Children at a Norfolk school who were unable to attend their local Armistice poppy laying instead donned uniforms and costumes to create their own living history remembrance commemoration.
Pupils at Howard Junior School in King’s Lynn dressed as First World War soldiers, evacuees, land girls and nurses to honour heroes for Remembrance Day.
Headteacher Greg Hill said: Every year we usually go to King’s Lynn town centre and the cenotaph at Greyfriars but that wasn’t possible this year because of coronavirus guidelines, so we decided to do our own remembrance in our school.
“It was a lot of fun for the children to get dressed up and involved, but it is also quite a sombre event too. A lot of learning opportunities have come from it and they have done a lot of research projects in class too.
MORE: Children dribble ball for nearly 30 miles over Remembrance weekend“It is important that our pupils learn respect and are good citizens and remember what sacrifices people have made for our democracy.”
Robert Hipkin, chairman of the King’s Lynn and District Royal British Legion, said: “The headteacher and the teachers do a brilliant job in teaching the children about the war and what remembrance is all about.
“Last year they took part in putting the poppies up on the railings around the war memorial, but this year, because of coronavirus, we couldn’t do that. It is fantastic they were able to do this in the school instead.”
Previously pupils from the school had learnt more about remembrance by visiting Cyril Route, a Second World War veteran known locally as the ‘Poppy Man’, but who died earlier this year aged 96.
Before Covid restrictions, the children had also been due to visit Dunkirk and D-Day veteran Fredrick ‘Don’ Hall in a King’s Lynn care home to help celebrate his 100th birthday in March.
MORE: WWI heroine Edith Cavell’s final letter home returned to NorfolkMr Hill said all of the school’s 216 pupils had put a tremendous amount of effort into planning and staging of the remembrance event.
He said: “We wanted to have a living history experience so getting dressed up really helps them to get into the different characters affected by wars and conflict and learn what it was like.
“It is really important to let children know that there were a whole range of people who made sacrifices.”
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