Category Archives: schools

battlefields, commemoration, remembrance, schools, war memorials

Arras commemoration 2017

May 11, 2017 User deactivated Leave a comment

In April 2017 a large group of Scottish secondary school pupils and teachers travelled to France to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Arras. This battle saw the biggest concentration of Scottish battalions and soldiers at any one battle during WW1, and the Scottish Government identified this as a key event to mark in the national WW1 commemorative programme.

The Scottish Commemoration Panel conceived the unique idea of having two participating pupils from every one of the 32 Scottish Local Authorities undertake a study visit to Arras, and with the support of local Councils achieved this truly national representation. Scottish Government contracted with Mercat Tours International to deliver this experience for the young people, and a very strong programme of activities was organised. The assistance of the Mayor of Arras enabled French pupils to join the commemorations.

The Scottish programme covered three intense days in France and Belgium, with guided visits to battlefield sites, cemeteries, memorials, and a museum in the underground tunnels beneath the city of Arras. A very moving service of commemoration was held at Faubourg d’Amiens cemetery in Arras, and Scottish military pipe bands performed a Beating the Retreat in the main square of the town that evening attended by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The young people learned a great deal about the history of the period and the contribution of Scottish soldiers to the western front campaigns. Frequently there were very moving experiences. Some pupils were able to trace the graves of relatives who died around Arras and make a very personal remembrance at the graveside.

The visit was a great success, and a video which features key elements from the trip will be made available online.

competitions, film and TV, remembrance, schools

Vote now ! – “Films of Remembrance” primary school competition

September 14, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

films-competition Legion Scotland invites you to vote for your choice as the winner in their 2016 competition for Primary school children in Scotland, which invited pupils to make a film about “the impact of conflict and the importance of remembrance”. Voting closes on Sunday 11th December, so don’t delay.. Vote here.

Full details can be found on their website, including the competition prizes and sources of support such as local veterans groups.

Pupil groups were asked to create a two-minute documentary, TV report or short film which explored the impact of conflict and remembrance on the people and communities of Scotland. This provided a lot of scope for exciting learning and the development of skills in Literacy, ICT, Social Studies and more.

arts and music, battlefields, commemoration, film and TV, military, schools, war memorials

Battle of the Somme

June 13, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

The Battle of the Somme was fought in northern France over 141 days in 1916, from 1st July to 18th November, in a series of bloody and costly actions on this small section of the Western Front. The centenary in 2016 will be marked by a number of commemorative events across the UK and in France itself.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport news release describes plans for commemorations at national and international levels, and encourages the development of local events. A high-level international commemorative event will take place at Thiepval Memorial in France on 1st July 2016, with participation by representatives of many nations.

In Scotland a national vigil service will be held at the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh through the night of 30th June / 1st July. In the coming months, other vigils will be staged at locations around Scotland organised by regimental associations and others to tie in with key dates and battles involving individual regiments.

New education resources will assist teachers who want to help their students learn about the nature and importance of this particular campaign. The National Army Museum resource includes a video about the battle; PowerPoint slides which offer photographs and images from 1916 with detailed captions, which can be re-used by teachers. (such as the image used in this blog post, by kind permission); and NAM also offers downloadable exhibition panels to which local material can be added. A British Council pack ‘Remembering the Battle of the Somme’ offers material for wider aspects of the fighting.

There are many online assets which cover aspects of the conflict. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has a dedicated Somme site. Imperial War Museum covers the history in text, images and audio. The BBC iWonder resource “Why was the Battle of the Somme film bigger than Star Wars” discusses the huge public appeal of a 1916 documentary film shown in cinemas, which has now been digitally re-produced and made available by Imperial War Museum for showings in local venues. A BBC news video clip describes one section of the tunnels under the battlefield.

arts and music, commemoration, military, schools

Dazzle Ship Scotland

June 6, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

Scotland now has its own Dazzle Ship, berthed in the Prince of Wales dock in the port of Leith. The inspiration for this particular vessel’s design comes from artist Ciara Phillips, who was co-commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and 14-18 Now. A BBC news story describes the work.

Phillips’s work is entitled “every woman” and celebrates the roles played by women during the war; for example, as painters in the shipyards implementing dazzle designs on warships.

Edinburgh Art Festival staff are developing a Learning programme to engage children and young people with the ideas behind the project and encourage visits to the ship. This includes an introductory guide for teachers, and teacher workshops; a Family “Dazzle Day Out” will take on Sunday 19th June 2016 from 1300-1600. Further activities will follow over the summer. During the Festival there will also be a Dazzle Hub in a shop unit at Ocean Terminal shopping centre. Contact the EAF team for more details.

Financial support for this project was provided by 14-18 Now, the UK-wide cultural programme which marks the centenaries of World War One with a series of artistic and cultural projects specially commissioned to engage the public and create an artistic legacy. The Tower of London poppies are the best-known of previous projects, with a range of other successful projects and more work still in process and to be commissioned.

The original Dazzle concept was a response by artist Norman Wilkinson to World War One submarine warfare in the Atlantic and the threat to British shipping. Ships which were repainted in dazzle designs were thought to confuse the German U-boat submariners trying to target ships for torpedo attack. A BBC iWonder resource “How did an artist help Britain fight the war at sea” describes this work.

battlefields, commemoration, competitions, military, schools

Legion Scotland primary schools competition – Vote!

March 18, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

Legion Scotland, the veterans organisation, themed its Primary schools competition for 2016 around the Battle of Jutland 1916 (with great things planned for the centenary in May and June). School pupils that participated in the competition investigated the lives of the crews of the warships of the British fleets and thought about the impacts of the battles these sailors faced.

The task for pupils entering the competition was to produce a report in the style of a newspaper story, with an associated image (such as the photo of HMS New Zealand, which took part in the battle. Photo by kind permission of Fairfield Heritage)

The work of twelve schools has now been shortlisted by the judges, and the public can vote for their preference among the entries displayed on the Legion Scotland website.

Vote now!

battlefields, schools

Trenches recreated in Glasgow

December 15, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

This summer the ‘Digging In’ project has been active in Glasgow’s Pollok Park, constructing its first trenches in a programme of work to support learning about World War One by the public and school students.

The reconstructions have created short sections of trenches modelled on those used by British and German soldiers on the Western Front battlefields of France and Belgium in the period 1914-1918. The design work was informed by Army field manuals, soldiers’ diaries, and evidence from excavations in Flanders conducted by historians and archaeologists.

The trenches have already been open for public and school visits for a few trial sessions, with expert facilitators to guide them through the experience of the life of a combatant in such a hostile environment. Hands-on activities and teaching packs will complement the classroom learning of pupils.

The project partnership is lead by Northlight Heritage, with partners including Glasgow City Council, Glasgow University, and Stewart’s Melville College. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled the project to get underway, and new partners and sponsors are supporting the project’s development.

The project website provides details about the site excavations and facilities, and assists learning about aspects of WW1 such as trench experiences, the roles of women, advances in medical treatment, and conscientious objectors. The project is also attracting interest through Facebook and Twitter.

The project launch is described in a Glasgow City Council news release, and a BBC news story.

The location within Pollok Park also allows possible tie-ins for school visits to Pollok House (a National Trust for Scotland property), which functioned as an auxiliary hospital during World War One.

There are many resources online which could be used by teachers for preparatory work before a site visit. For example, a BBC Schools education resource about Food in the trenches.

battlefields, commemoration, libraries, military, schools

Scotland and the Battle of Loos

October 2, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

On 25th and 26th September 2015 the City of Dundee staged a series of commemorative events to mark the centenary of the Battle of Loos. In 1915 the whole nation suffered, as thirty thousand Scots from different regiments were involved in this battle in northern France, and the heavy loss of life and huge number of injuries caused widespread distress. Dundee men were present particularly in the battalions of the Black Watch.

“Remembering Loos”, the national commemoration in Dundee, included the lighting of the beacon at the war memorial on Dundee Law, a service of remembrance, a parade, and music performances. The events were organised by Dundee City Council and the Great War Dundee partnership, with support from the Scottish Government through the national Scottish Commemorations Panel.

School pupils in the city worked on a project to remember Loos by researching and creating information panels, which were exhibited to an invited VIP audience and to the public. Dundee City Council education staff and students worked with Education Scotland and partners such as the Black Watch Museum and Dundee University Archives service to achieve a great deal of new learning.

The BBC News story “The Battle of Loos: how Dundee marks its ‘black day'” describes some of the commemorative activity and the historical background to it. The Dundee Courier story “Battle of Loos remembered 100 years on” includes a video clip from the events.

Another BBC News article, “The piper who won the Victoria Cross“, tells the story of Piper Daniel Laidlaw of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and his bravery under fire. Laidlaw’s playing of the pipes rallied troops to join the assault, after a German gas attack temporarily stalled the advance.

A news story in Glasgow’s Evening Times, “Remembering the Govan men who died at Loos, a century ago” reports on a local man who has researched the Govan High School men listed on the school’s Roll of Honour. Eight died at Loos.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website has a section dedicated to the cemeteries around Loos.

commemoration, competitions, exhibitions, film and TV, military, museums and archives, schools

Gallipoli and Scotland

June 19, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

On the 4th June 1915 Scottish troops of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division were landed on beaches on the Gallipoli peninsula to join the land campaign against the Turkish defenders. Further landings brought thousands of Scots into action over the coming months, alongside soldiers from France, Australia, New Zealand, and the other parts of Britain, with high levels of loss through injury and disease. In 2015 the contribution by Scottish units to actions in Gallipoli and the impacts back at home are commemorated through a series of events in Stirling, the Scottish Borders, and elsewhere.

Stirling University was the focus of commemorative events around the 4th-6th June 2015. A public lecture by historian Professor Sir Hew Strachan was hosted by Stirling University, and a video recording of his presentation is available online. Local school pupils created an outdoor installation of poppies made from recycled materials. A screening of the cinema drama ‘Tell England’, and a workshop with university academics from Scotland and Turkey, completed events over the weekend.

The University also launched ‘Creating Gallipoli’, a creative writing competition for secondary schools. “The aim of the project is for school students to engage imaginatively with the experience of Gallipoli from a variety of perspectives by writing a poem of up to 40 lines or a short story, in the form of a letter, of up to 750 words. The letter may be addressed to a family member, a friend, a lover, a newspaper etc”. Poems and stories should evoke the human side of the conflict, giving a sense of what it felt like to be a participant at Gallipoli in 1915. Workshop sessions for pupils and teachers will be run in Autumn 2015, to help students engage with the topic and enhance their writing skills. Full details of the competition are available on the web.

Over the next few months there will also be local commemorative events and exhibitions in parts of Scotland where there is a strong community connection to the Gallipoli fighting. For example, at Hawick in the Scottish Borders the local Museums service will stage an exhibition titled ‘Hawick to Gallipoli’, about the stories of young men from the area who served with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment.

commemoration, competitions, schools

Primary Schools competition winners

June 15, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

Legion Scotland has announced the winners of its 2014-15 Primary Schools competition.

In August 2014 Legion Scotland invited primary school children across Scotland to take part in a competition, to become First World War family history detectives. Pupils were asked to research and uncover real life stories of how the outbreak of World War One affected local families and communities. Primary school pupils from P5, P6 and P7 took up the challenge of investigating ‘what impact did the outbreak of war have on children and how do families remember this now?’

The competition asked schools, in pupil groups of ten, to enter 500 words and three photographs for the competition. Schools from all over Scotland took part. Ten schools were shortlisted, and placed online in a public vote which received thousands of votes. From the top three in the public vote, one winning school was picked by a celebrity panel including Scottish Government Veterans Secretary Keith Brown MSP, historian and broadcaster Trevor Royle, and a representative from the Co-operative Funeralcare – the schools competition sponsor.

The top three that went in front the of the judges were:
Annick Primary School in Irvine’s ‘A Friend of Age, a Guide of Youth’; Craighill Primary School in Tain’s ‘World War I Uncovered’; and Glasgow Academy’s ‘The Galbraith Legacy’.

Legion Scotland announced details of the winners on its website, and the story includes a link to the top-placed entry.

Congratulations to the overall winner, Annick Primary School, North Ayrshire. The team won a VIP trip to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo this summer.

The judging panel was so impressed by the quality of entries that funding was found for a runner-up award, to a pupil team at Craighill Primary in Tain, Highlands, who win tickets and travel for a trip to the Tattoo.

A great effort by all concerned.

commemoration, museums and archives, schools

Gallipoli and education

May 21, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

The military and naval campaign around the Gallipoli peninsula from April 1915 to January 1916 is the subject of many resources and projects for teachers, often produced to tie in with the centenary commemoration period. Here is a selection from recent material made available by museums, cultural and media organisations, from British, Australian, German and Turkish perspectives.

The Gallipoli Centenary Education Project has been working with schools in Scotland, Education and Turkey, and has already staged one school group visit to the Dardanelles.

Imperial War Museum has many assets on offer to educators, from which I picked their “Podcast 14: Gallipoli” and a feature on an artist / seaman in the naval forces who produced wonderful sketches during the campaign.

A Commonwealth War Graves Commission newsletter for April 2015 gives details of the initial troop landings and the use of Scottish ship SS River Clyde.

An Australian government website provides an overview of ANZAC resources for teaching about Gallipoli.

Europeana’s piece entitled “Gallipoli from a different perspective” tells the story of a German pilot fighting on the Turkish side in the campaign.

“Gallipoli through Turkish eyes” is an Australian historian’s view of the Canakkale campaign as seen from the Turkish defenders’ perspective.