The Belgium History Trip, July 14th-17^th, was a great opportunity for our students to experience first hand the battlefields of Ypres and The Somme, which inspired the First World War poets to write so evocatively of the suffering, bravery and horrors of trench warfare.

“It was educational and I learned a lot,” was one of the comments made by Year 10 students about the experience. They were particularly impressed by the tunnels and trenches which they explored.

Forty eight GCSE History students, led by Mrs E Rickards, Head of History and accompanied by Mr P Swain, Mrs R Proctor, Mr G Bradbury and Ms D Hogg, travelled via coach and Eurotunnel train to Ypres area, staying at the Chateau d’Ebblinghem. On the first day they visited Sanctuary Wood and Essex Farm, original 1915-18 battlefield and Advanced Dressing Station, also Langemarck Cemetery, the only German cemetery in the Ypres Salient, and Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world!

The students were given some free time in Ypres before going for a restaurant meal at Den Anker in the Grand’Place and then walked back to the Menin Gate to witness the Last Post Ceremony, which is sounded by the buglers of the Ypres Fire Brigade, every evening at 8pm.

The focus on the second day was a detailed field study of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, using primary and secondary evidence.

This visit to the Sheffield Memorial Park, Serre uniquely builds up the pupils’ knowledge of First World War tactics by walking through the terrain of a battlefield. This site is particularly associated with the “Pals” Battalions of the North of England, our lads, who fought in the first days of the Somme.

Sunken Lane, Beamont-Hamel was used as a jumping off point in no man’s land by the Lancashire Fusiliers on 1^st July 1916. The pupils were shown on site, clips from the film, “The Battle of the Somme” shot by cameraman Geoffrey Malins, immediately before Z-hour.

The pupils also visited Newfoundland Memorial Park (where both opposing sets of trenches are on view), Ulster Tower, Gibralter Blockhaus, Pozieres, Lochnager Mine Crater, La Boisselle and the impressive visitor centre at Thiepval and the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (75,000 officers and men who have no known grave), a poignant end to the day.

“It was fun being on a trip with your friends!”

The group spent the whole of the last full day on a visit to Disneyland, Paris.

They departed on the final day for the Arras/Lens area, where they experienced the Wellington Quarry: underground tours of quarries, used as refuge/ headquarters by British troops prior to 1917 Battle of Arras, before returning  home via Folkestone,