Latest News
Posted on November 6th 2023
'Brilliant Belgium': HAP International Trip to the Battlefields of Ypres
Students from Year 9 and 10 had an amazing experience when the History team took them to the battlefields of Ypres, Belgium in September. One of our Year 9 students, Munib, described the day as 'brilliant' and we couldn't agree more.
Across the day, the students had the chance to visit three significant destinations in the history of the trenches in World War One:
- Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, the second largest burials of Commonwealth soldiers at nearly 10,000 soldiers
- Passchendaele Museum, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of WW1
- Hill 606/Sanctuary Wood - the site of a preserved trench.
The day was rounded off with a visit to Leonidas Chocolatiers to experience buying Belgian chocolate (and waffles) from Belgium.
Munib, Year 9, writes...
Our first destination was the cemetery. It contained over 10,000 soldiers who had died during the First World War. Most of the soldiers were young - the youngest I found was 15 years old! I felt weird stepping and walking around the graves of dead soldiers.
After an hour at the cemetery, the coach drove us to our second destination: Passchendaele Museum. This was one of my favourite places as there were weapons, cutlery, and artillery for us to look at - we even got the chance to touch some of the objects, too. To top it all off, there was a replica dug out - where soldiers would have lived during the First World War - which we were able to experience. There was a hallway, and everyone had to bend down. We even got to see a re-make of a trench system which was very cool.
Our third destination was Sanctuary Wood, where we got to experience a real-life trench system which had been preserved since the war over 100 years ago! This trench system was a lot muddier and wetter than the last one. It was way worse! When exploring the trench, we went through an underground tunnel - we regretted it very quickly. It was muddy, wet, and very dark inside. It really made us understand the experiences that soldiers would have had living in the trenches during the war. It was a brilliant experience, and I won't forget it anytime soon.
The day was an inspirational one for our students and lots of memories were created that day.
What was most inspiring was the igniting of the enquiring brains we are nurturing amongst all of our students, seen so amazingly by Fazia, in Year 9, who went away and completed her own independent research on battles of World War I and some of the experiences of soldiers, such as William Bruford from Taunton, and about the deaths of soldiers who died at Zonnebeke Chateau. You can see some of Fazia's research below.
The day was rounded off with a visit to Leonidas Chocolatiers to experience buying Belgian chocolate (and waffles) from Belgium.
