Year 9s Investigate Life in the Trenches
Year 9 girls were invited to investigate World War I life in the trenches by getting personal.
Head of History, Michael Spiers, invited the girls to ask their parents and relations about what members of their own family had done in World War I. The girls did their research and then created their own posters, outlining what they had discovered, and shared their findings.
Some of the girls had found actual letters from the time, as well as other artefacts. Even for those whose families were not active in the war, their research made the significance of the fighting all the more real and connected to modern times.
“This project was fun and it very interesting to find out all the facts about something you’ve learned about before, but through a new perspective.” – Lilia
“You learn a lot about what your family had to do with the war that you may not have known before. I discovered that I had two relatives who were quite high up in the war office.” – Alice
“I didn’t find out anything about my family but it was interesting to learn new things you hadn’t been aware of before, like the new machinery. I wrote instead about three changes which took place throughout the war, how it had started with most transport on horses and by the end there were machine guns.” – Sian
“I loved looking at all the records. There was a tonne of lists and then you spot the person who was in your family and you’re like, ‘Woah!’” – Lily
“I really enjoyed it because I didn’t know that my great grandad fought in the war, I’d thought he’d stayed at home. When we’d finished our posters, we put them on the desks and everyone went around the room clockwise to look at them.” – Harriet
#DidYouKnow that The Mount was the first school in the UK to be awarded the Historical Association’s Gold level quality mark for excellence in History teaching? Recent accomplishments by our History pupils include winning the prestigious Trinity College Cambridge Robson History Prize and taking part in the national finals of the Historical Association’s Great Debate.