Grantham pupils take step back in time to discover what life was like in 1940's

Primary school pupils took a step back in time when they took a trip to Stibbington to re-enact what life was like as an evacuee in the Second World War.

Youngsters in Years 3 and 4 at Belmont Primary School in Grantham dressed in 1940’s style clothing and travelled to Nene Valley train station in Stibbington, Cambridgeshire, last month where they were met by two ladies who introduced themselves as the children’s teachers for the day.

Their new teachers led the group on to a steam train and took the register using the pupils new 1940’s names, which were actually the names of real evacuee children who were evacuated from London to Stibbington during the war.

They were then taken on a tour of the village with their teachers and stopped to look at different houses which were used as real evacuation houses during the war.

This was followed by a visit to Stibbington Education Centre where the pupils took part in 1940’s-style school lessons.

Lessons also including creating their own ID cards, learning how to use a gas mask and practising spellings using authentic pens, ink and blotting paper.

They also got to enjoy a break time on the school playground with war-time playground toys. During the spelling lesson, they were suddenly interrupted by an air raid siren and the teacher swiftly led them out to the school air raid shelter where they had to wait until the siren stopped.

A spokesperson at the school said: “This really helped us to understand what life was like during the air raids in the war. We all thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Stibbington as it helped us to empathise with children who lived during the 1940’s and taught us so much historical information.”

Headteacher Mr Davidson was delighted with the reaction to the history trip.

He added: “It was a wonderful opportunity for them to deepen their historical understanding and understand what people went through as evacuees.”