WWI Battlefield Trips for Schools

History - Ypres & The Somme

Our established Ypres & the Somme history tour programme covers the events of WWI in the Ypres Salient and Somme regions, enabling your pupils to learn from a wealth of important historical sites and excursions.

Learn more about our trips to Ypres & the Somme.

History - Medicine & Surgery on the Western Front

For groups studying Medicine and Surgery on the Western Front, our established WWI Battlefields tours programme will give context to the events in the Ypres Salient and Somme regions and allow pupils to gain understanding of medical treatments, developments and historical context of medicine in the early 20th Century.

Learn more about our medicine & surgery on the Western front trips.

English Literature

Bring the literature of the war to life for your pupils with an English school trip to the battlefields region and gain an unforgettable insight into the effects of the war on iconic writers.

Learn more about our English trips to the battlefields. 

Religious studies

Our established WWI Battlefields religious study tours give pupils a deeper emotional connection with wartime events, providing them with the opportunity to appreciate the scale of sacrifice.

Learn more about our religious studies trips to the battlefields.

In Flanders Field Museum

This superb state-of-the-art, interactive museum is now an even richer experience with the updated larger museum. Covering most aspects of the war in Flanders, each visitor will receive a wristband that will take them on a journey in the museum through the eyes of someone who was there.

Sanctuary Wood Museum & Hill 62

Located close to the original front lines, this fascinating visit shows well-preserved British trenches and covered passageways, as well as a section of the underground tunnel system. The museum consists of two rooms housing many artefacts removed from the battlefields. Plus, a large and rare collection of three-dimensional photo images inside special viewing boxes.

Passchendaele Memorial Museum

Commemorating the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, this museum has been enlarged. There is now an underground exhibition focusing on the battle, a network of open-air trenches and a new remembrance gallery. A full-day interactive platoon experience is also available; call us for more details.

Hooge Crater Museum and Trenches Experience

This is a truly unique tour experience for students. Original artefacts & full-scale reconstructions of battlefield scenes can be found in the Museum Hooge Crater. Sample a must-see selection of weapons from 1914-18, war equipment and photos of all the armies that fought during those four years!

We can reserve a time slot in the trenches just for your group, so you can explore them on your own.

Newfoundland Park

Newfoundland Park is undoubtedly one of the largest and best-preserved trench memorials on the Western Front. Just outside the park lies Hawthorn Crater and within it are the ‘Danger Tree’ and remains of the British Front Line. The German Front Line can be seen across No Man’s Land.

Thiepval Memorial & Visitor Centre

This is the largest memorial for the British missing on the Western Front. The location contains the names of over 73,000 men who died in the Somme section before 20th March 1918 and have no known graves. The visitor centre houses an informative exhibition designed to aid understanding of the history of Thiepval during WWI.

Ypres Walking Tour

This tour of the city includes:

• The Cloth Hall
• St George’s Anglican Church
• The Menin Gate (Britain’s major memorial to its missing)
• The Lille Gate Cemetery - A beautiful example of the work of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Your group will then return to Ypres for an evening meal and attend the daily Last Post Ceremony at The Menin Gate to witness a moving act of remembrance by the people of the city.

Vimy Ridge

The scene of fierce fighting in 1917, when the Canadians successfully took the ridge from the Germans. Students can take a tour of the tunnels, trenches and cemeteries.

Menin Gate & Last Post Ceremony

The largest and the most important of the British memorials to the Missing in The Salient. The Menin Gate holds the names of 54,896 soldiers of the British Empire. This memorial marked the start of one of the main roads out of Ypres towards the Front Line. Following a meal at a local restaurant, your students will witness the moving ‘Last Post Ceremony’ which takes place every evening at 8pm.

Tour planning service

With NST, you’ll get your own dedicated, knowledgeable Tour Co-ordinator who’ll work with you from start to finish. You’ll benefit from their unrivalled destination knowledge, and their experience gained from working with many other groups too. They’ll tailor-make your itinerary from scratch and take care of everything for you:

• Pulling together an itinerary that runs smoothly
• Planning the right balance of visits every day with realistic timings
• Pre-arranging and pre-booking your visits, entrance tickets, passes and meals

You’ll receive your final itinerary a full 4-weeks before you travel too.

Free school trip promotion pack

We’ll support you and provide everything you need to advertise your school trip around school and to parents. Our free school trip promotion pack consists of:

• Parents’ letter & permission slip template for you to complete A3 posters to promote your trip around school
• PowerPoint presentation templates which you can tailor to your own needs
• Parents’ leaflets covering how NST manage safety, financial protection and details of our travel insurance
• Online parents’ video which showcases the benefits of taking a school trip

For selected destinations, we’ll provide a trip launch web page using video footage and imagery. This web page is provided by a weblink and can be shared with pupils and parents in many ways.

Risk assessment support including preview visits

Risk assessment plays a vitally important part in the planning and organisation on any school tour.

Our risk assessment guide aims to help you understand more about your obligations and how you can more effectively manage group safety on your next educational visit and provide you with risk assessments for your trip. 

Planning first school trip

Organising your first school trip can appear to be a daunting process.

If you're planning your first school trip, our guide will help to take you through each step of the planning process, answering frequently asked questions and providing tips and support along the way.

Our helpful guide covers the following:

• Choosing your destination
• Gaining approval from your Local Authority and/or your Head
• Promoting your tour in school
• Confirming your booking
• Tailor-make your tour
• Completing your risk assessments (including a sample risk assessment)
• Quick reference timeline
• Pre-tour checklist

View our essential guide to a successful school trip here.

Get live updates on your group's tour location

Locate My Trip uses GPS technology and is the easy, convenient way for your school to follow your location whilst on tour. Specifically designed to provide reassurance to both parents and teachers, NST will know where your group are 24/7. If your schedule needs to change, we’ll put plans in place to keep your tour on track. 

With Locate My Trip your group can also share photos and videos with the school and parents, via a secure link, to keep them updated on your experience whilst you’re away.

Watch our short Locate My Trip video here.

Your online school trip organiser - My Tour Manager

Save time and stay on track with your school trip admin with our online orgnaniser - designed to help busy teachers like you.

With My Tour Manager, you'll be able to download FREE resources and access trip paperwork online and in one place. Your personalised checklist details what you need to do and by when, plus you'll receive fortnightly reminders too.

What's more, you can take all your trip documents on the go whilst on your tour with our app, My Tour Manager-On-the-Go.

Find out more and watch out short My Tour Manager video here.

Free classroom resources

We've created a range of free geography resources and educational posters to brighten up your classroom!

Take a look at our downloadable posters here.

Brexit & your school trip

How will Brexit affect my school trip?

Following the end of the transition period there are several changes that will affect groups travelling with us to the EU.

For more information on these changes, visit our dedicated Brexit page here.

If you're travelling with NST and have any specific questions. please contact your Educational Travel Advisor.