'All the Kings Boys' is a World War I Heritage Project being undertaken by a number of students from all year groups as part of our Enrichment timetable.

This is a heritage project with an international dimension in partnership with students and staff from schools in Geel, Belgium; Narbonne, France and Nuremberg, Germany. For King James students the project has several strands and will last from its starting point in September 2014 through into 2016.

To launch the project, two of our students accompanied by Mrs Connell, embarked upon a Battlefield Tour to Belgium and France along with 60 other schools from the UK. The group spent three days visiting the Memorial sites, Museums and Cemeteries across Flanders and The Somme. They then created a DVD of their interesting and emotional journey, which has been used in lessons both at King James I Academy and at Victoria Lane Academy, Coundon, who are also partners in this project.

Our aim is to create a lasting community heritage archive which will be accessible via a link on our website, a final exhibition and a new Memorial Garden at King James, through visits to the European Battlefields as well as commemorative sites and museums across the UK.

The names of those who were King James pupils and staff who fell in the Great War and who are remembered on our Memorial Plaque, gave us a place to begin. Our students are researching each name using the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and the Imperial War Museum archives to discover the regiments these men joined, where they fell, and the families they left behind.

The project also considers the impact the Great War had on the community of Bishop Auckland and its surrounding villages. Students will be researching their own family history and we will also be following the journey of two of our students who have very interesting personal links to World War I as they research further into their own German and Belgian heritage; John-Michael has great grandparents who fought against each other on opposing sides, while Amy's Belgian great grandparents played a significant role in the Belgian Resistance, rescuing and helping to repatriate hundreds of Belgian, French and English soldiers caught behind enemy lines.

Students in Years 10 and 11 recently met with the Landscape Artist who is working with Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd and King James on our ongoing new build and refurbishment, to submit ideas for a new memorial space within our proposed landscaping. The artist is now busy producing designs for the group to choose a final plan which will commemorate all pupils and staff from King James who we have lost in any situation since WWI.

Working alongside the DLI Museum, having attended workshops there, and talking with members of the local community, has allowed our students to gain a greater understanding of the impact of war on our area. Working collaboratively with pupils from our international partner schools, who are following a similar project route, has given our students an insight into how events in history such as the Great War are commemorated across Europe as well as the opportunity to compare the impact the war had on each other's communities.

The group will be meeting their international partners in Ypres in Belgium in October when they travel to the Battlefields for three days with Mr Middleton and Mrs Connell, who have been collaborating with staff from the international partner schools to ensure the project runs smoothly.

To assist us in this project, we would welcome any family or local history from our local and wider community. If you have any information you would like to share, please contact Mrs Connell or Mr Middleton by calling Main Reception on 01388 603 388.