College Captains Melinda Virgona and Sam Green and Vice Captains Eliza Russell and William Geeves along with 26 members of the College Choir were honoured to take part in the ANZAC Day dawn service at the Lilydale cenotaph on Sunday 25 April.
It was a fully-ticketed event due to COVID-19 restrictions but students from our College Choir and junior a capella ensemble were rugged up and ready with a sound check at 5.15am in the morning. Our Choir sang The Recessional, which was written by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. They also sang the Australian national anthem Advance Australia Fair and the New Zealand national anthem God Defend New Zealand (both in English and te reo Māori).
The College Captains were invited to lay a wreath (pictured) to honour our Australian servicemen and women and as a community we give thanks, we pray and we remember them.
On Friday 23 April, staff and students across all year levels learnt about the story of the ANZACs before observing a minute’s silence. Humanities Faculty Learning Leader Mr John Ryan, Humanities Prefect Amy Wahrenberger and Year 12 student Emma Di Paolo (pictured in the gallery below) presented a 20-minute reflection which included the story of the invasion of Gallipoli, a prayer, a short video and The Ode, taken from The Fallen — a poem by English poet and writer Laurence Binyon.
“They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
