12 November 2018

Schools across the Archdiocese of Melbourne have marked the centenary of the Armistice that ended the First World War with remembrance events.

The grounds of Aquinas College, Ringwood, were filled with over 3,000 handmade white poppies to remember the fallen soldiers. Students and staff dedicated hundreds of hours to creating individual ceramic poppies, building the message of peace into each activity.

Aquinas College commemorated ANZAC Day in 2015 with an installation of red poppies. In 2018, to mark the 100th year since Armistice, Sandi van der Niet, Arts Learning Area Leader, proposed a field of white poppies ‘in contrast to the red poppies of 2015, which represented and signified the bloodshed, the 2018 field will be a field of all white poppies. The white poppy represents peace and will be a solemn, symbolic visual reminder of our hope for peace in the world.’

At Catholic Regional College St Albans, students were shown stories and interviews from war, including The Boy Soldier and An Anzac’s Story.
Students were then invited to write a word or phrase onto a class poster to remember or respect those who have pledged their life of service in war or conflict – a message or word of peace.

With the finished poster in one hand and a posy of rosemary in the other, students from each class laid their thoughts and prayers along the front of the stage in the main yard as the bugler played The Last Post.

Flags were lowered to half-mast and prayers of hope and peace were placed in the school’s poppy garden.