Wartime lessons and lunches bring history to life for VE Day celebrations

Staff and pupils at The Bemrose School got into the spirit of VE Day by dressing up, tucking into traditional wartime food and taking part in a day of themed lessons and activities.

The day began with an assembly, where students watched a video that explained how the Bombe machine was instrumental in breaking wartime codes and ultimately helped bring the war to an end.

A range of cross-curricular activities took place throughout the day. All pupils had a history lesson focused on VE Day, science lessons explored codebreaking, English classes looked at famous wartime speeches and in food technology, students learned how to make traditional potato salad using authentic wartime recipes.

Claire Amos, careers lead and Louise Attew, safeguarding lead at the school helped bring the past to life by proudly wearing original clothing belonging to Miss Williamson, who served as a Second Lieutenant in Queen Alexandra's Nursing Corps in France during the war.

Pupils were treated to a special VE Day-themed lunch, which included bubble and squeak, corned beef hash, veggie pie, meatloaf, scones, cake and apple crumble – or for a more authentic touch, traditional packed lunches of sandwiches.

To round off the celebrations, a wartime-themed street tea party was held for a select group of students who were chosen as a reward for their exceptional behaviour across the school.