The Year 6 Time Capsule

Source written for Revision Library (original, copyright-free). Written specifically for this grammar worksheet pack; not derived from or based on any published work, past paper or copyrighted text.

As their final term at Milbank Primary drew to a close, Year 6 decided to bury a time capsule beneath the old oak tree by the school gates. Mrs Okonkwo, their teacher, had seen the idea work brilliantly at her last school. She suggested that every pupil should choose one object that captured what life was like in Year 6, and the class agreed enthusiastically.

Choosing what to include was trickier than anyone had predicted. However, nobody wanted to leave the project half-finished. In addition to a class photograph and a newspaper from that week, Tariq offered his lucky football sticker, and Bethany did too. Meanwhile, other pupils wrote letters to whoever might dig up the capsule in fifty years' time, describing their favourite lessons and their worries about starting secondary school.

Once every object had been collected, the class sealed everything inside a metal box lined with plastic to keep out the damp. They wrapped the box carefully, checked the list twice and carried it out to the oak tree together. Some pupils wanted to bury it straight away; others, more cautious, insisted on waterproofing the lid a second time before it went into the ground.

By the final afternoon of term, the box was ready. Rain had threatened all morning, and dark clouds gathered overhead as the caretaker dug a neat hole beside the oak tree's roots. As a result, the whole school gathered to watch the capsule lowered into the ground. Eventually, even the youngest pupils in Reception understood why the moment mattered. Year 6 had turned an ordinary afternoon into a memory that Milbank Primary would not open again for fifty years.