What follows is my notes for a primary school assembly which will then lead into an act of remembrance. It is my belief that children have a huge part to play in remembrance, remembering and in being channels for hope, peace and change. So I offer this tonight for all who have been affected by war and for those children who I met back in 1994, that if you are alive and where ever you may now be, you now know peace.
What I wanted to talk to you about today was children,
children not just like you but you as well.
You see when I was in the army serving in a war, I met lots
of children, here are some of them
They were not unlike you guys, if you look at the photo they
were holding cans of pop that we had managed to get hold of for them. Some of
them are also holding pencils, shall I tell you why? Because these children had
had to leave their homes and schools very suddenly because the war literally
arrived in their towns. They had to run with their families to somewhere safer.
Once they got somewhere they could be safe they wanted to be normal children
again, and for them normal meant going to school, learning and playing with new
friends. They were very nervous about being in a new school, because for some
of them it meant being in a new town and even a new country. You see these
children became people we call refugees.
Now the war I am talking about was in a place called Bosnia
and it was 21 years ago. Children though have been refugees for a long time
before that, every war causes people to run away to safer places, or refuges,
which is where the word refugees comes from. Refugees trust and hope that when
they get somewhere safer, the people who live there will care for them,
love them and be friends with them. The
pencils that the children are holding in the photograph were sent to me by my
old primary school from when I was your age. The children there collected them
and notebooks and sent them to me, so that
I could give them to the children I met who were refugees.
Why? It seems like a silly thing doesn’t it, but it was super
important; the pencils and notebooks meant that the refugee children in Bosnia
could go to school and have lessons; it gave them hope at a time when they were
scared and frightened. It let them know that other children cared about them
and it meant that the children sending the pencils could feel that they were
helping out those refugee children.
Today there are sadly still wars going on across the world.
Children are still having to leave everything they know and set off on journeys
to places where they can be safe. They are filled with hope that when they get
there they will be met and loved.
So what has this got to do with today, remembrance day,
armistice day or as we sometimes call it Poppy day.
Well these poppies that we wear are a symbol of remembrance,
you all know that. We remember those people who fought in wars to defend us
from great evil. But what you might not know is that these poppies are also a
symbol of hope. You see in the war 100 years ago, the battlefields were being
bombed so much that nothing could grow, no wheat, no grass, nothing except for
these teeny tiny little red flowers that despite the bombs and the guns, grew
across the battlefields. They gave the soldiers hope that things could survive
and grow.
There is a famous poem that starts:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
That poem was written
after World War One. In the fields where the war was fought the only thing that
would grow was the poppy. The poppy as a flower reminded people of the
importance of life, it became a symbol of hope on the battlefield.
The poem was written by a Canadian doctor, John McCrae, who
was in World War One and saw the poppies growing. He worked in an Army field
hospital and tried to save the lives of those who were injured. But he also saw
a lot of soldiers die. He wrote the poem to tell people not to forget those
that had been killed. The poppy inspired people who believed that those who had
fought should not be forgotten and they started to wear a poppy at the time of
the anniversary of when the fighting in the war had stopped.
But remember what the poppy also signifies, it means hope,
the importance of life.
This is where you guys come in, each one of you. For each one
of you is a symbol of hope, you remind us of the importance of life. Each one
of you has the potential to be a poppy all year round. To be a living breathing
symbol of hope. Whenever you welcome a new person to your class, you give them
hope. Whenever you do your amazing displays, your class and achievement
assemblies, you are a reminder to all of us that you are the hope for each of
us. I am pretty certain that each of the 66 boys whose names are on our school
war memorial, were each a symbol of hope when they were here as pupils. We
remember them today, their families and all of those for whom war has meant
loss and pain. But we also look to the poppy symbol as one of hope, and to you
as our unique and individual poppies.
I’ll let you into a secret, sometimes us grown-ups lose sight
of hope, we forget that things can grow in even the roughest of times. So, how
about we remind them!
Hold up Poppy grenade
This is a grenade, a sort of bomb that was used in war. But
this grenade is very different! It is full of poppy seeds, I’m going to give it
to Mr Thompson and ask him with his team to find a space in the front garden of
the school and let it explode. So that in the months ahead not just we here in
the school are thinking of the symbol of remembrance and hope but so we can
remind all those in Heaton about it as well.
When we go outside today to hold our act of remembrance, we
will also be reminding the people who live amongst us, that remembrance and
hope go hand in hand, but are led by you, our very own unique poppies.
One last thing, 21 years ago I left Bosnia for the last time,
I don’t have the faintest idea what happened to those children in the photo.
Sometimes when I am remembering them, I get sad. What helps me, is coming here
into the school and helping out with you. All of you. Your kindness and care
for each other and one another is inspiring, it gives hope. So from this old
soldier to this field of growing poppies, thank you, and may you always be the
hope for us all.
