Remembrance at Warminster
From the 3rd November until the 11th November, Warminster School commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in our inaugural Great War Centenary Week. During the week, a range of cross-curricular lessons and activities were carried out by both teachers and pupils to help provide an insight into the Great War from different subject perspectives.
In the Senior School the week began with an excellent and insightful lecture from Dr Heather Jones from the London School of Economics and Political Science on the treatment of Prisoners of War on the Western Front. From this point, all academic subjects played their part in marking the centenary. Throughout the week paintings produced in response to the Great War were examined; the development of chemical weapons and war-time diseases were traced; war poetry and literary articles were studied; map-based activities on the countries of soldiers from the First World War were carried out; physical fitness and military drills were tried and tested; European propaganda was analysed; the morality of war was questioned; and code-breaking activities were set each day.
Meanwhile, the Prep School covered the walls of the main corridor with poppies created by children and staff. Work by pupils on the First World War has been compiled into a Remembrance book which will then be displayed in the Library. Pupils in Years 4 – 6 watched a live Remembrance assembly from the Tower of London along with many other schools across the globe. Pupils also looked at the books of Michael Morpurgo, learned about the Christmas Truce of 1914 and performed wartime poetry in assembly.
The week concluded with a traditional and poignant Remembrance Service in the Minster Church. Staff and pupils alike gained much from their experiences during the week and a similar event is already planned for next year.