A group of two dozen 17-year-old British students will visit Hiroshima to attend the annual August service marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city, to gain a unique perspective on the issue of conflict.

The students and four accompanying teachers are from the Boswells School in Essex, east of London, which won a national competition for the all-expenses-paid trip, courtesy of an innovative education project called "Their Past Your Future" led by the Imperial War Museum in London.

"Our school is a very good school in a very good area but it's a very homogenous white, middle-class school and the students haven't got particularly broad horizons in many ways. They're quite insular and we wanted to unpick that, so that was what drove us to compete to take part in the opportunity," said Bob Bell, Boswells School head of humanities.