Young Roots
The project involved pupils visiting grand houses once used as wartime hospitals, the trenches and war graves at Ypres, IWM Duxford and reading the personal diaries of a local man. Groups of students went on different visits and fed back what they had learnt. Two students inspired by what they had heard about Blenheim at War undertook further research and went on to win education awards including first prize, which involved an invitation for the student and his parents to meet the Duchess of Malborough at Blenheim Palace.
Students also read novels set in the First World War and then, through research, tried to find factual examples which mirrored or were similar to the fictional plot line. Younger students soon realised that the facts were just as mesmerising as the fiction.
Summing up the project one student confessed: "I don’t even really like history, I mean as a school subject, but the heritage projects are totally different, you kind of live inside them and I also surprised myself by being comfortable leading a section (of the project)."
The project lead said: "It was incredible for the students to have access to the unpublished war diaries of Sapper Edwin Payne, thanks to his daughter. He was clearly such a normal Hatfield man, not a professional soldier at all, and it became easy for them to imagine their own fathers being called up and thrown into the madness of war. They also had access to Edwin’s original photographs and drawings, an incredible wealth of resources which will now benefit other local history and heritage groups.
"Over half of the school was directly involved and many more indirectly - a huge number of young people who have had experiences they never would have had, have met and connected with people they never would have met and have developed skills which will benefit them for life."