IWM London + the School of Rock

Today we spent three hours at the Imperial War Museum, London which is a free museum to visit.

 I loved the fact it had part of Berlin Wall outside!

The highlight of the trip was the 1st WW exhibition. The display meanders through uniform, cinema footage of munitions workers through to a trench with tank in it along with lots of interactive exhibits that kept the girls interested. It covers everything from the early recruiting posters and queues of happy young men eager to sign up, to the military tactics and medals given out to the dead. There are plenty of weapons and uniforms on show, and personal mementos from the soldiers. A lot of the exhibits are very imaginatively displayed and it brought home how horrendous it must have been. To be honest, I could have spent longer there!

We also spent some time in the smaller World War 2 exhibition which was full of interesting artifacts, including this boat used the Dunkirk evacuations.

We also enjoyed the Family in Wartime exhibition which explored the life of the Allpress family during the Second World War. As well as reading and listening to audio clips about how their lives were affected there was a model of their home and an Anderson shelter. I enjoyed seeing this letter from an evacuee, particularly the postscripts. I could imagine writing them myself as a child!

       

We didn't visit the Holocaust exhibition as the IWM recommends no children under 14 visit - something to go back to with I on her own! We also visited the cafe which had some very expensive and not not so child friendly cakes!

We then went to the School of Rock, an Andrew Lloyd Webber version of the 2003 Jack Black-starring film. The best moment of the show comes when the children rock out properly at the contest - playing their own instruments!