During the Half Term, Year 9 History pupils traveled to Ypres, Belgium, to learn about the role the municipality and the tragedies that occurred there. In the week of Remembrance Sunday, pupil Tom Stuart has written a report on their time in Flanders Fields:
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On Friday 20 October, we arrived in Belgium and headed straight for Ypres and the Passchendaele area. Our first stop was at Tyne Cot cemetery. The graves of nearly 12,000 British and Commonwealth troops now stand in the area where they were killed. Here, a wall has the names of a further 35,000 soldiers whose bodies were never identified. Mr Jon Cooksey, our guide, started by talking to us about the different types of graves and the layout of cemeteries. At the cemetery there were names of some men from Shiplake, we were fortunate enough to be able to have a minute silence to reflect on the lives lost. We also laid a wreath in memory of Eric Cheasley who grew up in Shiplake.
After this cemetery, we got back onto the coach and headed to Ypres. There we were cheered up by a visit to a chocolate shop, before heading for dinner. After dinner we went to the Menin gate to watch the last post ceremony which takes place every evening. The gate commemorates British soldiers killed in this area of Belgium whose bodies were never identified - nearly 55,000.
On Saturday we headed into central France where we visited Serre battlefields and some cemeteries; afterwards we headed to Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Park. This was a large park where they had preserved the trenches which we could walk through we also saw some craters made by exploding shells. Afterwards we visited Thiepval Memorial where we saw the names of the missing from the Somme - over 73,000. The amount of names on the walls was astonishing. Here the Year 9 History pupils were able to finds the names of seven soldiers we have been researching in our English lessons. Afterwards we visited the Lochnagar Crater.
On Sunday we visited Vimy Ridge Canadian memorial which had a lot of preserved trenches and craters. Afterwards we went on a two minute drive up the road to the actual memorial which was two massive pillars and figures representing the lost youth of Canada. The names of 60,000 canadians are carved into the memorial.
Overall it was a memorable trip and I would recommend everyone to visit the battlefields at some point.