Trip to Ypres, Belgium: Year 9

As a special one–off History curriculum enrichment event, Year 9 students are going to visit the Belgian town of Ypres. This will be a really memorable and packed trip with the following itinerary:

• Essex Farm British cemetery – where the famous poem “In Flanders Fields” was written.
• Hill 62 Sanctuary Wood Trench Museum – to explore still-existing parts of the WWI trench and tunnel systems.
• Tyne Cot Cemetery – the largest British military cemetery in the world, overlooking the slopes of the Passchendaele battles.
• Langemark German Military Cemetery – a dark and brooding last resting place which contrasts with the British Empire cemeteries.
• In Flanders Fields Museum – the best World War One museum anywhere.
• Evening meal and chocolate shopping – free time for students to explore the shops and restaurants in the centre of Ypres.
• Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate – we will attend this moving ceremony where the road from Menin into Ypres is closed while the Ypres Fire Brigade play The Last Post in memory of the soldiers of the former British Empire and its allies, who died during the First World War, as they have done since 1928. We will be laying a wreath on behalf of Gildredge House.