Year 6 have been writing biographies on Jamaican bobsleigh champion Derice Bannock. We have focused on formal language, sentence structure, commas to mark clauses, subheadings, paragraphs, accurate punctuation for proper nouns, and how to stop our biographies sounding like a story.
Here are some excerpts from our biographies.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1960, Derice Bannock was raised by his parents, Ben and Eliza. His father was a professional athlete, who won the Olympic 100m race for Jamaica, and his mother a schoolteacher. Logan
His father, who was a professional athlete and won three gold medals, was a huge influence on his life. Between the ages of three and thirteen, Bannock attended St. Peter’s Boys School where he met his lifelong friend Sanka and started his career of running. Ben
Derice inherited his dad’s passion for sports and loved running races with the other children in the village. The Bannock family lived by the sea and had a comfortable existence. Gabriela
His father was an athlete by profession and his mother a schoolteacher. Throughout his childhood both encouraged him to play sports. Derice and his family inhabited a small seaside house on the island of Jamaica. Megan
At the age of ten, coming towards the end of Middle School, he had won a couple of trophies and lots of medals. Phoenix
Fresh from university, Derice became a talented professional runner, competing in important national races. He had dreams to become an olympian running hero, just like his father, but it was not to be…. Charlie
Due to a fellow participant tripping, Derice unfortunately failed to qualify for the Olympics. Derice was devastated. He burst in to the Jamaican official office. With one glance, one photo changed his life forever. It was an American bobsleigh medalist. Derice had accidentally stumbled across another way to enter the Olympics. Alastair
Derice demanded a re-run but the head of the Olympic Jamaican Committee denied his request. A chance interaction with a picture on a wall made him realise there was still a way he could make it to the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada – he could be a bobsledder. Lorcan
Requesting a re-run in the official’s office, Derice found a photograph of his father with a bobsledding legend. Suddenly, he considered a different way to get to the Olympics…. Hannah P
Just before he left the office, he saw, on the wall, a photograph which gave him an idea of how to become an Olympian a different way. Lottie
From the moment the team arrived in Calgary, trials were approaching, and Derice was more than ready to qualify for the Olympics. Samuel
Bannock and his team were accepted to the trials, but there were many obstacles they needed to overcome. Most importantly, they required a sled. Chloe H