Evacuation: Introduction for Teachers

The support material for this module is also available as a print-friendly PDF split into 3 parts for easier download - about 10MB to each part: Part1, Part2, Part3 - these open in a new window. Individual experiences are also available as PDFs from the appropriate web pages. Once downloaded you may make as many copies as you wish for educational purposes.

To open PDFs you will need Acrobat Reader. Most computers will already have the Reader but if not there is a free download here

• Introduction for Teachers: The Second World War Experience Centre
• Scheme of work for History Key Stage 2
• Evacuation: an Introduction
• Timeline with Interactive Quizzes
• Evacuees' Experiences
• Recommended Reading

The Second World War Experience Centre's mission is to collect, document, preserve, exhibit and encourage access to the surviving material evidence and associated information of the men and women who participated in the war in whatever capacity, whether military, civilian or conscientious objector.

The total number of people involved in or affected by the Second World War is beyond calculation. From this huge canvas emerge the poignantly personal and often heroic tales of individuals - soldiers, sailors and airmen, workers and other civilians on the Home Front - who were drawn to the maelstrom of global war. The Second World War Experience Centre in Leeds is dedicated to the rescue, recording and preservation of these memories and related memorabilia before they are lost forever.

The archive that is being preserved for posterity is international in scope, documenting both Allied and Axis experience. Whilst the key dates are 1939-45 the Centre also collects material documenting the build-up or aftermath of the Second World War. The rescue programme focuses on original wartime letters, diaries, artwork, photographs, maps, newspapers, books, official papers and memorabilia and militaria evoking the period. It also includes manuscript and typescript memoirs, as well as recordings of oral history. An international network of volunteers tape-records individuals' war memories around the world. Invaluable as evidence, these interviews are also a fascinating supplement to documents and personal memorabilia, which they serve to illustrate.

The collection and preservation of this primary source material is only a first step in making this valuable collection available to as wide a public as possible. This work is vital to the formation of an understanding of the experiences of those who lived through these years of conflict and, with it, a respect for an important part of our recent heritage, as expressed by Professor Niall Ferguson:

"I firmly believe there is no more valuable historical resource for future generations than a properly organised archive of primary materials relating to the Second World War. For there will come a time - for the First World War we, alas, are very nearly there - when those with first-hand memories of the terrible events of the twentieth century will no longer be able to correct in person the misapprehensions of the young. The next generation of historians, which has not grown up in such close proximity to the memories of war, will need the primary sources if they are to understand how it really was between 1914 and 1945".

As well as providing an invaluable resource bank for military and academic historians, researchers, authors and broadcasters, the Centre is also of interest to veterans groups and historical societies. The Centre is keen to target its work towards school children, particularly due to our conviction that by introducing elements of Second World War personal experience to children of a young age, we will help to ensure that the knowledge of and respect for the privations and achievements of this period is not lost.

Focusing on evacuation, this module has been created to help Key Stage 2 pupils to find out what it was like for children during the Second World War. Thousands of children were evacuated from their homes and families and the Second World War Experience Centre in Leeds has many accounts of evacuee experiences within its archives. Four of these accounts are profiled within this module.

In addition to biographies and extracts from evacuee accounts, activity sheets have been designed, using varied teaching and learning strategies, relating to the experiences of these evacuees. These are intended to provide back-up and support materials for teaching a programme of work on Study Unit 9 'What was it like for children in the Second World War?' for Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum in History.

These activity sheets are cross curricular and a particular effort has been made to create opportunities to extend literacy and thinking skills whilst studying evacuation. They have been designed to cover the wide ability of children at Key Stage 2, and as schools may vary their timing when teaching the unit, teachers are able to select appropriate activity sheets for particular groups or individuals.

This module is not intended as a core teaching programme, although planning sheets have been included to assist with the planning of teaching. Learning strategies and other activities such as drama, role-play and artwork can be based around these evacuees.