This year saw 45 intrepid Frome College students take to the battlefields of France and Belgium to commemorate the 100th Centenary of the First World War. As in previous years, the group stayed on the coast of Belgium, a short walk away from sandy beaches where we spent the evening after our long journey.

Our first day was spent in Belgium, so after a short-taught lesson in the morning, we travelled to Ypres. Our first stop was Tyne Cott Cemetery, the largest commonwealth war cemetery in the world, positioned on top of the old German Pill boxes that took many of the lives of the men remembered there. Students undertook fieldwork, studying the immaculately tended graves.

We then visited Langemark, a German concentration cemetery, and real contrast to Tyne Cott, as its presentation is far more understated. In the evening we went into the town of Ypres, a place utterly destroyed during the war, but rebuilt in its aftermath, to take part in the ceremony of remembrance at the Menin Gate. This takes place every evening to remember the names of those on the memorial who died defending Ypres, making sure the town never fell to the Germans.

On the second day, we travelled to France to visit the battlefields of the Somme. We stopped at Vimy Ridge, a memorial to the Canadians who died fighting in the trenches, and walked around their amazingly preserved tunnels and trench systems. We also visited a tunnel museum at Albert, where we saw a vast array of First World War artefacts.

As we have come to expect, our students impressed everyone with their respectful behaviour at every stage of our visit. The Battlefields Trip represents, for many, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pay respects to those who died in the First World War, many of whom were only slightly older than the students on the trip.