Pupils get a taste of life as wartime evacuees

Pupils prepared for evacuation as they experienced life in the war years.
Fatfield Primary School pupils experience the war years.Fatfield Primary School pupils experience the war years.
Fatfield Primary School pupils experience the war years.

The Year 6 youngsters at Fatfield Primary School packed their suitcases and clutched their teddies as part of their lessons on the Second World War.

Susan Scriven, the class teacher, said the pupils are covering the war as part of an ongoing topic and decided to hold a day of activities.

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All the children dressed as evacuees from the 1940s and even the staff members dressed in period outfits.

During the day they held a mini air raid in one of the classrooms, incorporated an air raid siren into the work and invited a pensioner, who was about six during the war, to talk to them about her memories.

Mrs Scriven said: “The cooks put a lot of effort in to make a war-themed menu, so we had things like corned beef hash, mince and dumplings and jam roly poly.

“In fact the children loved the corned beef hash so much they asked if the cooks could put it onto the normal school menu.”

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She said the pupils at the Washington school were so thrilled with the day they asked if they could do something like that every day.

Mrs Scriven said: “The children absolutely loved the day and it was a fantastic way to give them a taste of what life was like.

“It had a huge impact on them and they learned a lot. They were so focused on the task.”

The topic will be incorporated in all the lessons during the coming weeks and the children will also be paying a visit to the Victoria Tunnel in Newcastle, a preserved 19th century waggonway under the city, which was converted in 1939 into an air raid shelter to protect thousands of people.

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