Happily the only thing missing from Marlborough School’s wartime tea party was the bombing. Everything else, from swing music and gas masks, through to an Anderson shelter nearby – just in case – were present and correct.

For class four’s visitors the scene brought memories flooding back.

Members of Penryn WI, Falmouth Royal Naval Association and Penryn Royal British Legion were invited into the school for a VE Day tea party to mark the end of the youngsters’ topic this term, which has been based around the Michael Foreman book War Boy.

This has seen pupils learn all about the Second World War, which has even led to them dressing up as evacuees and getting on a train from Penryn Station.

In PE the children have learnt the ‘jitterbug’ dance and back in the classroom have practised wartime cooking, including stewing apples.

The fruit was then used in apple pies baked by the children, ready to be served alongside Victoria sponges at their tea party.

The food received a warm reception from the visitors, with Rosemary Goodchild from Penryn WI saying: “The apple pie we had [in the war] didn’t have as much sugar!”

She admitted to getting a little emotional as she remembered her time in the war.

Betty Osborne, also from the WI, said she had been evacuated from London as a child and had told the pupils about her experiences.

She said the tea party and her involvement in the project had been “absolutely wonderful”, adding that the children had been so enthusiastic in everything.

During the tea party pupils provided musical entertainment by singing two songs – one called the Land Song, in reference to the Land Girls they had been learning about, and the other the popular wartime tune Run Rabbit Run that they had devised actions for.

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