Using a short Ministry of Information film, which last just 8 minutes and can be accessed online here (please note we do not have copyright for this and you will need to register), pupils are introduced to the idea of government control of information and the concept of propaganda.
We all know that even Y6 pupils find it hard to work out the message behind the film. So this tasks breaks down the learning into smaller stages.
Before pupils see the film they are told that the people who produced the film are trying to make them think in a particular way. But can they be film detectives to work out how the film tries to persuade.
Step 1
Pupils are told that the film called Westward Ho! (the children are being evacuated to Devon) has been created by the Ministry of Information (M.o.I appears on the initial credits) . Its purpose was to persuade parents to evacuate their children to safety. It is important to place this in context. By September 1939 1.5 million had been evacuated. There then followed a 6 month ‘Phoney war’ when mothers felt there was no danger and started to bring the children home
