by Rebecca Hannant
Pupils at Withernsea Primary School have created a poppy display for the town’s Remembrance commemorations.
On Monday, November 6, 13 children were invited to take part in the installation of the display at the new war memorial.
As previously reported in the Gazette, on October 23 they created hundreds of poppies using different parts of plastic bottles.
The foundation stages were tasked with colouring the base of the bottles to create the flowers, while the upper stages were given the main body of the bottle to create more intricate shapes such as leaves.
Prior to the installation, the pupils were given a talk by Withernsea’s Royal British Legion president Darren England, who explained the meaning behind Remembrance, and the significance of the poppy. Each child engaged with the process and talked about the medals received by members of their families, and some of them identified the poppies they had made.
After the talk, they placed their poppies around the memorial.
Darren said: “To have the students come down and place the poppies themselves is great. Some of the children have identified their own poppies. It is fantastic. They have not just done this, we have sat and talked about it as well.
“We have talked about Remembrance and what it is. All the kids have been brilliant. They have all the answers, so they all know why we have Remembrance, which is fantastic. They have all enjoyed putting these down.
“It is good to be able to go into the school and participate in something like this. Hopefully we can do this again next year.”
Year five teacher Craig Cundy added: “As a school we thought it was important for the children to be part of the memorial, and links within the town.
“We were approached by Darren England to do the display, and we thought it was an excellent way to get involved.
“The kids did a fantastic job, and we followed the visit with an assembly where we invited a member of the RAF to do a talk.
“We also did a lot of work to understand the complexities of war and death – our students struggled to comprehend the death tolls during the wars.”
On Saturday, November 11, the main Withernsea Remembrance service will be held at the old memorial behind the library at 11am. On Sunday, November 12, another service will be held in the Meridian Centre at 10am. A wreath laying service will be held at the new memorial at 10.45am.
St Nicholas Church will also be open from 11am till 3pm on Sunday, November 12, for a Remembrance service.
Darren added: “I would like to thank the Memorial Gardens Trust for letting us put the display on the memorial, the RAOB for their donation towards getting the materials, and Withernsea Primary School for their help creating the display.”
