I’d like to ask for some advice from teachers, please. My plan is to use that advice to help me develop some resources that will work for schools this autumn. Thank you in advance.
This September I have a book out called Armistice Runner. It is aimed at children aged 8 to 13.
It’s about a modern-day girl called Lily who is a cross country runner. Through reading his diaries, she finds out that her great- great-granddad was a champion cross country/fell runner in 1918 and that he went on to become a trench runner in the last days of the First World War, performing a dangerous mission during the last minutes of the conflict right up to 11 a.m.
The Armistice is a central theme of the book. It is published on 6th September, ten weeks before the centenary this November.
I am already working on materials that schools can use as they mark the centenary of the Armistice. There are videos of me talking from key Armistice sites in France already up. You can see them here: https://tompalmer.co.uk/armistice-runner/.
I will be creating more resources that I hope will be useful in schools, based on some of the materials you can see on my Over the Line webpage: https://tompalmer.co.uk/first-world-war-literacy-resources/. There you will find posters, stories, scripts, discussion questions and quizzes.
But is this what schools want?
I’d be very interested to hear what schools would like to help them work on the Armistice with their students. Your own ideas, but also things you have used in the past, particularly that are based around a novel to help children get their heads round a moment in history. I’ll be spending a lot of time working resources up over the summer, so your advice would be useful.
All the resources I create will be free to all schools – and anyone else – by the way.
One idea I have is that, if a schools uses Armistice Runner as a class read around the autumn, then I could offer a free half-hour Skype to that school.
What do you think?
Please email me any thoughts at info@tompalmer.co.uk. And please, also, pass this on to any colleagues you know who might be able to help.
Many thanks.
