The grant will enable pupils from the school to mark the centenary of the war by visiting national archives and museums to understand the long-lasting effect the conflict had on their area.

Following the awarding of the grant as part of the HLF’s ongoing First World War: then and now grant programme, the school is now appealing for all local people to get involved and share their memories from the war with the hope of recording stories as part of their research.

Jennifer Stewart, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund Wales, said: “Our grant programme marking the First World War is becoming increasingly popular and it’s great to see that funding is being given to such diverse groups and projects. Ysgol Maes Garmon has clearly taken this project to heart with pupils of all ages in the school taking the lead on this great initiative.”

Pupil-led project
The bilingual project will be carried out by all 550 school pupils across all subject departments with the aim of raising awareness of the significance of the First World War as a major event in 20th-century history and the war’s affects on North East Wales.

As part of the project the school’s history department plan to establish a pupil led committee, Grwp Gwalia, who will lead on the project with the aim of collating all of the research undertaken and placing it on display in Flint in the spring of 2014 with an open evening launching the display.

Ysgol Maes Garmon history teacher, Owen Thomas, welcomed the grant and said: “This project has really captured the imagination of the entire school and we are so grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for helping us continue with our research on this significant historic milestone. As a school we felt it was important that pupils of all ages were involved in marking the centenary and learning about the conflict and having been part of the project from the very beginning when we were applying for funding, they can’t wait to get going with their research.”

Community appeal
As part of the data collection about the First World War in Flintshire for the project, school pupils are now calling on local people, and people from all over Wales, to become part of the project and share their memories and stories from the conflict. All information gathered through the project will be added to the Flintshire Memorial website and contribute to the county’s First World War centenary commemorations.

In addition to visits to the National Library of Wales, the Imperial War Museum and the National Museum in Cardiff to collect data for the project, school pupils also plan to raise funds for the Mametz Wood Memorial campaign through proceeds collected from sales of a DVD and bilingual book on their research. The hope is that year 12 pupils from the school will also then be able to visit the site of the First World War battle in Northern France.

Notes to editors

This £10,000 grant has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to Ysgol Maes Garmon, Flintshire.

Plans for the project include:

• A bilingual book and DVD will be created from the research conducted and will be available for purchase with proceeds going to raise money for the Western Front Association campaign to modernize the Mametz Wood Memorial. It is felt this will give pupils pride in knowing they have contributed in the preservation and maintenance of a permanent memorial of Welsh soldiers who died in the battle. The book and DVD will be distributed  for free to the participants,  and any remaining copies will be sold for a small charge.
• Work will be created on the art, literature, music, film and popular culture of the period and an exhibition created for display at Theatre Clwyd.
• Contribution to the development of the Flintshire War Memorial website where the information gathered can then be shared with wider audiences.
• Presentations by the pupils of Maes Garmon to local community groups and primary schools on their research.

Further information

For further information please contact Naomi Williams on 029 2044 2020, email:naomi@positifgroup.co.uk.