- County name: Kent
- Group/School name: Lenham Primary School
- Age group: 5 - 11
- Group type: Primary School
Staff at Lenham Primary School contacted War Memorials Trust early on in the Trust’s project to train Learning Volunteers in Kent, and was visited by one of the charity’s local Learning Volunteers shortly before Remembrance Day 2014.
During the visit the whole school was involved in learning about war memorials in some way. The day started with an assembly for Key Stages 1 and 2 looking at different forms of war memorials, which helped the pupils to understand what they are and how they vary – it was explained that the reason for this variation is that all war memorials are the results of local community decisions, so each one reflects community choices on design, who is commemorated and where the memorial is located. This was demonstrated by images of a variety of local war memorials being shown, some of which were large monuments commemorating many people while others were smaller and in locations that meant they were not always known about. The images also included memorials that were a mixture of architectural or sculptural designs as well as more unusual, modern or functional designs. Pupils then had the opportunity to ask questions about the memorials they had been shown and share their own knowledge about their local war memorials.
Following the assembly, four of the classes in Key Stage 2 were taken to the local church to look closely at the war memorial that is there. This is a particularly interesting example of a war memorial; it consists of a large stone tablet with names of the fallen inscribed on it and it used to be located on a nearby hill next to a large cross cut out of the hillside (www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/node/83533 and www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/node/152718). These originally formed one memorial but the tablet was relocated several decades after its unveiling to make it more accessible for surviving relatives and other community members who wished to visit the memorial but found it difficult to do so in the original location on the hill. The names are those who died in the First and Second World Wars. A further plaque listing the fallen is located within the church on the wall near the altar, and interestingly there are some names that appear on the outside memorial omitted from this. It is not known why this is but it helps demonstrate the fact that war memorials are all unique and records of them can sometimes be patchy, so it is hard to know why some names do not appear on both.
During the visit all pupils had the chance to examine the memorial closely, identifying what it was made from and how many local people were commemorated. Using the volunteer’s local knowledge, pupils heard the personal stories of some of the men and women commemorated and identified surnames that they recognised as still being those of local families. This helped them develop their understanding of the personal significance of the war memorials to the community, both when it was unveiled and now as people continue to remember the people affected by wars.
After the visit War Memorials Trust was contacted by the school, and staff commented on how valuable it had been – both for pupils and staff! The school was building up to marking Remembrance Day later that term and this visit was going to be used to introduce teaching around this in following lessons.
