On Thursday in our Picture News lesson in 11A we were discussing the housing crisis that is currently happening in England. We watched a clip from Sky News where we learnt that the new government are pledging to build a substantial amount of new houses across the country to help ease the social housing crisis. We learnt that there are currently more than 1.5 million families on the waiting list for social housing. We learnt about green belt land and what this meant and how the government are trying to change the rules so that they can build the new houses on more green belt land in England. 

We looked at a quote from Campaign to Protect Rural England, a countryside charity, who said that people need to remember that green belt land includes farmland, parks and woodland and that without these spaces there will be an impact on the food industry as well as everyone's access to the countryside. Keir Starmer however said that, although he knows how important nature and the environment are, the priority needs to be providing housing for the millions of families who need it. We went around the group and asked everyone which they think is more important: nature and the environment or building houses. It was a split decision from 11A with lots of very good reasoning given from learners.

Finally, we split into groups to complete our written work about our homes and the areas that we live in. One group had to find their home on Google Maps and then type sentences about who they live with and what they like and don't like about their homes. The other group had to answer questions about what they like/dislike about their home and the local area, as well as writing about where they would like to live in the world and why.

After dinner, we came back together and everyone shared their work with the class. It is great to see and hear everyone sharing their work with the class.

11A picture news housing crisis