Bonjour tout le monde,

Ça va?

There are many places in the world where they speak French and you will continue to find out about La Guyane.  This time it is the Mardi Gras Carnaval:

You will make a Mardi Gras mask.  But there is an activity to use your language skills.  You will write a description of your mask and make sentences using adjectives. You will recap adjectival agreements for masculin and feminin and make sentences to describe your mask.

There is also a short film: 🎬 Carnaval de Guyane.  How many masks can you spot?

Don’t forget the VIDEO RESOURCE CENTRE on the school website.  Go to children and select VIDEO RESOURCE CENTRE, choose Y5 & 6.

Bon courage, good luck,

Madame Ferguson

And finally...

Here is a wonderful, suspenseful narrative written by Kestrels' Kitty, for you all to enjoy.  Can you spot all the great literary techniques that she has used to create tension?

The case of the Important Kidnapping

     It was a solitary, moonlit night and a figure shrouded in shadow crept through the streets of old Victorian London. As the midnight wind blew, a raven as black as soot but as majestic as a lion let out a blood curdling shriek. It caused the figure to stop abruptly and stare up at the tall, hostile silhouette of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

     From years of experience, he was instantly alerted to the presence of danger. Without glancing behind but keeping a steady pace the figure carried on walking until he was safely behind an old, red brick wall. Slowly peering over the wall, towards the ornately carved pillars which stood guard on either side of Whitechapel Arch, the man spotted a shadowy head turn towards him. Desperately glancing at his pocket watch, the man saw he had little time left to find and rescue the Prime Minister. He slowly traced his fingers over the initials on the back of his watch: S. H. and thought of a plan.

     Crawling behind the wall he made his way towards Gaslight Street. When he arrived he noticed nothing had changed. The tall gaslight hissed and illuminated the buildings, creating mysterious shadows on their walls. He looked over to the glowing fire basket and saw the night watchman had followed through on the police’s request to go home. He could hear snippets of conversation coming from the building opposite. Following the voices he came to a slightly opened window. He glanced behind to check he had not been followed by anyone except his comrades in the police. Listening carefully he recognised the voices and identified one as belonging to Edward Cardwell (Secretary of State for War) and the other as William Gladstone ( the Prime Minister).

     His dilemma was, should he blow his whistle and summon the police who were hiding all around the building, but risk the Prime minister being killed, or go it alone and risk himself being killed. Being arrogant Sherlock decided to go it alone. Estimating how far up he would have to lift the window to allow him to fit through he waited until Cardwell, who was impatiently pacing around the room, stood on the same squeaky floorboard. Each time he did Sherlock lifted the window inch by inch until he had made himself enough room to climb through. As he waited Cardwell was called outside by one of his guards and so reluctantly left the room. Taking the opportunity Sherlock carefully climbed through the window, signalling to Gladstone to keep quiet. Taking a pocket knife out of one of his many pockets he cut the ropes that were binding the Prime Minister to an old, rickety chair. They were both about to escape through the window when Cardwell came back into the room. The distinctive sound of a gun, being made ready to shoot, filled the room. Commanding them to turn round and face him Cardwell was surprised to see that Gladstone’s rescuer was none other than the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Knowing he only had a few minutes before Cardwell might shoot them both and wanting to give the police time to hopefully come to their rescue, Sherlock began talking. Cardwell listened but just smirked at each question put to him, until eventually he explained that Gladstone was about to sign the Irish Act which would give tenants protection from greedy landlords and wasn’t he, Edward Cardwell , one of the biggest landlords in all of Ireland and he intended to stay rich.

     While all this was going on, the police had made their way through a basement window and up the stairs towards the room that Sherlock was in. They overcame the guards and barged through the door which Cardwell was standing behind. It knocked him to the floor, making him cry out in pain. He also dropped his gun which Sherlock immediately picked up and pointed towards him...

     Sometime later, Sherlock was visited by Gladstone’s new Secretary of state for War, who offered him the job of ,Chief of London Police. Happy to be offered the job but knowing he could only ever work on his own or with his trusted friend Dr Watson, he politely declined.