LOWER FIGURES BATTLEFIELDS TRIP

Our Lower Figures (Year 6) boys visited Belgium and France just prior to half term as part of their World War 1 battlefields trip.  The boys visited a number of wonderful sites including; the recently constructed national necropolis in Northern France which remembers the 580,000 soldiers who died in the northern Pas-de-Calais region, as well as Tyne cot and Langemark cemeteries and the Lochnavar crater.  The cemeteries were a very very vivid reminder to the boys of the both the dreadful loss of life on both sides but also responsibility on the shoulders of those who win wars and the need to respect those we fight.

Alongside being a trip of tremendous value academically for the boys it was also clearly obvious that they were greatly moved by the significance of their experiences: the courage of those who fought and a tremendous sacrifice paid as a result. It was a very great privilege also for the school to lay a wreath at the Menin Gate on the evening of Friday 27th May and this service too left an indelible impression upon the boys.

Alongside the very serious purpose of the trip time was also found to squeeze the odd football match in and perhaps for the boys the highlight of the trip was the morning room inspections and the resulting competition that a race between each room to win the prize.  It isn’t often that boys will line up their shoes in neat rows, turn all of the toiletry bottles in the bathroom the same way, fold and then measure their used to towels or even align their toothbrushes in the colours of the rainbow, but these are some of the links the boys went to in search of victory.