War Memorial study in schools

[David Seymour]

Do any teaching colleagues do any war memorial studies with their pupils? I conduct such a study with Year Nine at the end of each year, and I know of work in Year Six. Interested to hear what others are up to in this line.

With best wishes,

David

[NeilEvans]

Not schools, but last year the OU's preparatory work for an intoduction into History was centered around Memorials.

Neil

[Simon R]

I know of several in Yorkshire who do this, in a variety of forms.

Some schools look for a third party to acquire funding for specific projects like this.

[John_Hartley]

One of Stockport's schools uses my memorial site as a focus for teaching a number of subjects - 'fraid I don't know the details but gather it hits the spot for at least history, English & IT.

I've tried to interest other schools with a total lack of success (by far, my biggest disapointment of the several years researching).

[Simon R]

Citizneship is the other big one at the moment - citizen soldiers etc.

[David Seymour]

Thanks for your replies. Three suggests that either not much work on memorials is being done in schools or that not many teachers are on the Forum at the moment - please contribute if you can tear yourself away from the marking!!!

With best wishes,

David

[Orson]

David,

As one pile of marking is finished .........

I don't use memorials myself - wrong subject - but a colleague of mine is planning to introduce WW1 to year 9, with them working on their local memorials. As the pupils come from a wide area these could include village memorials as well as the city memorial.

I have offered my services to her by way of talking to the classes myself about my exploits in this field (and to show it doesn't have to be history teachers only who do this, as I'm sure they would think!)

Oh, another pile beckons.....

Orson

[Orson]

David,

The marking is now boring me.

There is a local school to me that may do research of some kind. They may not use the local memorial but they have been known to go to Ypres, lay a wreath at the Menin Gate and visit the graves of 'old boys'. In the latter case they had studied the men of the graves they visited.

They even put on a play a few years ago about the boys of the school who died in the war.

Orson

[bruce]

Some years ago, I realised that the events of 80 odd years ago might as well be 800 years ago to most in year 9. As a result, I decided that it might be an idea to try to make it local.

I got the names from the local war memorial, researched them, and then also got the home addresses of the pupils I was teaching. They each had a project to do on Life in the Trenches, and i assigned each of them one of the names on the memorial, which they all passed to get to the school. Using their home addresses, I gave each pupil a name either from their street, or a house which they passed to get to school.

It w.orked well. I well remember one of the bottom set gleefully finding that "his" man was shot down by a flying dentist.

I also visited all of the graves, so could give out how to use SDGW, the CWGC website, and a pic of the headstone, or name on a memorial.

When notice was given of the closure of the school, I got all the info together to publish it as a memorial to the school.

Using a local war memorial to assist pupils' understanding seems to work.....but it takes some homework first.

Bruce

[Mark Hone]

As you know, David, pupils have assisted me with research into the Bury Grammar War Dead of both world wars, and their stories form the basis of our annual battlefield tours. This year for example, on our 1918 anniversary tour, we shall visit the grave of Lt. Joseph Morris, the last old boy to die in action on the Western Front. One of the most moving moments on any of our tours was on our first visit to his grave in 1998, when we discovered that his parents had had the school motto inscribed on his headstone. I have been very surprised to find that the idea has apparently not occurred to some long-established schools with prominent war memorials I have visited, including those who go on battlefield tours. Even today, with the wonders of the CWGC database etc there are a lot of teachers who haven't the faintest idea how to go about researching names on a war memorial.

[John_Hartley]

They each had a project to do on Life in the Trenches, and i assigned each of them one of the names on the memorial, which they all passed to get to the school.

The school at Accrington has a similar project using the names of the local Pals (not all of them casualties, IIRC).

The students are given brief biographies and have to fill in the rest themselves. Part of the project involves the students writing letters home. So, for instance, if all that is known is that the soldier had a child, the student must decide on the child's name, etc, so that questions can be asked about how they are, etc.

[izzy]

Another school that has researched war memorials is whitby high school ellesmere port .The school has researched men from ellesmere port and also included battlefield trips to the western front.

[David Seymour]

Ah! I knew it was just the marking that was keeping you from posting!!!

Thank you for your thoughts on this.

Worrying, Mark, what you say about some teachers, faintest ideas and researching war memorials. It seems to me such an obvious topic of study with all of its possible links to the Curriculum (if widely enough interpreted) and, for most, its easy access - most schools can't be that far from one. And for village schools the memorial must be just down the road.

With best wishes,

David

[Mark Hone]

Well, for example my wife's former school, a long-established and leading Independent, has run frequent battlefield tours over the years. When we visited Sanctuary Wood Cemetery a few years ago we came by chance on an ex-pupil of their's with the school motto on his headstone. My wife duly relayed the information to her old school but it was clear that they had no real interest and had never bothered to research the names on their war memorial. Needless to say the school visits the nearby Sanctuary Wood Museum and Trenches on each battlefield visit. As my own tours are based very heavily on the stories of old boys, I found this attitude very puzzling, but each to their own....

[bts1970]

When i approached the local school to help me with artwork for my booklet the school jumped at the chance, seems that they don`t really cover that side of History & thought that getting involved was a good thing for the kids, History dept will be next involved after summer in the run to November, to be honest I never covered WW1 history in school , we had to do Russion revolution & stuff.

Bob

[David Seymour]

Bob,

That's part of the problem - that some schools don't study either of the world wars. Glad to hear that you have made contact via Art. Perhaps also teachers of Citizenship and Design could get involved with a war memorial study. Perhaps colleagues are using war memorials in these subject areas - I would love to hear from them as well as from historians. As you say, in this area the next target for historians will be something for November, so I look forward to hearing about that.

With best wishes,

David

[bts1970]

The contact with the school just seemed a natural choice, i like pencil drawings & thought the local school may wish to help, they did & the artwork was excellent. after the booklet was released the Parent/teacher group put a piece in the local newsletter about being involved etc, all this highlighted the memorial more especially to the kids.

I now have a powerpoint disc with the headstones & further detail that i hope will be of assistance to the school especially the History dept, would be a shame for them only to cover it this year & not follow up any research the kids do, i certainly feel more should be done to involve kids in this sort of research, i have also been present in Flanders at a cemetary when a school party was shall we say being less than respectfull to the surroundings, made me a bit mad to say the least but thats maybe what you get nowadays. saying that the same evening another bunch of kids were at the menin Gate & they were the complete opposite.

Bob

[Dick Smith]

I've done basic research and reporting work with Year 9 based on the school's war memorial. We were lucky enough to have a copy of the school newsletter for 1917, which had a 'roll of honour' which meant that we could list many more than the men who fell. We used Excel to create a database.

It was very successful, except that some pupils (recent arrivals) felt that this was something they didn't have to learn as it didn't affect them. Many others were fascinated by 'Soldiers Died' and spent ages looking up their namesakes. Then we looked at CWGC and were able to talk about the men themselves.

We also mapped casualties on local maps (most of the housing from the period still exists) and could see strong patterns in the skilled working-class/lower middle class streets around the school.

I've done it a few times, and I've always enjoyed it!

[David Seymour]

Dick,

Good point. I, too, found that they got absorbed by CWGC - looking up family names, even if they weren't sure that these men were from their immediate family.

Interesting point you make about the level of commitment to the study being, in some cases, dependent on the time a child has been in the school. They couldn't see past their loyalty to a previous school?

Which school do teach in?

With best wishes,

David

[Dick Smith]

I used to teach at Elliott School in Putney, but the school in 1914-18 was on the site of the present Southfields School - a fairly typical South London community of the time. I'm now retired.

It wasn't a question of not associating with the school, but with the country that somewhat concerned me. In general recent arrivals never objected to studying British history but didn't see any reason to do it in depth or with enthusiasm. There was quite a bit of interest from Indian and Afro-Caribbean kids in Empire contributions to the war, and many discussions about the mono-cultural nature of society in 1914 compared to nowadays. Some asian kids were quite resistant, seeing it as none of their business.

One pupil managed to drag his parents off to photograph his great-grandfather's grave, and even wrote a short report on how he was killed (it seems that he had fought through several major engagements and had been sent back to headquarters, possibly because he had 'done his bit', only to be killed by a spent bullet).

In general it was very enjoyable, although I never did the work with the sort of 'able' groups who would have really extended the projects.