Research process

The school was approached by Living Heritage, concerning the possibility of a small group of students preparing a story relating to Kilbirnie School and the Great War.
There was obviously a linkage between the project and the Fear family therefore a group of three students was chosen to start the process.

Stages

1. Reading and research about the Great War and the Fear family, using the article written by Donald Phillipps
2. Planning an outline for a story
3. Visiting the New Zealand National Library to source photos
4. Writing about school life in the early 1900’s, using school journals and local school references
5. Working with Barbara and Eric Baker to prepare story and pictures for publication.

Our questions were:

1. Who was Bert Fear and what was life like for him when he attended Kilbirnie School?
2. How was school different in those days?
3. Why did Bert Fear go to war?
4. What conditions were like for him?
5. How did he die?

Information sources

Our teacher Mrs Patel organised some journal stories for us, and Mr McGimpsey gave us a copy of a story about Francis John Herbert Fear, written by his nephew, Donald Phillipps. Our parents also helped us with books and websites for general reading and research.