From January 2021, all schools and colleges in England and Wales will be able to test students for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Without a doubt, this year has been dominated by the pandemic. Does that make it a year that we should all be glad to see the back of? Or has it suggested that there is more hope for us than we realised?
This resources pack contains an article from The Week Junior newspaper, alongside an activities sheet designed to get children thinking, talking and writing about what the story means to them.
Activities include:
- Debate whether this year has been nothing but twelve months of sadness and frustration. Is it the year when we learned that mankind is not as clever and competent as we once might have thought? Or has it shown that we are able to work together to solve huge problems and that most of us have great reserves of kindness, resilience and adaptability? What do you think?
- Write a poem about the year, made of a rhyming couplet for each month.
- What if you could go back in time to the beginning of the year? Write a set of instructions for how to survive 2020. Don’t forget to use imperative verbs, numbered points and sequencing words.
- Research a numbers fact file about important or interesting things that happened in 2020. Try to get between five and 10 different facts.
Find the entire series of Topical Tuesday resources to download here.
What is The Week Junior?
The Week Junior magazine looks at current affairs and helps children make sense of the world, provides context and clarity to complex issues, improves general knowledge and encourages discussion and debate.
To find out more about The Week Junior and to download its free resources, please go to schools.theweekjunior.co.uk.