Cauldeen Primary School, Highland and HMS Belfast veterans
‘Cauldeen are delighted and honoured to have been involved in the project…the children will remember their meeting with the veterans on board HMS Belfast for the rest of their lives.’
Sandra Nesbitt, Teacher, Cauldeen Primary School
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How it all began
D-Day remembered
Tea, cake, and chat
Learning through partnership
Teacher’s view
Primary 7 pupils from Cauldeen Primary School met and interviewed local veterans as part of an investigation into the local impact of the Second World War for Environmental Studies. Their findings form a website called World War Two in the Highlands consisting of teaching resources, historical information and excerpts from videoed interviews with veterans. The website content was subsequently put on CD Rom and distributed to all of the schools in the Highlands region of Scotland.
Building on the success of this project, in June 2004 pupils from Cauldeen Primary School joined children from Inver Primary School, also from Scotland, and travelled to London to take part in the official D-Day Remembrance Service onboard HMS Belfast on the River Thames, as part of the Their Past Your Future D-Day and Beyond Competition.
The Remembrance Service onboard HMS Belfast marked the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and many of the HMS Belfast veterans attending the event remembered D-Day themselves, and were happy to share their memories with the pupils from Cauldeen Primary School in recorded interviews. The results were also been added to the World War Two in the Highlands website. Extracts from two of the interviews made that day demonstrate the vivid descriptions of D-Day and the moving testimony that the pupils were able to record:
‘In the early hours of the 6th of June, as it began to get light, I’ve never seen a sight like it in all my life. There were literally thousands and thousands and thousands of ships, of every size, every description, all around us.’
Brian Butler, D-Day veteran, HMS Belfast
From: World War Two in the Highlands website
‘My main memory of D-day was seeing those young men having to go in who’d never even been in battle before.’
Bob 'Ping' Shrimpton, submarine detector 1942 – 1946, aged 17 on D-Day
From: World War Two in the Highlands website
Following the visit to HMS Belfast the pupils helped to arrange a ‘Digital D-Day’ event at a local arts venue with local veterans. The veterans were invited to join them one afternoon for tea, cake, and chat, and were treated to an interactive demonstration of the website as well as viewing a photographic exhibition about the London visit. Veterans also loaned articles for display, and archive pictures and documents from the Imperial War Museum were reproduced and exhibited. The exhibition was so successful that the school was invited to display it again at a local theatre in Inverness, to coincide with the Inverness Book Festival. The event’s coordinator was delighted by the outcome:
‘Although a lot of work organising, it was well worth it. The veterans and the pupils had an excellent time and we had some great stories exchanged.’
Sandra Nesbitt, Teacher, Cauldeen Primary School
The ‘Digital D-Day’ event gave local veterans another chance to register their interest in having pupils record their wartime memories. The school received an excellent response, and have heard from several more veterans in the local area who were directly involved in D-Day, as well as veterans with a wide variety of other wartime experiences. Pupils at the school are continuing to record veterans’ memories and they are uncovering some fascinating material.
Intergenerational partnership work contributes towards fulfilling a wide variety of Generic Learning Outcomes as represented by the Inspiring Learning for All framework. The partnership between Cauldeen Primary School and local and D-Day veterans clearly demonstrates changes in individual pupils that fit the Generic Learning Outcome of the Their Past Your Future Partnerships Scheme. Below, pupils from the school demonstrate Generic Learning Outcomes through their recollections of their visit to London to meet HMS Belfast D-Day veterans:
‘I have learned that children should understand the war and that children should be cherished for future life…I learned that children should never underestimate the war.
Natalie, 11 years old, pupil at Cauldeen Primary School
‘An understanding of the unique nature of veterans’ wartime contribution to the upholding of democracy in the face of tyranny.’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Knowledge and Understanding)
‘Valuing the sacrifice and contribution made by the veterans of the Second World War.’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Values, Attitudes and Feelings)
‘What amazed me most on my visit was the veterans being all calm and not hesitating. Telling their past and talking about all the medals and their friends.’
Natalie, 11 years old, pupil at Cauldeen Primary School
‘A deeper sense of understanding for people of different ages, races, religious experiences and backgrounds to themselves, and a positive appreciation of diversity’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Values, Attitudes and Feelings)
‘The thing that was most exciting was meeting the veterans because they told you great stories about what happened on D-Day.’
Sean, 11 years old, pupil at Cauldeen Primary School
‘Developing relationships with peers and with older and younger people, and developing skills to facilitate these relationships.’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Skills)
‘Young people and veterans learning to express themselves in different, creative and enjoyable ways.’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Creativity, Inspiration and Enjoyment)
‘It was a good laugh and I had fun.’
Martin, 12 years old, pupil at Cauldeen Primary School
‘Developing skills to encourage learning in social, informal and personal ways.’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Skills)
‘I know what it is like to be in the war now and how frightening it is.’
Amy, 10 years old, pupil at Cauldeen Primary School
‘A deeper understanding of the variety and diversity of people’s experiences of war, and of the impact on their lives.’
(Partnerships Scheme Generic Learning Outcome, Knowledge and Understanding)
Sandra Nesbitt, the teacher from Cauldeen Primary School involved in the initial Environmental Studies project and website, and who accompanied the pupils to HMS Belfast, describes below what she feels her pupils will learn from the partnership activities:
‘The opportunities to meet and talk with wartime veterans will give greater appreciation of their values; of teamwork, optimism, courage and sacrifice, and respect for what they survived to ensure our freedom.
The commemorative activities themselves will emphasise the importance of remembrance, and of understanding and reflecting upon the past in order to inform the future.
The children will develop their communication and recording skills, their ICT skills, particularly with reference to Digital Video recording and editing, their historical awareness of D-Day, and, in particular, their personal and social skills.’
Learning Outcomes
Click here to find out how the Partnerships Scheme can contribute to personal learning outcomes
Click here to find out how the Partnerships Scheme can contribute to subject specific learning outcomes
Click here to see Cauldeen Primary School on the Their Past Your Future D-Day and Beyond Competition prize visit to HMS Belfast, ondon, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day
Useful Links
World War Two in the Highlands website
HMS Belfast website
