All aboard for St Aldhelm’s Academy

All Aboard! St Aldhelm’s Academy Blue Skies Level 1 students had an amazing and informative day aboard HMS Victory on Wednesday.

WO1 Dickie Henderson gave a tour of the grand ship and told the group lots of facts about where sayings such as ‘Square meals’, ‘On the lash’, ‘Toe Rag’ and ‘Cat o’ Nine Tails’ originate. Each student had to listen out for facts and then practiced speaking out loud to each other about what they had learnt. The students discovered what makes a good and bad presentation and incorporated these skills into their talks. Callum, 13 said after the session that he realised that “It’s important not to mess about and wind people up.”

The group also found out that the ship’s crew of 850 sailors was completely reliant on teamwork and that each crew member had particular tasks to enable the ship to function efficiently. Lewis, also 13 when asked what he’d discovered during the day, he said that “Good teamwork meant that the canons on HMS Victory could be fired and reloaded in 90 seconds.”

Our guide for the day, WO1 Dickie Henderson said “Always a pleasure engaging with today’s youth, who, after all, are our future. Some really impressive young men and women; engaging and interested in what is, in essence, a museum. It’s rare for young people of that age group to be so engaging; I witnessed confidence, intelligence as well as passion within the group; some very clever and retentive people that impressed me with their answers when questioned on what I had already shared with them. Maybe there is a future historian within the group; who knows? Having the opportunity to do things like this, without having to join up with the masses, and for them, to be able to see that adults are interested in engaging with them, one on one, is ‘potentially’ a life changing memory they will keep. Who knows, they might return the favour to others when they’re older.”