A party of 24 S4 and S5 pupils recently made a highly emotional and informative visit to the site of the First World War Battlefields in Belgium and in France. History staff from the Humanities Faculty, organized the trip with Mrs May Mackenzie, Mrs Lynsay Ashton and Mr John Ferrie the supervising staff.
The visit was very much linked in the course work for the National Qualifications programmes and most certainly helped bring historical fact to real-life impact.
The pupils were clearly affected very deeply when they visited the historic battlefields and trenches, parts of which have been preserved to retain a realistic insight into the horrific and dehumanising conditions experienced by hundreds of thousands of soldiers from all sides of the conflict.
The experience very much brought History into the context of modern life, with many pupils moved by the scale of the human carnage that occurred during the ‘war to end all wars’.
On the last evening of the tour, the pupils, dressed in full school uniform as a token of their respect to those who had fallen, joined the residents of Ieper (Ypres) village at the landmark Menin Gate for the Last Post Ceremony. In sombre mood and absolute silence, pupils were then encouraged to give one of the many thousands of unknown warriors his own identity and to mourn his tragic passing.
Aaron McArthur and Emily Parvin laid a Wreath of Remembrance from the school as staff and pupils paid their own tribute to all those who offered the greatest sacrifice of all.
Pupils reported the visit as one of the most significant experiences of their lives to date and one that brought home the true value of History and the horror and waste that was the First World War.
Our pictures capture just some of the experiences that so greatly moved the staff and pupils during Clyde valley’s Battlefield Tour.
