Staff and students at Headfield Junior School, Dewsbury, have created a huge Remembrance Day display made up of over 2,000 poppies to help commemorate the British soldiers lost at War.
The display took nearly four weeks to set up and was finally completed on the 5th November, just in time for Remembrance Sunday, and will remain in the school until Christmas.
Headfield School’s Headteacher, Mrs Louise Warner, says, “We were inspired by the Tower of London poppies and the recent installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
“Our school building is amazing and so we knew we could go big!”
The display at The Tower of London, named The Blood Swept Land and Seas of Red, was erected last year to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of WWI and attracted over four million visitors.
Image on the right shows The Blood Swept Land and Seas of Red - image taken from The Telegraph.
Once the display had been taken down, 888,246 of the poppies were bought by members of the public while those remaining were taken on a northern touring exhibition with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield included.
Mrs Warner adds, “Everyone in school was involved, which is no mean feat when we have 614 children!
“All the children made at least two poppies, with some making more.
“The effort from staff and children is brilliant!”
The poppies were made from red card and a ‘lorry full of paper fasteners’ applied to a wire mesh - “Simple, but effective,” Mrs Warner admits!
She explains, “The children have learnt about the significance of the poppy.
“In regards to WWI and WWII, they know about the sacrifices given by service personnel and why they, as children, have the freedoms they have today.
“They've also learnt about the thousands of volunteer soldiers from the Indian subcontinent who fought alongside the British soldiers, bringing this to their own heritage.”
In addition to the display in commemorating the lost British soldiers, Mrs Warner says, “We will hold a two minutes silence across school and we are looking at opening school to visitors who would like to see the poppies in November.”
She adds, “The display was the coming together of all the work that's been done and will be the centre point of our two minutes silence.”