This week, as part of the school’s extensive programme to mark the centenary of the outbreak of war in 1914, the King’s Ely community came together in the cathedral for a moving Service of Remembrance.
Meanwhile, King’s Ely Acremont children were also remembering the Great War and imagining just what it might have been like to live through the war years 1914 – 1918 as they listened, spellbound, to an interactive performance by ‘AS Creatives’. The new play ‘Living with the War’ was specifically designed to support the exploration of World War One by 21st century young children, and was followed up by a range of creative workshops throughout the day.
‘Living with the War’ introduced the pupils to the outbreak of World War I and then took the young audience sensitively through the extent to which the ripples of war were felt. Pupils had the opportunity to re-enact various aspects of life on the Home Front, learning some topical wartime songs along the way! Their great, great grandparents would have been touched and impressed by this unique approach to Remembrance.
November 11th is a significant and important date in the school calendar, when the whole school community pauses to remember the sacrifice that young men and women made, some very little older that the King’s Ely students who stood in the cathedral today.
The Principal, Sue Freestone, expressed her thoughts on the day, “It is profoundly moving to hear the names of the young men from our own school community, who served their country and paid the ultimate price. It is impossible to do other than wonder whether our current community, and the young people who fill the cathedral today, could have existed without their sacrifice; and to be grateful”.