Excursion to Ypres: experience history lessons at first hand

In Flanders Fields – BY JOHN MCCRAE

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

 In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

On 3 June 2024, Year 9ab took part in an excursion to Ypres to visit the Flanders Fields Museum and the Tyne Cot military cemetery. The excursion was an important part of the ‘First World War and Remembrance’ series of lessons. In the run-up to our excursion, the students had already analysed the moving individual fates of the soldiers whose final resting places we visited. In this way, the pupils were able to experience history at first hand.

N. Murphy und S. Lorenz