A visit from Val

We were so lucky yesterday to be joined by Val, Alice's grandma. The children loved hearing about her seaside holidays in the 1950s to Bridlington and when she was older, to Wales. She told us about borrowing her uncle's car to get there, the story of when they ran out of petrol(!), the swimsuits her mum knitted (!) her, about the donkey rides, the hanky hats, newspaper fish and chips, sticks of rock and much, much more.

Before Val came in, we prepared some questions to ask her. I also suggested the children might be able to contact their own grandparents to find out what their holidays were like - I'd love to hear back if any other grandparents have stories to share.

Thanks so much to Val for coming in to talk to us and give us so much knowledge of seaside holidays from the 1950s. There were many similarities and differences to draw out. The children have been talking about Val's visit again today and enjoying seeing their holiday photos go up on the wall. We've put Val's childhood holidays on our class timeline. We have also noted the King's coronation, the Queen's death, Queen Victoria's reign (we will also be looking at Victorian seaside holidays and the impact of the railways on holidays from this time) and The Great Fire of London as these are the periods we have looked at this year.

See the picollage below for a quick glance at our afternoon.

Mrs J