AHS goes to Berlin

At the start of November were were lucky enough to go on a trip to Berlin. We were booked onto a three day trip and had such a brilliant time and wanted to share a few pictures of our trip.

Day one

The first day in Berlin was spent visiting sites focused around the history of Weimar and Nazi Germany.

We landed into Berlin around lunchtime and after a short stop to drop our bags at the hostel and to grab some lunch we went into the city centre to tour some of the sites.

Our first stop was the Reichstag where we learned about the history of the building and how the building has been adapted in modern times.

We then had a walk around a variety of sites in and around the Reichstag. These included the following places.

Memorial to the murdered members of the Reichstag
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered by the Nazi Regime
Brandenburg Gate
Georg Elser Memorial
Air Ministry Building

A particular highlight for me was to see the preparations for the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall behind the Brandenburg gate.

We finished our day out with a visit to German Historical Museum where we got to see a variety of exhibits starting from 1918 through to the 1980s. After this we headed back through the city to our accommodation to eat and rest up ready for the day ahead.

Day two

Day two's focus was Nazi Germany and the start of the Cold War. After breakfast we headed out by coach to Sachsenhausen the site of a former concentration camp

The visit to the site was something I know a lot of our students will never forget. We spend a lot of time in school learning about the events of the holocaust but seeing the site and hearing details of the atrocities that carried out in different parts for ourselves was harrowing.

After Sachsenhausen we headed to Cecilienhof Palace. We were there because it was the site of the Potsdam Conference. The site is really beautiful and has such a significant role in the start of The Cold War and we were lucky enough to tour the rooms where the conference was held.

We headed back into Berlin after this via The Glienicke Bridge where we heard about the story of Gary Powers.

We then went onto the Allied Museum to focus particularly on the story of the Berlin Airlift and after this went onto dinner in a restaurant opposite the Reichstag. Whilst there our students took the opportunity to buy some souvenirs including some rather fetching hats (they were jealous of our German bobble hats)

After dinner we finished our day by going back to the Reichstag for a tour of the dome on top of the Reichstag which gave us the opportunity to get brilliant views of the city by night and the chance to sneak a peek into the German Parliament rooms from above.

Day three

The final day of our trip was focused on The Cold War.

We started our day by taking a train out to Treptow Park to visit The Soviet memorial which is one of the most extraordinary memorials I have ever seen featuring huge memorials some of which depict the story of World War Two from a soviet perspective.

After this we went to Bernauer Strasse to see the memorial to The Berlin Wall

We finished our trip with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie

I can honestly say that our trip to Berlin was amazing. We were so well looked after by our our guides Ian and Dave from Anglia Tours. Due to their expertise we all learned so much about Berlin and got to experience so much in our short time.


If you would like to experience Berlin for yourself we are going again in November 2020. In order to secure flights and accommodation we need to make a booking in early January so an initial deposit is due 7th January. A copy of the letter is available here

Year 7 went storming Norwich Castle

Over the last week year 7 have all been out to Norwich Castle to learn more about the time when it was stormed in 1216 by rebels who wanted to overthrown King John. As well as learning about history year 7 also got the chance to show off their maths skills over the course of the day.

Over the course of the day students took part in four sessions as follows

Siege Life

Year 7 got to investigate the water supply in the well and calculate how much water was available to those defending the castle.

 They got to handle and assess a variety of medieval objects

They also played medieval strategic games;

Siege weapons

Students got to handle, measure and assess weapons used to attack and defend a castle;

 Siege financing 

 Students planned and calculated a budget for the siege

 
They got to strike their own coins

measuring the keep
 The students learnt about medieval measurements and used them to measured the keep to calculate its scale.

All in all we had a brilliant day. Thank you to Norwich Castle and their wonderful staff for organising everything for us and running such brilliant sessions. A huge thanks too for our lovely finance department for booking everything and sorting paperwork so we could go out.

Year 7 castle building

This half term year 7 made castles for their homework project. Here are a selection of some of our favourites.

Make More Noise

Make More Noise is a brilliant collection of short stories of girls standing up for themselves and generally being awesome. The list of contributors is a brilliant line up of YA authors I love and I thoroughly enjoyed every inspiring story. 

My favourite story in the book was focused on the suffragette cenus boycott of 1911 by Sally Nichols which I really loved because it was a snippet of history I'd not really ever heard about before. 

I also loved Emma Carroll's World War Two story focusing on land girls and Katherine Woodfine's story looking at the inequality within Edwardian society for young girls in service. I also found Catherine Johnson's story about the 43 group particularly fascinating. 

If you've enjoyed learning about the Suffragettes or interested at look at women's history this book is definitely for you.

Hearts and Minds by Jane Robinson

Hearts and Minds looks at the stories of the ordinary women of the suffrage campaign with more of an emphasis on the work of the suffragist movement. I loved it because it gave me a real insight into the suffragist campaign which I never knew much about and having read this book I was all the poorer for not knowing more about them. Their efforts and resilience was amazing and I was over awed learning about the efforts they went to to secure women the vote, tackling the issue in a calmer manner than their militant counterparts in the suffragettes. I particularly loved learning about the role of Elizabeth Garrett Andersen in the campaign having only come across her previously as the first women to qualify as a doctor in the UK when we look at Medicine through time

I also loved this book because of the stories of individuals involved with the campaign, both suffragette and suffragist such as the story of the suffragette who refused to wear her prison outfit as a protest for not being treated as a political prisoner and sat in her cell naked and when they authorities tried to put her in a straitjacket as a punishment she was so slim that she just wriggled out of it.

If you enjoyed studying the suffragettes in Year 7 or are interested in women's history this is definitely the book for you.

Humphry Repton Competition

We are excited to be supporting a competition for The Repton 200 Festival. The competition is to design an A3 poster with information about Humphry Repton and the amazing things that he did. The prize for the best piece of work will be £50 with £25 for two runners up. Entries must be brought to Mrs Connor by 19th March and entries are welcomed from any student in school.

Aylsham World War One local heroes

Luca (left) and Jacob (right) stand next to their completed project displayed in the school foyer.

Luca Wedge-Clarke and Jacob Sinkins attended a government funded Battlefields trip in October and were inspired by the stories of the people behind the pictures and the war graves. As part of the Institute of Education's Cententary 'Legacy 110' scheme the boys have researched and created an interactive display that contains the stories for local soldiers from the Aylsham area.

The interactive display can be seen currently in the corridor outside the History department and in Aylsham Church. It really is worth a look!

After completing the display, Luca and Jacob presented it to two whole school assemblies alongside discussing their experiences of the Battlefield tour that they attended. It recieved a warm welcome from their peers and stands as encouragement for students to take the time to research their own rich family histories.

Not only was this project displayed to students but it was also a central part of the school remembrance day. In the morning school governors, teachers, local members of the veterans associations and family members arrived at Aylsham High School for the interactive display's official unveiling. It was wonderful to see the boys put across their project and their experiences with so much enthusiasm. They instructed visitors on the use of QR codes that take the reader to a webpage on the life stories of soldiers such as F.J Barrett who is included within this project.