School News
World War Two Trip to Duxford
By Elena Salmon U2P
Recently, year five went to Duxford (an Imperial War Museum) to learn more about World War Two. We all dressed up as evacuees; it was good fun. Even the teachers dressed up; Mrs Nicholls really looked the part!
Once we got to Duxford, we were split into two groups. I was in group A with my form teacher, Mrs Potter. My group went to see the scary schoolmaster first. Mrs Potter led the way. After a while we became lost and then Mrs Potter realised that we had go the other way. At this, we turned around and eventually found the schoolroom!
Suddenly, an old man burst out of the schoolroom door and straight away I realised that he was the scary schoolmaster. "Get yourselves into two straight lines and no talking. I say not talking!" he ordered. I felt very worried. We did this straight away. My line was the first to go inside. We found a place to sit and stood behind the chair. When we were all inside, we were told by the schoolmaster to sit down on the chair and listen.
First of all, we were given one mini ration book each and told to write our names of them. We learnt how big the rations were (which weren't very big)! Then we did some mental maths on slates and a little work on times tables. Next of all, we learnt how to put on a gas mask (that was fun but a bit scary at the same time). After that we made our own books and wrote some spellings in them. The spellings were all to do with World War Two.
Lastly, we put on our gasmasks again and Mrs Potter took a few pictures. I couldn't wait because next it was lunch! We had all brought our own evacuee-style packed lunch. I had made a ham sandwich and a carrot bun. I also had an apple and some apple juice to drink.
Our afternoon was firstly spent looking at a prefab bungalow which had two tiny bedrooms. In one, three people would have slept and two in the other. My favourite part was when we looked inside a real Anderson shelter where people went when the air raid sires sounded, because the German plans were overhead, ready to bomb England.
Finally, we went to Hangar five where we saw World War Two planes and mannequins, showing scenes from World War Two. Here, we filled in a sheet about the Wilson family who lived at the time. Each person had their own role. I found this very interesting.
Sadly, it was then time for us to return to school. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, learning so much along the way.
