A PARTY of Year 10 students returned from a four day field study to the World War One battlefields in Belgium at the weekend, the trip was organised as an experience for their GCSE’s having recently studied the war.

The group stayed in a hotel situated in Lo-Reninge near Ieper or Ypres.

On the Thursday they visited Sanctuary Wood, a preserved area with some of the original trenches which people can walk in, the small museum and Hill 62, the Canadian memorial

Then in Ypres, explored the Cloth hall with an exhibition called In Flanders Fields Museum dedicated to the war.

Pupils visited the largest commonwealth cemetery around, Tyne Cot, then a more sombre German cemetery, Langemark.

In the evening they witnessed the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

The next day they drove into France to visit the Somme.

Groups were shown around the Wellington caves in Arras which are 20 metres underground and housed the allies before a battle. There were the original markings on the cave walls showing directions to the different areas of the 12mile labyrinth and visitors can see the electricity circuit and small pencil drawings left by the soldiers.

The Thiepval memorial for the missing commemorates nearly 73,000 names of soldiers who fought at the Somme.

Finally in the afternoon they went to the Beaumont Hamel Canadian site, with the bronze caribou and Lochnager Crater, with a diameter of approximately 91 metres and a depth of 21 metres it the largest crater from World War One.

The group was accompanied by three teachers and history teacher Nicola Goldhawk, said: “It’s so great to be able to bring history alive and give students the opportunity to explore and experience for themselves!”