From the Front

Posted at 11:02 am on 20th July, 2021

Year 8 Explore the National Archives

As part of Wellacre’s Curriculum Enrichment Day, the Humanities department organised an online workshop with the National Archives entitled 'From the Front'. 

Year 8 students looked at a series of letters from the First World War held by the National Archives in London. They were written from the Western Front by British soldiers sharing a range of personal experiences. Students also looked at a Christmas card from 1915. 

Mr Gillan, Teacher of Humanities, said:

“It was a great opportunity for our students to connect with our National Archives. It gave students the opportunity to think about and discuss how our nation's history is researched, gathered and preserved. Students used their historical skills to consider the audience, purpose and reliability of the different sources of information, something that we have been working on in class.”

Alison, an archivist from the National Archives taught them about archives and how they work, before giving students a chance to ask her any questions. 

Year 8 student, Joel said:

“I really enjoyed the workshop. I didn't know anything about the archives before and I learned a lot.  It helped me to understand how our history is studied and stored.”

Fellow Year 8 Tom said:

“It was interesting to learn about how they store documents at the archives. I also liked reading the letters from the soldiers and hearing about their experience of WW1.”