Year 9 students from Sutton High School travelled to France and Belgium to visit memorials and cemeteries commemorating those who fought and died in the First World War recently.

A student has written the following report:

On Friday 6 May, 44 girls, 5 teachers and our amazing coach driver, Nick, left Sutton bright and early on our way to Belgium. We soon arrived at Dover and enjoyed a relaxing ferry trip to Calais.

Girls were moved by the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery and Memorial at Tyne Cot.
After lunch and a brief stop at our hotel, we visited Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres. At Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial, we were moved to see the names of young men from our school who fought in the war, before making our way to a German Cemetery, Langemark.

Later on that evening, Abeeha, Mariam and I were honoured to participate in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, an experience we will never forget.

On day 2, we travelled to France and started the day at Vimy, where we explored trenches and bunkers, and then made our way to Vimy memorial. We then went to Ulster Tower where we were lucky enough to have a guided tour around the trenches in Thiepval Wood.

We finished the day by visiting the Thiepval Monument, where Lakshmi located the name of her relative, and then made our way back to Ypres.

On our third and final day in Belgium we visited Sanctuary Wood and then went to Locknaggar Crater. We also travelled to Hill 62 and visited the Pool of Peace, where a few girls read some poetry from the First World War.
Later on, we visited a chocolate shop in Ypres and enjoyed eating all of our sweets over lunch in the town. After lunch we went to our final destination of the trip, Bayernwald, where we got to walk around inside the German trenches. After an amazing three days in Belgium, we made our way back to Calais and departed for England.