Today, Year 6 experienced a truly awe-inspiring session with a veteran who visited us to talk about his career as a Sergeant in the RAF Regiment. Our Year 6 children were so respectful throughout the session and asked lots of insightful questions about his training, different job roles and where he served on his tours during his time in the army. Whilst Ian did not serve during WWII, it was a great opportunity for the children to discuss what soldier life was like with a real life veteran we have been discussing this a lot in class.

Ian also kindly brought in some of his own memorabilia to help bring the session to life. This included his own helmet, his medals of honour and a button shining tool which he was issued in 1958 when he first joined the RAF Regiment. Throughout the session, Ian was very honest and candidly opened up about some of his experiences during his service including how he first came under fire at the age of 18 in Cyprus. Other tours saw him travel to Borneo, Northern Ireland and Aden. It was also interesting to learn that he was evacuated at a very young age with his sister during WWII. Year 6 have been empathising with WWII evacuees within their History and French sessions so they were able to apply their knowledge when discussing this with him.

Whilst Ian was able to offer the children lots of personal anecdotes about his time in the army, the children also enjoyed sharing their WWII inspired letters and I am Poems with him. He was incredibly impressed and was struck by how realistic and emotive the letters were. Providing an authentic and critical audience for our Year 6 children added real value to our topic and was such a lovely way to finish off our WWII focus this half term. 

Take a look at the photos below to see how engaged and inspired the children were by our wonderful visitor today.