Third Form pupils embarked on an emotive and poignant visit to the First World War battlefields in Belgium. As they crossed into Belgium, pupils were reminded that the journey they were completing would have been the same route completed by soldiers arriving at the front during the First World War.
The trip began with a visit to the Passchendaele Museum at Zonnebecke which, with its interactive galleries, reconstructed trench bunkers and replica trench network, quickly captured the imagination of the pupils. They then headed for Ypres where they attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, and although it is currently undergoing restoration work in preparation for celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2027, the poignancy of the ceremony was not lost. The group then visited the Somme region, exploring the vast Lochnagar mine crater and finished the day with visits to Thiepval Ridge where the memorial arch has etched on it over 72,000 names of those allied soldiers who were missing in action.
On the final day, pupils visited Essex Farm Cemetery and Langemark Cemetery, the only German Cemetery on the Western Front. This was followed by a visit to the Hooge Crater Museum and the largest British Commonwealth War Graves site anywhere, Tyne Cot Cemetery, where we paid our respects to the fallen as a group with a minute’s silence and Henry (Third Form, Gascoigne) reading Wilfred Owen’s 1917 poem Anthem for Doomed Youth.
