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Hands-on World War I Experience
20/03/2020

Our History department organised an incredible hands-on World War I experience day for 30 hardworking Year 8 students, as a reward for their fantastic effort in history lessons.

This event was led by their very own WWI 'Tommy' who told them of his experiences during the war, as he demonstrated various artefacts. Tommy told the history of “war to end all wars”, beginning with the reasons for the war, and why thousands of men volunteered to join the British Army.

Our students were able to look at and touch the artefacts, many of which had been retrieved from WWI battlefields, or were replicas made for movies and television shows.

This included different types of weapons used on the battlefield, including rifles, grenades, shells, and bombs; all now defused and safe to handle. Our expert Tommy supervised the students and helped to dispel the myths created by movies and video games.

The students took part in a group activity where they worked in teams to put together combat webbing, which turned out to be a lot more complicated than it looked. Both teams managed to assemble the webbing, but not 100% correctly.

They also took part in some common activities, which WWI soldiers would do whilst waiting in the trenches, this included the board game House, now called Bingo, and practice drills.

Finally our students learnt injuries and medical equipment in the war, which led to a moment of reflection for the soldiers killed during the war.

Overall the day was a huge success which brought World War I to life for these amazing history students.