Hazlegrove pupils design and make their own poppies for Remembrance

Posted on 17th Nov 2017 in School News

Remembrance Day is always a significant event in the Hazlegrove calendar. In the lead up to this year's service, pupils were busy making ceramic poppies, designing and creating poppies in Design and Technology and handling artefacts from WWI.

Hazlegrove staff have been working with the children to help them understand the meaning of Remembrance in the lead up to their annual Service of Remembrance held by the school flagpole.

The younger children in the Pre-Prep have been making ceramic poppies to add to the school's growing collection. This was instigated on the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1 and is being repeated each year until the end of that war. These children also had a special visit from the local heritage outreach office who brought a wealth of artefacts from WW1 for the children to handle.

Further up the school the children in Years 5 and 6 have been designing and making their own poppies in their Design and Techology lessons. Having studied WW1 imagery, the children engraved their ideas onto plastic with the laser cutter. Bound together with wire, these children were able to wear these completely unique and heartfelt creations with pride and reverence.

The Hazlegrove community came together around the school flagpole for the Remembrance Service to honour those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Headmaster, Mark White, led the service with a prayer and there were traditional readings of ‘The Fallen’ by Lawrence Binyon, ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae and ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke.

It is a great honour to be asked to play the trumpet at this event and pupils Michael and Nye rose to the occasion, playing the ‘Last Post’ as the flag was lowered to half-mast and, after a minute’s silence for respect and contemplation, the ‘Reveille’ wake-up call with great professionalism. This is no easy task - it is difficult to play the trumpet in cold conditions and to do so with 400 people watching makes it all the more impressive!

To conclude the service, the ceramic poppies made by the Pre-prep children were laid at the base of the flagpole in memory of the 28 men who have attended Plox and Hazlegrove and who died during WW1, WW2 and the Afghanistan War.

Attended by the whole school, this is a moving occasion that is appreciated by one and all as summed up by Year 8 pupil Ottilie: ‘The Remembrance Service gives us time to reflect on the people who died for us. It is a service that is important to people from the past, but we must carry on with this service as it is just as important to families today’.