Scottish pupils attend Amiens WWI commemoration service

Five school pupils from Scotland will be taking part in the Amiens commemorations in France later.

Two pupils from Clydebank High School and three from Grove Academy in Broughty Ferry have travelled to northern France for a special service at Amiens' Notre Dame cathedral.

The teenagers were chosen for their work with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

The Battle of Amiens marked the beginning of the end of World War One.

The Allied offensive began 100 years ago, when forces advanced more than seven miles on the first day, and it marked a significant turning point in WWI.

Prince William and Prime Minister Theresa May will give readings at a service this afternoon, and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is among the 2,000 invited guests.

The pupils have been doing research on Commonwealth War Graves

Caitaidh Thomson, from Grove Academy in Broughty Ferry, is one of five pupils from Scotland who were selected to attend because of their work with the CWGC.

She told BBC Scotland: "Our school has 93 former pupils that died in the First World War, so me and a couple of other girls from my class have been doing research about them and their war life.

"We've been visiting them in cemeteries here and back home - because we've got a couple in our local cemetery, just a five-minute walk away - so it's quite special to be here.

"Even looking at numbers, you don't really see how much it is until you pass cemetery after cemetery, just driving along the road. It's quite heartbreaking."

Lucy Bowers, from Clydebank High School, added: "I think it really helps to put it into perspective, because we both study history in school, and it's quite difficult when you get a lot of facts and figures thrown at you.

"So when you come out here to somewhere like this, and you see all the gravestones lined up, it really puts it into perspective just how many people fought and died out here."

Huge impact

With them is teacher Paul Hamilton from Clydebank High, who said: "There's a curricula aspect to these tours, in terms of you're building in some sort of context to what's actually learned in the classroom.

"But then there's a wider experience from being here as well. What you get is a lot of perspective. You sense the scale of it, and there's a huge impact that young people get from being on a tour like that."

Teacher Paul Hamilton said the trip will give pupils some context in relation to what they learn in the classroom

Mr Hamilton insists that lessons can still be learned from WWI, which ended almost 100 years ago. He said: "It is relevant and it will always be.

"It is the themes associated with it, whether it is conflict or injustice or tolerance or respect. These themes that were born out of the war will always have relevance."