Students visit First World War site in Belgium

STUDENTS from Stanchester Academy at Stoke-sub-Hamdon laid a wreath at the Tyne Cot war memorial during a history trip to Belgium.

The history trip to Belgium was a huge success and Tyne Cot war memorial, the burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front, was a particularly poignant place for the students to visit at this time of year and really gave context to the scale and impact of war.

Senior students laid a wreath at the Remembrance Sunday service at Ham Hill, while representatives from each year group attended the two-minute silence at 11am on Monday (Armistice Day, November 11) at the memorial on Ham Hill.

Attending the Remembrance Sunday service at Ham Hill were head boy and head girl Joe Foreman and Izzy Olivey and their deputies, Ed Holt and Maisy Stone.

PHOTO - TOP: The wreath laid by Stanchester students at the war memorial at Ham Hill on Remembrance Sunday.

Stanchester's assistant principal, Amy Maunder, said: "Izzy, Joe, Ed and Maisy are a real credit to our school and they conducted themselves with respect and sensitivity and we were all moved by the hugely emotive ceremony.”

PHOTO - RIGHT: Stanchester students Izzy Olivey, Joe Foreman, Ed Holt, Maisy Stone at the war memorial at Ham Hill.

Fellow assistant principal, Matt Clinkard, accompanied students to the Armistice Day ceremony at Ham Hill on Monday.

"It is school trips like this that really allow students to appreciate how privileged they are; they have a fantastic school in a rural setting with technology such as I pads and so much more at their fingertips, whereas, less than 70 years ago, children not much older were heading off to war," he said. "I think the students today really engaged and understood that.”

Students at other schools in Yeovil and South Somerset took part in Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day cermonies.

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