Penrice Remembers 2018

On Friday 9th November, Penrice Academy students and staff marked Remembrance Day 2018.

This year students worked with Oasis Inspire on their Remembrance for Peace project. The project sees an estimated 20,000 plus children around the country reflecting on and discussing peace.

Aimee Stevens, Teacher at Penrice who worked closely with Oasis, said: “Remembrance Day is always a big deal at Penrice Academy. It is arguably one of the most important events of the calendar and it means a lot to our staff and students to mark it each year.”

Working with Oasis Inspire, students in all years also took part in a special Remembrance lesson, to coincide with our service.

Aimee explained: “Remembrance for Peace is about young people not only learning from the past but also choosing to engage courageously with the present so that the future can be different.”

We also held our annual Remembrance Service in our garden. The service involved over 70 students representing various organisations including Police, Sea, Army and Air Cadets, Scouts and Explorer Scouts, Guides and St John’s Ambulance, coming together in our garden for a two-minute silence.

We also had the honour of hearing Lia from Year 10 performing The Last Post, for the fourth year running. Afterwards, each tutor group across the school were tasked with leaving a message on a cross to add to our memorial garden.

This year they were joined by a plywood soldier, inspired by the There But Not There project, a visual tribute to fallen soldiers, and created by Martyn Underdown from the Technology Department. Ethan from Year 11 laid a wreath at the foot of the soldier.

We were also proud to display two silhouettes from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, given to us to use in Remembrance events by TS Hood St. Austell Sea Cadet Unit.

The silhouettes represent two students who were not able to attend our wreath laying service this year – Able Cadet Jessica Swire and Ordinary Cadet Sam Swire. They are our most senior Cadets in school, currently on board a ship until Friday, where they have been gaining key life skills such as navigating, plotting a course, cooking, cleaning and essential teamwork sills.

In lessons during the service, students were given the opportunity to reflect on past conflicts and compare Remembrance traditions for future generations, so we can learn from and build into our school and our communities an ethos of understanding and tolerance.

To help with this, in the run up to Remembrance Day we asked students, staff and parents to help us build our Remembrance Wall. Adorned in pictures of family and medals, memories and messages and built by Aimee and Curriculum Support Lead Ann Tighe, the Remembrance Wall will be a permanent fixture, to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War and make Remembrance a daily part of school life.

Aimee said: “It has been wonderful to see families enjoying the display and hearing the stories that come with them. It has been incredibly emotional and our students have embraced it completely.”

Also in Reception can be found a piece of art by Penrice Plus Artists, to represent Cornish soldiers. Read more about it here.

Finally, Year 8’s Ellie has been selling her very own poppies and has raised an incredible £113.85 for the Poppy Appeal!

Mrs Stevens concludes: “Remembrance Day is a poignant, reflective and essential day for our students. Each year it’s fantastic to see them discuss and, most importantly, remember those who gave their lives in conflicts throughout the last 100 years. To give them the opportunity this year to add their own family history to our service was also important and I am so, so moved by the response.”

“Our students have truly inspired us this year. Even 100 years on, teenagers are embracing, discussing and reflecting on the lives that have been lost and the sacrifices that have been made across history. And that is what Remembrance Day is – and will always be – all about.”

See pictures from our Remembrance Service here.

Share our story: #INSPIRE2018 #RemembranceForPeace #PeaceIsNotHistory #Armistice100 

In Video: Penrice Remembers