Music Report
Remembrance Day Ceremony
Why are they selling poppies, Mummy, selling poppies in town today?
The poppies, child, are flowers of love, for the men who marched away.
But why have they chosen a poppy , Mummy, why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died in the fields where the poppies grow.
But why are the poppies so red, Mummy, why are the poppies so red?
Red is the colour of blood, my child, the blood that our soldiers shed.
The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy, why does it have to be black?
Black, my child, is the symbol of grief for the men who never came back.
But why, Mummy, are you crying so, your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you, my child, for the world is forgetting again.
Congratulations to the Oatlands Students for conducting themselves so respectfully in our annual Remembrance Day Ceremony held on Thursday 7th November. Our School Captains and Grade 6 Chorister, Jess, helped to conduct the Ceremony magnificently, their participation was heartfelt, their performances solid.
Our School community raised $936.30 for this year's appeal, thank you everybody.
Two of our students wrote about their thoughts concerning Remembrance Day. Ryan, Grade 4JS, read his piece of writing at one of our Monday morning assemblies at the commencement of the Remembrance Day lead up. Diesel wrote a piece imagining he was a poppy growing in the fields of World War One. Diesel is in Grade 6TN this year, but he actually wrote his piece last year when he was in Grade 5EB, 2018 with Miss Brouwer. Diesel read out his writing at Monday Morning Assembly on the real Remembrance Day, Monday 11th November. We share both pieces of writing with you in this week's newsletter.
Lest We Forget
This is for those people who went to war but sadly did not make it back. Some had diseases, some got shot. Some broke an arm or a leg. At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, we commemorate Remembrance Day. We remember those who fought to give peace to the world. 105 years ago there was a war. It was World War One. The end of that war is why we have Remembrance Day. Thank you for buying all the merchandise for Remembrance Day. The money raised will go to the R. S. L. I think they are very surprised about the amount our school raises for ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day each year. Last year, for Remembrance Day, we raised $1129.
Ryan Grade 4JS
Diary of a Poppy
Normally these meadows are peaceful and nothing else and being a poppy is the most wonderful life there is, but not during the war.
Believe me, there is nothing worse than bullets being shot all around you, machines shooting and bombs exploding and soldiers dying and falling on top of you, living in a blood bath. Us poppies are red because of all the blood and our souls are black from the grief.
Before the meadow was full of our bright red faces and beautiful, fresh, green grass, only a few animals and no humans. In one word.....peaceful.
Now the war is terrifying, no green grass and almost all of us lost, trampled into the mud by giant compound boots destroying our delicate petals. No animals, only vicious dogs and wolves with guns blazing, bombs exploding. Death, blood and...and....grief.
I would truly have given anything and I mean anything to have escaped that horrible war, it seemed like it would never end.
But on that fateful day, the 11/11/1918, the guns stopped shooting, the war was over! The war was finally over! No more guns, no more bombs, no more vicious animals or horrid humans, but even though it was all gone, I could never look at the meadows the same way again. I could still see all the bombs exploding, the guns firing and my friends being trampled and those memories stuck with me for the rest of my life and I saw that the world was bigger than me.
So I just waited for my life to come to an end, my time up, my days all gone, so I could forget about those terrible years and it did happen one day, the day I left this world, my body slant over and begun to rot away.
Diesel Grade 6TN - 2019
Story written in Grade 5EB - 2018