HAND-MADE red poppies will adorn the uniforms of more than 500 Warwick West State School students next Friday, when they gather to formally commemorate Anzac Day at their school assembly.
But it is the story behind purple poppies that will be one of the highlights in a week of commemoration activities at the school.
Teacher Sue Higgins, who is also the school librarian, already has an impressive Anzac Day display, welcoming students and visitors to her library. There are a number of self-paced individual activities to get students thinking about Anzac Day.
“Next week’s class library lessons will focus explicitly on Anzac Day to make sure our younger generation understands and continues the legacy of the Anzac story, but some of our learnings will be on the significance of the purple poppy,” she said.
The purple poppy badge honours the animals who served to protect our country and give comfort and companionship to their handlers and soldiers.
It is worn alongside the traditional red poppy.
“We expect the children to be very interested in the ‘why’ of the purple poppy, and on Thursday’s parade they will hear from a guest speaker Justin Hudson on the military use of animals during World War II, specifically the use of pigeons,” she said.
“Justin will share the story of how pigeons carried life-or-death messages that radio and field phones could not, and will in fact release homing pigeons on the school oval as part of his presentation.”
Principal Jason Callcott congratulated the Warwick RSL Sub-Branch and VSASA on their continued program of conducting services in local primary and high schools in the lead-up to Anzac Day.
“We acknowledge that this is a very big volunteer exercise for members of these organisations, but without doubt, their educational programs become the catalyst to strong participation by school students in the commemoration march,” he said.
Wednesday’s parade featured a guest speaker delivering a talk on Anzac Day, with emphasis on the Rising Sun badge.
On Thursday 21 April, the school will host Justin Hudson who will speak on the military use of animals during World War II and Friday’s parade will be the whole-of-school formal Anzac Day service.
