History

On Thursday 24th November, the Year 6’s of Penpol School donned their 1940’s attire and were transported back in time. On arrival, their labels were checked and destinations confirmed. Roll call was taken and they were escorted into the school building to await further instruction. Whilst waiting, they were given the opportunity to meet their fellow evacuees, discuss their destination and make sure they had the government stipulated items in their suitcases, sharing these with their peers.

Upon inspection and arrival at their destination, the evacuees had the opportunity to write back to their loved ones at home to let them know they’d safely arrived and how they were doing. The evacuees then spent the rest of the morning creating model spitfires; learning of their importance in the war, playing some 1940s children’s games and cooking up a storm with our lovely land girls and their authentic rations dessert recipe. Blackout procedures were followed to a ‘T’, throughout the day, when the air raid sirens sounded and all evacuees were safely accounted for thereafter.

During the afternoon the cooking continued and the pupils explored the Blitz through some beautiful artwork. Parents were then invited in for the evacuees to share their ‘Wartime Britain’ work from the past term with some 1940’s music to set the scene and the rations dessert sampled.

Last Tuesday (8th November) saw Class 7 and 8 head off to Truro to visit Royal Cornwall Museum as part of their ‘Ancient Egypt’ topic.

Once we had (eventually) gotten the train from Hayle to Truro, we marched down to the museum.

When we arrived, we were able to have some free time to wander around the museum and find out lots of interesting facts about the different exhibits.

However, afterwards, it was then time to explore the ancient Egypt area…

One of the tour guides from the museum told us all about (and showed) their different Egyptian artefacts, a sarcophagus and a real mummy! We even got the chance to draw on some papyrus paper!

Finally, we got to watch (and some of us help) an Egyptian mummification (on a dummy). We pulled out the mummy’s brains, scooped out their intestines, but kept the heart safe inside. All of the organs were placed into canopic jars for safe keeping.

After our time at the museum had concluded, we walked back up to the train station and faced another train conundrum…

On Sunday 13th November, six Y6 pupils represented Penpol School at the Hayle Remembrance Service. The first part of the service took part in St. Elwyns Church before we paraded down to the war memorial. After listening to the names of all the local people who had fallen, we heard the last post and stood in silence to remember them. We laid a wreath on behalf of Penpol School.

The service was particularly significant to the Y6 pupils as we have been learning about the impact of WWI and WWII in our Wartime Britain topic. We have also been making our own poppies and wreaths and writing poems based on Flander’s Fields. The local community praised the respect and maturity of our Y6 pupils. It was also nice to see so many other past and present Penpol pupils representing their local clubs at the service who were equally respectful and role-models for our school and community.

81 years after thousands of children and young vulnerable adults were evacuated from cities across the country during WW2, our Year 6 children had a go themselves. To celebrate the end of our ‘Wartime Britain’ topic the children (and adults) dressed themselves in period clothing and lived the life of an evacuee for the day.

After being collected from the gate by a member of the 2 of the newest members for he British Army and our very own Land Girls they waved a teary goodbye to their parents before being subjected to a roll call and squeezing into a cramped school classrooms; much like the evacuees of 1939 would have been when they departed the trains.

It was here the children had chance to act in character and meet their fellow evacuees, discussing the contents of their suitcases as well as their preferred destination. Those without identification tags were labeled and sent on their way. The children then had some time to look at and try different games that evacuees would have played in the 40’s.

For the remainder of the morning we continued in character- between the air raid sirens- we wrote post cars home to share the news of out safe arrival and built model spitfires whilst learning about their significance during the Battle of Britain. In school groups the children followed a handed-down ration recipe to make some delicious bread and butter pudding.

At the close of the day the children were collected by their parents, their evacuation was much shorter than those during the war. Many parents came into class to sample some of their cooking but also sit and enjoy their child’s work from the last term, with the majority of literacy and topic being based heavily on our studying of Wartime Britain.