100 Years Have Passed – A Special Armistice Commemoration
Following the Year 7 trip to the Somme on Monday, there was an added poignancy to our Armistice Day assembly on Tuesday 11th November. We observed the two minute silence through the Radio Four link and students read poems, prayers and their own reflections on the Somme.
The assembly finished with a special musical piece composed by our new Composer-in-Residence and his assistant, Matthew King and Ian Flemming, entitled 100 Years Have Passed, with singers and our drumming group performing. This was an incredibly moving piece and the students were proud to be involved. The singers were: Taylor Denby, Jamie Forster, Tara Lake Jerome, Maggie Larsen, Sienna Mobbs, Chandrika Narayanan, Nathalie Sarbanovic, Emma Sharp, Kiera Valler, Madeline Wilson, Megan Champion, Leah Kyriacou. On drums were: Rhys Teesdale (who leads our drumming band), Samuel Wilmore, Finlay Smith, Owen McMahon and Jacob Bodman.
Hannah Kelleher reflects on the visit to the Somme.
As we walked past the trenches we all paid our tributes to the ones who died for us. Seeing their living conditions I now understand how life threatening the everyday wasy. The green of the fields covered the mud, hiding the horror of what was there.
In history we had been focusing on the size of the memorials and the cemeteries but the pictures never captured the scale of the graves. Just thinking about all the men who died there does not come close to seeing this place through your own eyes.
So many died for us. That is why we commemorate them today.