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The Granville School, Sevenoaks

Year 6 pupils from The Granville School, Sevenoaks designing their own war memorial © War Memorials Trust, 2017
Year 6 classroom display about war memorials by pupils at The Granville School, Sevenoaks © War Memorials Trust
WMT Learning Officer and Year 6 pupils from The Granville School, Sevenoaks with completed designs © War Memorials Trust, 2017
  • County name: Kent
  • Group/School name: The Granville School
  • Age group: 5 - 11
  • Group type: Year 6 classes

Year 6 pupils at The Granville School are taught a unit on war memorials using War Memorials Trust’s learning resources during the autumn term.  The school arranged for our Learning Officer to visit and lead an afternoon workshop towards the end of the unit of work.

Prior to the visit pupils had already looked at what war memorials are, researched their local war memorial in Sevenoaks, visited the war memorial (as two separate groups) and carried out a condition survey which can be seen at www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/121041.  They had also looked at the threats which war memorials face including theft which they were particularly shocked about.  The work they had produced had been used to create a display in the classroom which implored people to ‘save our war memorials’.

The visit from our Learning Officer brought together everything the girls had learnt up to this point.  The understanding the pupils had about war memorials and why they were created was very impressive.  After mind mapping and sharing what they already knew, the pupils were shown a range of local war memorials which highlighted different war memorial designs, features and symbols which were commonly used by communities.  One pupil commented

“I didn’t realise how many war memorials there are in Sevenoaks!”

Pupils were then set the task of designing a war memorial for Sevenoaks to commemorate the Great War, the Second World War or both.  The designs they created were really thoughtful and incorporated many of the symbols and features which were discussed at the start of the session.  The designs took the form of stain glass windows, memorial gardens, crosses, statues and even memorials fountains.  The inscriptions the pupils chose to include on their designs were also given careful consideration. Alongside their designs pupils were asked to write an explanation which indicated why they had chosen the different elements and symbols for their memorial.  The visit was concluded with a table top gallery which allowed all pupils to each other’s designs. Pupils commented

“I liked learning about war memorials and then using that knowledge to create my own design”

“It was interesting to see everyone’s designs.”

We received really positive feedback from the school after the visit which said

“the workshop was very thorough and I was impressed that it was tailored to our area.” 

Our Learning Officer felt very privileged to be invited to work with the year 6 pupils at The Granville School.  They engaged well with each task and were really keen to learn more about war memorials which ensured their designs were of really high quality.

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