“ Whole year group seminar on the life and work of a 1st World War Infantryman. An excellent spellbinding experience that involves and challenges – developing a constant stream of reflective opportunities that links the key moral questions to social and cultural contacts. Pupil response was tangible – fear and exhilaration are followed by knowledge and understanding developed in a real context. The numeracy and physics of the nature of war is linked with the deployment of logistics in an economic context that sets the issue as a real human experience. Pupils were in the palm of his hand, they were treated to an excellent historical experience that improves significantly pupils knowledge, understanding and interest. Excellent teaching and learning is raising standards.” 

Six years experience as a museum curator has provided Andrew with many opportunities to assist with INSET training and a variety of museum work and exhibitions.

 

An interest in the history of battlefield topography led to his appointment as Cartographer for the Western Front Association, a position which oversees the management and access to the Association’s trench map archive.

 

He is currently working with other team members on a long term project cataloguing and digitalising the Imperial War Museum’s First World War trench map archive.

Andrew at the Forts of Verdun and explaining the Vickers machine gun at the Imperial War Museum Duxford

Skylark Battlefield Tours was established in 1998 to provide schools and higher education groups the opportunity to visit, investigate and interpret the battlefields of the First World War with expert guidance and knowledge.

 

Andrew Spooner has been researching the history of this period for over twenty five years and conducting battlefield tours since 1988. He regularly lectures at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford and his work in schools and museums providing living history on the Great War is well known and respected.

His skill in simply bringing history to life is best illustrated by a recent Ofsted report on his work with Y9+ students

His extensive knowledge of the First World War has led to a variety of roles as historical consultant for television documentaries, school resource books and internet material. Improving teachers knowledge with special days in the field for the Historical Association. Advice and training for outreach educational officers at IWM Duxford.