During the first four days of the October half-term, 46 Year 10 students embarked on a WW1 Battlefields tour, visiting sites on the Somme in France and the Ypres Salient area of Belgium.

Day one saw a super early start with a departure time of 4.30 am from The Henry Beaufort School. After crossing the Channel, we ventured to Lijssenthoek Military Hospital Cemetery. As we walked through the gates, our students were struck by the enormity of where they were and what they were seeing. Approximately 10,000 men are buried here and one woman, Staff Nurse Nellie Spindler. Not only is Nellie the only woman buried here, she is one of only two women to have died as a result of the fighting in the Ypres Sailient during WW1. From here, we visited the death cells and execution pole at Popperinghe where many deserters were shot at dawn. Here we heard the story of Private John Bennett, from the Hampshire Regiment, who was executed for cowardice despite clearly suffering from shell shock. Our last stop of the day before retiring to our accommodation was the Essex Farm Cemetery. Once a casualty clearing station and the inspiration behind John McRae’s famous ‘In Flanders Fields’ poem, now home to 1,200 soldiers. One of these is Valentine Strudwick. At the same age as many of the students on the trip, Valentine lied about his age to fight for King and Country and died in action at the age of 15.

Day two began with a stark reminder of the loss suffered as we ventured through the gates of Tyne Cot. With 12,000 neat, white headstones on the once battlefield and the names of 34,000 missing soldiers inscribed on the walls; Tyne Cot is the largest British and Commonwealth Military Cemetery in the world. Each row is decorated with flowers from the soldiers' home country, giving a quaint English country garden feel. From here we visited one of four German cemeteries in the Ypres Sailent, Langemark. Far from the country garden feel of Tyne Cot, Langemark was one of our most shocking stops. Not only is the cemetery dark and bare, but it is home to 40,000 German soldiers with 25,000 of them being buried in a mass grave. Unlike the British cemeteries, the Germans who were lucky enough not to be in the mass gave still had to share their plot with seven others.

After lunch, we visited the Passchendale Memorial Museum and Sanctuary Wood, where we were able to walk in the original British trenches. From there, we went back to the hotel for a game of football before an early dinner. We spent the evening at the incredibly emotional Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, which is a memorial to 54,000 missing soldiers in the Ypres Sailent. During the ceremony, two of our students laid a poppy wreath on behalf of staff and students at The Henry Beaufort School.

Sunday was another early start as we drove to France to visit Vimy Ridge, Thiepval and the Lochnagar Crater. At Vimy Ridge we went deep underground on a guided tour of the tunnels used by the Canadians, French and British as they fought the Germans here to gain control of the ridge. After lunch, we visited Thiepval, the largest memorial to the missing in The Somme with the names of 74,000 soldiers commemorated here. Our final stop of the day was Lochnagar Crater – the largest crater made by man in anger at 30 metres deep and 100 metres wide. Now a memorial for those who died there, it is dedicated to Peace, Fellowship and Reconciliation.

Throughout the trip, the students were superb and their polite and respectful behaviour was commented on by members of the public on five separate occasions! They were both a credit to themselves and to the school – well done to all those that attended!