School trips to The Somme

Why visit the Somme?

Learn about the Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme, which took place between 1st July and 18th November 1916 was one of the bloodiest battles in human history – one million men, a third of the total number that fought in the battle, were wounded or killed.

Visit the WW1 battlefields of the Somme in northern France to experience the living conditions in the trenches and the destructive power, waste and futility of war.

A history school trip to the Somme will ensure your students will return home with a greater appreciation of the human cost of war.

They will gain a deeper understanding of what life was like for soldiers and civilians here and they will begin to comprehend the sheer scale of the killing.

Discover the WW1 battlefields

A school trip to the Somme is ideal for both history and English literature school groups and also works fantastically as a cross-curricular destination.

By visiting the area in which the battle took place, events will be brought to life for your students, for whom WW1 is now in the distant past.

Bringing them here will not only help them with their studies, but it will also help to keep the memory of the First World War alive for future generations.

There are a number of fascinating activities and visits here. From Lochnager Crater and Delville Wood, where fighting took place, to the Somme 1916 Museum, where they can view artefacts from the period, and Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, where they’ll gain a better idea of the human cost of war.

Explore family connections

In preparation for your school trip to the Somme, why not task your students with researching any relatives that may have fought at the Battle of the Somme?

For any without familial connections to the battle, they could research past pupils of the school.

You could then choose to schedule stops at cemeteries and memorials where those soldiers are buried or memorialised, allowing your students to pay their respects and helping them to form a deeper connection to events.