Remembrance 2023
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
Pupils and staff have marked this year’s Armistice Day and Remembrance with assemblies and discussions, and the annual Remembrance Service on Sunday 12 November.
In the junior school, Year 6 pupils led a Remembrance assembly for those in Year 2 and above, while a whole-school assembly in the senior school included moving testimonies from several pupils who recounted events and memories of WWII from family members.
A PSHEE programme was delivered throughout the senior school during the week. The session covered the meaning of remembrance, and who and why we remember, including a spotlight on the 226 Colfeians who lost their lives in WWI and WWII. It also particularly focused on raising awareness of the poignant history of the poppy as the symbol of Remembrance.
The Colfe’s Combined Cadet Force Squadron led the annual Remembrance Service on Remembrance Sunday at the Old Colfeian Rugby Club Horn Park ground. Alongside Headmaster Richard Russell, Captain Richard Roberts CO of Colfe’s CCF, Major Christopher Cherry and representatives from the Old Colfeian Rugby Club, the junior and senior school captains laid wreaths at the memorial, followed by a two-minute silence.
Particular commendations go to Year 9 pupil Imy, whose progress as a piccolo player in the Sea Cadet Corp Band goes from strength to strength: following her participation as the youngest member of the Massed Sea Cadet Corp Band at the Trafalgar Day commemorations, she played in the Lord Mayor’s Show on Armistice Day, and she is now looking forward to joining a band course with the Royal Marines band.
Imy said: “Playing in all the ensembles in the Colfe’s music department definitely gave me the confidence to just slot in with the different Sea Cadet bands. Colfe’s CCF also gave me the skills that made playing and marching in a larger, older band much easier too.”
