This week saw 60 young learners from St James Primary School head to Franklin’s Gardens for a World War I (WWI) experience workshop that both included practical sessions highlighting how people lived during the Edwardian era, including acting out jobs such as builders, shoe making and leather cutting, and learning about WWI and its heroes, particularly Edgar Mobbs.
The youngsters learned as much about Mobbs’s Army life as his rugby career and what he meant to the people of Northampton at the time. They learned how to march and drill as how the Sportsman’s Battalion would have done, and songs like ‘Pack Up Your Old Kit Bag’.
WWI had its more serious side though, and the sessions explained how the conflict started and which country fought with which, what life was like in the trenches and back at home, too.
Delivered by Keiron Jones, who has worked with the Saints Study Centre’s Shakespeare festivals for a number of years, the WWI sessions have been designed to reinforce in-school learning and engage youngsters in an important subject.
To find out more about how the Saints can help inspire and engage young learners at your school or college head to www.northamptonsaints.co.uk/education
