News from Lockerbie Academy - Thursday 12 November 2009

Battlefields Trip 2009

On Tuesday the 29th of September at exactly midnight 44 pupils said our goodbyes to our parents and set off on our long awaited trip to the World War one battlefields in France and Belgium.

We had all heard that the trip was a great experience and very emotional but none of us really knew what to expect.

After being woken up by the beautiful weather on the crossing over the channel we went to a small cemetery called Esquelbecq to visit Kirsty Prentices’ relatives grave. It set the scene for the rest of the trip - there were tears at this first visit!

Later on we arrived at Vimy Ridge, which is Canadian land. Here we saw how the land had many shell holes and we were given a guided tour around preserved trenches and shown underground tunnels used by the allies. We were also shown the beautiful Canadian memorial at Vimy and all the names it held of the thousands of soldiers who had died there. We then headed back to the Chateau to get ready for the next day.

On Wednesday the 30th we left the Chateau bright and early to head to Lijssenthoek Military cemetery where we visited a grave of one woman, Nellie Spindler, among ten thousand men.

From there we went into Poperinge and visited Talbot House, this is a lovely house set up for soldiers so that they could come to this place, rest and forget about the war for a few hours by doing activities that they would do at home, even just reading.

We then walked to the town hall where death cells and a shooting post still remain. This is where 50 men were tried and then most commonly shot for desertion by their own comrades.

After this we went to Brandhoek new Military Cemetery where we visited the grave of Captain Noel Chavasse, one of only three men ever who have won two Victoria Crosses.

Essex Farm Cemetery was the next stop. This is where John McCrae the author of “In Flanders Fields” was based as a doctor in the early years of the war and where on May 3rd 1915 he wrote the famous poem after losing a close friend.

We then went on to visit “In Flanders Fields” museum in the cloth hall in Ypres. The museum was very modern and had many interesting exhibits, and we all learnt a lot from the amount of time we spent there. Then we went onto visit Kemmel French cemetery where we paid our respects to a relative of Fiona Anderson.

Bayernwald was next. We wandered in the preserved trenches in which Adolf Hitler had fought as a runner between 1914/15. I think that all of us there couldn’t help but question how different the twentieth century would have been if Hitler had been injured or killed here.

From Bayenwald we went to Loker Churchyard, in which a young man from Dumfries is buried. The boy was most definitely underage, possibly as young as fifteen, and was shot at dawn for desertion. This shook most of us.

On Thursday the 1st we visited the Musée Somme and Ovillers cemetery and also Lochnagar crater.

At Lochnagar Adrian Connell played the bagpipes as we all looked out upon the vast crater. This was really the time where most of us, even some of the boys, began to realize the harsh reality that the amount of devastation and death out here was truly real.

We had a quick stop at Tommy café (for the teachers of course) and went on to Thiepval. Thiepval is a French and British memorial to the missing of the Somme, which bears the names of 72103 British and French forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave, including the relatives of Megan Nicholson and Mrs (Susan) Gilliland. Behind the breath-taking monument there are three hundred British graves and three hundred French graves to show the equality and combined sacrifice.

From there we moved on to Newfoundland Park where we were shown how close the German and Canadian front lines were, we also discovered that The Kings Own Scottish Borders Regiment (the regiment for our area) fought here along with the Canadians.

On Friday the 2nd we first of all visited Harlebeke New British cemetery. Here we visited a grave of a relative of Adrian Connell. It was upsetting to see he’d died only a few days before the armistice was signed.

We then passed Hell fire corner, which is the furthest point the Germans got to during the Ludendorf offensive in the last months of the war.

Next we put on our Wellington boots and headed off to Sanctuary wood. Here we wandered, and played discreetly, in the trenches. We answered questions from our workbook in the museum and went on to Hooge crater museum then Hooge crater cemetery.

At Hooge crater cemetery we were made to walk down a hill through the middle of the graveyard and stand shoulder to shoulder at the foot of the slope, then Adrian Connell started to play the bagpipes. We were asked to turn around and as we did to imagine a grave as a soldier. Many tears were shed as we realised that nearly one hundred years ago so many men would’ve marched up the very same hill, to their death, some unaware of their impending fate.

We moved on to Tyne Cot, the biggest Commonwealth war grave cemetery in the world, it contains around 11,000 graves. As we walked around to the front of the cemetery and all of the graves came into view there were many gasps. By this point everyone was crying. We were given one poppy cross to lay on one grave which many of us struggled with. How could we choose one man’s grave when each soldiers sacrifice had been so heavy?

After, we went to Langemark German cemetery. It was much more dark and unsettling than the light and beautiful commonwealth graves. The German soldiers were buried standing up and were given mass graves. It was really upsetting, as at the end of the day, these were just young men fighting for their country, they were just like our men.

Later that night after eating out and spending a lot of money in the Belgian chocolate shops, we attended The Last post ceremony and the Menin Gate. Where Robyn Matthews, Ryan Gilmour, Dale Houstin and I laid two wreaths on behalf of the school and the community during the ceremony. It made me really proud to do something to commemorate all the brave men who fought in the war.

On the bus back to the chateau we didn’t speak a word. Mr Turner played us some songs about soldiers and the war and yet again many of us were reduced to tears. It was very emotive.

The trip was an amazing experience and taught many of us the harsh reality of war. They say one mans death is a tragedy yet nine million is just a statistic. This may be true in the classroom but when you experience it yourself, first hand, you realize that it is so, so untrue.

Claire Dorrance 4B

Coffee Morning

The African Link Enterprise Group is a small committee consisting of a mixture of pupils who work to fund and promote awareness for Thawale Primary School in Malawi. Thawale Primary has 1200 pupils yet only 9 teachers and faces daily problems that would not be encountered by a school in Scotland. The group’s aim is to raise money to provide the pupils and teachers in Thawale with improved learning and teaching resources. The group is enthusiastic to promote the link to the community of Lockerbie and the surrounding areas. By doing this, we hope the partnership between Lockerbie and Malawi will continue to prosper strongly.

Lockerbie Academy has already begun to improve the education of Thawale Primary Pupils. After a fundraising event which took place in summer 2008, a large sum of money was raised and has been spent by providing £500 for stationery to be bought and sourced in Malawi, 100 books were also sent and a library is in the process of being furbished. At the beginning of this year, 300 penpal letters were sent to and from Malawi from both teachers and pupils. After a successful year in 2008, an agreement was set up in which the link will try to advance teaching and learning in both schools.

For the years 2009/2010 the enterprise group has an ultimate aim to increase cultural awareness between Thawale and Lockerbie. A coffee morning will be held on Saturday 21st November 2009 to fundraise for Thawale Primary to ensure we can provide them with as many resources as we can. The coffee morning, held at Lockerbie Town Hall between 10am-12 noon will include tea and coffee, a raffle and stalls such as the tombola, cake and candy and many games for children to enjoy. We hope everyone can attend and support our link further.

Dates for the Diary