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Hello everyone, and welcome to the first lesson in the unit, "Victorian Childhood." This unit is gonna test your ability to read complex texts, to create and perform some spoken language, but it's also going to prepare you and teach you about some really interesting context about the Victorian era.

And this context will be particularly useful for you in future if you read any texts by Victorian authors.

The first lesson in this unit is called "Child Workers in the Victorian Era." So, hello everybody, my name is Mr. Barnsley, and I'm really glad that you are joining me today for this lesson.

By the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to read complex text independently and summarise different attitudes towards child labour.

So, before we start with the main part of our lesson, let's look at some key words that we might expect to see in today's lesson.

The first is labour.

The second is compel.

The third is chimney sweep.

The fourth is callous.

And the fifth is mercenary.

Let's have a look in a little bit more detail what each of these words mean.

So, work, particularly physical work, can be referred to as labour.

If you force or oblige someone to do something, you compel them to do it.

So that's a verb, to compel.

Now, a chimney sweep was someone who would clean the channel above a fireplace, the bit that takes all the smoke out of a building.

If you cleaned that, you were a chimney sweep.

Fourth, callous.

Well, this is an adjective.

And callous people have a cruel disregard for others.

And finally, mercenary, can be used in an adjective and when it's used as an adjective here maybe to describe someone's behaviour.

So mercenary behaviour is when people are primarily concerned about making money at the expense of ethics.

So listen out for all five of these words and see if you can use them when you have discussions later in the lesson.

So let's look at the lesson outline for child workers in the Victorian era.

There are three parts of today's lesson.

The first cycle is entitled "The Life of a Chimney Sweep." We'll then be moving on to look at views on child labour today.

And finally, we will finish the lesson by comparing attitudes to child labour.

We are gonna start with the first cycle in today's lesson called "The Life of a Chimney Sweep." Now on the screen you can see an image of a chimney.

Now in Victorian Britain, chimneys like these would have to be cleaned manually.

And that would mean the chimney sweep would have to climb all the way up inside.

So I want you to have a little bit of a think.

What do you think this type of work was like? And we can see in this picture, the chimneys were very small and thin.

Who do you think would be doing this type of work? I'd like you to pause the video, have a little bit of a discussion, and when you are ready to continue, make sure you press play.

I had some really interesting discussions there.

Well done.

Congratulations to anyone who said that this would be quite difficult, not very pleasant work.

Quite claustrophobic.

If anyone mentioned the word claustrophobia, well done.

That's the fear of small spaces.

So if we know that this work often was very claustrophobic work, small dark spaces, well done for those of you who mentioned that actually, often, in the Victorian area they'd get children or young boys to do this kind of work because they were smaller and they could fit in those spaces.

Now we're going to read a text.

Before we read any text in English, it's really important that we use some of our skills to help us, our reading skills that are gonna help us.

And the first of these is predicting.

We always start by making predictions about a text before we actually read it.

So we are gonna read a committee report, and it's called "On employment of Boys in Sweeping Chimneys." And this committee report was published in 1817.

Now, before we even read this report, we're gonna try and make some predictions and try and make some educated guesses about what we are about to read.

It'll make reading the text so much easier if we started thinking about what we might expect to read in there.

So I've produced a prediction grid with some questions to help us go through some steps that we should always do before we start reading a text.

Let's have a look at this prediction grid in more detail.

So whenever we're given a text, we should always look at the title and any subtitles that we can see, and start thinking about what they tell us.

So questions we should be asking ourself is, do I recognise any words in this title? Well, I recognise the word employment.

That means work.

So I also recognise the word boys and sweeping chimneys, so I'm starting to think this is going to be a text about boys who work sweeping chimneys.

That feels like a sensible guess for me.

Now if I'm reading a text in a lesson, and this can be any lesson, it doesn't have to be English, I can use some of the lesson details to help me predict what this text might be about.

So I can think does the lesson title, does the pupil outcome, does the learning cycle title, do any of these things help me make a sensible logical prediction? And I know today's lesson is on child labour, child work.

I also know that this lesson cycle is called "The Life of a Chimney Sweep." And I know our pupil outcome is being able to read difficult texts and be able to compare attitudes to child labour.

So this is telling me, I'm making a guess here that this text could be about what child labour was like and very specifically, sweeping chimneys in Victorian Britain.

And finally, I can start thinking about what prior knowledge I might have once I've looked at the title.

So questions I could ask myself were, do I recognise the words committee or report? What might these words tell me about why the text was written? I know it was published in 1817.

Is there anything I already know about life in 1817 that might help me here? So I know that both committee and report are quite formal words.

I know that committees hold meetings.

So maybe this is a report to give information to the committee, a meeting of people, about life as a chimney sweep.

Now I don't know if these things are right or not.

I won't know until I start reading.

But what I have done here is make some educated guesses that when I start reading the text might help me to understand what I'm reading.

So we're gonna have a go at reading this text.

Before we do any close reading, looking at some of the words in detail, let's just read through it once altogether.

"It is in evidence that they are stolen from their parents, and inveigled out of workhouses; that in order to conquer the natural repugnance of the infants to ascend the narrow and dangerous chimneys, to clean which their labour is required, blows are used; that pins are forced into their feet by the boy that follows them up the chimney, in order to compel them to ascend it; and that lighted straw has been applied for that purpose; that the children are subject to sores and bruises, and wounds and burns on their thighs, knees and elbows; and it will require many months before the extremities of their elbows and knees become sufficiently hard to to resist the excoriations to which they are first subject; and that one of the Masters being asked if those Boys are employed in sweeping chimneys during the soreness of those parts, he answered, 'It depends on the sort of Master they have got.

Some are obliged to put them to work sooner than others; you must keep them a little at it even during the sores, or they will never learn their business.

'" Okay, I'd like to do a check for understanding to see if we understand the gist, the general meaning of what was happening here.

Don't worry if we don't understand the specifics, but let's just see if we can understand overall what this text might be about.

So after your initial reading, which of the statements below appears to be the most accurate description of what the text is about? Is it A, the report discusses how important it is that young boys work as chimney sweeps? Is it B, the report outlines the negative impact on the wellbeing of boys who work as chimney sweeps? Is it C, the report is saying that boys should not be chimney sweeps? Select your response now.

Congratulations if you picked B, the report outlines the negative impact on the wellbeing of boys who work as chimney sweeps.

Okay, this is a report telling a committee what it's like to be a chimney sweep, but it's very clearly listing all the negative things that impact the young boys.

Okay, so now we're gonna read over the text again, but this time we're gonna read in more detail.

We're gonna look at specific words to make sure we understand what they mean.

But we're also trying to read a little bit between the lines here, and try and work out some of the deeper meaning to what is being said.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read and then I'll stop and then I'll ask a question.

When I ask a question, I just want you to pause the video for one minute and have a quick think of what your response that might be, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done, if you picked out that the they refers to young boys.

So they're either taken from their parents or they are taken from workhouses, poor houses.

Now the the verb inveigled means persuaded through deception.

So it means that they were almost tricked to leave the poor houses to do work like this.

The word repugnance means complete disgust.

So it says the natural complete disgust of the infants to ascend the narrow and dangerous chimneys.

So I want you to think about what words like inveigled, repugnance, infants and dangerous, what do these tell us about the author's attitude to child labour? Pause the video and have a quick discussion.

Okay, I had some great ideas there.

Well done to everyone who was saying that he has a very negative attitude.

It doesn't appear that the writer of this report agrees with chimney sweeping, and actually think this is a really negative thing for the boys.

And we can see that by looking at his vocabulary choices.

'Cause we could change these words very slightly and the sentence would still mean the same thing, persuade, distaste, children.

But even if we put these words in, the author's attitude would appear to soften, he wouldn't feel quite as disgusted 'cause the words inveiled, invade, inveigled, sorry, repugnance.

And the fact that he calls these children infants, he makes them sound so young, suggests he has a very strong opinion here.

Let's do a check for understanding.

See how we're getting on.

Which of the quotations from the text best illustrates that the young boys do not enjoy being chimney sweeps? Is it A, "in order to conquer the natural repugnance of the infants to ascend the narrow and dangerous chimneys"? Is it B, "they are stolen from their parents"? Or is it C, "inveigled out of workhouses"? Select your response now.

If you said A that is correct.

Particularly the phrase "the natural repugnance" suggests that the boys really do not enjoy doing this work.

Okay, back to our reading.

"Blows are used; that pins are forced into their feet by the boy that follows them up the chimney, in order to compel them to ascend it; and that lighter straw has been applied for that purpose." Okay.

I want you to think, how did the Masters get the boys to climb the chimneys? How did they force the boys to climb chimneys? Pause the video, have a quick discussion and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done to anyone who said that they got the boys who were following them up the chimneys to force pins in their feet so they had to climb.

The also lighted straw, creating a small fire underneath them.

So if they tried to leave or tried to move down the chimneys, it got too hot and they had to carry on climbing.

What do you think this tells us about how the boys felt about this work? Pause the video, have a quick discussion and press play when you're ready to continue.

Great.

I think this proves, this is further evidence which proves that the boys didn't choose to do this work and ultimately had to be forced.

Let's continue reading.

"That the children are subject to sores and bruises, and wounds and burns on their thighs, knees and elbows; and it'll require many months before the extremities of the elbows and knees become sufficiently hard to resist the excoriations to which they are first subject." Now an excoriation is when your skin has worn off.

So what's been said here is that it takes a long time, but ultimately the boys' skin becomes so hard that it stops rubbing off.

But they'll have to go through lots of injuries first before this happens.

And that one of the Masters being asked if those boys are employed in sweeping chimneys during the soreness of those parts, he answered, "It depends on the sort of must they have.

Some are obliged to put them to work sooner than others, you must keep them at it a little even during the sores, or they will never learn their business." Quick discussion.

Do the Masters make the boys work through their injuries? Pause video.

Well done to everyone who said yes.

Not all Masters but most will make them work through even when they're injured.

I want you to think about that word obliged.

What does it say about the Masters? What if we replace the word "obliged" with "chose to"? Pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done if you said this means kind of forced.

So maybe it meant that some of the Masters felt that they had to, maybe their bosses were telling them, or maybe some Masters just wanted to because it was an opportunity for them to gain more money if they had more boys working.

What do you think the final sentence then tells us about how the Masters view the boys? Pause the video, have a discussion and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done if you said that the Masters view the boys as a way of making money here.

"It was important to keep them at it, they will never learn their business." You could say their Masters' behaviour is quite mercenary here.

Okay, I want you to have a quick discussion now.

Why do you think it was legal for young boys to work in such dreadful conditions? And then I want you to develop that even further, because I'm gonna tell you that this work was usually completed by boys from lower social classes, the working class.

What do you think this tells us about how the ruling classes valued the wellbeing of the working class? And why do you think this was the case? Pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

Some really excellent discussions there.

Well done to all those who said that actually this work was legal because it had to get done.

And ultimately the ruling classes, the people who made the rules and made the laws, did not value the lives of the working class children or certainly didn't value them as much as the lives of their own children.

So they saw that actually the chimneys being cleaned was more important than the livelihood and the wellbeing of some of these young boys from working class families.

Let's do a check for understanding.

Which of the statements below is not a logical inference as to why it was the boys from lower class, the lower social classes, who completed this dangerous work? A, families of boys from lower social classes were more desperate for money so could be persuaded to take safety risks to earn money.

B, the wellbeing of working class boys was seen as less valuable.

Therefore, society was willing to risk their safety so important work could be done.

Or C, as part of the working class it was important that these boys learnt how to do manual labour.

Which one is not a logical inference? Select your response now.

Well done if you picked C.

Both A, a desperate need for money, and B, a lack of care for the wellbeing of working class boys were both reasons why boys from this lower social classes completed dangerous work.

Okay, onto your first task.

I'm gonna give you some sentence starters and I would like you to write a summary of the extract of the report.

So each of these are a sentence starter.

You just need to complete the sentence to write the report, the summary of the report.

The report was written to share the findings about.

The report found that most boys did not choose to become chimney sweeps.

In fact, they.

To force the boys to climb chimney, the Masters.

As a result, the boys were left with injuries such as.

When asked whether the boys were forced to work through their injuries, the Master claimed.

Okay, it's time to pause the video and have a go at writing your summary.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, I'm gonna share a an example of a written summary.

You can check this against yours to see if you've got all the main parts.

So the report was written to share findings about the experience of boys who worked as chimney sweeps.

The report found that most boys did not choose to become chimney sweeps.

In fact, they were persuaded through deception to leave workhouses, or in some case, taken from their families.

To force the boys to climb the chimney, the Masters lit small fires underneath the boys or got other chimney sweeps to stick pins in their feet.

This prevented them from coming down the chimney until it was clean.

As a result, the boys were left with injuries such as cuts, bruises and burns to their skin.

When asked whether boys were forced to work through their injuries, one Master claimed that some Masters would expect them to, as it was important for the boys to learn about the business of chimney sweeping.

Right, let's move on to the second part of today's lesson, views on child labour today.

A second skill that's always important when we're reading text independently is questioning.

Questioning is the questions that we ask ourself whilst we're reading to check that we understand what we are reading.

So some questions that you might ask yourself when you are reading independently, who has written this text and why? What is their viewpoint and how did they share it? What knowledge do I already have about this topic? How does this text compare to others I have read on this topic? What does this word mean in the context of this text? If the author were to use a synonym, a different word, would it change the strength of their argument? So these are all questions that you can be asking yourself when you read a text independently.

So check for understanding.

True or false.

You should ask yourself questions when reading independently.

True or false? Select your response now.

Well done if you said true, but which of these responses justifies the answer? A, questions can help you check your understanding.

If you cannot answer your own questions, it's a sign that you need to reread the section.

B, asking yourself questions shows you are concentrating on reading.

It will stop your mind wandering and thinking of other things.

Select your response now.

Well done If you said A, questioning is so important because if you can't answer your own questions, it means you've not completely understood something.

And that's okay.

Just go back and reread, and just make sure you've understood everything in the text.

Okay, time for today's second task.

You are gonna independently read an article by John Robins from "The Guardian" newspaper, it's called "Child Workers, Rights and Wrongs." It was published in 2009.

Now as I said earlier in today's lesson, before we read any text independently, it's always important that we make predictions and make some educated guesses about what we might expect to be reading about.

So let's use the prediction grid to predict what could come up in this text.

So let's think about the title of the newspaper article, what words you recognise in that title.

And secondly, any prior knowledge.

Do you know anything about child workers in 2009? Do you expect the laws to be similar or different from 1817? Pause the video, have a quick discussion and make some predictions and press play when you're ready to continue.

Some great discussions there, and I could hear some really sensible, logical predictions.

So, some things that I might have thought about.

Well, I know that child workers means children who work.

And I know rights, that means two things, it's the right thing to do, but can also mean your legal rights.

And wrongs means things that you shouldn't be doing.

And prior knowledge, well, I expect laws to be very different in 2009 in comparison to 1817.

I know that children have more rights and should not be doing dangerous jobs.

And I know there's actually very few jobs that children are allowed to do.

So with all that in mind, I'm ready to start reading.

So you're gonna pause the video.

Very shortly, you're gonna pause the video, gonna read the text.

So first of all, read the article by yourself.

Remember to ask yourself questions as you read to check your understanding.

Here are some suggestions of questions that you could ask.

Why has the text been written? Who is it for? Who might want this information? What are the author's opinions on child labour? Once you've done that, I'd like you to answer the following questions to show your understanding.

What is the article about? Why do you think it's been written? Does Robins agree with child labour? How do you know? Use quotations.

Pause the video, read the text, and answer the two questions in part B.

Press play when you're ready for feedback.

Well done for reading that text independently.

Great job.

Now I want you to read over your answers, the summary that you've written, and I want you to assess it.

So read over your answers and see where have you shown an understanding of the article and what it's about.

Where have you shown an understanding of why the article may have been written? Where have you made an inference about the author's views on child labour? Where have you justified your inference about the author's opinion with reference to the text? Pause the video, reread your work, and see if you can find evidence that you've met the success criteria on the screen.

Pause the video now.

Okay, I'm gonna share with you some answers that you could have written.

In English, we know there's many different ways you could have written your responses, but let's see if you managed to pick out some of the key information.

So what is the article about and why do you think it's been written? John Robins' article from 2009 explores the complex legal guidelines which explain whether young people are allowed to work.

He guides the reader through the law around jobs such as babysitting, dog walking, car washing, and paper rounds.

Do they agree with child labour? How do you know? Well, at the start of the article, Robins mentions that some parents are keen to encourage the entrepreneur in their children, indicating that whilst Robins may not be in favour of child labour, he does not see it as harmful for children to earn a bit of extra cash.

However, by sharing the legal frameworks behind child working laws and directing readers to the Worksmart website, Robins encourages parents to make sure that children work safely and legally.

Okay, let's move on to a final part of today's lesson.

And now we're gonna compare attitudes to child labour.

First, I'm gonna share two grammatical tips with you, which are useful when comparing attitudes of different, comparing attitudes and ideas of different authors.

The first is we're gonna practise using comparative conjunctions.

And they're useful for connecting a sentence to an idea shared in the sentence before it.

And we're also gonna look at comparisons, which are useful for comparing different attitudes or ideas that authors may hold.

First of all, let's look at comparative conjunctions.

So these are useful when we want to connect a sentence to an idea that was in the sentence before it.

So our sentence or our sentences will be structured like this.

We'll have idea one, and that'll be a full sentence so we'll have a full stop.

Then we're gonna introduce our comparative conjunction, add a comma and have our second idea, and then we will add a full stop there.

So this is gonna take the form of two full sentences.

Let's go through an example, shall we? So idea one, "My dad has supported Sheffield United since he was a child." Idea two, "I have been going to matches since I was six." Now, it suggests there's a similarity here.

The similarity being that I have been going to Sheffield United matches as well.

So I can use comparative conjunctions to link these ideas.

Comparative conjunctions that help link similarities are things like "similarly" and "likewise." And this would create the sentences like this.

"My dad has supported Sheffield United since he was a child.

Likewise, I've been going to matches since I was six." However, let's imagine that there is a difference between myself and my father here.

Instead, I made the terrible mistake of deciding to support Arsenal when I was six.

So this idea is no longer similar to idea one.

Idea two here is different, but I can still use comparative conjunctions.

Comparative conjunctions like "however" or "contrastingly" suggest there is a difference between idea one and idea two.

And this might look like this.

"My dad has supported Sheffield United since he was a child.

However, I decided to support Arsenal when I was six." Okay, let's check for understanding here.

I would like you to select two comparative conjunctions that can be used to illustrate differences between ideas.

A, contrastingly, B, likewise, C, similarly, D, on the other hand.

Select your answers now.

Well done If you picked A and D, contrastingly and on the other hand both suggest differences.

Okay, our second grammatical tip here is the use of comparisons.

And these are useful when considering differences between authors attitudes and ideas.

So some useful sentence stems are "whereas." So for example, "Whereas my sister's favourite food is pasta, mine is curry." So a clear difference there.

Whilst.

"Whilst pasta is great, curry is my favourite food." So there's a bit of a similarity here.

Both foods are good, but only one food can be my favourite, and that is curry.

Now look at this "despite" stem.

This despite stem is slightly different.

This acknowledges that there can be similarities within differences.

That not everything is always a really clear difference.

Sometimes you can have a bit of similarity and a bit of difference.

So, "Despite both pasta and curry being great, I would pick a curry every single time." So all of these sentence stems allow us to compare really clear differences, but some of them allow us to see similarities even when there are differences.

Let's do a check for understanding.

Which is the best sentence stem for acknowledging similarities between author's ideas, even when you are discussing differences.

Despite, whilst or whereas? Make your selection now.

Well done if you picked despite.

Okay, let's have a go at creating a comparative sentence stem together.

"Despite X,Y," that's the sentence stem I'm gonna use.

Lemme have a go at making this.

"Despite both players playing well for their clubs." So I put in my first idea.

There's a similarity here, both players played well for their clubs, but ultimately I'm talking about difference.

So, "Despite both players playing well for their clubs, their national manager could only pick one to represent their country." Similarity, but ultimately there's a difference.

Only one got selected for their country.

Now over to you.

Have a go at creating a comparative sentence stem using "despite X,Y." Make sure your first idea acknowledges a little similarity, but make sure your second idea draws attention to a difference.

Pause the video and give this a go now.

Okay, we're onto the final task of today's lesson and this is gonna be a discussion task.

So very quickly I want you to share your thoughts.

I want you to compare the similarities and differences in attitudes towards child labour in the Victorian era and today.

So pause the video and just share as many ideas.

Don't worry about formality, just get those ideas out there.

Pause the video, spend one minute and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done.

I heard some great ideas there.

What I want us to do now is formalise our response.

So you are gonna use the discussion grid below to put your ideas in a more formal way.

So I'm gonna challenge you to do two things.

One, use comparative conjunctions to make links between ideas.

These are words like likewise, similarly, contrastingly, however.

An example of this might be, "In the Victorian era, it was callously accepted that boys from lower social classes would do dangerous work.

However, today there are strict laws about the work children can do." And I also want you to try using comparisons to identify differences.

So using sentence stems like whereas, whilst and despite.

"Despite the committee report sharing a similar view today regarding dangerous work, it's clear that many Victorian Masters behaved in a mercenary manner." Pause the video and spend five minutes formalising these ideas that you had in your discussion.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done.

I heard some brilliant discussion then.

I was particularly impressed by all of you who are challenging yourself to use those sentence stems and comparative conjunctions.

Great job.

Now of course you could have said many, many different things, but I just want to share another couple of examples of things you could have said.

So, "In the Victorian era, young children could be sent to work instead of going to school.

Contrastingly, today children are only allowed to do certain jobs and only allowed to work for short amounts of time." "Despite the committee report recognising the negative impact that work had on young boys, they were still forced to climb chimneys as it was deemed such important work." Right, that's it.

We have come to the end of today's lesson.

Great job.

Really impressive.

Let's do a quick summary of what we've learned about child workers in the Victorian era.

So we know that attitudes towards protective measures for child labour were much less strict in the Victorian era.

We also learned that dangerous work was undertaken by the children of the lower classes, perhaps as their wellbeing just was deemed less valuable.

We also know that attitudes towards child labour have changed; today there are strict laws prohibiting, stopping children from working in certain sectors.

And finally, we learned that comparative conjunctions and comparatives are useful when exploring similarities or differences between attitudes and ideas.

So that's all for today.

Do make sure you do the exit quiz to check your understanding, and I really hope you can join me for future lessons in the unit, Victorian childhood.

Thank you.

I've finished the video