On Thursday 05/02/26, a group of 43 Year 11 students and 4 staff from Springwell Community College travelled to Belgium for their WWI Battlefields Trip. After a calm crossing across the Channel the trip arrived in Calais before making their way over the border into Belgium. As the sun began to set, students and staff arrived at Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest British Military cemetery in the world. The trip then spent time locating the names of several men from the Staveley and Brimington areas who had lost their lives and were commemorated in the cemetery. After respectfully observing the site, students travelled to their accommodations to enjoy some dinner and rest for next day’s visits.
The trip was up early on Friday for a day of travelling to France, visiting battle sites, trenches and cemeteries in the Vimy Ridge and Arras area. Highlights of the busy day included a trip to the Arras Caves where students went underground to the huge network of tunnels built by New Zealand soldiers during the war, as well as a visit to Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial and trenches.
After enjoying an evening meal at the hostel, students travelled to the Menin Gate for the Last Post Ceremony. It was a moving moment and in which the entire trip stopped and reflected what they had seen and learnt about the sacrifice made by so many.
Saturday morning was spent at Essex Farm Cemetery where John McCrae worked as a medical officer at the Dressing Station there; McCrae is famous for writing the In Flanders Fields poem which was read out beautifully to us by Thomas. At the Hooge Crater Museum students enthusiastically learned about the construction of trenches and the battles of the Ypres Salient. The trip also visited the town of Poperinge to see the ‘death cells’ where men accused of desertion were held and executed. The final stop was Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery learning about one of only two women to be buried in a WWI Military cemetery. It was then time to catch the ferry back to Dover and head back to Derbyshire.
When writing about the trip on the Springwell Community College website, Group Lead Miss Fisher said:
‘It was an absolutely fantastic trip: the behaviour of our students was exemplary at all times, we learnt lots of new knowledge about the fighting in World War One and how injured soldiers were treated and we all spent several moments thinking of the sacrifice people made in this most terrible of wars. Lest we forget’.
Thank you to Miss Edge, Miss Reeves and Mr Naylor for helping run the trip, and thank you to the Year 11s who made us very proud with their behaviour when dealing with such a poignant subject matter.
