Homing in on the Home Front – WWI 

The programme exists in a range of flexible formats, allowing up to 420 pupils to experience it in a single day! Classes in one-form entry schools will have opportunities to take part in follow-up workshops – while selected pupils in larger schools will have chances to engage in Question and Answer sessions with the actors.

Although they live in the countryside, Ed and Flo Duckworth are still in danger from the enemy planes that fly overhead. So they combine running their farm with “doing their bit” – Flo as an Air Raid Warden and Ed as a private in the local Home Guard. Join them and their friends Vera the Land Girl and Cyril the Spiv as they begin to get used to the huge changes in their lives – including the impending arrival of a couple of evacuees!

There’ll be laughs and tears, singing and dancing as your pupils join these larger than life characters to Make Do and Mend, Save Kitchen Scraps – and Dig for Victory. Not forgetting that Walls Have Ears, of course!

The programme is particularly suited to Keys Stages 2 and 3 / P4 - P7 – but Years 1 and 2 / P2-P3 will get a lot out of it, too. And we always welcome Reception classes / P1 for the first half hour or so!

Outcomes: greater knowledge of the causes and course of World War II; increased understanding of the concept of “total war”; heightened awareness of the roles played by class and gender during the period.

“All of the children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and have been able to use this as a hook for their ‘Local Heroes’ History topic. We have been able to generate lots of discussion and high quality written work from the visit. They particularly enjoyed how engaging and practical the session was. It was a very enjoyable experience for not only the children, but the staff have found it very useful as it has helped with their planning." Banks Road Primary School

"Please can you pass on our thanks to “Neil Armstrong”, he was brilliant. The children got so much out of it and really enjoyed the session. He answered their questions so well and was very, very knowledgeable." Clarendon Infants