During the week leading up to Remembrance Day this year, pupils from St Gregory’s Catholic Science College placed over 550 commemorative crosses in the school’s prayer garden.
Every pupil in years 7, 8 and 9 made a small wooden cross and poppy in their Design Technology lesson. In their Art lesson, they painted their cross and poppy and in their RE lesson, they wrote a prayer of remembrance and thanksgiving for a soldier they had either researched or who had been a member of their family. The prayer and the name of each pupil’s chosen soldier were engraved onto the crosses made by pupils.
The crosses were placed in the school's garden in a regimented format, resembling that of a war cemetery. Pupils and staff gathered around the crosses for an assembly to mark Remembrance Day, where pupils offered prayers of thanks to those who gave their lives in the Great War and all subsequent conflicts.
The theme of Remembrance Day was incorporated into lessons across the whole school curriculum. As well as lessons on the trench warfare of the First World War in History classes, pupils learnt about the impact of conflict on population pyramids in Geography; they calculated ratios and percentages of the number of people who died in conflict during Maths lessons; they performed the ‘Last Post’ in Music lessons; studied parts of a poppy flower in Science; learnt the vocabulary of war in French lessons and analysed war poetry in English.
Headteacher, Mr Andrew Prindiville, said, ‘This wonderful initiative, spearheaded by our Religious Education department, has helped to educate our pupils about the significance of the First World War and has brought the whole school community together in prayerful contemplation and thanksgiving.’
Published: 12th November 2019
All images: St Gregory's Catholic Science College
