Schools mark VE Day despite lockdown

Hundreds of pupils, parents, teachers and staff from special needs schools across the city and wider region are marking VE Day together.

Members of the Ascent Academies’ Trust, which includes Sunderland’s Barbara Priestman Academy and Portland Academy, had been due to celebrate the landmark date with a range of events.

But while some have been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, school leaders are instead planning to stage a virtual event, with students and their families invited to tune in via webcams.

This is due to include prizes for best bunting, which many have been working on in the lead up to the day, and best VE Daythemed bake.

Footage from the original VE Day, which marked the end of the Second World War in Europe in 1945, 75 years ago, will also be shown, while one staff member will read extracts from her grandmother’s wartime diary.

“It’s important to teach children about it,” said Rachel Hargreaves, headteacher at the Barbara Priestman Academy, in Meadowside, “especially as each generation gets a bit further from the sacrifice the WW2 generation made for us. “Now we’ve decided to do something even though we’re not in school but while we’re also facing a really challenging time.

“As a nation there is a resemblance to the war, a lack of things we would normally have, not being able to go to some places or see the people we want to see – probably the closest our staff and children will come to it.”