Our annual Year 9 trip to World War One sites of interest in Belgium took place on Friday 8 November 2019, beginning with a 4am departure for 100 students and 8 staff.

Although we always imagine students will be sleepy this is rarely the case and Callum Morris particularly enjoyed the social side of the day: ‘I think the best part was the coach because we listened to music, sang football songs and got to talk to our friends.’ Adding, ‘Another good part was the trenches because you have the experience that the soldiers have had and you get muddy.’

Although rain had been forecast it held off until the early evening, so we were able to do our tour in the sunshine, though with a chilly wind. This is particularly noticeable on the open ground when we visit the cemeteries and the flat nature of the terrain, so keenly fought over.

Jacob Swann: ‘My favourite part was when we visited Tyne Cot Cemetery and Langemark Cemetery, because I got to see the difference between how the soldiers were buried and also the amount of soldiers who died in the war. For example, Tyne Cot Cemetery was very clean and tidy, and the soldiers’ graves were spaced out separately, whereas Langemark had a mass grave with 25,000 soldiers buried in it which is shocking when you think there are more cemeteries exactly like those.’

Caitlin Whittaker also found the cemetery visits to be the highlight, again noting the differences and that ‘the Germans were buried up to eight in a grave unlike the British graves for just one man.’

At the Commonwealth Cemetery of Tyne Cot, each coach held its own small moment of remembrance with students laying a wreath on behalf of the school community, reading lines from Binyon’s poem ‘For the fallen’ and sharing a silence. As always, this was done with great respect.

Then there was a chance for students to get into part of the original trench system at the Hill 62 museum. Cameron Wilson: ‘I think the part I enjoyed the most was going to Hill 62 as the trenches were muddy, and the tunnel was pitch black and I was just running through mud and it was really eye opening to the struggles, but it made me realise that the frontline trenches were so much worse as the one we visited was a communication trench which would have been behind the front line.’

Late in the afternoon we made our way to the town of Ypres and spent some time at the Menin Gate. Whilst looking at the names of about 54,000 soldiers whose resting place is unknown, we found ourselves walking amongst veterans of later conflicts, who were gathering in the town in preparation for Remembrance Day services.

Finally, we went to the chocolate shops, which were as popular as ever, and some students, like the staff, then enjoyed delicious Belgian chips from the Frituur.

It was a long day but made enjoyable for all by the good natured participation of the students and patience of the excellent coach drivers.

Please click here to see a gallery of photos from the trip.

Ms N Hill
Head of History