On Thursday 6^th September Year 6 were generously invited on a visit to the Great North Museum. When we arrived, we walked to the majestic, impressive building with the large flight of steps leading up to the door that we knew as the Hancock Museum. After waiting a few minutes on the soft green grass, we were allowed inside.

In the entrance hall, we saw a great number of interesting and impressive things – a sign devoted to the Hancock brothers, John and Albany Hancock, and an enormous gift shop (which, sadly, we did not get to go to) and impressive architecture all round. Then we met our tour guide, Amy Baird, and she told us about how, because we were looking at the Festival of the North, we were going to go north. She showed us the compass round her neck. Then we went to the Blue Room, where Amy had us talk about what we would pack for a long trip. Next, we ventured all round and explored. We saw a grand array of interesting items: a book of poetry by Margaret Cavendish, a Duchess of Newcastle, a lady’s fan in the shape of a map, hurdling spikes signed by a North East hurdler, Amy Johnson’s flying bag, and an iPod from a North Eastern man. Amy talked to us about everything we had seen. Then, we went into the next room.

By Mina 6NG

After our great time in the Blue Room, we entered the miraculous Green Room, where we looked at Helen Sharman’s space suit which was a very interesting experience. Then, Amy told us about a game which we played. Amy sorted us into groups then gave each group an enhanced image of something in the Green Room. In our groups, we had to find the object in the image, my group found all of the objects!

After the Green room, we went into the raring Red room. We looked at a pirate costume designed by Vivian Westwood. It was very cool. Then, we went to see Heaven the tiger shark. She was preserved in formaldehyde solution. It was an illusionistic piece of art. After that, we went into the Pink room. We got to look at a big painting of a horse which was great. We also looked at a glider and listened to an audio guide to a piece of art, ‘Struggle on the Quarry,’ by John Hancock. Finally, we were led into another room where we were told to look out for a few different things: a football shirt, Wallace and Gromit models, and a big painting. The painting was cool. You sat in front of it from different angles and it would look like you were sitting in front of it from different angles. We were going to go to the gift shop but there wasn’t time so we took the train home and that was the end of our fantastic day.

Thank you for reading!

by Aleesha 6NG, finished by Mina 6NG