History

History Trips

Ypres and the Somme “I had a great time on the Battlefields trip. We visited loads of sites and it was very interesting when, at the Somme, we were asked to re-enact ‘going over the top’. Afterwards, we spoke about it and I understood how terrifying it was to be so exposed, however, we were only hearing birds singing and not bullets. The memorials to all the German and British soldiers were huge with thousands and thousands of gravestones. It truly made me understand how deadly the war was. At the end of the trip, we visited the chocolate shop in Ypres and it was delicious.” Harry Cooper, Third Year

‘Six: the Musical’ at Chichester Festival Theatre Our Upper Sixth Historians enjoyed seeing the musical ‘Six’, which was (loosely!) linked to their A Level Tudor course. Each wife of Henry VIII was reimagined as a modern pop queen. The wives are in deep contention over who had the saddest story. One by one they take their turn to sing their sorrows through a range of musical genres: raps, ballads, and pop. With lots of references to Tudor life and many historical puns, students and staff thoroughly enjoyed it!

CCALS and Enrichment

Henry VII’s Foreign Policy: an exercise in failure? Dr James Ross, Senior Lecturer at Winchester University.

How crucial was direct action to the French Revolution 1789-1792? Professor Emeritus of History William Doyle, Bristol University.

Napoleon: a genius or megalomaniac? By Prof David Andress Quantum Theatre performance to commemorate the First World War.

We have launched our own Covid-19 History Archive, to record lockdown first-hand, which we hope will be used by future Churcherians for archival work.

A Survivor’s Testimony In February, Churcher’s was honoured to welcome Mala Tribich MBE, to share the testimony of a survivor, a child at the time, almost 75 years after Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated. Mala is now among the last people able to give a firstperson account of what she and others suffered, and what was done to them. The 500 pupils, parents and guests listened in silence to the blisteringly powerful talk which painted a haunting and vivid picture of life inside the camp.

“There is often an unconscious distance drawn between ourselves and the event when studying history in the classroom, but hearing the firsthand testimony of a survivor really brought the horrors of the Holocaust up close. Not only did Mala stress the importance of using our knowledge about the past to guide the future, but she really made me aware of the need to humanise the statistics we are given in our textbooks and focus on a period that may be easier to forget.” Megan Hassanali, Lower Sixth

Mrs H Jolliffe