76 replies to this topic

[Karen Miller]

Wanted to say public thanks to Lesley Ann as I've borrowed some of the ideas so my head has something to say. Also I've used a programme called War Grave made by the BBC a few years back with my year 10s as we've just finished Britain and World War 1. It is a very poignant and emotional video interviewing people who lost loved ones in the war. Seeing Tony Benn cry over the death of his brother and over how he was rowing a boat on the Sea of Gallilee when war was over and danced is really moving.
Karen

[A Finemess]

Not wanting to hi-jack the thread but this article in today's Herald is worth a look.

[Russel Tarr]

That's a really well-written article - I'll be keeping an offline copy to use with my classes.

I'd be interested to hear what feedback was given to the various people involved in this thread after they delivered their assemblies...did they go as well as planned?

[Lesley Ann]

The Whole School assembly was held yesterday with year 10 GCSE students reading the script as the PowerPoint was shown. The Head Teacher suggested that the whole school could read the ‘for the fallen’ poem together at the end. So I added one slide at the end with the poem on which was surrounded with the images of the British soldiers. The Assembly ended with the two minute silence which was finished with the last post played on the bugle by a Governor of the school.
I missed the assembly as I was escorting year 7 onto a coach for a field trip to a Roman Fort…but I was told on return that it was a sombre and moving experience.

[Chris Higgins]

I was interested to see the posting with reference to the contribution of the Chinese Labour Corps. I live near a military cemetery in Folkestone and last year came across some Chinese graves amongst the more typical headstones. What was the role of the Chinese in the Great War. Why were they fighting with British forces, or did they simply provide an auxiliary role? I am intrigued to know if anyone has any further information on this subject, especially if they can reveal why these poor soldiers ended up in a cemetery in Folkestone (Shorncliff Barracks, Kent)

[Lesley Ann]

On the 30th December 1916 an agreement was signed between the British and the Chinese Governments for the employment of Chinese men for a labour force on the Western Front. From 1917 onwards, large numbers of Chinese (altogether 100,000) were recruited by the British in Shantung Province, China, as volunteers under military discipline. Recruitment in Shantung Province, largely from the town of Weihaiwei, was facilitated by the enrolment of British missionaries, traders and their families as interpreters. The close personal contact these expatriates had with the local Chinese community also proved to be extremely useful in getting the required number of recruits to come forward. The first batch of volunteers left by sea for Le Havre, France, in January 1917 - amid fierce protestations by the Germans from their embassy in Peking - and arrived in April 1917. The initial British Chinese Labour Force encampment on the Western Front was at Noyelles-sur-Mer, on the Somme estuary. It was located on the D40 road about 12km from Abbeville. By the end of 1917 there were 54,000 Chinese in the British Labour Force on the Western Front.

[Dan Moorhouse]

We did an assembly for Years 7, 8 and then 9. Pupils from Yr11 put most of it together, based around this video that they put together.

[Joel Thorpe]

I have been involved in some very heated political discussions this week with my department about the wearing of white poppies ( I wanted to wear one, others thought it inappropriate). I won't go into details here on a public forum, but I would definitely support the need to question what Remembrance Day is about.

You raise an interesting point Dan, I have argued about this one for years, especially when I was accused of being disrespectful to the memory of those who fell in the wars. I was told "you jump on a bandwaggon that is trendy lefty and recent, a real slap in the face for the men who died".

As you may imagine I took great offence at this and also had the pleasure to inform them that the white poppy originated in the mid 1930's and it remembered all dead from all wars, not just the colonial high-jinx or the "safe" wars, raising the issue of Iraq, Lebanon and Suez.

As a final point I hope that all the assemblies went well!

[jamest]

To all those who contributed / gave ideas to my Remembrance day assembly.

As you may recollect my original query was for advice as to how to present it in an international school (my school is in Beijing.) In the end myself and another teacher (not a History specialist) presented it with an international focus on the world wars looking at the sacrifice of soldiers and civilians around the world. We also focused on the horror of war through the weapons they used. I have attached the full slide show and also my script. Unfortunately I do not have the other teacher's script that focused on the first world war and a short summary.

The last six images of the slide show were presented with Benjamin Britton's 'Requiem for war' playing in the background. Many thanks to Lesley Anne for use of the opening image of her slide show.

Please feel free to comment on the talk / slide show any way.

James

Attached Files

•  Remembrance_day_slide_show.ppt   1.28MB   811 downloads
•  REMEMBRANCE_DAY___detailed_talk.doc   30K   776 downloads

[Simon Ross]

Just to update you on how my remembrance lesson went.

I had set Year 9 top set a homework to find out what a red poppy is and why people wear it, and what a white poppy is and why people wear it.

In the lesson, I started by asking for individual students to feedback their finding until we had a broad understanding of the two. I then started questioning the students in more depth about 'why' they were worn. I basically played devils advocate to spark a debate.

Do we remember all British soldiers?
Do we remember all wars?
Can we remember the soldiers of wars we don't support?
Should we remember the civilians killed?
Should we remember the enemy?
Do we want to remember dead Germans?
Do we want to remember dead Nazis?
Do we want to remember dead terrorists?
Do we want to remember British soldiers who have committed war crimes?
How do we decide what we are remembering?
How do other people know what we are remembering?
How is money raised for soldiers if we don't buy poppies?
Do we want to support a pacifist organisation.

Being intelligent and inquisitive they then really tried to find the answer. This led to a lively debate. About 2 thirds of the way through I asked them to stand against one of the walls of the classroom to show what they poppy they did wear - red, white, both, none. We then stood against the wall that people should stand next to.This led to a question of whether we were voting for ourselves or for everyone. Once established that we were voting for ourselves the class split into none, and both. None went for red and none went for white.

The students the gave their ideas as to why they were stood where they were. Some of these included peer pressure, and this prompted yet more debate!

Finally the students sat back down and I asked them to write down in single words where they got their information in their homework from. The answers were:

Grandparents
Myself
Google

I responded that I didn't know that Google wrote pages about History. This then led a discussion about where they found their information and why this was important. For example a search for white poppies brings up many of the white poppy organisation websites!


All in all, I was really pleased with the way they were engaged with the lesson.... .....and they were really pleased that they didn't write anything!

[Ken Dawson]

Re; the siting of Muslim graves.

I believe that they face Mecca. French graves are fascinating in that the usual crosses are replaced by stone slabs if the soldiers were known to be atheists. Jewish graves are not in the shape of the cross, of course.

I have just returned from a trip to Belgium and France and as usual, found it to be a very moving experience.

As for assemblies, the music of Eric Bogle ("The Green Fields of France") is very poignant.

I'm new to the site and have found the ideas here excellent. Thank you all.

Here in Northern Ireland, the poppy has become something of a political football, which is unfortunate. Unionists have often felt that they had a monopoly on sacrifice, while Nationalists have air-brushed the thousands of Irish Catholics who died on the Western Front and at Gallipoli out of the pages of history. Thankfully, both these falsehoods are being challenged.

Wouldn't you just expect us to be awkward?

[Lesley Ann]

Just made some ammendments to last years assembly powerpoint which year 10 are leading
Please find attached
LA

Attached Files

•  assembly_script_upload.doc   47.5K   745 downloads
•  remembrance_2007.ppt   495K   820 downloads

[Joel Thorpe]

Just made some ammendments to last years assembly powerpoint which year 10 are leading
Please find attached
LA

I adapted this (well last years) for my school this year. So a big thanks to you Lesley.

Still having the same arguments as those outlined by collegues above though!

[vickicrabb]

Bermuda, which is a British Overseas Territory is not allowed to sell poppies this year for the first time, as the Royal British Legion said that the local veterans association was not helping soldiers who worked on the home front, only those overseas. They also said that they were wasting the money so they are not allowed to sell the poppies. They tried to sell poppies from Canada but then the RBL said Canada were not allowed to sell the poppies to Bermuda.

So, this year they are selling stickers that say BWVA on it - Bermuda War Vets Assoc.

Not really the same.

But we do have Monday off work here for Rememberance Day.

[Neil DeMarco]

I went to Belgium in March. I have attached a couple of my photographs of the gravestones of two men from the Chinese Labour Corp who died on the Western Front in the clear up of the battle fields after the end of the war. Might be one way to show their contribution to the war.

That's a useful point of information. One pupil asked why a large number of the Chinese labour battalion in one cemetery had died in 1919. Now I know - they must have been killed shifting unexploded ordnance.