A time travelling trip with Looe Primary School by Isabel, Year 5/6 pupil
In November, Year 5 & 6 from Looe Primary travelled to the Museum of Cornish Life. They experienced what life was like being an evacuee in 1939.
“Wow, this is a brilliant trip!” Freya
Deciding to go to the museum was easy for the teacher because the class had been learning about both of the World Wars and she wanted to give the children the experience of what life would have been like for an evacuee.
Arriving at the museum, the class were greeted by a sweet woman called Mrs Cook. Given labels to complete with our names, addresses (it was fake address as we were pretending to be evacuated from Plymouth) and our birth dates we were soon off on our ‘train’ journey to meet the billeting officer. As we entered the tunnel of time, we were feeling excited and interested to learn more on our trip.
The billeting officer sorted us into two groups. One group visited a classroom and experience what it was like to sit at wooden desks on hard seats and write postcards back home in ink. The other children remained in the sorting office to explore the rations of meat, cheese, eggs, butter and sweets. They also investigated gas masks (both for babies and children), looked at newspaper reports from 1938 – 1942 and found out about how little evacuees were able to take in their suitcases when they left home.
All of the class enjoyed the trip and learnt so much. As they left, they were given a weekly ration of sweets.
“Is this all they received? I don’t know if I should eat one a day or all in one go and then forget about sweets for a week if I was them.” Grace
Arriving back at school the children were eager to inform their parents what a great experience they had had at the Museum of Cornish Life in Helston. Thanks to the Cornwall Heritage Trust for their contribution to our fantastic learning experience.
