Trenches time travel for Year 6

On Tuesday 14^th November, Year Six travelled back in time, with the help of their Time Travel Education Guide, Sergeant Parsons. As civilians, they were recruited into the army and given their woollen, khaki uniform, before they swore an oath of allegiance to the King.

After that, basic training began, with lessons in marching and a demonstration of how to use a Lee-Enfield Mk III rifle. Sergeant Parsons gave them a clear idea of how quickly the recruits became fit, highly skilled soldiers with rigorous and relentless instruction.

With the help of virtual reality headsets, the children were able to experience the conditions of trench life for soldiers on the front line as well as in triage and medical clearing centres. Hearing about how the term “chatting” came about from the sound of lice eggs exploding in the seams of the soldiers’ jackets under the heat of a candle made more than a few of them itchy! They spotted rats, and were surprised to hear that these were not eaten, whereas bully beef, mixed with strawberry jam and stale crackers, was a regular meal!

Back in the classroom, the children were able to explore artefacts from the First World War including letters, uniforms of different ranks and countries, equipment such as canvas water carriers, and replica weapons such as hand and stick grenades. Dressing up as soldiers and pretending to use the weapons and equipment was clearly a favourite part of the day!

They finished the day by learning about the evolution of gas masks and, once again, it proved invaluable to see and handle actual examples to understand how much or how little they protected soldiers from this terrible weapon.

We are very grateful to Sergeant Parsons for his superb knowledge and skill in bringing WWI to life for the children, reinforcing much of what they had learned previously in class, and answering all of the questions that they had.