Schools from across the Ark network have been marking Remembrance Day with sombre and moving tributes to those killed in conflict over the last century.
Many of the schools marked the First World War centenary with moving poems, speeches and performances alongside the traditional two minutes’ silence.
Students at Ark Globe Academy released red balloons in memory of those killed in the First World War from all the countries that were involved in the conflict. Following the two minutes’ silence at 11am, Year 8 student Renee played The Last Post and the Head Boy and Girl read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.
Matt Jones, Principal, said: “Today is our moment to reflect on the sacrifice that people have made around the world and throughout history.”
Ark Academy students used the medium of drama and dance to commemorate the First World War with their moving piece based on ‘In Flanders Fields’. Ark Oval Primary Academy students wrote poems about World War One with the help of professional writer Neal Zetter. The completed poems will be displayed around the school.
Students from Ark Kings Academy and Ark Rose Primary Academy explored and marked local connections to the First World War, holding their two minutes’ silence at St Nicolas’ Churchyard in Kings Norton.
Students then laid a wreath on the grave of Second Lieutenant Harry L Barradell, a King's Norton local and one of the very first members of the RAF. Barradell, who enlisted in the first month of the war, died in April 1918, just one month before his 19th birthday.