My life in the workhouse

Leaflet 1 and Leaflet 2 offer extracts from Berlie Doherty’s novel and play Street Child, featuring a London workhouse. This on-screen resource can be used before or after the group reading sessions to explore the fact behind the fiction. It includes a virtual tour of a workhouse. Children can click on hot spots to reveal labels, captions and further information and to hear sound effects.

Before reading

• What do the children know about workhouses? What do they expect to find in the text? What are their feelings about workhouses?
• Discuss how to navigate the text and what to click on first.

Reading/responding

• Read the text together or read it in pairs/as a group/independently.
• Challenge the children to find specific information and to explain how they found it. Was the resource easy to use? How has the writer brought the information to life?
• Compare a daily workhouse routine with the school timetable.
• Compare the text with that in Leaflet 1 (from Street Child by Berlie Doherty). How does the purpose and language of each text differ?