A young Historian has embraced his love of History to produce a series of outstanding projects that have really impressed his teachers.
Myles Fairhurst, a Year 7 student at Richmond School and Sixth Form College, is passionate about History, especially World War 1 and 2. This keen interest has led him to consistently create exceptional work of a standard that a student two or three years older would produce. Eleven-year-old Myles portrays his love of History through a number of mediums, including fantastic creative writing, tremendous artwork and, most recently, through film.
Myles’ started his film, which is called ‘The Lost Soldier’, during the Christmas holidays. Myles plays the main role and he has just released a trailer which immediately evokes tension and suspense, depicting a World War 1 soldier who finds himself lost in the open countryside. The trailer can be enjoyed at https://photos.app.goo.gl/9RxhpDcbBirDEc8F9 Myles is creating this film on his own initiative after being inspired by his after-school Drama Llamas club’s production in December. The group were working on a World War 1 piece about the Christmas Truce and Myles provided a number of ideas, as well as bringing in a soldier’s script which was used as a stimulus. He then went a step further with his own video project.
Myles said: “I had lots of fun making and editing the trailer. I am really interested in the history of the World Wars and received a WW1 soldier’s uniform for Christmas. Having worked on the Christmas Truce production in school it gave me the idea to create my own film. For the trailer, I put on my uniform and filmed near a local farm, close to where I live in Aycliffe Village, with my Dad’s iphone and gimble to film it. Having the replica uniform really helped me to get into the character of a lost soldier. I will be releasing my film later in the year, as I have a lot of work to do on the narration and story-boarding to put together the sequence of the film.”
Miss Paul, leader of the Drama Llama theatre group, said: ”Myles has taken his love for Drama and combined this with his keen interest in World War 1 history to create a video. His fabulous trailer is just a taste of what is to come and I can’t wait to see the video, which I know will be superb. What a way to go the extra mile.”
As well as producing his own film, Myles created the most stunning piece of artwork of a World War 1 soldier, which was a focal point of a display in the school library during November to mark Armistice Day. Myles was inspired by the artwork of Martin Brown, the illustrator of the Frightful First World War books in Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories collection and said: “Art is one of my favourite subjects and I enjoy creating artwork from both world wars but I like the style of a First World War solider, especially the traditional Tommy helmets. When I was drawing this soldier I imagined that he was writing a letter home to his family to tell them that he was fine and needed more chocolate! I also like to draw characters for my stories that I write.”
Myles submitted his first History project to school even before he had started! As part of the primary transition work the school produces, ahead of students joining in Year 7, Year 6 students were tasked with creating a Victorian portrait. Myles went above and beyond the brief, producing a five-page Victorian newspaper packed full of interesting historical information, all written in an engaging style.
Jenna Potter, Headteacher, concluded: “I have been blown away by the way Myles keeps surprising and impressing us with his superb work. His attention to detail and the way he constantly looks to find ways of raising the bar is commendable. I knew he was going to be a student who was passionate about his studies as soon as he started. His transition work demonstrated our school values of creativity, independence and excellence, and he even recorded a short video of himself – complete with cravat and top hat – reading Tennyson’s poem, ‘The Eagle’. This was a creative and inspiring start to his Year 7 English work and he continues to delight and impress us with his projects.”