Year 1 took a trip into the woods on Armistice Day to hold a special kind of Remembrance Service, having first learned all about Remembrance in class. They decided to mark the occasion by re-enacting the Christmas truce of 1914, when troops from the British and German armies held a series of unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front and men mingled and swapped seasonal greetings in no man’s land. It is held that even a football match was played between the opposing forces at Christmas. Whether true or not, the Year 1 pupils certainly enjoyed reimagining the scene.  

The children each made a cross and a poppy, and they held their poppies while they placed the crosses in a special area of Remembrance in the woods. They stood around their crosses and observed the two-minute silence at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, and they listened to The Last Post. That poignant music and the beautiful light in the woods at this time of year made for a particularly special atmosphere, whilst everyone thought about all the men and women, grandparents and great-grandparents, who were so brave on our behalf.