This afternoon we went for a walk to see a local sculpture called ‘The Men of Steel’ also known locally as ‘The Transformers’. We learnt all about the sculpture for Art and this visit also combined our RRS topic of National Walking Month with our English topic of Non-Fiction Texts. In English we have been finding out about the famous walking guide writer Alfred Wainwright. On our journey pupils looked out for landmarks and took photographs to help us retell the journey when they write their own guided walk instructions later in the walk. Pupils thoroughly enjoyed getting out and about again despite a bit of rain. Szymon read a poem which is on a plaque hidden in the grass ‘The Old Transformers. The men that lived near here, dug in the ground for the Black Stone. In their Giant huts, they Burnt the earth. They turned the sky red. A river of steel ran to the sea, where it was transformed into the Engines, Ships and Machines, that transformed the world.’ Telling the story of the coal mining and Consett Iron Works industries that once thrived in the area.
