Southend Schools
 Festival of Remembrance

Executive Summary

SSFR is an inclusive Heritage Lottery funded project working with children and volunteers
from all parts of the community in Southend-on-Sea and Rochford to produce exhibitions,
performances, learning materials, online resources and classroom sessions to explain the relevance of WW1 Remembrance with the younger generation in Southend and to make local history of this period understandable and memorable to everyone who took part.

As well as producing a successful giant exhibition of ceramic poppies, inspired by The Wave, SSFR has worked closely with 5 schools to bring to life the stories of the people of Southend from the 1914-1919 era. During World War 1, our society changed in ways that still have repercussions today and SSFR has worked with our 5 ambassador schools to explore that time and learn about some of the people who lived, loved, worked and died in Southend at that time.

SSFR was funded by a £59,900 National Lottery grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The Southend Schools Festival of Remembrance (SSFR) ran between May 2017 and July
2018 and has left a legacy of information and understanding around WW1 Remembrance
that will help more people engage with this important part of our heritage.

362 classroom sessions run by project team with over 3500 children taught about WW1. We estimate 5,000 children were directly part of this project. 84 classes came to see the exhibition – 2,000+ children joined us on the School Days. 256 CWGC (WW1) graves were honoured by the children in 4 separate ceremonies, supported by the TRBL, ESFH, Royal Artillery Association and local churches.

1450 parents have been directly reached with performances, dedications and exhibitions.
We know for certain that at least 4,000 people visited the site but as it was an open event, free to everyone, we have no way of accurately counting how many people came.

26 SSFR generated films – viewed over 1,118 times. 4,650 views on the project website & 3,000+ project photographs (we stopped counting!) 110,000 views on BBC News Online
piece and been widely reported in local and social media and in parliament.

We have had an amazing response from our volunteer community with over 120 people
giving their time to the Southend Schools Festival of Remembrance and generating 4194
hours of volunteer time which has added value to the project of approximately £97,521.