The exhibition was designed entirely by the children who have been learning about World War Two and life for people at the time for ten weeks.
Artefacts and medals were donated by relatives for the pop-up, which was open to the children’s families and other classes in the school to celebrate their hard work.
Staff at the school said they were proud of the pupils’ effort to showcase everything they have been learning in the classroom.
“We are really proud of the authenticity of what you see here today,” said teacher, Andrew Gregory.
“This is about a blended experience of literacy, numeracy and other subjects all coming together with a real meaningful purpose.”
To add to the event, the children staged an air raid to replicate the experience of living through the War and serenaded their guests with a flashmob of Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again.
The students learned how to write in morse code, and the cafe was open with food and drink flowing. Of course, these were rationed so there was little hope of some milk in our reporter’s tea!
Learning in this fashion benefits everyone in the local community, as the school branches out and welcomes in local people to encourage learning in ‘real-world’ settings as well as classroom environments.
“To energize the children’s learning, we visited Cardiff Castle as well, so the children got to experience and walk the corridors of the World War Two bunkers as a part of this topic,”
“So to take our learning out of our own school and invite other people in really provides an audience and purpose for the children’s learning.”
“One of our key strengths as a school is keeping parents informed about the children’s progress and making sure they are a part of the children’s learning.”
“Some of the feedback from parents and carers has been that this approach to teaching and learning really needs to be shared widely with the Welsh Government to highlight the process and impact of fully engaged independent learning.”
The 80th anniversary of VE Day will be on Thursday, May 8 with the school set to join in celebrations to mark the day Germany officially surrendered to the allies.
The Mayor of Usk, Kay Peacock, said there would be lots of celebrations through the town to celebrate the special occasion.
“What the kids have done is amazing,” she said.
“It is just phenomenal what they have done in school and at home, but with VE Day coming up I am very proud of the children in Usk.”
“We [the Town Council] have big celebrations planned for that day as well.”
The event has provided the children with more answers and questions to further their understanding of their local community, with the afternoon serving as a fine advert for this collaborative approach to learning.