Year Six

Year 6 Writing Pieces

This week we are featuring some writing pieces which have been created by our Year 6 students in preparation for Remembrance Day. In recent weeks we have been reflecting on the sacrifices made by ordinary people doing extraordinary things for their countries.

On Remembrance Day we remember and honour all Australians who fought, died and suffered in World War I and in subsequent wars and conflicts.

Aaliyah – 6B, wrote the following when she was in Year 5 and she has revised and edited some parts this year after gaining more knowledge during our ‘Where We Are in Place and Time’ unit of inquiry. Below is the final draft of her fictional diary extract of a soldier, and a poem written from the perspective of soldiers at Gallipoli.

Diary extract:

As the boats halted to a stop on the muddy shores, our hearts pumped wildly in our chests, even rougher than the ocean’s murky waves.

It was time.

We set off walking up the cliffs of what soon would be our lying ground for a home we did not know.

The wind blew restlessly through our hair and the tension and eeriness settled in the air.

The sky was an eerie dark grey and the land a dead green, but still we trekked on, for there was no stopping what was to come.

We quickened our pace, all quiet whilst trekking up the grass of Gallipoli’s shore.

Poem:

We stopped at the spot which our leaders had planned,

Spreading our tears throughout the sand.

Cramped in the trenches ready to fight, 

Our eyes were peeled, throughout the night.

The sound of gun shots wounded our ears

Pulling the triggers without any fears.

The sound of gun shots never stop.

I hear them all day – I hear them a lot.

The fighting stopped for the very last time

So many soldiers killed in their prime.

At last the fighting has taken its toll

But our ANZAC spirit lives through all.

As we lay right here on Gallipoli’s shore,

Our memory lives on forever more.

These ‘family connections’ of students’ relatives, were written for our Remembrance Day ceremony. We are very proud of and grateful for all soldiers and peace keepers who have played their role in keeping Australia safe.

Chloe – 6A

My great grandpa Ray was a navigator in the Airforce in World War 2. His aeroplane got bombed while flying over Germany. He parachuted out of the plane but broke his leg on landing. Despite this, he managed to hide in Belgium for six weeks before he was captured by the enemy.

He was a Prisoner Of War, spending more than a year in a German prison. He was thankfully released at the end of the war and once he returned to Australia he was awarded a distinguished flying cross for his courage whilst flying his plane in the war.

I never got to meet him. He unfortunately died a year before I was born. But I am very lucky to be his great granddaughter.

Imogen – 6A

My great-grandfather, Horace Chapman, went to war on July 11th 1940, when he was just 22 years old. 2 years in, he was captured by the Japanese and held prisoner in Singapore for 3 years. All they gave him, and the other prisoners, was a cup of rice each day to eat. He was released from this prison and quickly discharged from the army in December 1945 at the age of 27 because he had been a Prisoner Of War and he had also contracted Malaria. Sadly, he died on the December 29th 1960 as a result of the trauma of being held Prisoner Of War. Sadly, he never fully recovered from this awful experience.

Mia – 6B

My great, great, great uncle Gilbert Martin was a private during WWI. He served 3 years in France. When he was sleeping at night on the 4th of July 1918, the Germans threw a bomb at his tent which killed him and another Private (Private Harris) instantly. This was nearly at the end of the war, so it is such a shame that after all that time, he lost his life when the war was almost over. 

Gilbert was buried in a communal cemetery in France called Blangy-Tronville near where the ANZAC Day services are held each year. He was buried next to Private Harris, which seems fitting as they fought together, died together and now lie together side by side. Although I never met my great, great, great uncle Gilbert, I am very grateful for his service.