Every November, schools across Yorkshire fall quiet at 11am. Pupils stand in the hall or by the classroom window, poppies pinned to jumpers, and hold the two-minute silence.
It is one of the most important moments in the school year. It is also one of the hardest to make meaningful for children.
When I was a classroom teacher, I felt this every year. The pupils were respectful. They knew the silence mattered. But for a nine-year-old, the First World War can feel impossibly far away. It happened more than a century ago, to people in black-and-white photographs, in places they have never seen.
This year, Remembrance Sunday falls on 8 November and Armistice Day on Wednesday 11 November. In this post I want to share how our WW1 VR workshop helps pupils close that gap, so the silence means something personal to them.
Why WW1 is so hard to teach
The facts of the First World War are not the difficult part. Children can learn dates, countries and the name of the Western Front. What they struggle with is the human scale.
What was it actually like to stand in a trench? How close was the enemy line? Why would anyone volunteer? Textbooks and photographs can describe these things, but they ask pupils to imagine a world with almost nothing familiar to hold on to.
That is where virtual reality earns its place. In a headset, a pupil is not looking at a picture of a trench. They are standing in one, turning their head to see how narrow it is, how high the walls rise and how little sky is visible. The questions that follow are different. Instead of "When did it start?" pupils ask "How did they sleep here?" and "Were they scared?"
Those are the questions that turn Remembrance from a ritual into understanding.
What happens in our WW1 VR workshop
I bring everything into school: the headsets, the content and the lesson structure. There is nothing for staff to set up. Each session follows the same simple shape.
Setting the scene. We start with a short, age-appropriate introduction: why the war began, who fought, and where the Western Front was.
Stepping into the past. Pupils put on the headsets and explore recreated First World War environments, including life in the trenches. I guide them through what they are seeing and pause to ask questions.
Talking about it. Headsets off, we discuss what surprised them, what they noticed and how soldiers might have felt. This is often the most powerful part of the session.
Bringing it home to Remembrance. We finish by linking what they have seen to the poppy, the two-minute silence and the war memorials in their own town or village.
The experience is designed to inform and to build empathy, not to shock. Pupils see the conditions soldiers lived in without graphic content.
Where it fits in the curriculum
The workshop works for both primary and secondary history.
KS2 History: a study of an aspect or theme in British history beyond 1066, and a local history study. WW1 is one of the most popular choices for both.
KS3 History: challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world from 1901 to the present day, which includes the First World War.
English and oracy: the discussion afterwards feeds naturally into diary entries, letters home, poetry and spoken reflection.
Why it matters in Yorkshire
The First World War is not distant history here. It is written on the memorials in almost every Yorkshire town and village.
The Pals battalions are a powerful starting point. Men from the same streets, workplaces and football clubs joined up together in Leeds, Bradford, Barnsley, Sheffield and Hull. Many fought side by side on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, on 1 July 1916, when some of those battalions suffered devastating losses in a single morning.
The war also reached the Yorkshire coast directly. On 16 December 1914, German warships shelled Scarborough and Whitby, killing civilians at home.
When pupils learn that soldiers came from their own streets, the names on the local memorial stop being a list. They become people. I encourage every school to visit their nearest memorial after the workshop.
Handling Remembrance with care
War is a sensitive subject, and every class is different. Some pupils have family in the armed forces. Some have personal experience of conflict or loss. As a former teacher of 12 years, I plan every session with that in mind.
Content is pitched to the age group, with no graphic imagery.
Pupils can take the headset off at any time, and nobody is made to continue.
I talk with the class teacher beforehand about anything I should be aware of.
The discussion focuses on empathy, courage and the cost of war, not on glorifying it.
Getting pupils talking
The best Remembrance lessons are the ones where pupils talk. VR gives them something real to talk about. Questions that work well after the session:
What surprised you most about the trenches?
How do you think a soldier felt the night before going into battle?
Why do you think people still hold a silence more than 100 years later?
If you could ask a soldier one question, what would it be?
These questions build exactly the kind of spoken reasoning that schools are working hard to develop.
Book your WW1 workshop
Remembrance does not have to stop on 11 November. Many schools teach the First World War through the spring term too, and a workshop at the start of a topic gives pupils a shared experience to build on for weeks.
If you would like a WW1 VR workshop for your school this year, get in touch here or browse our full workshop library.
We will remember them.
