Students and staff visited the WW1 battlefields. Read Katie's report of their trip and see the photos.

School Trip Report by Katie

On our trip we saw a variety of sites such as cemeteries, for example the Lijssenthoek, Tyne Cot and London Cemetery; memorials, such as the Thiepval Memorial; museums, like the Passchendaele Memorial Museum and the In Flanders Field Museum. This diversity benefitted us greatly as we could explore the differing viewpoints during WW1 whether it’d be from the German or the French point of view, on a large or small scale, in lesser or greater detail. We did, however, experience some difficulties in some areas, for example grasping the significance of the individual deaths to those who died themselves and the people directly affected as the sheer scale of it all was often overwhelming. Also strong emotions would frequently be stirred by the sight of the oceans of graves seen at each of the many cemeteries and the vast number of names of so many people who died needlessly written on memorials, which would threaten our otherwise rational thinking. On a more positive note, I did take away some very interesting information, the most memorable being the information about the varying types of trenches used in the First World War such as communication and mortar trenches, as well as the fact that of the 11,954 burials at Tyne Cot, 8,367 are unknown. I think the government found this trip important enough to fund as it’s an indicative homage to the lives lost or affected by the war and a gesture of respect, peace and goodwill to all the other countries that were involved. As to send a large number of young, impressionable students abroad to experience a very sobering visit presents a certain sense of remorse and an effort to prevent anything like the Great War happening again.

At the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate

Examining soldiers' rations at base camp, Flanders.

Students were affected by finding soldiers from their local area at Lijssenthoek Cemetary (Ypres Salient)

The Death Cells at Poperinge

Relaxing with a 'chocolat chaud' in Ypres