HISTORY students saw the realities of war when they visited First World War battlefields on a school trip earlier this month.

Testbourne Community School’s Year 9 students visited sites in France and Belgium, including Menin Gate, Vimy Memorial Park and the Somme.

The 48 budding historians also saw first-hand the underground tunnels at the Wellington Quarry Tunnels in a trip designed to show pupils the landscapes soldiers had to endure and to the brutal realities of what the war was like.

Associate assistant headteacher Ryan Lester said: “At the last post ceremony under the Menin Gate, the students were surrounded by the names of thousands of fallen British and Commonwealth solders causing them to fall silent.

“Indeed they commented that the whole town of Ypres seemed to go quiet, which is something that has happened almost every evening since 1928.

“There was, of course, time to be normal teenagers and watch the England football match at a bowling alley, and spending time shopping and sampling many Belgian chocolates.”