Year 8 Battlefields Trip
24th – 26th June 2026
Three unforgettable days on the Western Front for 40 of our Year 8 students – a journey that built a powerful understanding of the human experience of the First World War, step by step, place by place. The group began in Ypres, where students first stepped into the past at the In Flanders Fields Museum. Through personal stories, artefacts, and immersive displays, they began to understand the lives of soldiers and civilians caught in the conflict. A short walk through Ypres town followed, including a moment of reflection and a lighter stop at Peter De Groote’s chocolate shop, before the mood shifted again at the Langemark German Cemetery. Here, the darker, quieter simplicity of the graves encouraged reflection on loss from the German perspective as well. The day ended at the vast Tyne Cot Cemetery, where endless rows of headstones made the scale of sacrifice on the Western Front impossible to ignore.
Thursday took them closer to the front line itself. They began the day at Passchendaele Museum. Students explored recreated trenches, duckboards, and dugouts, experiencing just how cramped, muddy, and dangerous life would have been during the 1917 battles. From there, they travelled to Arras in Northern France for a guided tour of the Wellington Quarry (Carrière Wellington), descending deep underground into a network of tunnels where thousands of Allied soldiers once lived and prepared for battle – a hidden world beneath the city.
It was then back to Ypres, to the Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony. Students stood in silence beneath the names of the missing. The sound of the Last Post filled the arch as nearly 1,000 people gathered in remembrance. A particularly proud moment came when Kelby and Aileen stepped forward to lay a wreath on behalf of the school – a moment of deep respect and responsibility carried out with real maturity.
On the last day, students started the morning in Belgium, with a visit to Sanctuary Wood Museum. The Year 8s walked through an original preserved trench system, still visible in the ground today, seeing how narrow, exposed, and chaotic life on the front line truly was. The duckboards and shell-cratered ground helped bring trench warfare into sharp focus Following this, they made a quick stop to Poperinge, where they learned about the strict discipline behind the lines, including the harsh reality of soldiers being executed for desertion – a difficult but important part of understanding wartime life and morale.
From there, they travelled back to France for the final leg of the journey – the Somme – where the landscape itself tells the story. The scale of loss became even clearer at the towering Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme, before moving to the enormous Lochnagar Crater, a powerful reminder of the explosive nature of the war and the landscapes it destroyed.
The trip concluded at Newfoundland Memorial Park, where preserved trenches and open battlefield ground allowed students to walk through the final echoes of the Somme offensive.
Across the three days, each site added another layer to the story – from personal testimony to preserved trenches, underground tunnels to vast memorials. Mr Mason said the Year 8s were outstanding throughout: respectful, thoughtful, and fully engaged in every step of this powerful journey. We hope the students valued this amazing trip.
