For most schoolchildren it is just a name – and a hard one to pronounce at that – but for a group from Uxbridge High School, Ypres is now living history.

The Year 9 children from the school in The Greenway headed to Belgium as part of their studies of the First World War.

In this, the centenary year of the outbreak of fighting, the war is at the top of many school history curriculum. The pupils headed to the In Flanders Field Museum, then took a walking tour of the town with a local guide.

That evening, as part of the daily Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, Sophie Coole, George Brookfield and Ben Clarke laid a wreath on behalf of the school.

War graves in an Ypres cemetery

Next day, the pupils made a trenches trip, visiting the old emplacements on Hill 62, and took in cemeteries – both British and German – and a number of war memorials.

www.getwest.london.co.uk and The Gazette are featuring your First World War centenary commemorations, memorabilia and photographs. Email tms-newseditor@trinitymirror.com or call 01895 451036.