EVERY class and virtually every child in a secondary school has been actively involved in commemorating the First World War this week.

Pupils at Conyers School in Yarm, which was once Stockton Grammar School, took part in ‘Christmas Truce’ football matches earlier today (Tuesday, July 1).

The event was designed to mimic the famous match between British and German troops on the Western Front at Christmas 1914.

But that was just one of the events that is taking place at the school this week. Each class in the school has been renamed a ‘battalion’ and given the name of a soldier at the old grammar school who died in the war.

The lives of those fallen soldiers are being researched by the children.

Other tasks being completed by the students include recreating a trench, making rationed food from the time, creating a Yarm commemorative e-book in which students will research and write about local soldiers that served during the wars and making commemorative wreaths and drawings of interlocked hands will be strung across the school’s gates.

The events will culminate at a closing ceremony on Friday where there will be various performances from the students followed by the Last Post and a minute’s silence.

A spokeswoman for the school said: “The theme is very much one of remembering the sacrifices made by a previous generation. It has been moving to see everyone at the school get involved.”