Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum. Gifted and Talented project

On Saturday students from Aylsham High School were invited to the grand reopening of the new Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum. They were asked to attend because over the last academic year they have been working with the museum service on an interactive timeline which is now on display as part of the collection.

 

Over a year ago a small team of gifted and talented historians were put together to work on a project for Norfolk Museum Service. They were students who had gained high grades the previous year whilst studying for their GCSE in History over one year and headed up by our History Captain Jonathan Sutton.

The team went for an initial meeting at Norwich castle to meet the curators of the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum which had just been closed to the public on Shirehall Plain and see the space within the castle that was going to be transformed into the new Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum. The team were asked to be involved to researching and writing extracts that would be used as part of an interactive timeline about the history of the regiment aimed at primary school students.  Over the next few months the team spent time researching and writing extracts and were then invited back to Norwich Castle for the next stage. The next stage involved students being taught how to use a piece of online software to add their work to a database so the software development team could create the timeline.

 

It was then decided that it would be nice to add a picture of a cartoon character to each of the parts of the timeline called Reggie, a soldier from the regiment dressed in the uniform the regiment would have worn at the time in question. The team asked Miss Stickland, who is famous for drawing her own cartoons on her whiteboard, to help out with this task. She produced a range of colour cartoons depicting Reggie in all the different uniforms of the regiment and these were entered into the timeline alongside the students work.

 

Four students were selected to represent the team at the grand reopening of the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum. We were welcomed with drinks and once all the esteemed guests arrived the Head of Norfolk Museum Service gave a speech about the project. The ribbon was then cut by Norfolk County Council Chairman Hilary Cox and we were allowed to see the new displays for the first time and mingle with the other guests who included the Norwich Mayor, several leading councillors and current and former servicemen of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. This was followed by food and drink inside the castle keep and we were later entertained by the Royal Norfolk Regimental band who played several songs in the keep.

 

It was a fantastic evening and a brilliant opportunity for our most talented young historians to work first hand on a project with museum staff and see all that is involved in presenting a hugely important part of our history  to the public. We are honoured to have been involved and extremely proud of the work produced and would encourage everyone to pop into the castle and see the exhibition for yourselves.

 

Pupils invited to the event (and pictured)

History Captain 2012/13 Jonathan Sutton
History Captain 2013/14 Jake Morris
Catrina Wooldridge
Rebecca Hibberd

 

Other pupils involved

Elizabeth Cooper
Tom Wilkes
Georgina Rowe
Amelia Tims
Martha Crass
Isabel Rich
Dominic Sutcliffe
Alex Cabre

 

History Books I rate: World War One

As we are about to start studying World war One in year 8 I thought I'd do you a new booklist

 YA Titles

I loved Stay where you are and leave. It is written by the same author as the boy in the striped Pajamas. It has a bit of mystery going on and deals with post traumatic stress disorder and the affect shell shock had on the men who served at the front. I really loved it.

 Dusk is a love story set in and around World War One and I really enjoyed it. From my own history geek point of view I loved the medical side that is brought out when you see how nurses worked during World War One to support the troops. It is the first in a trilogy the rest of which is yet to be published but it promises to be awesome.

In the Shadows of Blackbirds is a really unusual read. It is set in post war America and looks at the world in the aftermath of war dealing with the Spanish influenza epidemic. Why I've picked this book out is because it is perfect for girls who love paranormal romance as it has a lot of odd spiritualist stuff going on, and whilst for me it was about about the historical context, I think that would really hook them in.

For me no list of YA titles about World War One would be complete without Private Peaceful having a mention. For me it is a perfect read about World War One for getting into the heads of those at the front line and should be read by all teens