Megan

10:26am - Music Assembly

10:00am - Victorian objects

Whilst the rest of the class heads back to the classroom, Megan and two other children stay to help clear up the hall and to prepare it for the music assembly. A short while later the rest of the school files into the hall, either sitting on the floor or on one of the benches. Mr. M takes them through some warm-up vocal exercises and they sing two religious themed songs 'He will always be there' and 'Most merciful redeemer'. Megan and the other year sixes seem to particularly enjoy the first song as they get to sing a special rejoinder. Megan's brother is given the job of scrolling through the lyrics displayed on the projector screen and finding the music file on Mr. M's laptop.

10:45am - Wet break

The years four and five students return and Mr. G takes the year six group to the school hall to look at the Victorian objects. Two teaching assistants have brought in the Victorian objects from home. Megan and the rest of her class are encouraged to look at and handle the objects for themselves. Mr. G encourages the class to ask questions about the objects: who, what, when, where, why, how?

One of the teaching assistants has brought in some Victorian stamps and gives one to each of the children to take home with them.

Methodology Moment: It wasn't possible to take photographs in the whole school assembly as any pictures would have inadvertently captured individual children's faces

It has turned into a very wet morning and after the music assembly the children stay in the hall for wet break. On the piano stool a crate of fruit has been left for children to take a piece if they want to.

Some of the children go into the hall cupboards and fetch out card and board games. Megan sits down with a group of children from a mixture of year groups to play Top Trumps. The hall is noisy with the bustle of children and some of the infants are running around with animals masks on that they've made in class using paper plates.

11:12am - Drugs session

09:40am - Treasure Island

Years four and five leave the classroom to go see a display of Victorian objects in the school hall. Mr. G stays with the year six group and together they read a dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The group each take it in turns to take on the parts of the characters in the story. Megan is given the part of Jim Hawkins for a little while. Her two brothers - who are also in year six - read parts as well. Mr. G stops the class occasionally to talk through difficult words and to discuss imagery and character motivations.

After wet break has finished, Megan and the other year sixes are taken to the computer lab for a special session on drugs. The session is led by an instructor from a drugs charity who visits schools to give talks and runs workshops. During the session the instructor talks about the effect that drugs can have on your life. Megan and the other students are told they can ask questions at any point. One of the students mentions recent media coverage of One Direction smoking cannabis.

At the end of the session Megan and her class mates go to the hall for lunch. It's no longer raining and they are able to go outside after eating.

Methodology Moment: Due to the sensitive nature of the discussion and the instructor of this session being unaware of the research observation taking place, the description of the session has been limited to a basic summary.

09:15am - German Numbers

1:10pm - Victorian adverts

Megan's first lesson this morning is learning German numbers. The class topic this term is 'the Victorians' and Mr. G has planned a session in keeping with that theme. He brings up a map of the British Empire on the white board and asks the class to estimate the distance between different countries using German numbers.

Megan goes to a small village school and her class is made up of years four, five and six.

For the first part of the afternoon session Megan's class are looking at Victorian adverts and then having a go at making their own. Mr. G shows various Victorian adverts on the whiteboard and asks the class if they can recognise what they are selling. Megan correctly guesses an advert for cocoa.

Mr. G sends some of the class off to fetch laptops and tablets for making their own Victorian adverts on. For this exercise, the year three class have been brought in to work with the year six students. This is to help prepare the year threes for working in the 'older' class next year.

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A Day in the Life of

09:02am - Registration

1:35pm - In the ICT suite

The year six and three classes go with Mr. G to the ICT suite whilst the rest of the class stay and use the laptops in the classroom. Megan works with two year three girls on one of the computers on an advert for Hovis bread. On the wall of the ICT suite is a poster of mobile phone 'apps' that Megan's class have been working on. Mr G goes around the class encouraging them to make their adverts ‘more Victorian’ by adding crowns and fancy text. At the end of the session the year threes go outside for afternoon break whilst the year sixes return to the classroom.

It's the first day back after the summer half term and Megan is stood in the playground with her mum. She chats excitedly with two girls who are wearing jackets the same shade of mint green as her own jacket. The bell rings and the children form into lines. Megan's class go inside and hang their coats up and then make their way to the classroom. Mr. G welcomes them back and takes the register. He also asks which choice of school dinner they would like today.

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Megan

10 years old

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2:20pm - Song rehearsal

Introduction & Navigation Information

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This multimedia document represents a 'day in the life' of Megan (aged 10 years) and was recorded on Tuesday 3rd JUne 2014. The day was recorded by a researcher as part of the 'Face 2 Face' project, using a range of sound, visual and written materials. Megan's name and other personal details about her life have been anonymised.

'Face 2 Face' is an ESRC funded research project (2013-14), jointly organised by the Universities of Sussex, Brighton and the Open University. You can find out more about the project here:

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/esw/circy/research/currentresearch/face2face

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Back in the classroom Mr. M is setting up his laptop for the year sixes to practice the songs for their end of year play. Megan is sitting with a couple of her friends and they are comparing 'loom bands'.

Mr. M takes the class through several different songs from their play 'Time Lord'. One of the songs is a parody of Beethoven's Symphony No.5 and Mr. M plays a part of the original version for them on Spotify so that they can compare the two. The years four and five students return from their afternoon break and join in with the singing.

Navigation information:

You can explore this multimedia document either in 'presentation' mode - which presents a chronological account of the young person's day - or by moving around the document by scrolling and zooming with your trackpad or touchscreen.

You can interact with multimedia content along the way by zooming in on pictures and playing video content. Audio clips (where available) will play automatically on each slide.

Key:

Read more about the 'loom band' phenomena here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27974401

3:10pm - End of the day

It's nearly the end of the school day and, supervised by Mr. M, two of the class light a candle for the end of the day prayer.

Before they leave, Mr. G gives Megan's class their homework, which is to finish listening to the radio version of Treasure Island.

Megan's brothers are staying at the school to rehearse the end of year play, and so Megan goes home with mum. In the car they talk about what Megan has been up to today.

3:30pm - Back at home

The family dog greets us as we come into the house. After getting a drink, Megan decides to go on Minecraft on the family computer.

She tells me how she doesn't think she's as good as her brothers on Minecraft, but that she has a friend that she communicates with via her tablet who has been helping her to get better.

3:38pm - Playing Minecraft

Megan plays Minecraft for the next half an hour. The friend she usually plays with is offline and so she just plays alone. Megan complains about some of the bad etiquette of other players, such as those trying to eliminate another player at the very beginning of the game before they’ve had a chance to try and locate resources.

Megan's mum calls through to say that it's time to pick up Megan's brothers from rehearsals. Afterward they drop me off at the local train station and we say goodbye.

Below you can find out more about Megan by learning about some of her 'favourite things', including: her majorettes group, her Android tablet, her soft toys, and One Direction.

From the present: Her Android tablet

From the past:

Majorettes competition photograph

Megan's most prized possession at the moment is her Android tablet. Megan and her brothers were given one each by their parents so that they wouldn't have to share. Megan described how they'd be asking their parents for something like a tablet for awhile:

One of Megan's favourite hobbies is majorettes*. Megan is in the same majorettes group as one of her best friends, and one of her favourite objects from the past is a photograph of them both at their first competition. Megan recalls how she was really nervous at their first competition, however she now can't wait to take part in future competition events:

"we’d been asking for it, because we’d all been waiting for something electronic, like an iPod or something, something that we could do and talk to our friends on, so that was just what we got."

"I suppose it brings back all the times I just ended up bursting into tears cos I didn’t want to do it and now I can’t wait to do it [...] the first three competitions I’ve been really nervous and I can’t wait to do this one, because I know what’s it like now"

Megan mainly uses her tablet for messaging friends online and playing games, such as The Simpsons: Tapped Out and Minecraft.

*Majorettes is choreographed baton twirling

Megan's

Favourite Things

One Direction

The background picture on Megan's tablet is of the boy band One Direction. Megan isa big fan of One Direction and her uncle recently gave her a box full of the band's merchandise, including posters which she has put up on her bedroom wall:

Special soft toys

Megan has kept a number of soft toys from when she was younger. Two soft toys are particularly special to her: a 'tatty teddy' with her first initial embroidered on its chest and a white cat bought for when she born by her older brother. As Megan is part of a triplet, her two brothers were also bought similar soft toys:

"about five months ago, five or six, my uncle got me loads, it was a big box full of One Direction stuff [...] Patrick [her older brother] doesn’t like them at all. I’ve got a CD, a DVD, a jumper, loads of posters all over my room (hehe) it’s quite good."

"We each got a Tatty Teddy with our first letter of our names, so I had an M, Thomas had a T, and Jordan got a J, which we all had. And our big brother Patrick got us a teddy each, I got a cat, and Jordan got a dog, and Thomas got a duck"

Megan sometimes play their albums in her room - much to the annoyance of her older brother!