Frensham Heights Remembers: A School Community United in Peace

On Tuesday 11th November, Frensham Heights joined people across the country in observing a two-minute silence at 11am to honour those who have fallen in conflict. This year carries special significance, marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War, and our school community came together to reflect with dignity, respect, and hope.

In a powerful visual tribute, students and staff gathered on the school grounds to form the word PEACE, each person raising an oversized poppy towards the sky as an aerial photograph captured the moment. The image, shared below, symbolises both remembrance and our collective wish for a more peaceful future.

The ceremony began with George Spencer playing the Last Post on trumpet, signalling the start of the silence. As the clear notes rang out, our thoughts turned to those who, in the words so often spoken on this day, are “forever young” - those who gave their tomorrow for our today.

Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen, first published in The Times in 1914, remains as poignant now as it was more than a century ago. The familiar verse was spoken at our ceremony as it is at commemorations nationwide:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe will remember them.

These words were read aloud by Junior School teacher and former soldier Clive Esterhuysen, representing Britain and her former Empire. His reading was followed by a moving multilingual tribute from our international students, who repeated the verse in their native languages. Students from France, Spain, Germany, Romania, Ukraine, China, Korea, and Russia spoke with clarity and emotion, offering a powerful reminder of the global impact of war and Frensham’s long tradition of supporting those affected by conflict.

To conclude the ceremony, every student and member of staff placed their poppy in our garden of remembrance. The poppies encircled a metal sculpture created by a student in 2002, a piece intentionally designed to rust over time, symbolising the fading but never forgotten presence of those who laid down their lives far from home.

At Frensham Heights, remembrance is not only about honouring the past but also about inspiring compassion, unity, and peace in the generations to come.