Student sample for assessment
Written by a Year 6 student in Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia.
I found it on a walk behind the park. At first I thought it was just an old ruin. The walls was crumbling and the windows was broken and there was dead grass everywhere. It looked like the kind of place that nobody cared about. The fence around it was rusty and had a faded sign that said 'Danger: Keep Out.' I didn't go inside that day. I went back the next day because something about it felt interesting. The second time I looked more careful. The broken windows reflected the sunlight in a strange way. There was a door that was hanging off its hinges and I could see inside a little bit. The smell was like old wood and rain. I could hear pigeons in the roof. It seemed forgotten and lonely. But then I noticed something. Carved into the brick near the door was a date: 1924. And there was a name underneath. Someone had put their mark there a hundred years ago. I realised this wasn't just rubbish. This building had been important once. Someone built it. Someone worked here. Someone carved their name because they wanted to be remembered. I went inside (carefully). The floorboards was creaky and some of them was missing but I could still see what it had been. There was a big room with metal things still attached to the walls. In one corner was a chair. Not broken — actually still okay. And on a bench I found a notebook. The pages was faded but I could read some of it. It was a log. Someone wrote down what happened every day. 'Fixed the machine today.' 'Weather was cold.' 'Sarah brought lunch.' That place wasn't abandoned. It was full of people who had been there. Now when I walk past it I don't see ruins. I see a building that had a whole life. I see the people who worked hard there. I see that sometimes things that look dead are just waiting for someone to look closely. I still don't know what factory it was. But I know that it matters.