Teacher Packs · VE Day 2026
Friday 8th May 2026 · VE Day 81

VE Day is Friday.
No prep. Pick what fits.

A drop-in classroom plan for English primary schools — assembly script, KS1 bunting, KS2 letters from 1945, the national 2-minute silence, and a short reflective close. Free, no signup, runs as-is.

5
Activities
~50min
Total Run-time
Reception → Year 6
Age Range

VE Day 81 falls on Friday 8th May 2026 — the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, when the war in Europe officially ended in 1945. This isn't a bank holiday in 2026 (that's Monday 4 May), so the date itself is a regular school day — but it lands at the end of a half-term week, which makes it a natural moment to stop and mark.

If it slipped past your half-term planning, here are five drop-in activities you can run as-is or hand to a colleague — assembly, KS1 bunting, KS2 letters, the national 2-minute silence, and a short reflective close. Total run-time across all five is about 50 minutes if you do everything; pick what fits your timetable. Everything below is the full content — there's nothing to download, no resources to print (unless you want to).

Churchill — the broadcaster of VE Day Churchill — whose 3pm BBC broadcast on 8th May 1945 told the country the war in Europe was over.
How it slots into Friday 8th May

Whole-school moments & class-level activities

Whole-school — fixed times
~9:00am
Assembly — "the moment Britain heard the news"
Whole school in the hall. Run the assembly slideshow + read the script aloud. ~10 min.
12:00pm
National 2-minute silence
Wherever the children are at midday. Mark with a bell or chime over the tannoy.
12:02pm
Reflective close — "it isn't over for everyone"
Optional. 2–3 minutes after the silence. Read the script.
In your classroom — whenever fits your timetable
15–20 min
KS1 — bunting & thank-you cards
Each KS1 teacher slots this in whenever it fits — morning lesson, after lunch, end of day.
25–30 min
KS2 — letters from 1945
Each KS2 teacher slots this in. Doubles as a quiet writing / English lesson.
Whole school · 10 minutes
Assembly: the moment Britain heard the news
Suitable for: KS1 to Y6 in the same hall · You'll need: nothing (a screen for the optional clip is a bonus)

How to run it

Read the script below aloud. It's structured in three beats — what life had been like, what the announcement sounded like, what changed the next morning — so children can follow it whether they're 4 or 11.

The script — read aloud

Beat 1 — what people had been living through (≈90 seconds)

Eighty-one years ago, this Friday, something extraordinary happened in Britain. To understand it, we have to imagine what life had been like for the people standing where we are now.

For nearly six years — longer than most of you have been alive — Britain had been at war. That meant blackout curtains every night so enemy planes couldn't see the lights. It meant air-raid sirens that sent families running to shelters in the back garden, or to the Underground station if they lived in London. It meant rationing — every family got a small book of coupons, and you could only buy a tiny amount of sugar, butter, meat, or sweets each week. Most children couldn't remember a time without it.

Many children had been evacuated — sent away from cities to live with strangers in the countryside, sometimes for years. Many had fathers or older brothers fighting overseas. Some hadn't seen them since they were toddlers.

That was life. Day after day. Year after year.

Beat 2 — what the announcement sounded like (≈90 seconds)

Then, on the afternoon of Tuesday 8th May 1945, families gathered around their wireless radios. At 3pm, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, came on the BBC and said the words everyone had been waiting for. The war in Europe was over. Germany had surrendered the day before. The fighting had stopped.

Imagine being a child in your classroom that afternoon. Your teacher might have run in with tears in her eyes. The headmaster might have pulled the whole school into the hall. You might have heard cheering from the streets outside before anyone told you why.

Within minutes, church bells were ringing across Britain — the first time in years they'd been allowed to ring, because during the war, ringing church bells was the signal that the country was being invaded. Now they rang because it was over.

Beat 3 — what changed the next morning (≈60 seconds)

That night, the blackout curtains came down. People threw open their windows for the first time in years and saw their streets lit up. Strangers danced in the streets. Bonfires were lit. Crowds gathered at Buckingham Palace, in Trafalgar Square, in town squares everywhere. The King and Queen came out onto the palace balcony with the two princesses — one of whom would later become Queen Elizabeth II — and the family slipped out, in disguise, to walk among the crowds and celebrate with everyone else.

The next morning, life still wasn't easy. Rationing carried on for years. Many fathers and brothers wouldn't come home for months. The war in Asia was still being fought. But the bit they'd all been holding their breath for — that was over.

That's what we're remembering on Friday. Not just that the war ended, but the moment a whole country exhaled.
Optional: if you have a screen, search BBC Archive for "VE Day Churchill 8th May 1945" — there's a 30-second clip of his actual broadcast, free to play. Hearing his real voice land in 2026 is the moment that gets the gasps from older year groups.
KS1 · 15–20 minutes
Bunting & thank-you cards
Suitable for: Reception, Year 1, Year 2 · You'll need: red, white & blue paper, scissors, string or tape, pencils

What you're doing

Children make a triangle of paper bunting (red, white, or blue) and write a one-line thank-you sentence on each piece to someone who lived through 1945 — a great-grandparent, a neighbour, a name from the local memorial, or just "someone who lived through it." String the bunting across the classroom or down the assembly hall.

Run-of-show

  1. Set up (1 min) — pile of red, white, blue paper in the middle of each table. Pre-cut triangles work for Reception; older KS1 can cut their own.
  2. Frame the activity (2 min) — "When the news came that the war was over, people put up little flags called bunting in their streets to celebrate. We're going to do the same — but on each one, we're going to write a thank-you to someone who lived through it."
  3. Sentence stems (1 min) — write these on the board for them to copy or adapt:
    • "Thank you for…"
    • "I'm glad you…"
    • "Because of you, I can…"
  4. Make it (5 min) — children write their sentence on the triangle. Younger ones can dictate to a TA or partner.
  5. String it up (1 min) — tape or string the triangles together, hang across the classroom or carry to the hall for assembly.

If you have an extra 5 minutes

Read a few aloud at the end. Don't ask for volunteers — pick three at random so it's not the loud kids. The honesty of "Thank you for not running away even when it was scary" from a six-year-old is the moment that lands.

Tip: some children will struggle to think of who to thank. That's fine — give them a name from the village war memorial, or just "thank you to anyone who lived through 1945". The point is the thanking, not the recipient.
KS2 · 25–30 minutes
Letters from 1945
Suitable for: Year 3 to Year 6 · You'll need: paper, pencils, the assembly script (above) for context

What you're doing

Each child writes a one-page letter, dated 8th May 1945, from the perspective of a child their age hearing the announcement. They imagine where they were, who they were with, and what the first thing they did was. It's a "writing in role" activity — strong cross-curricular link to English, doubles as a literacy lesson.

Three prompts for the board

  1. Where were you when you heard? Were you in the classroom, in the playground, walking home, in your kitchen? What time was it?
  2. Who were you with? Your teacher, your mum, the neighbours, your grandparents? What did they look like when they heard?
  3. What was the first thing you did when the bells started ringing? Did you run outside? Hug someone? Sit down? Cry?

Set-up (3 min)

Read the assembly script's Beat 2 and Beat 3 (above) aloud first if children haven't been to assembly. Then put the three prompts on the board. Children write the date — 8th May 1945 — at the top of their page.

Writing (10 min)

Quiet writing time. Encourage them to start anywhere — they don't need to answer the prompts in order. The sound and smell details (church bells, blackout curtains coming down, neighbours' radios) are what make it real.

Share (2 min)

Pick 2-3 to read aloud. Or, if they're shy, read the best opening sentences yourself.

Stretch task: ask Y5/Y6 to add a P.S. dated 9 May 1945 — what did the morning after feel like? It pushes them past the obvious "we were happy" into "the curtains looked different in daylight" territory.
Whole school · 2 minutes · 12pm
2-minute silence at midday
Suitable for: Whole school · You'll need: a way to mark the start & end (a bell, or a phone alarm)

What's happening nationally

At 12pm on Friday 8th May, the country observes a 2-minute silence to remember those who served and died in the Second World War. Many primary schools build it into the day immediately after morning break or at the start of lunch. It's the simplest, most powerful thing you can do.

How to run it

  1. Brief the children before (30 seconds) — "At 12 o'clock, we're going to be silent for 2 minutes. We're remembering the people who lived through the war, and the people who didn't come home."
  2. Cue the start at 12:00 — a single bell, a chime on a phone, or just your voice: "Silence begins now."
  3. 2 minutes — children stand or sit quietly. No need to close eyes, no need for hands together.
  4. End the silence — same bell, or "Thank you, you can take your seats."
Tip: 2 minutes is genuinely long for KS1. If you want to scale it for younger years, do 1 minute. The point is the pause, not the duration.
Whole school · 2–3 minutes · reflective close
A note for the children: it isn't over for everyone
Suitable for: Y2 and up · You'll need: nothing, just space for the thought to land

Why include this

VE Day is rightly framed as a moment of relief and remembrance. But for primary children, who are watching news from places like Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere on phones at home, the message "the war is over" can feel disconnected from the world they're actually seeing. A short, gentle bridge at the end of the assembly closes that gap and shows the children the assembly is in conversation with their world, not separate from it.

What to say (script)

Before we finish, one important thing.

VE Day is about the moment Britain and Europe could finally exhale. But for some children, somewhere in the world right now, the war isn't over.

There are still places where families hide from the news at night. Where children sleep in shelters. Where dads and mums and grandparents are away fighting. Where the bells are still silent.

We don't always know their names or see their faces. But they're going through what families in 1945 were finally being released from.

So when we have our 2 minutes of silence, we're not just remembering 1945. We're thinking about every family — then and now — who's still waiting for their version of VE Day.
How to handle questions: if a child asks "where?", you don't have to name countries — "in different places around the world" is enough. If they want specifics, "Ukraine, the Middle East, parts of Africa" is honest and age-appropriate. Don't go further unless they push.
Buckingham Palace celebration Crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace — the spiritual home of every national celebration since 1945.

For your own reference — quick context for any child who asks

What is VE Day? Victory in Europe Day. It marks the official end of the Second World War in Europe — 8th May 1945, the day after Nazi Germany formally surrendered.

Did the whole war end on VE Day? No — only the war in Europe. The war in Asia continued until VJ Day (Victory over Japan), 15 August 1945.

Why don't we have a bank holiday this year? The 80th anniversary in 2025 was marked with a moved bank holiday — Thursday 8th May 2025 was a national day off. For 2026 the early May bank holiday is back to its usual slot, Monday 4 May. Friday 8th May is the actual anniversary date and a regular school day.

What were the rules in 1945? Blackout (no lights visible from windows after dark) had been law since September 1939. Rationing of food, clothing and fuel had been in place since January 1940. Some rationing — sugar, sweets, meat — continued until 1953/54, eight years after VE Day.

What's the most powerful primary-friendly fact? The bells. Church bells were silenced for the entire war because their ringing was the agreed signal for invasion. They rang again for the first time on VE Day. For most children alive in 1945, that was the first time they'd ever heard them.

For the autumn term

WW2 in VR — the workshop your students will still be talking about all year round.

If VE Day's the moment your school usually does WW2, our VR workshop is the one to pencil in for autumn. Pupils stand on a 1940s street, walk through an Anderson shelter, and meet a child evacuee — all in 40 minutes, fully kit-supplied, no IT setup on your end.

Most History Coords book theirs in mid-summer for an October or November slot. Our autumn dates are open now.

See WW2 in VR →
40 minutes · fully kit-supplied · no IT setup needed
Looking for a different period? Browse all our history workshops →