APS joined the rest of the country in commemorat-
ing the outbreak of World War 1 and remembering
the sacrifices made. We wanted the boys to experi-
ence a whole school approach to learning about
events of the past, and to undertake learning
through cross-curricular studies. To this end, we
had a week where lessons focused on the themes of
war, sacrifice, hardship, remembrance and hope.
Each year group learned about different aspects of
World War 1 but all shared in the real-life stories of
members of our community. In an age when no-
body is alive to remember the events that took
place a hundred years ago, APS called on parents,
staff, friends and governors to search their own
pasts for memorabilia and stories. The response
was great and proved a real resource for the boys.
Everyone at APS has learned something new this
Autumn.
In Music lessons boys in the Juniors learned
the hymn ‘My Song is Love Unknown’. This
was composed by John Ireland who was born
in Bowdon not far from school and lived
through both world wars. Mr Vowles also
taught year 6 the songs ‘Pack up your Trou-
bles’ and ‘It’s a long way to Tipperaray’ as
traditional World War 1 songs. The boys per-
formed an arrangement made up of these
songs at our Remembrance service.
During their French lessons, the boys in Years 3 to 6
studied
“Le Petit Gibus: le magazine des jeunes ci-
toyens”,
a French magazine put together by French
authorities for their primary school pupils. The
magazine looked at the First World War from the
perspective of a young French boy researching how
the war had affected his great great grandparents,
Charles and Blanche.
They listened to French songs that were popular
with “
les poilus”
(French troops) in the trenches.
Mrs Hammond also talked about how Armistice Day
is commemorated in France today.
In Art Mrs Woodage and Miss Lane helped
the boys at Marlborough Road to make indi-
vidual poppies. These were then combined
into four wreaths, one for each year group.
The school council took these to St Mary’s
Church memorial monument to lay them at
the Remembrance service. Boys learned
about the art installation at the Tower of
London in PSHE lessons.
The infants also made wreaths and the
whole of Highbury attended the service at St
Mary’s Church.
