In November 2023 we had the absolute pleasure of inviting two groups of Henry Bloom Nobel Primary School year 6 to visit The Knockaloe Exhibition and Visitor Centre as part of their work on the experiences of war to test out our "Introduction to Internment School Edition", which we will be rolling out during the two weeks around Remembrance Day each November (please see school visits page for more information and book early - places are limited) School Visits | Knockaloe | Isle of Man.
We started all together around our huge 1:500 scale model of Knockaloe where we found out just how much they knew about WW1 and we talked about the impact of the sinking of the Lusitania on ordinary families, as well as using the interactive model to find out more about Knockaloe Camp. Then, split into groups and guided by our fabulous team, the children explored different aspects about living in an internment Camp.
After the children had a quick snack in our Garden Room they took a quiz sheet, pencil and an adult helper to use our app to find and answer the 20 multiple choice questions via the QR codes on posts around Knockaloe drive and the Graveyard (wellies needed for this bit - especially close to the Knockaloe farm goats who loved their visitors!!)
After eating their packed lunch back in our Garden Room and after we went through the answers to the quiz - and they had definitely all been listening all morning as they were brilliant at answering the questions! - the children thoroughly deserved spending an hour in the Patrick Community Orchard letting off steam, running around, falling in the stream (oops!), playing stick with the Charity's dog Humphrey, and just having great fun.
We were really sad to see them leave us at 2.30pm for their return coach to school, but can definately say that we so enjoyed welcoming these fabulous children who were a credit to their school. How incredibly special to then receive such a fabulous thank you from them - their letters and card and biscuits they sent are all pictured below - we are so glad you found the bones 'cool' and it is the best trip of year 6 so far and so many other fabulous comments which we really really appreciated - Thank You!
Take a look and see how they got on...
A special thank you to all the children who took time to write thank you notes to us (and thank you for our lovely box of biscuits - we all loved them, including Humphrey the dog who loved the plain ones!).
Amazing and much appreciated, the letters suggest they enjoyed themselves as much as we did!
