Pupils unearth Leamington and Warwick war stories

Twenty-four specially-selected pupils from eight schools in the North Leamington Schools Cluster took time out from their normal timetables last Monday to come together to work on a commemorative project and display.

As well as spending a morning at the county record office in Warwick analysing and discussing original documents detailing how people in Leamington and Warwick were affected during the war and afterwards, the children worked with Trinity School’s art department on creating a giant poppy display which expresses what they learnt during their research.

The pupils - from years two, four and seven at Trinity, Brookhurst, Milverton, St Peter’s, Our Lady and St Teresa’s, Lillington, Cubbington, Telford Infants and Telford Junior schools - were chosen to take part in the project after being judged by teachers as being the most enthusiastic about history in their year groups.

Debbie Hyden, faculty principal for humanities and social sciences at Trinity School and history coordinator for the cluster, said: “We spent time looking at why people signed up to go to war, what happened when the war ended and how people celebrated, the impact of the Red Cross on people here, how people coped with rationing and found out some information about nurses from this area.

“Some of the pupils said they preferred the historical research aspects, while others preferred the creative work - but they all said they really enjoyed the day.

“It was nice to have the different year groups working together as the older pupils were helping the little ones with reading. It was also nice to mix the schools up.”

The poppy display will now be taken to be put up for a period of time at each participating school and those pupils who took part in the project will lead Remembrance activities at their own schools during the autumn term.