Year 8 Ypres and Bruges Trip 2025

On Friday, we left school with 100 Y8 pupils and 10 staff, and headed for the historic town of Ypres to give the children an immersive WW1 experience. We started at Hill 62, where we admired some of the equipment and important items, then trudged through trenches to really put ourselves in the position of some of our brave soldiers all those years ago. Mr Mannerings very kindly gave a guided tour and speech to both groups so that they could better understand the importance of our trip.

From there, we were off to In Flanders' Fields museum where we got to experience a huge range of artefacts and stories from the people who were there at the time. Pupils were able to enjoy the exhibits for an hour and I think it's fair to say that they could have spent another hour there too.

After all that, we decided to give the pupils a bit of respite and we took them to a traditional Belgian chocolate shop which they all seemed to enjoy greatly.

Back to the accommodation for dinner and some down time, during which we were also lucky enough to be able to send some cadets and staff to attend the Menin Gate ceremony and lay a wreath on behalf of FSG.

Pupils had fun in the games room at the accommodation and it was lights out at 22:00 so they could be well-rested for breakfast at 07:00 on Saturday.  We were on the road for Bruges Christmas Market by 9. We arrived in Bruges around 10:45 and walked the students through the town centre, admiring the wonderful architecture and decorations along the way. We then had nearly 2 hours to explore the market and the kids certainly made the most of the range of food stalls!

Back through town to the coaches and we were on the home straight.

A huge thanks to the staff who accompanied us and to the kids for being fantastic for the whole trip. Even though we didn't get any snow this year, we think it was a lovely way to get everyone into the Christmas spirit!

Mr Hager and Mr Shepherd