Nationwide School Travel Service Takes British Children To Battlefields

A new school travel service, being offered to state schools all over the United Kingdom by Equity School Travel, in association with London University’s Institute of Education, will allow students to visit the most important battlefields of World War I.

Launched as a way of commemorating the centennial anniversary of that major world event, this initiative – dubbed the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme – will run until 2019. For each of the next five years, two students and one teacher from every state-run school in the British Isles will be granted the opportunity to tour some of the most relevant theatres of war associated with the 1914-1918 conflict.

Pupils and teachers who choose or are chosen to go on these trips will be given guided tours of pivotal WWI battlefields, such as Tyne Cot, Neuve Chappelle or the Somme, as well as of museums and memorial sites relating to the conflict. The apex of this experience will be the Last Post at Ypres, where modern-day pupils will get to experience the elation of their 1918 counterparts as they became aware that the war was over. Interactions with the locals, namely family members of those who fought in the war, are also a part of the programme.

This ambitious and innovative school travel service arose after a comment from prominent children’s author, Michael Morpurgo. Speaking at a press conference, the writer considered that children should be made to visit World War I battlefields and gravesites. This, in turn gave officials in the British government the idea for this programme, which is to be funded by a £5.3 million government grant.

The First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme was officially launched earlier this month, in a press conference held at the Guards Museum in London. TV presenter Dan Snow was one of the familiar faces present at this event, which also saw pupils from a number of schools take their seats next to journalists and celebrities.

About Equity School Travel:

Equity School Travel offers educational trips worldwide, with a wide variety of subject matters. Find them at http://www.equityschooltravel.co.uk/

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