Remembrance Day 2023

For Remembrance Day 2023, there were Acts of Worship for the whole school.

During the Acts of Worship, we heard about fallen Balshavian’s who lost their lives in the first or second world wars. A team of students accompanied Dr Breen to the Lancashire County Archives on 1st November to research this information and you can read more about their visit below:

“We went to the Lancashire Archives with a list of names and nothing else for our WWI fallen and we came away with enough research to last us for a decade of Remembrance services and it is all thanks to you and your team at the Lancashire Archive”.

May focused on Harold Southworth and Howard Gleave; Ewan told us about Stanley Iddon and David Gold; Jess spoke movingly about Edgar Irving Robinson and Clarisse outlined the life of George Herbert Stratton who fought in both World Wars.

Ewan said, "On the trip to the archives, we had the opportunity to observe the old school admissions records, as well as the census records and military records of our fallen. Whatever time shall pass, we will remember them."

Jess said, "Thank you so much for the archive trip it was brilliant! I had a really great time. Lee really helped me understand the tools and websites to research about Edgar and I understood it really well considering I’d never done it before. He explained it in a way that made me understand it well and I really do think I have developed some researching skills and would love to come back again. Thank you, Jess."

Isabel said, "I absolutely loved the trip to the Lancashire Archives. The people who helped us were so lovely and you could tell how passionate they were about their work and this really rubbed off on me. It felt so rewarding to learn about our past students and instilled a sense of pride in me for them. The work that the archivists set up for us was perfect, it has made me want to go back to research my family history. Thank you so much for organising the trip and for setting up the Archivists group.”

Our students did a wonderful job with their research and readings and the results were incredibly moving.

The whole school observed a two minute silence on Friday, on Sunday students and staff represented Balshaw’s at the Leyland Remembrance parade and we had a number of our students who wore their cadet uniforms to school on Friday.

Thank you to everyone who took part in any way and to everyone for the wonderful respect that was shown throughout.

You can see some photographs from Friday and Sunday below:

There are also some photographs from the Remembrance Parade in Leyland originally posted in the LEP here.