Never Such Innocence is dedicated to educating young people about the First World War, its impact and legacy, through poetry, art and theatre. Our education programme seeks to reach as many schoolchildren across the British Isles as possible and aims to ensure our
Never Such Innocence is dedicated to educating young people about the First World War, its impact and legacy, through poetry, art and theatre. Our education programme seeks to reach as many schoolchildren across the British Isles as possible and aims to ensure our young people feel informed, included and inspired by the centenary activity taking place nationally over the next four years.
A key focus for Never Such Innocence is the Commonwealth and we are keen to emphasise that the Great War was indeed a World War. Therefore, we want to encourage young people to embrace and engage with their shared history and heritage and understand the sacrifices made so that we could live together today.
There are three main elements to the educational programme:
- An annual poetry and art competition for schools: full details can be found here
- The distribution of the Never Such Innocence play script to schools across the country to perform; full details can be found here
- A travelling, interactive workshop to supplement the script and help engage young people with the material: subject to funding
Never Such Innocence is pleased to have launched its first national poetry and art competition alongside the official opening of Marylebone Boys’ School in September 2014. The competition will run annually for primary and secondary schools until 2018.
We have produced a resource pack to stimulate responses to the competition, available here as a free download. The resource explores the different stages of the First World War and aims to provide young people with an objective and insightful account of the events that unfolded between 1914 and 1919, and to highlight the poetic and artistic legacy that stemmed from the War. The resource has been designed so pupils can select the topics that interest them most and will be updated every year to include new content.
We have partnered with the Battlefield Tours Programme, Cavell Nurses' Trust, Glen Art, JCG Foundation, Mosaic and The Curzon Institute to promote the Never Such Innocence poetry and art competition across the British Isles.
Registered Charity Number 1156148 - Company Number 8680319