WW1 day

It's been a long day but it was a nice one in many respects.  I really like my Year 5's and I have them for 3 out of 4 lessons on a Friday.  We spent most of the lesson learning to play Egyptian Masmoudi drumming which the kids always like. Also, my children in my Year 2 Music Makers club are a really nice bunch and I look forward to teaching them- there's no badly behaved ones or really lairy ones which makes all the difference when you are knackered on a Friday.  Today, we had a really sweet session where we were dancing a waltz and learning to play a waltz tune and the kids were really sweet when half were playing the waltz whilst the rest were dancing!

Also, today was the culmination of our work on WW1.  I've spent the last half term teaching the whole school WW1 songs and talking about WW1;  in choir, we performed a concert on Monday of 25 WW1 songs sung by 70 children including a song I wrote based on Rupert Brookes' poem, The Soldier for our concert; in orchestra, we've been learning I vow to thee my country and Mademoiselles from Armetieres;  in recorder club, we've been learning I vow to thee my country, John Brown's Body, It's a long way to Tipperary, Keep the Home Fires burning and The Last Post.

In the 3 assemblies, the year groups sang the songs we had learnt, the recorder club performed their pieces; the choir sang some songs, the recorders played the Last Post as children laid their home-made wreaths at the front of the hall and the Drama Club performed a version of the Christmas Truce and finally, we all dressed up! It was incredibly moving!

 Here's what I wore today.  You have seen this dress on the blog before because I wore it (with a white apron, black beret and red flannel petticoat for my Roberta from the Railway children costume for World Book Day.

The dress was my Mum's and it was passed on to her by a friend of her mother's.  It is INCREDIBLY comfortable and I felt really happy in it all day.  Wish I could wear it more often.  I added a brooch of my Nan's.  When we cleared my Grandad's house, I found the brooch just sitting on the mantlepiece and as I am the only brooch-wearer, especially of that type, I just took it.
Everyone made an incredible effort today and I really hope the children remember what they have learnt this half-term and with their teachers this week for a long time to come. I feel the gratitude and remembering of the past becomes all the more important as our world becomes less connected to our past and people care less.