TWO students have returned from an unique educational programme touring the First World War battlefields of northern France and Belgium.

Langley Grammar School pupils Matthew Trewren and Jarmail Atwal, together with their teacher Kevin Langford, returned on Monday last week from a four-day visit as part of the Battlefield Tours Programme.

The trio attended The Last Post Ceremony in Ypres, which takes place under the Menin Gate every single night of the year, and visited museums, battlefield sites, memorials and cemeteries including the Commonwealth War Grave sites of Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres and Thiepval Memorial in the Somme, France.

The group from Langley Grammar went on the trip alongside pupils and teachers from 15 other schools and were accompanied by professional battlefield guides and serving soldiers.

Mr Langford, curriculum director for humanities at the school, said: “The centenary project has provided students and teachers with a wonderful and perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, many students or staff may never return to these places; others may make pilgrimages with their families.

“The act of remembrance is just as important for people to make a hundred years on; to realise the loss and tragedy that war can bring and the effect on a nation.” The First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme, funded by the Department for Education and the Department for Communities and Local Government, is designed to help teachers and students from every state-funded school in England teaching Key Stage 3 and/or 4 to develop a deeper understanding of the Great War.

Now the students have returned, they will embark on a project in which they will share their experiences of visiting the battlefield sites through developing post-tour community projects.