Winners of Anzac Day Schools’ Awards announced

Schools around the nation have been recognised for their creative projects honouring Australian peacekeepers as part of the Anzac Day Schools’ Awards.

The national competition is an exciting opportunity for students to engage with veterans and learn more about Australia’s wartime history. This year’s theme was chosen to complement the 75th anniversary of Australia’s involvement in international peacekeeping operations.

St Joseph’s College in Lochinvar, New South Wales, took out the national prize with an impressive commemorative program that included a range of school-wide activities and learning opportunities to develop students’ understanding of peacekeeping.

Vikki Jordan, one of the teachers of the Year 9 class that led the school’s award-winning activities, said one of the highlights was a replica of the Tree of Peace at the Peace Palace (International Court of Justice) in The Hague.

‘Every student in the school wrote a message for the tree and they were placed on it during the Anzac Day ceremony,’ Vikki said. ‘The students thought it was a great idea, they saw the importance of it and really engaged with the messages and what it meant to get peace in this world.’

 

Other activities included the ‘Dove Honour Roll’ and ‘Hands of Peace’, which respectively honoured Australian peacekeepers who have been killed while on duty, and chronicled our country’s peacekeeping missions through the years.

But it was the sheer breadth and depth of St Joseph’s engagement with peacekeeping veterans that stood out and also won the school the Brigadier Bill Rolfe AO Award for Veteran Involvement.

‘One of the Year 9s came up with the idea of doing a survey to find out how much other students actually understand about peacekeeping,’ Vikki reported. ‘From this, they realised the connections the school has with peacekeeping, and discovered the parents and teachers who have been involved.’

One peacekeeper the students found among the school community was agriculture teacher Simon Ramage, a veteran of Operation Anode in the Solomon Islands, with whom the students recorded a video interview.

Another was Thomas Pulleine, a former peacekeeper and Community and Peer Advisor in DVA’s Open Arms Veterans & Families Counselling service, who delivered the Anzac Day commemorative address at St Joseph’s. A veteran of Timor-Leste, Iraq and the Solomon Islands, Thomas said it was an important opportunity to share the experience of peacekeeping with younger generations.

‘I would like to congratulate the students and the staff of St Joseph’s College,’ he said. ‘The students for their curiosity and willingness to learn about and pay respect to our veterans, and the teachers for their continued passion in teaching our children military history in an interactive and inspiring way.

‘As soldiers we face challenges on deployment, but we maintain the resolve to be the best ambassadors for Australia that we can be. And we must never forget the difficulties facing families of Defence members who are deployed, and the challenges for veterans integrating back into society.’

The award judges this year were particularly impressed with the range of innovative projects submitted by schools, including websites, videos, artwork, songs, podcasts and poetry.

Students at Spring Mountain State School in Queensland calculated the measurements necessary for the whole school to form a giant peace sign on the oval. This was then captured by a drone photo shoot – a bright idea that, as part of their larger project entry, won them the Award for Creative Use of Technology.

Announcing the awards, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh said the students in the winning schools took the theme to heart by engaging with former and current peacekeepers in a variety of ways, and genuinely reflected on the courage and sacrifice involved with the unique nature of peacekeeping service.

‘I’d like to congratulate the winning schools, but also all schools that took part – their commitment to acknowledging service is commendable,’ he said. ‘I also want to thank the teachers who worked with students and coordinated the entries for their schools – you have done a great job.’ 

 

Vikki Jordan from St Joseph’s College agrees that the awards were truly a whole-of-school achievement, led by the Year 9 class, and the culmination of several years’ concerted effort by the school’s Human Society and its Environment faculty.

‘The students were so excited to receive these awards,’ she said. ‘It was such a rewarding experience for them because they put in so many of their own hours to do all this, as well as doing their usual schoolwork. And it’s a testament to our whole-of-faculty approach – every one of our staff members puts a lot of time and work into the different elements of commemoration and it is something we look forward to doing every year.’

And what do they plan to do with the $7,000 in prize money?

‘There have been discussions about an Anzac Commemorative Garden, and we’re keen to hear the students’ voice given that they’ve really owned these projects,’ Vikki adds. ‘Some very ambitious students have even spoken about travelling to a place like Gallipoli – something that’s always been a dream of the faculty!’

A snapshot of the winning schools appears below. To find out more about the winners and to see the wonderful variety of ways schools honour the service and sacrifice of veterans and serving personnel, visit the Anzac Portal.

 

2022 ANZAC DAY SCHOOLS’ AWARDS WINNERS

Award	School Name	State	Primary/Secondary
National Winner ($5,000)	St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar	NSW	Secondary
ACT State Winner ($3,000)	Charnwood-Dunlop School, Charnwood	ACT	Primary
NSW State Winner ($3,000)	Al-Faisal College, Liverpool	NSW	Primary and Secondary
NT State Winner ($3,000)	Mother Teresa Catholic Primary School, Zuccoli	NT	Primary
QLD State Winner ($3,000)	St Philomena School, Park Ridge	QLD	Primary and Secondary
TAS State Winner ($3,000)	Rosebery District School, Rosebery	TAS	Primary and Secondary
Joint VIC State Winner ($3,000)	Upwey South Primary School, Upwey	VIC	Primary
Joint VIC State Winner ($3,000)	Wodonga Primary School, Wodonga	VIC	Primary
WA State Winner ($3,000)	Mount Magnet District High School, Mount Magnet	WA	Secondary
Brigadier Bill Rolfe AO Award for Veteran Involvement ($2,000)	St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar	NSW	Secondary
Award for Innovative Commemoration ($2,000)	St Philomena School, Park Ridge	QLD	Primary and Secondary
Award for Creative Use of Technology ($2,000)	Spring Mountain State School, Spring Mountain	QLD	Primary
Remote Schools Award ($2,000)	Rosebery District School, Rosebery	TAS	Primary and Secondary
Specialist Educational Setting ($2,000)	Forest Primary School, Forest	TAS	Primary

 

Images:

1. Proudly displaying their awards are Isabelle Dixon (left) and Molly Martin (right) with agriculture teacher and veteran peacekeeper Simon Ramage.

2. Award-winning St Joseph’s College Year 9 students with (left to right) teachers Vikki Jordan and Simon Ramage, and Principal Patricia Hales.

3. Thomas Puelleine with partner Melissa Harries

4. Staff and students of Spring Mountain State School form a giant peace sign on their oval.