PUPILS at a primary school in County Durham stepped back in time to imagine life as wartime evacuees.

Children from Sedgefield Primary School swapped their uniforms for typical evacuee outfits and spent the day at Beamish Museum, near Stanley, as part of their studies looking into the impact of the Second World War.

Yesterday’s educational trip was designed to teach them more about the sacrifices people made during the conflict, covering topics such as rationing, black out, wartime cookery and the Home Guard.

Samantha Smith, deputy head and class teacher at the school on Rectory Row, said: “The children simply loved the experience of being an evacuee for the day.

"The smiles on their faces said it all.”

By the end of the war some 3.5 million people had experienced evacuation.

One of the Year 5 pupils, Ross Towler, aged ten, said: “It is the best day of the year in Class 5, we loved every minute.”