THIS term, the history topic for pupils in Classes 2 and 3 at Whitstone Community Primary School has been Britain since the 1930s.

Pupils have discovered how rapidly society has changed in the nearly 80 years, although they also noted the parallels between the current economic circumstances and those of the 1930s.

They were particularly interested in the years of the Second World War. There are many excellent resources available to pupils these days — books, DVDs and the internet — but there is nothing quite as engaging as talking to ­people who have personal stories to tell.

Pupils were delighted that many members of their local community accepted the invitation to come into school for an afternoon to talk to them about their experiences.

Some had direct experience of being evacuees and members of the Home Guard; others told of their school days and what toys they had played with as children; and all of them reflected on the changes that have occurred since the 1930s.

As part of a Heritage Lottery Fund project being co-ordinated by Clare Manning of the Castle Heritage Centre, Bude, the children used camcorders and voice recorders to capture for posterity the oral histories of their guests.

With generous funding from the project, the pupils at Whitstone were also able to travel to Bodmin and take a trip on one of the trains operated by the Bodmin and Wenford Steam Railway and be evacuees for the day.

'NIGHT ATTACKS'

The children were conducted on a tour of the station, engine sheds and workshops and watched a short film about the part the railways had played during World War II, and how dangerous a job it was operating the system in total darkness at night and under attacks from the air.

They were also shown by a ruddy-faced American GI, a surviving example of one of the many thousands of Jeeps that were produced by Ford for use by troops.

As the 11.45am train left Bodmin General Station to take them on a journey back into the 1940s, pupils were able to talk to volunteers who were impersonating uniformed members of branches of the Civil Defence Corps, Woman's Land Army and Timber Corps and Trinity House, finding out about the valuable roles these organisations played during the War.

Again, pupils were delighted that many of the people who had come to talk to them earlier in the term were able to accompany them on the outing. The characteristic sights, sounds and smells of a steam-powered locomotive were very evocative and sparked many memories among their older companions of past journeys and excursions in the age of steam.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their sunny day out; a day when the generations came together and shared an experience that will live in the memory for a long time — and history escaped from the pages of the reference books and came to life.