Teach-Primary-Issue-19.3

64 | www.teachwire.net WILL’S CHOICES Will is forced to make several difficult decisions during the story. Sometimes he makes the right choice and sometimes he doesn’t, partly because the options available to him are limited due to the financial position he and his father are in. As a class, look in detail at one of the decisions he is forced to make (one that works really well here is when Chris ‘asks’ him to steal the headphones from the shop). If Will weren’t in such a desperate situation, would he have made a different choice? It’s a debate that provides a perfect opportunity to use the drama technique of Conscience Alley (the CLPE has a great intro to this at tinyurl.com/tp-ConscienceAlley ) . Once pupils realise that he was almost forced into it, see if they can make links to his behaviour at other times in the book. This can lead into a very valuable discussion around peer pressure and financial pressure, and the impact that they can have on the mental health of both children and adults. FRIENDS AREN’TMEANT TO BE GRATEFUL Chapter four contains one of the most powerful scenes in the book; when Cameron offers Will a pair of his old trainers, which he would otherwise take to the charity shop. Although he does it out of goodwill, it makes Will feel like a charity case and he replies with “Friends aren’t meant to be grateful. They’re just meant to be friends.” Talk about what this means and see if the children can empathise with Cameron’s point of view. Get them to write a letter as Cameron, where he apologises to Will for the misunderstanding, and acknowledges that he unwittingly caused embarrassment to his friend. What could Cameron do differently next time? Discuss the friendships that Will has in the book, especially with Cameron, Chris and Kalia, and explore how those friendships originated. For example, his friendship with Kalia started when she stood up for him against Chris. Should he be grateful to her for doing that or is she just being his friend? Take it further Story The Wrong Shoes is a book that has, rightly, been nominated for several awards, as well as being on the 2025 Read for Empathy list ( empathylab. uk/RFE ). It’s about Will, a young boy who lives with his father after his parents have separated. His father lost his job due to an accident at work and life is increasingly tough for them both. Despite Dad’s endless optimism, an act he puts on mostly for the benefit of Will, there’s barely enough money available for food and certainly not enough for the ‘extras’ such as haircuts and trainers. Will struggles on at school as best he can, but feels as if his life is gradually spiraling out of control. When he falls out with his best friend, Cameron, and is bullied by Book topic a gang of older pupils, it all becomes too much for him. He doesn’t know whom to turn to for help and support, and has to make some difficult, almost impossible, choices. There are numerous themes explored through the book, all with a level of authenticity: poverty, bullying, peer pressure and the endless battle to fit in, even though nobody ever really understands what they’re supposed to be fitting into. Activities based around the book Will’s relationships Will has quite complex, and continually evolving, relationships with the other characters in the book (Cameron, Chris, Kalia, Dad, Mum, Greg and Mr Prince are the key ones). At the end of Act One, work together as a class to create a relationship chart that shows what type of relationship he has with each of them, based on these questions: • Are they friends or family? • Is it a positive or negative relationship, or both? How do you know? • How important are they in his life? At the end of the story, ask them to repeat the same task, thinking about what has already changed, and considering how it might change again in the future. A different perspective There are several key incidents in the story involving other pupils at the school (when Cameron offers Will his old shoes; when Kalia steps in to protect him; and when Chris demonstrates kindness for the first time are all good examples). Ask the pupils to choose one and then rewrite it from the point of view of the other character. Rather than just a straight recount, encourage them to focus on the emotions and motivations of the character. Why do they make the Illustrations © Tom Percival “The book explores numerous themes with authenticity”