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“…it was like the queen coming to visit!”
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“…it was like the queen coming to visit!”
Location: Lambeth
Reminiscence Morning June 24th 2004
By Zoë Elford, Project Officer,
Learning through Landscapes in London
In 1924, Gilbert Khan, aged eight, arrived from Switzerland without a word of English and started at Bonneville Primary School where she was immediately befriended. Eighty years later, Fatima, also aged eight, arrived from Iran without a word of English and started at Bonneville, where she too quickly made new friends. The schools local heritage project brought Gill and Fatima together when they meet in their classroom on the morning of June 24th 2004.
A few weeks earlier Gill had a chance meeting with The Clapham Society, the local architectural protection group who are on the steering committee of the project. A few ‘phone calls later and the stage was set for the elegant Edwardian school in Clapham, South London, to host the reminiscence event.
Year 2 and year 5 classes interviewed the 2 “wonderful women” to learn about life in the school and playtimes in the 1920's. The children had enjoyed a preparatory lesson thinking up what questions they would like to ask Gill and Leonora. They wanted to quiz them about discipline at Bonneville and what it was like to be told off by their teacher, what they had for lunch, games that were popular and the toys that they played with, when they were pupils at Bonneville.
The year 2 teacher, Miss Auton, encouraged the children to use their communication and listening skills. During the interview the children noted answers and then undertook creative writing using the information they had learned from the ladies. Miss Auton says: “ the children’s enthusiasm to find out more about their local history has led to more interviews with adults who have been at Bonneville School in the ‘50’s and ‘70’s”
Zoë Elford Project Officer with Learning through Landscapes in London added,
“I felt the morning really captured the sense of how valuable and rich our daily round is – as long as we know of it. Just like stunning landscapes or beautiful architecture, our local heritage, to be found in buildings and people all around us, is also striking and vital. The interaction between the ladies and the children was very special – better than the queen coming to visit”
And summing up the morning Parent Teresa Watkins states:
“This morning the children were offered the opportunity to explore the layers of history around them and therefore explore their own identity. Understanding that talking to people who live down the road from where you live, lets you into the secrets of history is so exciting – it brings history to life. Finding the pulse of history is what makes it 100% relevant and the morning with Gill and Leonora was extremely special, the children found that pulse – just thinking about it brings back the Goosebumps I felt on that morning”
Leonora said that Bonneville had set her up with a “thirst for learning” which has been the hallmark through her entire life. Project Reclaim will ensure Bonneville continues to spark that thirst for learning the world of today’s Bonneville children.
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