No Taxation Without Representation!

Lesson: History

As some of you will know, we are studying the American War of Independence in Year 5. One of the tricky concepts that the children need to understand is the idea of taxation. We distributed money to all of the children (not real, of course!)  and then charged the children all day for things that they wanted or needed - all decided by the tyrant of a teacher.  We wanted them to understand that taxation imposed by the government in Britain was very unpopular with the colonists in America because they did not have anyone representing their interests in Britain   It really drove the message home when the taxation for one side of the classroom was doubled 'because it's sunnier on that side'! 

The tyrant teacher heard and dismissed many complaints from downtrodden members of the class, although the tyrant teacher noticed a huge improvement in behaviour and is thinking about introducing a real version of it next half term!