Introduction

After I burst into the classroom or hall, I discuss who and what I am, why I need to hide, and what it is about my possessions and clothes that might indicate I am a highway robber. I explain any strange words I use and answer questions. Last, I ask the children if they have ever read stories about me, which leads me on to the setting up of some writing tasks.

Writing tasks

These are main focus of the day. I use up to four differentiated texts. Two need correcting (re-writing), another must be responded to with a letter, and another I want both an image and its labels changed.

Volunteer pupils (or teacher chosen) read the texts aloud. After each reading I claim the stories were wrong, and then recount my own versions, explaining how things were quite different. I am not the villain described in the pamphlets, but more like Robin Hood, and so a proper hero!

I then ask the children if they would put these things right. This involves …

(a) Re-writing parts of a news-sheet – a higher ability task. There are several different stories for individual children to choose from. I want people to read tales I can be proud of, not the lies printed about me. There are two different forms of this news-sheet, in different font sizes. The more difficult of the two, with some archaic English spelling, is accessible to the highest ability Year 6 children, but the more frequently used one is much more accessible.

(b) Composing a letter to the London Gazette to complain about a recent article in which I am described as a coward and a murderer! I want the children to correct the editor, and describe what they think I am really like, having met me and heard my own account of his adventures.

(c) Re-writing a slanderous ballad to make me sound heroic and generous.

(d) Creating a false description of me to be passed around the local watchmen, in the form of a wanted poster. Hopefully this would buy me time to escape! This is the lowest ability task, and involves the labeling of a picture.

I give full instructions to set up these tasks. When I am working with more than one class, I set up tasks (b), (c) and (d) so that they go away with work to do while I begin to visit each of the classes in turn. When I am with individual classes, I address the stories of activity (a) as setting up that task in the assembly would take too long.

The children then do this written work either as differentiated groups or by choosing which task they want to do, in which case the tasks are effectively differentiated through outcome. Task (d), which all the children usually want to do, can become an extension task for the more able children should they finish their first task(s).

When I work with more than one class, the written work is done while I am with the other class(es), so that the children are either with me or have work to do for me.  When I am with just one class all day, I have more time with the children, so that as they work I can visit groups in turn to spend 10 minutes or so with each – playing a card or dice game, or Nine Men’s Morris, or looking at maps or coins, etc.  While I sit with one group, the others get on with their tasks. This written session usually takes about one hour.

At the end of the day with more than one class children read out some examples of their work, or present their posters. With one class we can do this as they have completed the tasks. Either way, I am able to comment on and approve of their work.

The Big Story

At the very end of the day, I tell the famous story of my ride from London to York, which is a great way to round the visit off. If I have worked more than one class that day, we can have a plenary assembly to hear some examples of their work, and then have the story.

It is just the right time for such a story, as the children have become immersed Nevison’s world, his adventures and boasts, and they listen so well that you can hear a pin drop!

This YouTube video is extracted from a older version of the story I usually tell.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKsg8hs22uM

Option: Children’s Own Stories

I wonder whether the children, being educated scholars, could teach me some tricks. Perhaps how to escapes jail or a constable? Or how to trick a rich man? Or how to rescue a friend, etc. I want the children to come up with ideas I myself might be able to use in future! They then work in groups to plan the little stories in note form (or whatever planning style they are used to).  While they work, I move around offering ideas and suggestions. Finally, the groups, in turn, can either tell or act out their tales for me and the rest of the class.

Option: Sketching (art-work)

Having written corrected stories and ballads, I might want a good likeness drawn to go with them. I can thus pose for the children while they all sketch a portrait, using whatever medium you think is best. Usually they simply sketch and shade in pencil, sometimes ‘working up’ the picture at a later time.

Option: Question and Answer

The pupils and teacher can do the questioning here, asking whatever they want – about my life, childhood, life in the 17th century, whatever. This can go in many directions – from food to school to houses to London. If they’ve been studying highwaymen, I can ask them if know about the law: officers of the law, courts, prisons, punishments, etc., which could lead to some gory accounts of the ‘triple gallows’ at Tyburn or the traitors’ heads over London bridge!

Option: A Little Numeracy

At some point, I nearly always count the money in my most recently acquired purse and the children learn about coins from guineas and sovereigns down to halfpennies and farthings. I ask the children to work out how many pennies each coin is worth, then how many pints of ale I could buy with each.