Acting Head of History, Mr R Stringer, reports on the Year 9 Battlefields Trip:
'Early on the morning of the 19th of May, forty Year 9 students and five staff from Burford School set off on a very successful four-day history trip to the continent. The group visited Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium and the Somme battlefield in France as part of a study of the Great War. The students listened intently to lectures, given by our excellent guide Robert Watson, on the battles of Ypres and on the first day of the battle of the Somme on the 1st of July 1916. The visits ranged from memorials and museums to surviving sections of trench and mine craters. British, French and German war cemeteries were also visited and the students were given the opportunity to consider the differences between them and to reflect upon the scale of the sacrifice.
On Saturday evening, the group attended the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres), which bears the names of nearly 55,000 of the British Empire’s dead, who died in the Ypres Salient and who have no known grave. Students Gabriela, Jack and Thomas, accompanied by Mr R Dennis, made an excellent job of laying a wreath on behalf of the students and staff of Burford School.
On the final day, the students visited a Second World War site, the V2 rocket base at Eperlecques in the Pas-de-Calais. Particularly when seen for the first time, this gigantic concrete bunker is very imposing, emerging as it does from the surrounding woodland. The students were able to go inside the structure to discover how it was to be used and to learn how it was put out of action by Allied bombing.
Fantastic weather, a great group of students, and so much to discover, guaranteed a rewarding and enjoyable trip for all. Thanks must go to staff members Mr R Dennis, Mr W Oldfield, Mrs S Scantlebury and Ms E Suter for working tirelessly to ensure the success of the trip.'