Shapinsay School

We have been working together to make a World War One tank from newspaper sticks.

P1 - 3 made models related to World War One.

HMS Hampshire

A World War One boat with gun

A World War One Tank

Trenches

We went to Kirkwall. 

First we visited HMS Bulwark which is in Orkney because of the Jutland commemorations. 

It was great - thank you to the people who showed us round.

Then we went to St Magnus Cathedral where Fran showed us round the graveyard. First we saw the Memorial gate and the wreaths that were laid at the Jutland service.

Finally we learned about the Weeping Window poppy display.

We had a great trip!

P1 - 3 made powerpoints (by themselves!) about the trip.

PB, MM and SD

LM, LM and LM

We are trying to make a model of a World War One tank using newspaper sticks.

In World War One they used Morse Code to send messages. We used a website to find out how to make each letter using dots and dashes, then we used instruments to send messages to each other.

P4 - 7 worked in 2 teams to break codes. It got quite competitive!

Emma used recipes from World War One to make our lunch.

For main course we had lentil and cheese savoury. Some of us liked it and some didn't!

We all liked pudding though - Apple Charlotte!

We did some baking using recipes from World War 1.

Nursery - P3 made gingerbread

The older class made trench cake, which would have been posted to the soldiers.

We are going to take the cakes with us to Kirkwall to eat as our snack on our trip!

We sang "It's a long way to Tipperary" at the same time as "Pack up your troubles".

P1 - 3 found out about the roles of horses, dogs and pigeons in World War One. Each group had to present their animal to the rest of the class.

Sheila Garson came in to tell us the story of Davie Rendall, who came from Shapinsay and fought in the trenches in France in World War One.

We saw some letters that he had sent home to Shapinsay to his parents. Some of the writing had been censored before it was sent.

Davie was injured. This is the information sent to his family in Shapinsay.

Fortunately Davie survived, but one piece of shrapnel was still in his hand until it came out 60 years later! This is it:

Davie was given a medal by the people of Shapinsay in recognition of his service.

Seeing the artefacts, and seeing (and feeling) Davie's uniform really brought home to us that World War One affected people in Shapinsay. Many thanks to Sheila for bringing this all in to show us, and for talking to us about Davie Rendall's story.