Year 9 History Excursion

In Week 1 Year 9 History went on an excursion to the ANZAC Memorial and Martin Place to learn about Australia’s participation in and remembrance of WW1. The excursion involved a guided tour of the memorial in Hyde Park and a dramatic presentation on the lives of nurses during the war. The students were also given the opportunity to do a scavenger hunt in Martin Place to find evidence of Australia’s participation in the war. Here are some of the reflections of the students about the excursion.

I especially liked going to the ANZAC memorial. The play about the nurses in the war was very interesting as I learned about perspectives of people in the war that I knew very little about prior to the excursion. It was interesting how the script of the play was from diary entries, meaning it was the words of the people of that time.

The play taught me a lot about the role of women in the war and I learnt the purposes of the construction of the Anzac memorial in the tour.

We wrote letters from the perspective of nurses to the families of injured soldiers, which aided in us gaining a better understanding of what nurses had to do.

One of the highlights of the excursion was the room with soil from every place the soldiers had come from, and where they had gone. Seeing the huge scale of where the war had been and come from truly helped me grasp how big this war was. 

The terrarium-like model of the trenches was cool. The soil samples were interesting and I spotted soil from both Petersham and my own suburb.

It was great to have an opportunity to wander around with your mates and look for symbols around Martin Place, learning about the war independently. It was a nice change of pace from regular schooling and was truly a highlight of the trip.