Next Year will be the 100th anniversary of the first world war. To help commemorate this, gardens will be built, the first in London, beside the Wellington Barracks. This will open in November 2014.

At the beginning of World War 1 Germany wanted to invade France. They asked Belgium if they could cross their country to invade but Belgium didn’t want to be involved, so Germany invaded Belgium first instead. Other countries then declared war in support of their friends.

The conditions were awful. The ground is very flat in Belgium and it rains a lot of the time. The men were fighting in mud and water for weeks on end and many millions died. It was impossible for the dead soldiers to be returned to their countries so they were buried in Belgium. They have 70 cemeteries there. The graves of the allied soldiers have uniform, upright headstones, but those of German soldiers are just small stones flat on the ground.

On the 9th November 2013 Mrs Young, Mrs Turner and Maddy got up very early. By 9.30 they were in St Pancras International station to catch the Eurostar train to Brussels. There were adults and children from 62 schools. Only 8 of these were primary schools so we felt very honoured to be involved. There were people from the media at the station too and Maddy was lucky enough to be chosen for a photo with 2 guards.

The journey took 2 hours. At the station in Brussels there were lots of teachers from schools in Belgium, waiting to greet us. We needed to look for a sign which said Winderkind school. The sign we found looked very professional, unlike the pieces of cardboard lots of schools were holding up. The headmistress or Principal of the school met us. The children in school call her Mrs Ann, although Ann is her first name.

We were pleased to have arrived but then discovered that we had 2 more train journeys. The next train was due so we had to go up stairs, down stairs, up again and walk very, very fast to catch the train. The train was a surprise because it was a ‘doubledecker’! Have you ever been upstairs on a train?

We left East Croydon just after 8am and now it was about 5 o’clock. Ann said we must go to the Tea shop. A lovely idea. The Tea shops are not quite like ours and were very busy. Unfortunately the first one was full, the second was full, but luckily success in the third one. We did lots of eating.

We then had a walk for half an hour while Ann went to collect her son Zoyan. Then came the surprise!

After bowling we drove to our hotel and checked in and went out for dinner. Maddy did very well to stay awake as we didn’t get back until half past 11.

On Sunday morning we went to the local town (like Croydon) called Roeselare. Ann had made a game where we had to hunt for buildings and landmarks as we walked round the town. In Belgium they speak Dutch so the language was quite difficult.

What did we do next? We went to eat. After lunch we visited the school. The children were in the 5th and 6th grade which is the same as year 6 and year 7 because children in Belgium don't start formal school until they are 6.

The school is an eco school and is close to applying for its Green Flag. It has 2 goats, some rabbits and some chickens. These live happily outside as there are no foxes!

The school was very small so there were only 13 children in the 2 year groups, and 2 teachers. The children were welcoming and had made a big red poppy and a poster and picture box about the first world war. The children then watched the film of War Horse and had popcorn and fizzy drinks.

On Sunday night we went out for dinner and had chips (they have chips with EVERYTHING) and of course squirty cream, which seems to come on everything else. We were quite late to bed again but the most exciting day was yet to come.

Up early on Monday we drove to Ypres , which the Belgium people call Ieper.

On the way out of the town

We went past Rumbeke

Castle, which looked amazing.

We left our bags at a hall and were given an envelope each. This was precious as it held our ticket for the ceremony.

This is Maddy and Arancha,

who was her partner from

the Belgium school.

We visited the

‘In The Flanders Fields’ museum.

This has been named after a famous poem written during the First World War, which is also called the Great War. The poem was written by Major John McCrae.

During the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2nd May, 1915 in the gun positions near Ypres. An exploding German artillery shell landed near him.

He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae.

As the brigade doctor, John McCrae was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been called away somewhere else on duty that evening.

It is believed that later that evening, after the burial, John began the draft for his now famous poem “In Flanders Fields”. The poem was the inspiration for the remembrance poppy.

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

The red field poppy came to be known as an internationally recognized symbol of Remembrance and great loss of life in war, from its association with poppies flowering in the spring of 1915 on the battlefields of Belgium, France and Gallipoli.

The field poppy is an annual plant which flowers each year between about May and August. Its seeds are spread on the wind and can lie dormant in the ground for a long time. If the ground is disturbed from the early spring the seeds will germinate and the poppy flowers will grow. The feet of the soldiers churned up the ground allowing the seeds to germinate.

It was on a Saturday morning, 9th November 1918, two days before the Armistice or Peace, was declared at 11 o'clock on 11th November.

Moina Belle Michael was at work in New York. She looked at a magazine and saw the poem entitled “We Shall Not Sleep”. This was another name used for John McCrae's poem, “In Flanders Fields”. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae had died of pneumonia several months earlier on 28th January 1918. At that moment Moina made a personal pledge to “keep the faith”. She vowed always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance.

She was given some money by visitors to her office because it looked so cheerful and she said she would buy twenty-five red poppies with the money.

She showed them the illustration for John McCrae's poem “In Flanders Fields”.

After searching the shops for some time that day, Moina found one large and twenty-four small artificial red silk poppies in Wanamaker's department store.

When she returned to work everyone crowded round her asking for poppies to wear. Keeping one poppy for her coat collar she gave out the rest of the poppies.

According to Moina, this was the first group-effort asking for poppies to wear in memory of “all who died in Flanders Fields”. Since this group had given her the money with which to buy them, she considered that she had made the first sale of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy on 9th November 1918.

After that poppies became a symbol of remembrance of those who have died in war. They are mainly worn in Canada and Great Britain. Poppies are not usually worn in Belgium

After our visit to the museum we split into groups and had a short tour of some of the buildings in the city. In the first world war the city of Ypres was completely destroyed, but then rebuilt to be as near the same as possible.

When they knew that the Germans were coming they took most of their precious artefacts and hid them. Things like statues, stained glass windows and important documents. This meant the plans for the buildings could be used to recreate them.

We also , of course, had more food.

We visited St George’s church. Built entirely from British donations.

We went to a community hall for a packed lunch and then returned for the ceremony of the passing of the soil. This was held at the Menin Gate. A huge arch built into the original city wall.

This is in memory of all the soldiers who died and have no known grave. Their names are written on the inside of the arch and there are about 55,OOO of them. Remains are still being found and can sometimes be identified. The names are then removed.

The inscription on the gate reads ‘ TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO STOOD HERE FROM - , AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE’.

There were lots of important people, including the Duke of Edinburgh , and the Prince of Belgium. The ceremony was very moving as we remembered the millions of people that died.

We listened to the Last Post which is sounded every morning and evening at the Menin gate.

Then the passing of the soil began.

Each child from Britain walked with a child from Belgium and a soldier carried a sandbag of soil. This was put on a gun carriage to be brought back to London. The soil was collected from each of the 70 war cemeteries in Belgium, so 70 pairs of children took part in the ceremony for Belgium to give the soil to Great Britain.

There were lots of media people there. Maddy was interviewed by a man from the BBC, a man from the Daily Telegraph and ITV news for London tonight. After the ceremony it was hot chocolate and cake before a coach to Lille and the train home. WOW!!

A big thank you to everyone in Belgium who welcomed us.

The soil is arriving on Friday and the ship carrying it will pass through Tower Bridge and dock beside HMS Belfast.The soil will then be transferred to a gun carriage on Saturday morning and carried to the Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace.