This September, our Year 7 and 8 pupils took part in our biannual English trip to the Battlefields of France and Belgium. Unlike many academic trips tracing the events of the First World War, our focus at Willington was upon the areas and conditions that influenced many of our great British war writers; allowing a literary focus alongside a historical knowledge of the period. Amongst the two days of our residential trip, the boys re-traced the steps of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in following the Front Line of the Somme, participated in the Last Post Ceremony held at the Menin Gate, experienced the differences in moving within Allied and German trenches and commemorated one of Willington’s former pupils in his final resting place. A truly special trip that always makes our study of war poetry all the more resonant.

Mrs Sarah Hamidon
Head of English