Present-day students from Ilkley Grammar School have walked in the footsteps of past pupils who gave their lives in the First World War.

More than 150 year nine pupils, along with 19 staff, were met with the sobering sight of lines of headstones in war cemeteries, and saw the scene of the first gas attack of the war, on the school’s annual trip to Belgium.

The group (pictured) was led by history teacher Jeff Pancott, who has been taking parties from the Cowpasture Road school to visit battlefields and war graves since 2000.

Mr Pancott says the trip not only gave the students a chance to understand what those who fought in the war endured and to pay their respects to the fallen, but also gave them a useful insight that will help them in their studies.

He said: “When the students come back and start talking about it, it’s quite clear the ones who didn’t make it on the trip feel there’s a bit of a gap.

“The trip is one of the most popular run by Ilkley Grammar School, usually being booked out within the first hour of places becoming available.”

The party visited several war cemeteries during the three days, staying in Ypres.