Tag Archives: Lest We Forget

Remembrance Crosses

This week we have been concentrating on Remembrance, discussing who and why we remember and why the poppy is used as a symbol for this.

After our class trip the pupils have taken note of some of the names of local people who lost their lives in WW1. Some pupils have also found members of their own family who were involved too – we hope to research this more in the future.

As part of the act of remembrance the class were introduced to the Remembrance Cross, where crosses are decorated with a poppy and dedicated to a particular soldier. We decided to use the  information from our trip to dedicated a cross to our own local hero.

Each member of the class was given two pieces of wood, some sandpaper and string to create their own cross. The pictures above show them sanding down the rough edges in preparation. They then decorated the cross with a poppy and dedicated their cross to a soldier they were either related to who had lost their life during the war or one that we had learnt about during our trip.

The pupils have taken their crosses home with them where they will either keep them to remember their soldier or leave it at a War Memorial this weekend.

Well done P5/6 the crosses look fabulous and you have all done a great job in understanding and respecting the meaning of Remembrance.

P5/6 WW1 Trip

On Wednesday we spent the morning visiting various places in Lerwick as part of our WW1 topic.

We began with a visit to the Anderson High School where we met with Mr. Jon Sandison. Mr. Sandison shared with us details of his own Grandad and his involvement in WW1, he also highlighted some of the roles that Shetlanders adopted during the war.

Through his teaching we now have a greater understanding of the sacrifices Shetland went through in these hard times. It has also given us names and dates that we will be looking into further throughout our topic.

The Anderson High School

Mr. Sandison sharing details about his own Grandad.
Shetlanders “checking the cables”
Waving the men off for The Great War.
Memorial at the AHS listing all of the former pupils who died in the war.

After thanking Mr. Sandison we left to visit the Methodist Church in Lerwick. As this is the centenary year the church were hosting an “Experience Remembrance” event. The pupils moved around different stations throughout the church, listening to personal stories of experience or family connections to the war. There was also the opportunity to try some “Trench cake” and look at medals, photographs, etc.

Experiencing Remembrance at Lerwick Methodist Church

Experiencing our own war

Our class conflict wall

Discussion over the meaning of courage – with some personal stories of how family members had been courageous during the war.

 

Courage

Discussion over the meaning of sacrifice – with some personal stories of how family members had made the ultimate sacrifice and personal experiences of the rationing of WW2.

Sacrifice

Discussion over the meaning of being safe – the pupils heard the sound of an air raid siren and went down to experience an Anderson Shelter. Throughout this they were told stories of personal experiences of air raids during WW2.

Safe
Safe

Pupils discussed ways they could resolve the conflicts they had raised on our conflict wall.

Peace

Finally we discussed the meaning of remembrance and the significance of the poppy. Pupils were given two petals to write a name of somebody they would like to remember. One petal was left at the church and the other was placed in their pocket to act as a reminder for them.

Remember

After lunch we walked over to the War Memorial at Hilhead. We discussed that the inner section was dedicated to those lost in WW1 and how the outer section was dedicated to those lost in WW2.

The pupils enjoyed looking to see if their family name was present on the memorial and we looked for some of the names that Mr. Sandison had shared with us earlier in the day too. We took some rubbings of the names to bring back to school.

Looking for family names.
We found the plaque dedicated to those from Dunrossness.
Making connections with the names we found.

Both myself and Miss Budge would like to thank all of the pupils for their fabulous behaviour on the trip today and for James Adamson volunteering as our parent helper. There was a lot for us to fit in and they all behaved fatastically and were very respectful to those who were sharing stories with us.

A huge thank you to Mr. Sandison, and the Anderson High School, and those involved with our experience at the Lerwick Methodist Church.

Well done P5/6!!