From the Deputy Principal 

Remembrance Day Assembly

Today the whole School came together for our Remembrance Day service. Remembrance Day is one of the most important days on our School commemorative calendar as it is a time to pay tribute to those who have served our nation with unwavering courage.

We were extremely grateful to have special guest, Corporal Edie Haley, Moama Anglican Grammar Alumni join us for the service. Edie is now in the Defence Force based in Victoria as an Instructor at The Army School of Health, teaching Environmental Health to both Australian and Allied troops. We greatly appreciate Edie taking the time out of her busy schedule to share her reflections on the significance of Remembrance Day with us. A huge thank you to our other special guests who joined us for the service including Ken Jones and Leigh Bennett from Moama RSL, Moama Anglican Grammars' Deputy Chair, Jane Millar and all our parents and friends.

The Remembrance Day Assembly was led by our Student Leaders, Matthew Maxwell, Lyla Bassett, Peaches Starritt and Keisha Hall (Year 6), Ella Bowler, Isabelle Barber, Riley Main and Lucas Jettner (Year 12). These students did Moama Anglican Grammar and their families proud!

A special thank you to Year 10 student Gabrielle McMaster for her outstanding rendition of The Last Post and The Rouse played on the bugle, as well as our Junior Singers for their beautiful performance of ‘Song of Peace / Dona Nobis Pacem’.

It is always an honour to have our Alumni return to visit and speak to our current students about what they have achieved in their lives since leaving school. Having Edie Haley travel from Albury to be with us today is very special and greatly appreciated. We are also very grateful that Edie has given us permission to include her speech in our newsletter: 

“Good morning, Moama Anglican Grammar School staff, school captains and students.

And thank you for that lovely introduction. It is an honour to be back home speaking to you all, especially on such an important day as Remembrance Day.

Remembrance Day is the day we remember the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who lost their lives while serving Australia and its allies in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply.

We honour Remembrance Day because it was the agreement to end the fighting of the First World War as a prelude to peace negotiations, beginning at 11am on the 11 day of November 1918. Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard once said, “The only memorial that fully touches the enormity of war is silence”.   

LEST WE FORGET

As Riley said, I am a former MAGS student and I was 17 years old and in the middle of studying Year 12, when the ADF rang to advise that a spot had become available in the field of Preventive Medicine / Environmental Health and I could begin my new adventure in two weeks.  My world felt like it was all of a sudden moving very fast, I had so many decisions to make. This wasn’t the plan, I thought I had more time, but plans change. We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate to be working in the Philippines supporting 12 other nations in the area of health, education and veterinarian services. My field specialises in disease and control, preventing people from getting sick for example restoring or providing clean water during natural disasters. I have also been deployed to Fiji, for humanitarian aid after the cyclones, the bush fires across NSW, Floods in North Queensland and I was fortunate enough to come home to sand bag Echuca Moama and region like many of you last year.

It has been a great honour to return to MAGS and talk about my time in the Defence force, if I was to give any advice to my younger self or those who are coming to the end of their schooling, including my little sister sitting in the audience. 

If you are not sure what you are wanting to do, follow your dreams and take every opportunity and experience that is provided to you, you never know what adventures it could lead to. Moving away from friends and family can definitely be scary; it is all part of growing and making your own experiences in the world. 

It is a privilege to be an Australian soldier, if my actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, become more and maintain peace, I have done my job to honour those who have fallen and led the path before me. Thank you."

Corporal Edie Haley

Kathleen Kemp

Deputy Principal