘mini’ crosswords, They then make clues for 2 of the crosswords. and give the crossword to friends to solve. Please note the ‘master’ sheet contains words which do NOT appear in the Collins English Dictionary. Something a little different to try.

I came across these sheets looking at Alternative fuel. They listed 9 alternative fuels for cars- Air Biofuels Electricity Heat Hydrogen Kinetic LPG liquified petroleum gas Nitrogen Steam Another sheet listed 5 innovative alternatives to fossil fuel- Elephant Grass Hydrogen fuel cells Solar paint Wave energy Whisky - (waste from the distilleries)

I came across these sheets suggesting ways of saving energy, especially in the summer. I created a ‘blank’ so the children could make a comic strip of the 8 suggestions. The Easy Energy Action Plan might also prove to be useful as an idea.

It is very important that we try to look after our Environment. Over the years I have created a number of pieces of work connected with this subject. Environmental Issues is a good source to debate. I have included 2 debate sheets Environmental Issues and Save it , a simple debate vocabulary sheet, a special thesaurus using antonyms and synonyms linked to environmental issues,a more simple thesaurus a countryside code sheet, 2 differentiated Poetry Aids and a How many words can yo find in Environment?. I have also included 6 example answers. I hope these sheets and example answers prove useful.

I have recently being looking at Environment and Climate Issues and found these definitions which might prove useful which might prove useful to use with older students.