Duration: Dependent on package choice (see below for further details)

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I am delighted to introduce our first workshop for secondary schools.

 

'Operation Roseland' is an opportunity for your students to participate in a unique Second World War history workshop. This is something completely new to schools and offers a different perspective of life on The Home Front during the war years.

 

The workshop is based on real experiences of those who lived through it and provides an opportunity for your students to stand in their shoes. They will be taking part in what was a real exercise carried out by Invasion Committees in parts of Cornwall in February 1943!  

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‘Operation Roseland’ puts your students at the centre of a real-life situation in the event of a German invasion of Britain in 1943. They will take on the role of an actual Invasion Committee, which had been set up at the time and tasked with a number of incidents relating directly to the possibility of a German advance.

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The decisions they make could have serious consequences for their local community, the military and the success of the German invasion. Using ‘official guidance’ from the time, the class will be split into various committees and will need to work together to decide on what action they will take in response to each incident.

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Their responses will be judged and given a score after each incident. At the end of the workshop, their points will be totalled and they will discover whether their committee stood up to the test against the German invasion.

 

It’s new so why should you trust it?

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Although ‘Operation Roseland’ is new to schools, it’s not a new activity. As part of the VE Day 80 commemorations in 2025, we ran ‘Operation Roseland’ as a commemorative event in the village of Probus with over 40 people participating.

It was a huge success and achieved what we had set out to do – to honour the volunteers on The Home Front who very often get overlooked.

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We were featured on BBC Radio Cornwall. You can listen to what James Churchfield and Naomi Kennedy thought of the event and hear the full interview about 'Operation Roseland' by clicking the play buttons on the following audio players.

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We received the following feedback from participants:

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“This exercise has made us really stop and think and realise how people had to react. Really interesting to focus on the domestic side of the war. Thank you.”

 

“An amazing evening! Informative and thought-provoking. This needs to move on from Probus…schools, and other villages…Very professional. Thank you.”

 

“Take this into schools!”

 

“Mind blowing! Fascinating.”

 

“A great evening where we could imagine what people had to plan and think about during war time. Brings history alive.”

 

I'm looking forward to providing secondary school students with their own immersive experience to enable them to gain a deeper understanding of life on The Home Front during the Second World War.

 

Meeting the National Curriculum

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As well as developing important skills in co-operation, teamwork and decision-making, the ‘Operation Roseland’ workshop meets the National Curriculum for History at Key Stage 3 in the following ways:

 

• History Curriculum Aim: ‘gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.’

• ‘Pupils should be taught about: challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day.’

 

‘Operation Roseland’ also offers many cross curricular benefits which relate directly to the National Curriculum Attainment Targets for Key Stage 3 in the following subjects:

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Geography: 

‘Geographical skills and fieldwork 

• build on their knowledge of globes, maps and atlases and apply and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom and in the field

• interpret Ordnance Survey maps in the classroom and the field, including using grid references and scale, topographical and other thematic mapping, and aerial and satellite photographs.’

 

 

English:

Spoken Language:

‘Pupils should be taught to understand and use the conventions for discussion and debate, as well as continuing to develop their skills in working collaboratively with their peers to discuss reading, writing and speech across the curriculum.’

 

‘Pupils should be taught to:

• speak confidently and effectively, including through:

• using Standard English confidently in a range of formal and informal contexts, including classroom discussion.’

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What you and your students will get.

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When you buy one of our packages your students will be given some reading material to be completed before the workshop takes place. The closer the proximity the reading is done to the workshop the better. Ideally, this would be in the session before but I appreciate this may not be possible. In this case, the reading material could be set as a piece of homework. It should take around 40-45 minutes to complete and involves reading the ‘official guidance’ to Invasion Committees and answering some questions about what the students have read. I will also provide them with a link to an online map along with some grid references in order to help them understand the locality of the village they will be serving in 1943 and where it sits in the wider geography of the area. These tasks provide the contextual understanding of the workshop and the challenges they will undertake in their groups on the day.

 

 

Package Options

 

I offer 4 different packages to accommodate time pressures that school lesson times may present to teachers. Packages 1, 2 and 3 are “express sessions” in which the students face a continual time pressure of 5 minutes per incident to complete the workshop (it is therefore extremely important the reading task before the session has been completed properly). Package 4 provides a little more time for the students to reflect on and discuss each incident in more detail before making their decisions on the actions they will take.

 

Pressurised decision-making in a small amount of time is a good skill to learn but so is taking time to reflect on the information you have before rushing into a decision. Ultimately, it is up to the you as the teacher to decide which package best meets your needs in terms of session time and the decision-making skills you wish to help your students develop.

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The package options are as follows:

 

Package 1:

1 hour (£60 in person or £40 online)

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This is the shortest of my package offers and requires the students to work quickly throughout the session. After the introduction, they will complete 7 incident scenarios. These will be scored by the students themselves. I will take these scores and produce a short report to give general feedback and confirm their level of success. This report will be emailed to the teacher after the workshop has ended. This can then in turn be fed back either in class or via their homework/communication platform online on the same day by the teacher.  

​Package 2

1 hour 15 minutes (£70 in person or £50 online)

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This package requires the students to complete 9 incident scenarios. These will be scored by the students themselves. Feedback will be provided in the same way as package 1.

 

Package 3

1 hour 25 minutes (£80 in person or £60 online)

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This package requires the students to complete the full 11 incident scenarios. These will be scored by the students themselves. Feedback will be provided in the same way as package 1 and 2.

 

Package 4

2 hours (£120 in person or £90 online)

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This package requires the students to complete the full 11 incident scenarios. The timings of these scenarios will vary based on the seriousness of the situation and how many decisions need to be made to resolve the problems. This will allow more time for group discussion before they arrive at their decisions. Scenario times will vary between 5 and 8 minutes. These will be scored by the students themselves. Feedback will be provided in the same way as package 1, 2 and 3. Bonus points will be awarded for creating notices required for the scenario. 

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Online or in person workshop delivery

 

My packages are flexible so allow for online delivery if this is preferred by the school. If this is something that would work best for you, a teacher in the room will need to take on more of the responsibility for managing the class during the session.

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Online delivery will take place on Zoom.

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​Optional mini museum (in person delivery only) – additional £40

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