Very strange (from me) - but I've just randomly noticed that WWI

[MyNewPassiveAggressiveNickname]

The 100 anniversary of its start will be next year!

I wonder what all the MN teachers on here are thinking of doing about it it terms of next years curriculum?

If the new primary curriculum goes ahead WWI isn't in the primary programme of study so technically primary schools shouldn't be "teaching" about it (madness!)

That's just crazy!

I saw David Cameron on telly last year talking about sending groups of Year 8s to see the war graves in N France to commemorate the centenary.

Here's information on the national commemorations. Like the Olympics or the Royal Wedding, it doesn't need to be on the curriculum to feature in activities at school.

Mine all visited the wars graves in around year 8 anyway.

Of course they're far too young now, but since my children are half English and half German the wars are going to feature somewhere in their education but I'm not quite sure how yet. Our wedding was just outside Dachau too and every summer we go back to the Gasthof/beergarden there and the route goes right past the concentration camp (which is still there.) It won't be long before the children start noticing it. It doesn't exactly blend in. (I'd rather they knocked it down. But obviously that's not going to happen.) Every time we go to Germany I'm surrounded by history books (in German) which give such a different perspective on the wars to the one I've always been taught. There I get to read daily accounts of what life was like in Germany during both wars and see photos of the Kaiser and his general staff visiting munitions factories. One thing is certain, my children's view of the wars is going to be at least a little different from their classmates'.

Learn could you answer a question my ds has on WWII (which he's very interested in). Are there WWII museums in Germany, and do they have planes in?
He wants to see a really good condition Me109, but most of the ones we've found here are ones that crashed and so are damaged.

Hope you don't mind me asking.

Sure there are take a look at this: WW2 PLANES at Deutsches Museum, Munich

Thank you!
I'll get him to watch that when he gets home. I know a lot of the u-boats were just used for target practice to get rid of them so they couldn't be used again, so I wasn't sure if similar happened to the planes.

Current history teaching would involve children looking at the "reliability" of historical sources and why the Allies version of history might differ from the German version (if studying WWI or II) so all children should have a balanced view but the proposed history curriculum doesn't leave time for an in depth study of this nature.

Presumably though that applies to any children who either have multiple nationalities and spend lots of time in all of their countries of origin, or who spend a significant proportion of their formative years somewhere else. The perspective that they grow up with will inevitably be different from that of a child who only grows up in one place. The German view of WWI is much richer than the view I've been exposed to of WWII which is shaped mostly (in former West Germany) by the Americans and a general anti militarism sentiment + remorse. I don't get the impression that my German family has examined the war at all, that includes those who fought in it.

No it applies to any child in a state school

I see. Yes. I was referring to the ability to hold multiple perspectives, rather than the breadth of the curriculum.

So was I