Lotherton Hall: Extreme Environments

Awaiting photos!

We were privileged to be able to speak to Judith Rhodes on Friday, who came in to Willow Class to talk to us about her mother's experiences as one of the last children evacuated on the Kindertransports just before the outbreak of WWII. 

Children were very respectful, and asked well thought out questions. Judith commented on how much she enjoyed the session, and wanted to feedback how knowledgeable the children were. 

We had such a great time today at the Into Film Festival! https://www.intofilm.org/

The film, Hidden Figures, was so inspirational: seeing the daily struggles that these women faced, all because of their skin colour and gender, helped the children to see how difficult it was during that time.

Being a true story, we were all moved by the difference that these women made to the world, and appalled at how little recognition they received at the time. We discussed key moments within the film - e.g. the heart-wrenching moment where the main character finds her new colleagues have set up a 'coloreds only' coffee pot, because they don't want her sharing theirs, or the uplifting moment when her boss smashes down the signs for the ladies' toilets, so she no longer has to travel half a mile every time she needs to visit.

We then moved to Leeds Art Gallery, where we explored our focus question, 'How can light be used to both create and appreciate art?' We discussed how artists use knowledge of light and shade to create the illusion of light on canvas; how different materials create different textures; how positioning of light is crucial when shadows are formed; how artificial light can be used within art; and we even managed to witness a rainbow being formed, as the sun's light shone through the gallery window at just the right angle, so we could see the light split into different colours.

Comments included:

• The film was telling us to never give up and always believe
• I really enjoyed the art museum because it linked to our topic of light and it was also interesting to see lots of art from different years
• We had to pick our favourite piece of art from the gallery and I liked talking about them
• The art gallery showed us how light changes your art
• I thought it was a successful trip because it linked in with our topic on segregation.
• The movie had many powerful moments in it.

(We even saw some artwork by Diego Riviera, who we learnt about during our Dia de los Muertos work!)