Year 9 Unplugged

Sadler Commission Unplugged day

We have been studying the Industrial Revolution in Year 9 and recently took part in an Unplugged Day to coincide with this.

In our Themes classes we learnt that the Sadler Commission allowed the Parliamentary Committee to regulate working conditions, which in turn, changed the child labour laws within the textile factories of Britain. 

Throughout the day we were separated into groups that represented characters who were significant to factory industry and the Sadler Commission. These included factory owners, child workers and doctors. To make this more interesting, there were different perspectives to these roles; making some characters support the commission while others played the role of being against it, and it was our responsibility to reenact their point of view through role play. 

In order to create the costumes, we applied our prior knowledge and research to understand what our characters would have worn in the seventeenth century. Once we had created our outfits, our homeroom teacher played the role of Michael Sadler and questioned our views on child labour laws in Britain. The characters then argued their perspective and, in the end, the audience which consisted of the rest of the class, made a decision to change the child labour laws of Britain. 

Throughout this course, we were able to learn about British labour regulations throughout the 17th century Industrial Revolution and were exposed to the perspectives of individuals who worked within the industries and what their lives were like. 

We enjoyed this Unplugged experience as it gave us the opportunity to express our knowledge through independent creativity rather than being restricted to just expressing our work through writing.

Minahil & Andrea

Year 9 SRC