THE Year 4 class at St Joseph’s School excitedly boarded the school mini buses to embark on a journey back in time on Thursday, October 20.

On arrival at the Cornwall at War Museum at Davidstow, the children were greeted by the owner Steve Perry, who immediately put them through their paces, marching them up the down the parade ground, whilst bellowing orders at them in the style of a Sergeant Major. Luckily the children’s marching improved enough for them to have a NAAFI break.

Steve then talked the class through the reasons for World War Two and some of the effects. The children were then taken around the different exhibits, learning about life in Cornwall during World War Two, animals in the war, the officers’ mess, the command centre and the Navy, Army and Air Force to name but a few. The plethora of different exhibits, memorabilia and genuine artefacts certainly captured their attention and taught them so much about what life was like during those difficult years.

The finale of the trip was a visit to the genuine air-raid shelter where they huddled in the dark, while a simulated air raid took place, and they waited anxiously for the all clear.

The children really enjoyed their visit and enthusiastically thanked Steve and Sheila as they left the airfield and headed back to school with much more understanding of World War Two than they had arrived with.

It seems as though the children were delighted with their day, describing it as, ‘amazing, fantastic, and very interesting, we really enjoyed the marching too’.