The Impact of War

School Details

Nether Stowe School
Lichfield
Staffs.

Their past your future project
Yr 9 enrichment project
Project group 30 volunteers
Target group Year 9

Planning

Introduction of the idea of project. The whole of Year 9 to be involved in Impact of War Assessment where topics including rationing, evacuation and the Blitz are researched. All pupils to attend talk in class groups on the role of HMS Worcester in WW2 presented, using archive evidence, by Mr V Green. Volunteers requested for enrichment project based on a focussed study based on daily involvement of serving members on HMS Worcester and their families left at home.

Visit to HMS Belfast for Kip on a Ship to sample experiences of WW2 sailors.

Aims/Objectives

The project aimed to allow research and reflection on the impact of war. The focus would be the involvement of destroyer HMS Worcester in WW2 using the expert knowledge of Mr V Green who has researched the ship’s history.

The primary focus was to investigate a day in the life of the sailors on board and then to extend this to the families of those men at home in order to gain knowledge of the varied experiences of war, not only for those serving, but also for those left at home, compressed into the events of one day.

All of Year 9 would learn of life on board by researching the experience on board HMS Worcester and extend their knowledge by researching a concept relating to the Home Front.

From this work a volunteer group would be created to research in greater depth both the operational duties of HMS Worcester and life during the war for the families left in England.

To reward the volunteer group and create enrichment experience the project would be completed by the opportunity to go to London and stay overnight aboard HMS Belfast a restored WW2 cruiser.

Project Activities

All Yr 9

Class talks with Vic
Individual research

Project group

Application to join
Group research (interviews, involvement at Arboretum, model making, rationing, iron a uniform, research and poster design). For further details on these activities follow the link www.netherstowe.staffs.sch.uk then click on the History pages.

The Model

Scale model of HMS Worcester under construction

For the past few months my friend and I, with Mr Green, have been working hard every lunch time on producing an exact to scale model of HMS Worcester, a destroyer that served in WWII and was part of the Russian convoys. As you can see from the picture there is still a long way to go. The first thing we had to do was scale down the blueprints. The hull is built up of 5mm thick pieces of wood, we built it up like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. Measuring out the blueprints so we could mark the sections on the wood took us forever.

I began to wish I hadn’t agreed to make the model but now I’m really proud of how it’s turning out. Making the rest of the features so far though has been interesting and I’ve learnt lots of new skills such as how to use a lathe (for the funnels and gun barrels), how to anneal (for all the brass plates you can see) and how to silver solder (for the blast screens coming off the gun decks). Another important thing I’ve learnt is that you have to have patience. We are aiming to get the boat finished for April so Mr Green can take it to a convention in Wales. We will put the boat on show in our school reception and we may donate it to the Worcester town hall if we are willing to part with it after all the hard work put in.

Outcomes

Report on the trip

Pupils on board HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast is moored on The Thames, in central London. When we arrived at the ship, after a long trek across London by tube, we had a look round. Mr Green showed us the main features of the ship and explained how it had survived so long. There were a lot of ladders and hatches. Then we went to look at where we were going to be sleeping that night. We were sleeping on bunks, where the sailors would have slept when they were running the ship, only there were less of us. After a look round we set of for a walk round central London and had a meal in a very nice café. When we got back on the ship we returned to our sleeping quarters, after seeing some very scary wax people!

Imperial War Museum

The Monday morning we woke up bright and early to have our breakfast. After an interesting talk about what happened on the ship when it was still in service, we set of for the Imperial War Museum, where we looked at various different exhibitions. It was very interesting and also quite upsetting seeing how badly the people suffered in the war. Some of the exhibitions really brought the war to life and showed it through different people’s eyes. I would recommend that everyone should go and see it. We also went into the bomb shelter experience, which was fascinating though a few of us got thrown out. It was a great experience and I think that every person on the trip returned knowing a lot more about the Second World War and HMS Belfast. Thank you to all the teachers who took us we had an amazing experience and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Additional Information

All other research including audio files are available on the school website.