A prep school from Balham, South London has had an amazing and thought-provoking school battlefield trip to Belgium this month.
Deputy Head who led the trip was delighted with how much his students learnt on the trip, commenting: “As we study WWI in the first term of Year 6, [my students] now have a hugely enhanced understanding of what they will be looking at following our trip. It was a real journey for some of them. The week allowed them to really build a reservoir of knowledge about the war, especially on the Western Front around Ypres. This then allows them to start asking better questions that develops their understanding even further and with this comes the ability to start empathizing with the soldiers who were fighting in this terrible conflict. Once the empathy has developed then the respect for those who fought is really found. Huge personal development for the children which would come under their education in a wider sense.
“Passchendale 1917 Museum, with the recreated Yorkshire Trench, was the majority of the students’ highlight as it gave them a real insight into what it was like 100 years ago. There was also a brilliant film that pulled together all the things they’d seen during the course of the week.”
The school’s battlefield tour included visits to WW1 cemeteries and battlefields, the In Flanders Fields Museum and the Last post at the Menin Gate.
Mark summed up: “Pol, our battlefields guide, really brought the trip alive with his niche knowledge, which was appreciated by both children and staff. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey that the majority of children went on during the course of the week as they developed their understanding of what happened across the Flanders Fields. It’s why we did it but it worked better than I imagined.”
Click on the links for more details of our school battlefield tours, our French history student travel tours and all our history student travel tours.
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