Prisoner of War Cast a Spell

Year 9 pupils were spellbound by the magic tricks of a 91 year old magician on our recent Dimensions Day.

In a wonderful collaboration betwen young and old, elderly ex Far Eastern Prisoner of War Fergus Anckorn from Kent visited the school.

He was a crucial part of a learning experience where year 9 pupils worked across the curriculum to explore the appalling captivity of British soldiers in the Far East during the Second World War. They listened to Fergus describe the brutality the men were subjected to, his own escapes from death and uplifiting stories of courage and determination to survive.

Fergus was a member of the Magic Circle as a young man and used his vanishing tricks to encourage the Japanese to give him food.

In addition the girls studied the lack of nutrition in camp food; medical conditions arising from forced labour and made bamboo frames and art work related to the experience of imprisonment. The outcome will be displayed in a FEPOW Wirral Exhibition later this year. In the afternoon pupils presented drama sketches based on what they had learned during the day.

The project is part of a new and exciting link between the school and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine which was instrumental in caring for the starved and diseased soldiers when they came home at the end of the war.

Said Professor Geoff Gill from LSTM "It was a great day for all involved and we have secured lottery funding to ensure this sort of work continues. The medicine related to FEPOW is helping our soldiers in Afghanistan. The school will have its own link on our developing FEPOW website. It is very important for the young to be fully aware of the suffering in the past and it offers relevant study across a number of school subjects."

The girls were very engaged and are following up their day with creative writing experiences in English.