My Clever Kids Evacuee Tag - World War 2 - Replica

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Broadly speaking the four-day official exodus worked surprisingly well. The real problems came in the reception areas where the Government had left arrangements for the children's arrival and care to local authorities, with little more than an injunction to do their best.

Please be aware that it may not be appropriate for the children in your class to independently research further into this topic due to the harrowing information and images freely available on the internet. Understandably perhaps, those with only good evacuations cherish their memories, and are irritated by those who seem only to recall the gloomier side. The unhappiness of others somehow besmirches their own idyllic picture. Using this lesson plan in class will help your class understand the evacuation process that took place in World War 2. This lesson plan will give your KS2 students an insight into what life was like during evacuations in WW2 - follow the other lesson plans in this series for more ideas on how to teach about WW2.Arrangements for the first day were limited to those areas for which transport plans have been previously worked out. It has already been possible to extend the arrangements to a few other areas.' Evacuees took their gas mask and a bag of things for the journey, which included food, washing items and clothes. This will be followed by evacuation of young children accompanied by their mothers or by some other responsible person, expectant mothers, blind and any cripples who have received instructions that they will be moved.'

The children who were evacuated were known as evacuees and the families they stayed with in the countryside were called host families. Know your class: some content may be too upsetting for some children, due to experiences in their own past. It was a brave little regiment, marching in step, which left Ashburnham School, Lots Road, Chelsea, for Walham Green Station where they entrained for Wimbledon. One thousand children are being evacuated from the Chelsea area. Others, however, were beaten, mistreated and abused by families who didn't want them and didn't care about them. The painful experience of John Abbot, evacuated from Bristol, reflects the darker side. His rations were stolen by his host family, who enjoyed good food whilst John was given a diet of nothing more than mashed potatoes. By the end of the war, over 1 million schoolchildren and their teachers had been evacuated. Over 500,000 mothers with their infant children and a number of disabled or elderly people.

What happened when evacuees arrived at their destination?

On their evacuation day, children would usually travel to their destination by train. They had to wear an identity label and take their gas mask, ration book, identity card and food for the journey. They needed to take clothes and toiletries in a bag or suitcase that they could carry. Parents were given a list of items that their children needed to take with them but many families were not able to send everything on the list with their children.