Visit to the battlefields of the Great War
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On Remembrance Day I thought it fitting to reflect on two memorable events from the end of the last academic year.
In the summer of 2023 Year 9 students from Sandwich Technology School once again visited the battlefields of the Great War. The two visits were extra special as they were the school’s first residential visits since the pandemic and it felt like a big return to normality. The purpose of the visits was to not only deepen students’ historical understanding but to illustrate to them the impact that the conflict has had upon all our lives and our culture. At several sites, we engaged in moral and spiritual debate about the treatment of those who lost their lives in the conflict and the morality of warfare.
Amongst the highlights of the visit were:
- Exploring the tunnels deep below Vimy Ridge in France that were used by Canadian soldiers in advance of their attack in April 1917
- Standing in German trenches where Adolf Hitler served as a runner with the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment
- Students listening quietly to one of their peer group reading the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ at Essex Farm (Oscar Baldwin in June and Oliver Allin in July)
- Standing at Tyne Cot Cemetery looking down on the fields of Passchendaele and 12,000 headstones (7,000 with no name recorded)
- Exploring the one genuine section of trench line left at Sanctuary Wood
- Observing the Last Post at the Menin Gate whilst s group of students selected by their peers laid a wreath on behalf of the school
- Experiencing the sombre German cemetery at Langemark comparing the treatment of war dead to that seen in the British and Commonwealth cemeteries
- Sitting in the Ramparts Cemetery watching the sun slowly set over the canal
Our final stop before returning to the UK was the site of the 1914 Christmas Truce where soldiers from each side met in No-man’s Land and started to question what they were fighting for. We recreated the game of football those soldiers reportedly had and spoke about peace and what sort of changes humans would need to make if there is ever going to be peace in the future.
I consider it a privilege to lead these battlefield tours and what brings it alive every year are the students’ questions, reflections and responses. Every single student who attended the visit exhibited exceptional conduct. I really could not have asked for more from them in terms of respect, curiosity and a willingness to debate and reflect on what we saw out in France and Belgium. I would quite happily taken them all again…..
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
Written by Mr Sharples, Deputy Headteacher.
