Greenmount School Visit 29 June 2016

Year 5 from Greenmount Primary School visited Ryde Cemetery with their teacher Mr Alabie and several other school helpers on 29 June 2016. The visit was part of their Victorian studies this term.

The children moved around 4 activities. They had a Guided Tour of the Cemetery, reading maps which showed how the Cemetery grew as the town of Ryde developed throughout the Victorian period. This was followed with a variety of mapping activities and viewing the History of Ryde Cemetery exhibition. David Earle and Kate MacDonell led these activities.

The Millionaires’ Row Activity, led by Ann Barrett and Arthur Williams, proved very popular with the children as they located graves of eminent Victorians and then conducted research using computers and also a variety of written and photographic source materials.

Dave Bushell led the Cross Hunt, identifying lots of different crosses and discussing how symbolism was so important in Victorian times. The children came up with lots of additional discussion as well as noting the crosses.

Refreshments were served half way through the morning and many thanks to Sommer West for taking charge of this.

A big thank you to Hilary Lloyd and Cherry Farley, first time RSHG Volunteer Helpers for School Trips. They joined in with everything and I’m sure they are looking forward to being Group Leaders next time!

The weather, whilst hardly blazing June, was warm and fairly dry until the last half hour when heavier rain made being outside too unpleasant. We all adjourned to the Learning Centre and lunch was a little earlier than planned.

The children were so enthusiastic and came up with very interesting questions. It is always a pleasure to have Greenmount pupils visit us and the staff of the school and parents of the children should feel very proud of them.