To mark the centenary of the armistice this Sunday, X23 chose to pay their respects by presenting their initial answers to our guiding question ‘What should we remember’ during our community meeting. Crafted beautifully into the form of a Found Poem by our talented Poet, Dan Ryder, the poem expressed their thoughts on how men, women and children experienced WW1 both on the battlefront and ‘at home’. The last stanza in particular expressed their thanks to those whose lives were taken, devastated or changed by war, and was read beautifully by Mills to the whole school together with our guests, Mr and Mrs Elliott of the Royal British Legion.
We are children at war who speak for other children at war
with respect for each bloodiest day.
In appreciation for their sacrifice in creation
of our courageous generation we thank them.
We remember.
Above are students Jon , Harley , Ethan , Mills , and James accompanied by Mr and Mrs Elliott. Ethan is holding a wreath of 50 poppies made by X23. Each student made a poppy, then after researching either the name of a family member who lost their life in war, or the name of a soldier who remains missing or has over time been forgotten, wrote this name on a petal. The names were found using the database of soldiers who served in the First World War created by the Imperial War Museum, which is available to access freely here https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/.
We are extremely honoured that Mr and Mrs Elliott chose to take the wreath with them to display when fundraising for the Poppy Appeal, and thank them for their kind generosity in giving up their time to speak so warmly to our students about the work that the Royal British Legion do to help individuals and their families.