On Friday 7th December 2012, class 5B did their Class Assembly all about Dr Barnado. It all started when the Finding a Hero theme tune played with the amazing dance group
Two by Two performing. After, we went straight over to Steven Fry and Davina McCall the hosts of the new programme. They had a tie-break in the votes last week between Bob Geldof ( The man who held a fund-raising concert for poor children)and Severn Suzuki ( The girl who adressed the United Nations to ask them to save the planet). When the results of the votes came through Severn had won. We all had a look at her speech.
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two by two dance group
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After her 2 representatives from Lyndon Green Junior School came up to collect the awards and ipads, but instead of accepting them they refused them. They explained how true heroes like Severn don't want awards or prizes, just to know they made a difference in the world. They were taken off the stage by the people who brought on the prizes. They then welcomed on Bob Patterson who had nomminated the hero they were going to look at.When we met Bob, we found out that this hero helped him when he was a child.
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| Davina McCall |
Dr Barnado was born on the 4th July 1845
When we saw him it was the year 1862 when he told his parents he wanted to go and be a missionary in China. When his parent's finally accepted that he wanted to go to China, they let him go to London to train to be a doctor. When he arrived in London, it was nothing like he had expected. It was full of dirt, sick people and street sellers. Then he met a doctor and a nurse, called Dr.Simmons and Nurse Jones and they taught him how to look after the poor, sick people.
We met one sufferer of the raging disease of Cholera. She was called Mary Jarvis mother of Jim Jarvis.They got sent to the workhouse where Mary died and Jim managed to escape. He went onto the streets of London and begged for food and money with his good friend Shrimps. Jim's talent was skipping, he and Shrimps skipped to this sort of music.
After a few of these happy months, a man caught him and sold him to a cruel master that treated him severely.
The master made Jim shovel coal into a hold of the boat and they would sail down and sell the coal to a big cargo ship and go back again. The master didn't pay Jim very much so he grew quite thin. After quite a few months, Jim made a plan to escape his work. He opened the hold of the ship and brought out some planks of wood, he then picked up a piece of rope and tied up the master's dog Snipe by the neck to a nearby post and stood in wait. When the master came back from the ale house he was as drunk as a skunk as usual. He walked back home singing weirdly as he was drunk.
Jim said good night and then the master fell into the trap Jim had set up, Jim covered up the trap with planks of wood and he ran for his life. He could hear Snipe barking but didn't look back. He decided to head back towards London.
When Jim arrived in London everything had changed, due to the Industrial Revolution many people had lost their homes. The outbreak of cholera forced many people onto the streets, Jim was forced onto the streets. he met a group of street children on the streets of London and asked if he could go and live with them. They said he could but attempted to stop him as they slept on rooftops and what a bad condition it was in. Jim went with them to the rooftops and met many people and joined them for many months. But the Cholera affected many people on the rooftops so many people died. It was a horrible sight for a young child which I'm sure you'll agree.
Dr Barnado was going out for a walk to try and campaign to get money to spend on the street children, but got caught by Nurse Jones. She called to Doctor Simmons.They decided they wouldn't be able to make a Doctor out of Dr Barnado, but he found it alright as he had a new goal in life, to help the street children lead a good life while they lived. He walked out onto the streets and bumped into Jim who was seated on the street. Dr Barnado gave Jim some money and told him to accompany him on his way to the Ragged Schools. When they got there Jim was given a warm dinner and drink. Jim asked Doctor Barnado if he could help his friends as well as himself and Doctor Barnado, the teacher and two helpers went and brought the children to the Ragged Schools where the received free education and accommodation and warm food while they grew up. Dr Barnado went to public places and delivered speeches to rich people about the children. He was very persuasive and many people listening and donated money to him to help the children.
Back at the studio, Davina, Steven and Bob were telling everyone about the work the charity Barnados do. They decided to sing a song for the charity instead of awarding it a prize. They sang Blowing in the wind with Katie Melua in the background.
