Greatstone Primary School

OUR WWII TRIP.

On Thursday 20th May Classes 10 and 9 went on a World War II evacuee trip at Tenterden (on the Kent and East Sussex railway) to know how it felt to be evacuated. In my group there was Mrs. Jones, Iola, Francesca, Jack, Daniel and myself.
At 9:15am we got on a coach. On the way there I sat next to Natasha (we played my little eye). I had a great time on the coach. We arrived at 10 a.m.
At 10:10 a.m. we got our I.D. passes and walked to the station. When we got to the station we had to find our carriage - number 4. When we got on the train my first reaction was that it didn't smell too nice! When we were seated I was sitting next to Francesca, Iola but opposite me was Jack, Timothy (they are both from class9) & Henry.
Then at 10:30 a.m. we got off the train. We were in the middle of nowhere. And then someone shouted 'The track has been bombed by the Nazis so that the train can go no further. You will be taken back home to live with your parents.'
So, at 10:45 a.m. we got back on the train where we were allowed to have our lunch. For my lunch I had cheese and pickle crackers.

Next, at 11:05 a.m. we got off the train and got back into our groups. When we were walking across to go to see some things in a tent I saw a person called a spiv. The spiv would sell things like chocolate, cigarettes and so on.
Before very long we got to the tent where there were things like weapons and posters to look at. On one of the posters it read 'Hitler will send no warnings: always carry a gas mask.'
When we were walking I saw some games so we stopped there. They were machines that you would put money into and if you won, sometimes you would get a pack of cigarettes.
Then we went to a theatre and saw how people were actually evacuated during WWII. Some people were happy about being evacuated, some people were sad.
Afterwards we got to play in a park that was there. I played with Natasha and Maisie (we played on the slide).
Then it was time to go so we got back on the bus. I sat on the Class 9 bus because there was not enough room on the Class 10 bus. On the bus I talked to Natasha and we told each other what we thought of the school trip.
We all had a brilliant day.

Report by Laura Nixon.

Our School Trip as Evacuees.

On Thursday 20th May 2010 my class (Class10) and Class 9 went on a school trip to the Kent and East Sussex railway. We all had to dress up as evacuees. I wore a red polka dot dress. Even the teachers had to dress up.
Mr Jamin told us the coach had arrived so we quickly tied our brown paper labels onto our clothes. The reason we were pretending to be evacuees is that the school trip is based on World War II, to extend our knowledge about the War.
On the coach I sat next to Laura Nixon, which is good because she's my friend. As soon as the coach started to move Laura and I played rock, paper, scissors and we drew ten all.
Eventually we arrived at Kent and East Sussex railway. It looked so realistic I hardly noticed it was fake. Then a Warden told us that we were going on the fourth carriage on the train.

After that we got back into our groups and the warden handed out some I.D cards so that we could get past the armed guard at the entrance. So, we followed the warden through the metal gates as we held up our I.D cards to the armed guard.
Next we go onto the old fashioned train and a friendly man told us about all the alarms and what we should do if we heard one. Then some people gave us a quiz: we had to write how many roads we crossed and how many stations we stopped at. After that, a person who was a real evacuee from World War II let us ask him some questions about what it was like to be a real evacuee. Suddenly, the train whistle blew so we got off the train and found out the people who were meant to look after us couldn't come because the Nazis had bombed the roads.
So we got back on the crowded train and for some reason I felt I had butterflies in my tummy but I was excited at the same time. Then I sat down and had my old fashioned lunch.

When we arrived back at the first station we got off the train and got back into our groups. My group walked into a tent which had loads of pictures and gas masks laid out on a metal table. Then we visited another tent with toys, guns, German and English uniforms. The lady in the tent let us look at a compass, binoculars and she even let us feel the weight of a gun. After that we gathered in an Anderson shelter where there was an old lady with a wicker basket on her lap. She told us all about the shelter.
After the Anderson shelter we played in the park, while the adults had a hot cup of tea. Next we went into the cinema and it told us about World War II - it was really interesting. After that we lined up patiently for the cramped carriage. By the time we got into the cramped carriage it was nearly time to go. The carriage was so cramped that you could hardly walk down the narrow middle. The men in there told us that if you needed to go to the toilet you would either hold it or go where you were sitting!
Finally we had to get on the coach to go back to school. By the time we got back it was home time. 'Hooray!'
By Natasha Luetchford.