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By Siân Gorvin, Teacher of History & Ancient Civilisations
This week, Block 3 (Year 9) students travelled to Belgium and France to visit the historic battlefields – the resting place for hundreds of thousands of servicemen who died in World War I.
After learning about the war, anthroposphere, conflict and ethics in their Humanities lessons in the first half of the Spring term, the trip is an opportunity to reflect on the historical, cultural and ethical aspects of their studies.
It’s one thing to learn about the war in lessons, and to discuss and analyse it, but it’s quite another to stand on the ground where such events unfolded and feel the scale of their impact in a way that a textbook can’t fully convey.
We started the trip by visiting Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, and Langemark, where nearly 25,000 German servicemen are buried in a mass grave. Visiting both sites was a powerful reminder of the grief and sacrifice shared by both sides of the conflict. We then visited Essex Farm, which famously moved the Canadian poet John McCrae to write In Flanders Fields while stationed there in 1915. The contrast between the peaceful surroundings today and the scenes that played out their during the war was not lost on the students.
At the Menin Gate, where the names of over 54,000 soldiers with no known grave are engraved in stone, we attended the Last Post ceremony, which has taken place almost every evening since 1928 in honour of the servicemen who lost their lives in the war. Bella and Florence were chosen to lay a wreath of poppies on behalf of Bedales in a poignant moment of reflection and respect.
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