Remembrance Day: Bishop's Stortford schoolchildren read out poignant poems at town's Armistice Day service

School pupils joined the annual tribute to the fallen on Armistice Day, reading out poignant poems to the gathered throng at Bishop's Stortford's war memorial on Friday morning.

After the Last Post bugle call was played, words from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen were read and two minutes' silence was observed, six children from Thorn Grove Primary took turns to read out words from adapted war poems written on the back of home-made poppies.

They ended their readings with the line: "This is our commitment to be the best that we can be."

Teacher Kathy Canavan revealed the school had built its own cenotaph, based on the one in central London, and part of their learning about the subject was to understand what a cenotaph was.

Pupils from Summercroft Primary in Plaw Hatch Close on the Parsonage estate were also present and read out their own poems after the ceremony, which Year 5 teacher Dave Wilson said were based on "trench life" and the experiences of those on the home front.

Children from Windhill21 Primary were at the ceremony as part of a term immersed in the history of the First World War, including a visit to Belgium to see the battlefields of the Somme and the commemorative memorial at Thiepval. A school spokeswoman said pupils were clearly moved to read out the names of the young men on the memorial whose stories they had become so familiar with.

Birchwood High School held a tribute outdoors at its Parsonage Lane campus, where clarinetist Matthew Reader played Last Post.

Armistice Day marks the end of the First World War. Two minutes' silence is held at 11am on November 11, when in 1918 hostilities in the conflict ended.

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