On Wednesday and as part of their Spring Term topic – WW2: The Home Front and the Roles of Women – Year 5 enjoyed a fabulous day of hands-on exploration and discovery at Beaumanor Hall in Leicestershire.

Academic visits at NGHS are always carefully considered and curated, and Beaumanor was chosen because it was requisitioned by the War Office and used as a secret listening station to intercept encrypted enemy signals.  Having been ‘evacuated’ from school in 1940s attire at 09:00am, the girls were taken to a billeting hall on arrival and issued with replica ID cards.

 

 

Introductions over, they spent a morning in a chilly wartime classroom where they learnt about rationing and did a daily shop with limited coupons and pre-decimal coins.  Lunchtime (including authentic 1940s sandwiches in paper wrap) was equally cold for our intrepid evacuees, who then tackled a signal decoding task in a workshop which was originally used for that purpose – and which had been rather cleverly disguised as a pair of farm labourers’ cottages.

 

 

With the howling of an air raid siren, this immersive day ended with a very orderly and realistic visit to a bomb shelter, where the girls heard a real-life recording of an aerial bombardment and were able to identify the sounds of incoming aircraft, bombs descending, direct hits, the emergency services and – finally – the ‘all clear’.

 

 

Well done, Year 5 – you really entered into the wartime spirit and we cannot wait to hear about your upcoming Peace & Reconciliation visit to Coventry Cathedral in March.