That schools didn't observe the 2 minute silence for VE day today?

[madeofmore]

I've no idea if this is a usual thing or not for schools, but for the 80th anniversary of VE day I thought DS's secondary would take part in the reflections and remembrance of 80 years since the second world war. I don't have a military background or any agenda to want this, more that I am surprised there wasn't any taking part, nothing mentioned in assembly or anything else this week. There was an assembly and special lunch today in Ds2's primary, not sure if they also observed the 2 minute silence at 11.

We had a picnic with two WW2 evacuees at my school today. It was lovely, the VIPs were happy, the children were very well behaved and the parents really got into the spirit of traditional VE day food offerings. No 2 minute silence but lovely singing and poetry recitals. No idea if DS' school did anything though 🤷‍♀️

Just checked with my kids and they did the silence at school today.

Ours did

The annual silence on November 11th is enough.

We don't need memorial services and silences for D-Day, Dunkirk, VE Day etc every 5 years, we have a perfectly good national day of remembrance to reflect on such things.

DS’s high school did, DD’s high school didn’t. I don’t personally think it was needed tbh. DS started GCSEs today and I checked that his exam was not scheduled for that time.

My DC school had their Sports Day this morning - there was no 2 minutes silence. Neither of my DC have had any lessons about VE Day to my knowledge. It’s very poor in my opinion.

Do it at home OP. When you want.

Agreed.

Also agree with PP that it's all very performative.

This made me think of the story of the Japanese soldier who was hiding out in the jungle somewhere alone and never got the memo that the war had ended until the 1970s!!!

I honestly think it's pure irony anyone would do this when there are at least 60000 people who've been murdered under the guise of war by israel. We're still remembering what happened all those years ago and doing absolutely nothing about the children being starved to death in palestine right now

Nothing better than a bit of forced respect hey. The most respectful thing people can do is not vote reform.

@Superfoodie123 - heck, why restrict it to that one?

Yemen, Syrian civil war, Sudanese civil war, Myanmar civil war, Ethiopian civil war, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a drug war in Mexico that killed over 6,000 last year...
There is appalling conflict, violence and in some cases war crime happening all over the world.

Having one day to reflect on those who served in all wars, and those who lost their lives in whatever capacity, seems a better thing than "X many years since this battle or that one."

We have 11th November for the 2 minute silence for remembrance
Today is a celebration

Didn’t know there was one.

Most of the primary schools here dressed up for it or wore red white blue colours and observed the silence but our city was bombed heavily in the war and is a naval city so probably has more importance here.

If they live here and go to school here, they should observe the British traditions.

Remembering the 65,000,000 dead you mean? Do you think we should forget about these lives just because time has moved on? We can pay respect for those that fought for our country, it doesn't mean people don't care about other issues.

What traditions?

These multiple silences are a fairly recent thing. Throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and until 1995 there wasn't even a national silence on 11 November. There was a cenotaph service the Sunday after, maybe if you were in a COf E church (nb definitely not a catholic church) you'd do something that Sunday too, and that was it.

Then in 1995 John Major called for a big VE cosplay street party in May, which fell flat on its arse, and a silence on the 11th November itself, because he wanted to get Sun reader votes. Even then most people didn't observe it. Blair, newly elected in 1997, cottoned on to the idea of silences and we had one for Diana dying, then one for the 11th that year, then it's kind of snow-balled since then till we get to now, where we have silences for VE, armistice, Queen dying, King getting crowned, covid, Ukraine, Edna's hamster dying, someone in Wales feeling a bit sad, etc.

It's not some kind of eternal noble tradition - it's not even something that any UK citizens over the age of 50 have grown up with.

No ours didn't. They are incredibly strict on the 2 mins silence for Remembrance Day though. Made it clear that anyone not being respectful would be in lunchtime detention for a full week. And they did follow through.

That’s a really good point.

I don’t really understand why a silence was decided on. Silence is for respect VE Day is about celebration, not remembrance, surely?

Mind blown by some of the responses around British traditions and being British or otherwise.
As for silences being observed for past events; perhaps the significance of the anniversary was the reason to mark and remember this date for those who are still alive and did live through it and it may be the last for some many.
Don't forget, the repercussions of war were decades long in so many countries. My father, who was born just a year after the war ended, has shared his experiences of some of those repercussions but in just a few generations time that oral tradition of passing down stories and experiences will have gone.

It's really good to hear about the ways communities have shared something significant or special today. I especially love that older and younger generations could share for some of you.

I was mostly surprised and pretty disappointed that the opportunity for something like that was missed by son's school - and the simplest way to respect recent history was to observe a silence. Maybe it is meaningless without the understanding of why it matters to share something collectively as well. I do feel there is definitely some ignorance shown in a few replies that mention us or them or 'why bother?'

They observed it at DD’s school and made pretty much all the lessons about it today. Her school is quite mixed demographically, so I’m not convinced that has anything to do with it.

Mind blown by some of the responses around British traditions and being British or otherwise.

Are you quite young?

Maybe you don't remember a time when this just wasn't a thing.

This VE Day anniversary is one of the last where there will be a significant number of those who were in the forces still alive. Same as the 80th anniversary of D Day last year.

And on this occasion the Prime Minister did not leave early.