Ruapotaka's ANZAC Service by Jessica

Ruapotaka School held its very own ANZAC ceremony. It was hosted by the student leaders Riiana, Leanah and myself. When we have our services we welcome parents and family to join us. We also invite people from the RSA to watch us and give us their feedback.

I started our ANZAC service with our school prayer followed by our school waiata. After that, I lead the singing of the National Anthem. All the students, teachers and parents joined in. I then invited Mrs Hamilton to the stage to read out the Declaration.

We had three different ANZAC contributions. I was a part of this. I wrote a soldier profile. Flight Lieutenant T. G. Culling. Each class made a wreath that was laid out in front of the crosses we had displayed.

Following the laying of the wreath, I introduced Riiana to the stage to recite a poem called "In Flanders Fields". After that, we had our second and third ANZAC contributions. We had a new student from Room 10 who read out a narrative about being a child waiting for their father to come home from the war and two lovely students from Room 6 who read out why we have The Last Post. Straight after that, everyone stood for the playing of The Last Post and then we stood quietly for the one minute silence.

Lastly, I welcomed Leanah to the front to recite the Remembrance poem and to close the service. It was a major learning experience hosting something so important. Our service was a complete success too! The lady from the RSA said “This is the best school service I’ve been to.” Which was really nice to hear considering all of us worked so hard to fulfill high expectations.