From Thursday 21st November to Saturday 23rd November 2024, four junior ambassadors (Jayden O’Brien, Shaunak Gupta, Isabelle Dawson and Sebastian Rapley Mende) and two senior ambassadors (Darren Cogavin and Amy McGready) from the EPAS team at USP College joined four other EPAS ambassador schools from the UK, four from the Netherlands, four from Ireland and four from Belgium for an international trip to Brussels, Ypres and Flanders Fields in Belgium, organised by the European Parliament.
On the first day, the group joined other UK schools on the Eurostar to Brussels. There, they met up with the other schools where they took part in a joint tour of the European Parliament in Brussels, before taking a coach to a hostel in Ypres where they stayed the night (and became roommates with ambassadors from other schools)!
On the second day, the schools went on a tour of Ypres and explored the city, and also visited war memorials in Flanders Fields to learn about and commemorate the fallen of World War One and World War Two. Back at the hostel, each school made a presentation about their experiences of the EPAS programme and received signed certificates for their participation with Stephen Clark, head of the EP Liaison Office, before taking part in a Q&A with Belgian socialist MEP Estelle Ceulemans, before spending their final night at the hostel in Ypres.
On the third day, the UK schools bid farewell to the other schools and returned to Brussels to properly explore the city, where they saw the Manneken Pis, the Belgian Beer Museum and other landmarks of the city before taking the Eurostar back to London.
The EPAS team at USP College would like to thank the European Parliament for inviting us to this trip and our students and those from the other ambassador schools for making all this possible. We all loved the trip and made lasting friendships from all across Europe and would love to come on more trips and events like these!
See USP College’s posts about the trip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCwfY3GKzWg