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Notes for teachers or adults

These instructions in PDF format and only intended for teachers can be found here.

We suggest this project is done by students between the age of 8 and 15. This is an individual project and can be done at home or by individuals in a classroom situation. If done at home, children could interview a grandparent.

You will need access to a word processing package. A voice recorder could be of use. You may need a scanner or camera so you can upload it to your school's website.

There is one very important rule that has to be followed in this project. The person whose life you are going to write about must have been born before 1 January 1961. That means they will be at least 60 years old. We would suggest that a grandparent or great uncle or aunt might be a good choice.

Your job is to find out things about this person’s life and, in particular, their early life. To do this you will need to talk to them and ask questions, taking notes so you can complete your story.

We want to give you as much freedom as possible with this project but we would like you to think about trying to find out the following:-

• What was life like at home before they were old enough to go to school
• How did they spend their spare time when they were older, i.e. between, say, 6 and 16
• What was school like (when you find out try to compare this to how your school days are now)
• What games did they play
• What food did they eat
• What did they do when they left school and at what age
• Major events in their lives and how they happened
• Any interesting stories they have learned in their life
• What they think about life and young people today

Once you have found out all the information you need to write it up as a story. Include as much as you want but do try to include most of our suggestions above.

You should try to make your story between 1,000 and 2,500 words. Don't forget to tell us who is the subject of your story. We only need the first name and age but if they are related to you, you could say how.

If you are doing this project on your own at home, you can email a copy of the finished project to us and it may find its way on to our site. Send it to homeprojectsi@owlbut.co.uk That would be owlingly brilliant. Off you go.

We are asking schools to set up a special part of their school website called Owlbut's World of Learning and all work done by pupils should be uploaded there. Each project, if you decide to do more than one, should have a separate section. Send the link to olderowlettesprojects@owlbut.co.uk.

We will start uploading projects sent to us and links from schools in September 2026. The projects and links will be accessed from this page.

You can see an example of this project, done by a secondary school in Western Australia with whom I worked, here. Please note, our example is longer than this as it includes all of Mr Narrier’s dream time stories. Don’t worry if your story is longer if there is more that you wish to include.