Colet Court: big reading list + tutoring for interviews?!

[twinkles]

Yes my son read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in year 5 too. We also got the dvd which he really enjoyed as well.

[thelastsplash!!]

After the comments on here, we both read the boy in the striped pyjamas - ds says he enjoyed and found it sad, but after a bit of questioning, I really don't think he had much of a clue what it was about! I wouldn't recommend to a Y5 child unless they had particularly good knowledge of WWII to be honest, as although a great read, it sort of tiptoes around what's going on to the extent that without the background knowledge you could completely misunderstand what the book is about.

[JaneEyre]

I wonder whether your daughter was glad she read it.

Sorry, I realise that I haven't answered you! Yes, she did enjoy that book a great deal and would like to watch the film (I haven't bought it yet). So yes, I would recommand that book to any teenager after studying WWII

[JaneEyre]

After the comments on here, we both read the boy in the striped pyjamas - ds says he enjoyed and found it sad, but after a bit of questioning, I really don't think he had much of a clue what it was about! I wouldn't recommend to a Y5 child unless they had particularly good knowledge of WWII to be honest, as although a great read, it sort of tiptoes around what's going on to the extent that without the background knowledge you could completely misunderstand what the book is about.

After all the comments here, I also felt the need to read that book with my 9 years old boy as I remember very well that the vocabulary was not at all complicated (not the case for 'Treasure Island' ). But I will do some work before reading the book and afterwards ('will' because at the moment, we are busy with 'A serie of unfortunate events' and as there are 13 books to read to finish that serie, it will take some time ) .

Here are my ideas but they might develop further more:
Before:
- reading books by Morpurgo like 'The Mozart question' or 'waiting for Anya'
- watching films like the 'Dambusters' as DS has had a literacy work mentioning this film recenlty and 'the battle of Britain' to see the endeavours of British to fight Hitler (we missed that film when it was on on BBC last September )

After:
watch the film 'Walkyrie' to explain the importance to have the courage to stand up for what is right

I think that you can use the book your DS has just read as a stepping stone to go further in his understanding of the WWII, as he will study this period in History in his primary years (In my DS's school this study takes place in yr 6).
If your son doesn't know them yet, I would also recommand him the book + film 'Goodnight Mister Tom' . We haven't read the book yet but the film is soooooooooooooo touching!

[thelastsplash!!]

We both really liked goodnight mr tom, hadn't even realised there was a film version so I'll seek that out, thank you JaneEyre! Lots of good advice on following up the other book also.

Since my first post ds has read a few of the books on the list, and they're actually a great selection, so I'm much happier about using it for reading ideas now.

Anyone else have an opinion on prepping for interviews?

And what did you think of the colet court / latymer upper open days last weekend any of you that went?