THIS YEAR’S Remembrance Sunday parade saw a huge increase in attendance by children from Keighley schools.

Seven schools were represented, five of them taking part for the first time in the parade, church service and wreath-laying ceremony.

Suzanne Carter, deputy head of Eastwood Primary School, coordinated the involvement of many of the schools in the day’s commemorations.

She said there had been a “fantastic” turn-out of children and staff joining the serving soldiers, war veterans, cadets and uniformed groups taking part.

She said: “Much discussion took place amongst the young people and staff about how nice it was to see such a fantastic turn out at the event. Everybody, at some point, somewhere in their family has been affected by war.

“Amongst the obvious feelings of pride at representing their schools, the pupils and staff who attended were especially touched as this year marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

“It was a fitting way to end units of work on Remembrance which had been undertaken in all the schools, with pupils researching the wars, creating their own poppies and poppy themed art work and writing poems about the war.”

The primary school children taking part were Elke Timlin-Bates and Maisie Otterburn from Haworth; Harry Harwood, Rebecca Danby and Toby Corrigan from Lees; Zarah Merban, Bilal Harron and Caitlin Deacon from Eastwood; Sahil Hussain and Ubaid Arshad from Victoria; and Paige Keane and Joshua Wiseman from Parkwood.

Mrs Carter said that on the day one pupil had said: “It’s great to be a part of this. We’re lucky to be involved, not many people get this chance.”

Another child said they had learned why it was important to remember all the people who had died.

The child added: “It’s important that different people from Keighley are here so they know we all remember and we all know what service people do for us.”

Meanwhile, one of the supervising adults said it was incredibly poignant to hear the names of Keighley’s fallen read out while wreaths were laid.

Mrs Carter said the organisers hoped that even more schools would get involved in the parade next year.

Anyone interested in joining in should contact Keighley Town Council, or call Mrs Carter at Eastwood Primary School on 01535 610212.